Day 2: Saturday.
We are already beginning to see how God is working this week! Because of weather, we had to postpone our outdoor outreach and instead went door to door inviting people to the church. Each of the three or four groups were paired up with a Spanish-speaker who did not necessarily speak English. It was interesting because us Americans were doing most of the talking. Here’s where our middle and high school Spanish comes back to haunt us. We were able to reach a lot of people and different age groups. After taking an afternoon siesta nap, we resumed our door to door ministry. Interesting fact: Since most of the houses in the area are very small and open and most people cannot afford a doorbell, the equivalent is clapping one’s hands outside of the door or property! Fun stuff.
Since us English speakers were doing most of the talking door to door, a few people ended up laughing at our poor speech but it definitely generated a lot of curiosity, which was good! At one house, Jenny had to yell from the gate to the window of the house across the property because that’s where she was. She began with her Spanish introduction but got confused when the woman started speaking indistinctly, making Jenny lose her place. Jenny, after a awkward moment of silence, shouted the only thing that came to her mind: “ME LLAMO EST JENNNNNNNNNNY!” The woman didn’t respond well to our call. On the up side, one of the students designed and created a logo for the new church and is going to paint it in and outside of the church building!
In the service we had a puppet show for the small children and Pastor Rocco shared a great message about faith.
Highlights after the service:
-0 guests on the first service, 15 guests tonight!
-On Friday we were praying for one woman’s sister. The next day, her husband came and rededicated his life and the sister came with her husband and both gave their hearts to the Lord. Literally at the same time we were praying as a team for these people, there was a spiritual battle going on- the sister refused to go to the church and would not let her husband go. He did anyway, she came at the end out of nowhere, and both are saved. The Lord answers prayers!
-“A woman came up after the service full of sorrow. She asked for prayer and told us (translated through Professor DiTrolio) that her husband died and she was depressed and lonely. After his death, she lost her job and her house was robbed- they took everything and she was literally left with nothing. Even though there was a language barrier, I was able to lay hands on her and pray for her. I hugged her and held her tightly as she sobbed. I really realized how prayer and worship is the universal language. She never smiled once, she was robbed of all her joy. I had a translator remind her that she is God’s original masterpiece, and she started to weep. I just wanted to see her smile. I couldn’t bear to let her leave in sorrow. I prayed with her again and as she talked with another woman, I sat next to her and held her hand tightly for about ten or fifteen minutes. Then she looked over at me... and smiled. It was the most beautiful thing.”
-Small children came up to pray and we were so moved that they were in tears. It was so amazing to see God working in their lives.
God is already working! Wow. Keep praying for the people of San Viciente!
God bless!
-The Argentina team.