More opportunities!

Lidia and I have had several God-given opportunities lately to share Christ with her aunt and uncle. It is very exciting to see the opportunities open up and then very exciting to take the next step and be faithful to share what Christ has done in our lives.

Last night, Lidia and I had several hours of good conversation about the Lord, the problems of the world, the cause of pain and suffering, etc with Lidia's uncle. Her uncle doesn't know the Lord and we were able to talk about lots of different subjects, all revolving around life in Christ and a Christ-centered world view. Her uncle struggles with all the pain and suffering in the world and why God would allow that if He is indeed real and good... So we talked about how much pain and suffering is caused by our sin and selfishness. We talked about how God has better plans for us and can help us to respond to the pain around us to make a positive difference in our circle of influence. It was a really good talk and Lidia and I were very excited as we went to bed that night.

This morning (Sunday) we told the family we wanted to have a little 'church' here at the house and just read and discuss a Bible passage. When we were getting started, the whole family came (uncle, aunt, their 3 sons, and grandma) to join us! This was really exciting, but I was nervous b/c I was going to lead the discussion... in spanish. :) I would have been a bit nervous in english, so I was even more nervous in spanish. It was a good thing though b/c it made me very reliant on the Lord for the right thoughts and words. Lidia also helped me explain things when I was having trouble.

The very interesting part (in which we could see Divine guidance) was that yesterday evening we had decided to do our Sunday study in Galatians 4-6, talking about being freed as slaves from sin and how God frees us from sin and gives us new, godly desires so that we can be free from many of the destructive consequences of sin. I wanted to share this b/c I feel like among unbelievers there is a presupposition that the Lord wants to take all the "fun" things away from us and wants to make us live a boring rule-filled life. This passage in Galatians shows us that those things that unbelievers like, are actually hurtful and descructive. God changes our lives and changes our desires to save us from destruction, not to rid us of enjoyment... rather we will have much more enjoyment (without the hangover...) as we live in the freedom that He gives. The amazing part is that later that night as we were talking, it came out that Lidia's uncle's favorite verse is from Galatians 6:7 about sowing and reaping! He learned this verse when he was a child through some neighbors that would teach the neighborhood kids verses and Bible stories (kind of like our Good News Club). He said that this verse always stuck with him. This confirmed to us that the Lord was leading in our selection of that passage, so this morning I started by saying that I wanted to take Gal 6:7 and put it in context... It was really great and I know that they at least heard God's Word and He can take it from there! Everyone was very attentive and afterwards the boys shared what they liked about what we shared from God's word.

The neat thing about sharing from His Word is that His Word is powerful and alive and active and will never return empty...it will always accomplish what He desires. It is not our job to convince anyone, but to share with a sincere heart from His Word and let the Lord do the real work of drawing others to Himself. We have been so excited for these opportunities that the Lord has given us! We pray that He will give us even more as we live here for the next upcoming months. Please pray for my aunt, uncle and family and pray also for us as we share with them.