We should keep you up-to-date with a few requests from this small part of the great harvest field. Sunday night was the final night of seven weeks of Gospel meetings in the hall here in El Vigia. We thank the Lord for the desire of the believers to have and support this effort to reach others for Christ. Those who we mentioned in our last letter, who professed during the meetings, continue to show evidence of life in Christ, so continue to pray for them. We requested prayer for a number of teenage girls who continue to attend the class at our house in Monte Verde. We are delighted that Milagros told Moises that she was saved the other night at home, so pray for this thirteen-year-old friend of Joseline who was saved last year also.
This Saturday and Sunday will be the presentations for the two classes, as we decided to finish them to coincide with the school year. It will be the first in the hall, so we trust a good number of parents will be present to see their children participate and hear the Gospel.
At the conference in Merida, I purpose having a week of ministry beforehand. They have not had a conference for four years, due to a large number getting very ill from badly prepared food, so they wanted to make some alterations to the hall before holding it again.
On the 20th of July, is the annual ministry meeting at La Villa del Rosario, Colombia. They usually have a week of ministry before, as well.
We have seen the Lord's hand already in the purchase of cement and blocks for the continuation of the construction of the hall. On first inquiry there were no blocks or cement available, with a possible fifteen-day waiting period, even for the truck to be loaded. The following Monday I was able to buy four hundred blocks, so they sold me ten bags of cement as well. Erika has two uncles in Santa Barbara with hardware shops, and she has gone twice to beg them to sell her some, so we now have a total of thirty-eight bags. They have promised her some more this week, so she has to be there at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow to see what she can get. Santa Barbara is an hour away, which means I then have to go and collect it in our vehicle. We are considering finishing a toilet upstairs in the back section, so we can knock down the block storage hut and work freely on the toilet block downstairs. All midweek night meetings are now being held in the hall.
We made the trip to Colombia last Friday to buy the items we cannot easily obtain here. It is so common to see large queues outside the supermarkets and stores, waiting all day in the hot sun to buy the necessary items when they are available. This must be the "happiness of Cuba" the president promised the people.
Summer 2014
Written by Paul & Daphne Chapman - Venezuala