The year was 1987. Missionaries Don and Melba Exley shown here,
set up a tent on a vacant lot on a muddy dirt road in Martinez and held their
first evangelistic services. God had led them to the exact spot where He
wanted a church. When they discovered that a huge new classy shopping
mall was planned right across the street… they took a great leap of faith and
purchased the whole city block! I remember preaching in that tent as
families were being converted to Christ. The Exley’s vision included a
family oriented church and a Christian school… and the Lord blessed their
efforts. Both have been successful for these many years.
Only a few months ago, the Exleys completed the new sanctuary of the
Family Christian Center (Centro Familiar Cristiano) and Don and Melba
officially stepped down to trust this great church to an experienced Argentine
couple, Gonzalo and Lizzy Colastian, seen here with me Sunday June 7,
2015. Lizzy is the daughter of Argentinean pastors. Frances and I
have known her and her parents since she was a little child. Her parents
have been serving as missionaries from Argentina to Italy for many years now.
This new church building is just barely
being inaugurated. Check our this classy second floor vestibule.
This is Sunday AM June 7, 2015. They have recently moved out of
their school gym seating only about 500 and into their new facility, seating
1,500. Pastor Gonzalo invited me to minister to both morning and evening
services just before I returned to California. They have two totally
different congregations… morning and evening, musicians and all.
In both AM and PM services they brought the children in for Felipe.
Before preaching I taught them a chorus to accompany my message as I
often do. But you need to understand that only three months earlier I had
been diagnosed by a specialist in California after examining my vocal chords by
scope. He told me there was permanent, irreparable damage. They
were deformed by miss-use. An operation would be risky. I would
never sing clearly again and would have to speak with a forced, scratchy voice
when attempting to preach. I returned to Argentina anyway.
Missionaries Kim and Shari Babcock invited me to speak to a visiting group they
had just received from Redding, California. This group of mostly youth,
laid hands on me and prayed with faith. Within 3 days I could hum again
and I knew something was happening. Within less than a week I could sing
and speak again with a clear voice!
In the following 13 weeks I drove 4,516 miles and preached 59 times,
doing a Felipe show for the kids, always singing while teaching a song,
preaching most of an hour and spending most of another hour praying with people
at the altar time! And I returned to California with a normal clear
voice! To God be the glory!
God has been moving beautifully in these services. Numerous
persons come to me after an extended time in prayer to tell me their
story. Some were far away from God. They had walked away from Him
long ago, often in their teens. But they remembered Felipe and came to
let their little kids meet him, like they did when they were kids. Now,
with tears pouring down their cheeks, they were promising me to be faithfully
in church with their family from now on. I could never have dreamed up
this “Felipe thing.” God can even use a dummy! Which means “I
qualify”!
Ralph
