Celebrating One Year of Blessings!

It was a special day of celebration at Comunidad de Fe: El Shaddai! Special music, special guests, and a special message from the Word of God.

Today the Spanish church plant that we have been helping with celebrated their first anniversary! About sixty people gathered to thank the Lord for this year of blessings and to hear Pastor Tulio Duran share about the work that God has placed on his heart to reach Latinos in the area for Christ. He chose to use Nehemiah 6:3, "I am doing a great work.", which was the same Bible text he had used on the opening day of the church.

In his words: "This has been a year of faith and of incessantly seeking the move of the Holy Spirit, for the formation of this 'Great Work'. We continue making an emphasis on the power of prayer, on obedience to the Word of God, and on the faith that moves the heart of the Holy Spirit, and in this manner, to see the growth of new leaders and disciples, ready to live for Christ."

"Being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus." Philippians 1:6

Will you pray with us in FAITH?

In our Spanish Bible studies, we worship the Lord through song and testimony, then do the Bible lesson. One song the men and women like very much is “Un Grano de Mostaza”, talking about us having FAITH in Jesus the size of a mustard seed, from Matthew 17:20-21. We are privileged to plant seeds in the minds and hearts of prisoners, asking God to help us water them and He will give the increase.


A new member of one of our classes, Luis R., has asked for prayer for his wife M. to open her heart to the Lord, as well as their children. He became a Christian last summer and is growing in the “grace and knowledge of the Lord Jesus”. He desires others to pray with him for M. to make a FAITH decision to follow Christ, and that he may walk in victory even though incarcerated.

Joshua D. needs to let the Word of God revolutionize his thoughts, attitudes and behavior. Two events radically changed his life when he was 13 years old--his mother trusted Christ and his dad left them. Joshua did give his life to the Lord and memorized many Bible verses, but got in with the wrong crowd. Now Joshua says it is "too hard" to live for the Lord in prison. Pray that Joshua will experience his Heavenly Father's love and be able to replace his doubts with FAITH.

In one-on-ones with my gals before Easter, I asked them to read through the Gospel of John and circle the word “believe” each time it was present, then count up how many times! This challenge made us more aware of the importance of "believing" the Lord. It especially made an impact on Avery and Linda, women that I may not be able to see again. Please pray that God will cause their FAITH to grow.

A young man in our Dodge Bible study really tried to listen each week. His girlfriend had just given birth to their baby boy, and at the same time, we'd been studying about the "new birth". Before his transfer to where he would serve his sentence, we asked how he was doing spiritually. He spread his arms out to the sides, answering that he was "between good and bad". Please pray that Juan R. chooses to put his FAITH in Christ and "be born again".

Introducing The Lighthouse!

The Lighthouse is a discipleship home in Janesville, created by local Christians of various denominations, united by the vision of offering women being released from prison a supportive Christian environment and the assistance needed to successfully reintegrate.

God keeps on blessing!

God has done miracles in E’s life. When we first met him four years ago in Bible study, he had been incarcerated for fourteen years, without having had even one visit with a family member in that time.

Two years ago, on our March 2007 posting, we spoke of our brother E. At that time, he had just received his first visit ever from one of his grandchildren. She was his seventh grandchild, but the first to visit him. Last week he came in with a picture of them together, that had been taken in the visiting room a few days before. Today in class he thanked God because this little girl will grow up knowing him and calling him Abuelito (Grandpa). Not only is God restoring relationships between E. and his family, E. has restored his relationship with God, and is growing!

Web Site to visit

Following is the web site for the R. A. Torrey quotes below!
http://www.wholesomewords.org/etexts/torrey/hspirit.pdf

One more quote from R. A. Torrey!

"We are too busy to pray, and so we are too busy to have power. We have a great deal of activity, but we accomplish little; many services but few conversions; much machinery but few results."

Think about this!

The great theologian R. A. Torrey said; ". . . it is of the highest importance from a practical standpoint that we know the Holy Spirit as a person. If you think of the Holy Spirit, as so many even among Christian people do, as a mere influence or power, then your thought will be, 'How can I get hold of the Holy Spirit and use it?' But if you think of Him in the Biblical way as a Divine person, your thought will be, 'How can the Holy Spirit get hold of me and use me?" '

Monday in the prison!

Brother Luis gave his life to the Lord last June and since then has been growing in his faith. He entered our group Bible study just last month, and shared that he has been praying for his wife and children for the past three months, that they would want to know the Lord. Yesterday during testimony time, he said that they came to visit him and his wife said with tears In her eyes that she wanted Luis to teach her what he was learning in Bible study! He was very happy! He will be seeing PRC soon and hopes to be sent to a minimum facility nearer his family in Milwaukee.

We saw another fellow, Pablito, who had been in our study, but now is finishing up his last class to get his GED. He said he’d been missing the study, and will be allowed to return after he is able to pass his reading test. In the meantime, he wants to resume studying via Bible correspondence lessons. He said he always prays, “God, please don’t leave me alone here. I need your help to finish my last 7 years. Please help my parents to live that long, so that I can be reunited with them in Puerto Rico once again.”