Children’s Congress in San Salvador

Saturday   11-14-15   San Salvador, El Salvador

Scripture reading:    Psalm 149     1 Cor 15 – 16

S=Scripture O=Observation A=Application P=Prayer  SOAP for the soul.

S.  1 Cor 16:8-9  I will be staying here at Ephesus until the Festival of Pentecost,  for there is a wide-open door for a great work here, and many people are responding. NLT

O.  The city of Ephesus was filled with deadly dangers.  The message of Christ had been so effective that the silversmiths, whose livelihood depended upon their idols of Diana (also called Artemis the goddess of the Ephesians) were in danger of losing money.  Opposition to the Gospel was strong and Paul was living under continual threats.  But there was something holding him there in Ephesus.  It was “a wide-open door for a great work here, and many people are responding.”  

A.  When God is working miracles of salvation, it becomes difficult to sail away to other horizons.  Just as I was turning the work over to our Argentine Pastor, José Manuel Carlos, in the Barrio La Boca, Buenos Aires... it seemed the Lord was blessing our efforts more than ever.  Many youth and adults had come to Christ in a city park crusade.  What a temptation to hang around!  But God had given us just the perfect young couple as the new pastors.  I needed to disappear.  And God opened for me another door in Merlo with a handful of drug addicts.  It didn’t look like much at first, but soon blossomed into a “wide-open door”, a 20 month tent crusade... and a new church plant with Pastor José Pichiur. 

P.  Lord Jesus, You are full of surprises.  Life is a constant adventure walking with You.  Your Holy Spirit is always one step ahead of me.  Your plans surprise and delight me.  Sometimes there are months, maybe years, when I seem to labor with minimal results, then I discover that it had been a time of planting and, behold harvest time comes.  I thank You for this open door in San Salvador.  What a joy to minister to children and their parents in this “Children’s Congress!”  May You call many of these darling little ones into Your service!  Amen. 

Ralph