Day of Blessings

     Omar opened our services today and led all the activities until the preaching time. What a blessing to see how the Lord is working in their lives! You could imagine that they have been in church all their lives, not just seven months. He usually can answer questions that Pastor Armando asks during the preaching and yet they came totally ignorant of God's Word. It just shows what the lord can do if someone wishes to be in His hand to be used.

     It just happened to be our pastor's birthday, but a "party" was never announced. All of the folks just got their heads together and put it together this last week. We all consider him our "young" pastor, but you can see the number on his cake. He preached a good message as always and then invited everyone to stay around for cake. We all pitched in about $3.85 for steak on the grill, nopales (cactus), grilled onions and chorizo (red, spicy, chili flavored sausage) and quesadillas (cheese in tortillas). The only problem was two (and too) small grills, one real and one made out of bricks. Check the pictures at the end.

     Pastor asked his father to give a testimony of what God has done in his life. His father had been a deacon in his church since shortly after he got saved. Last year he had major problems with cancer requiring the removal of his colon. Upon arriving home from surgery, the internal incision popped open causing his abdomen to abscess. He very nearly died from it. About Christmas, they discovered cancer in his kidneys as well and had just finished the chemo-therapy. His testimony centered around the faith God had given him that through it all, he kept his hand in the Lord's and knew His presence even when he was not aware of others. He then sang "Till the Storm Passes By." It really touched everyone because they knew he had been through the storms of life and KNEW that God had been with him all the way. "Keep me safe, 'til the storm passes by."

     After the service, Pastor was able to lead Luz to the Lord. She was there from Tijuana visiting with her two sisters. She had been in turmoil for months with her life. After about two hours the light in her heart came on and she asked the Lord to save her. She later had no doubts about what happened to her. Earlier this week, two deaf ladies (sisters) asked the Lord to save them. They are both in their late 60's and have come for special days since nearly the beginning of the ministry, but simply would not make a decision. We pray they will also grow in the Lord.

     Thank you for praying faithfully for the ministry here among the deaf. God has continued to pour out His blessings, week after week. However, the devil hasn't given up. One of our men who worked all day yesterday, paid for the pastor's meal, ran errands to get everything ready and who stayed late to clean all the dishes, was attacked as he got off the train (metro) to go to his house. He spent all of his money at church so all he could give them was a cell phone and jewelery. Apparently they did not like that or they thought his deafness was a joke, because they beat him senseless. Praise the Lord, he understood that it was the devil and not that God had forgotten him. His picture is below - WARNING - it is graphic!

     Please continue to pray as we are "on the battlefield for our Lord," but so are our deaf! Pray the He continues to get the victory.

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