Just a quick note to say:
- Thank you for praying for Elias. It was SO rewarding to listen to him in class today. I’ve never heard him speak with such clarity and conviction in response to the study in Romans. Today we had 3 hours of class and we studied, Romans 5-6. It was a delight to see the lights come on in Elias particularly at one point as we were comparing Romans 1:16 “the gospel… is the power of God” with Romans 5:20 “Moreover the law entered that the offense might abound.” We could see so clearly what Paul was teaching. The good news unlocks us and makes us free – full of the fruit of the Spirit. But the law makes us freeze up and operate out of fear and it ends up fueling the sinful nature all the more. He just started to shake his head with those big eyes wide open in astonishment and said, “Why do so many churches keep threatening us with law based teaching over and over. We don’t hear this in church! Why don’t we hear the gospel and it’s power?” What was beautiful to me was that all this work was done by simply looking at what the scriptures say and the Spirit opened his eyes and taught him. I though, “that’s no coincidence that his is happening today, just after the video to pray for Elias.”
- My MRI is scheduled for Friday. I will update you as soon as I know more.
- Pray for the P’s. Just think about how many thousands of them are reading their Bibles. Pray for this same work which the Spirit did in Elias to be done in their hearts too. According to Russell, there is a great revival happening in Venezuela. May God raise up an army of P’s to join in and spread the power of the gospel throughout their country.
- Just like that, we ran out of P Bibles and need more! What great news. We are collecting more donations now for a second printing. I am still waiting for E to get out of the jungle back to wifi to get an exact number. Last I spoke with him, he figured 15,000 more. We just received a donation for $10,000 towards this second printing. I will update you again later with more details once I know them but, before then, if you want to send more donations, you can send just the same as before to SOM. I can provide details if needed.
- The studio is almost done!!! I ran into an electrical grounding issue and so had to install an earth ground rod. Wow, that dry desert dirt is hard packed! I got the rod installed and will connect it to the electrical system, Lord willing tomorrow, and continue setting up equipment. I hope to send you a little video once it’s all done.
- We’ve been swamped but in that totally good and rewarding way, full of tears of joy and life. On Sunday, I preached at Agape (the English speaking church), then got invited out with people from the church. One of them invited us afterward to a Mexican church since he was giving a message there and needed me to interpret. Its was lovely. It really was… but after a full day of meetings and Spanish I was bushed… but in a good way. Today was similar after the three hour class, the same man had another meeting with the pastor of that church. It was again rich and full of life, tears and love. I hope to share more about the great work going on in that church too, maybe in the weeks ahead. It was FULL of young people.
- If anyone would like to follow the Sunday messages at Agape in English, you can find them here. Just look for the date to find the latest. https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1v_577VYe5MQQItIiL2jmS9RYa4pN075r
I have tons more to say, but I don’t want this to go on too long. There is so much going on. So many good things! Jesus promised to build His church and said that the gates of Hades would not prevail against it! I will share more later on topics like Jorge, E, P Bible recording project and new translation projects pending.
Thanks for your prayers and your words of encouragement. Just to think… that you can speak from your heart to God about these things and He accomplishes them. That’s amazing. Your prayers are not in vain.
Thank you.
t.