Abril 18, 2009

Dear friends,

I don't want to send a report to everyone whom I have included in previous emails because I don't want to impose on everyone's time. I am planning to maybe write everyone again towards the end of next week. But God keeps working in amazing ways, we keep witnessing His Spirit moving.... and well... joy is not complete until it's shared. You have been so faithful in praying for this ministry, and  I very much want to praise God together with you, and ask you to please keep dropping shell bombs for the sake of His glory and saved souls!
Our original plans tonight did not include visiting the girls because of another ministry related activity going on this weekend. In God's providence, though, our plans changed and we were free to stop by. It was after 11:30; we knew we wouldn't have much time, but we really wanted to at least stop by and say hey. Now I know that the Spirit was who led us to go, who put that strong desire in our hearts to see them because we had an amazing conversation with two of them, and witnessed once again God answering our prayers.

For you to understand tonight's wonderful time I need to explain what happened last Saturday. Saturday night we stopped by real quickly to say hi to Annie whom we hadn't seen in over two weeks. We noticed that while Annie really showed affection and interest, another one of the girls, Kayla, seemed to be ignoring us and indifferent. I told my mom about this and said, "maybe God is showing us who we need to invest in. Maybe Kayla is not one of them. She's been to church and since then, she's been more and more indifferent to our visits." But my mom wisely said, (and oh how much I praise God for her response!!), "Maybe the Spirit is at work in her life and she's resisting to His call." I prayed for Kayla much this week, asking God to give me His heart to keep praying for her. And so tonight, when we saw them from a distance I honestly felt that maybe we shouldn't go out because there were only Kayla and another one who's also grown indifferent to us. Right then we saw Annie, so we decided to step out of the car and walked towards them. And to our astonishment, Kayla not only came over to talk to us, but opened her heart SO much to us about her struggles, her depression, her faults and her desires to be more responsible. She also asked us to please give her a Bible on our next visit... and she also said, "Wow... on your previous visits I thought I should come up and talk to you, but something kept me from coming up to you. But I am so glad I came over tonight!!" Is that an answer to prayer or what?!

And then, Annie. Annie continues to show much sensitivity. She mentioned that she wanted to have a Bible with both the Old and New Testaments because the bibles we gave them only had the NT. She wanted to read Psalms and Proverbs but couldn't find them on her copy. She told us how she was about to leave tonight before we got there and  told us how glad she was she didn't leave without our sharing with them from His Word. She heard many of the things we told Kayla about the lies of the devil, repentance, His unconditional love, and being ready to die. She asked me to please pray because now that her partner is away working on a new project she's more tempted to use crack. She also mentioned how she very much wants to leave her lifestyle and ways of earning money.

So we started to pray with both Annie and Kayla before we left... and then something really cool happened. As we prayed, two other girls who had not shared with us, joined in our prayers, putting their arms on our shoulders and joining our little huddle as we prayed. When we were about to leave, Annie started crying quietly and hugged us and cried a bit more. We told her that not only are we praying for her, but so many people are also. She said she knows--she can see it in our eyes that we are genuinely concerned. (So thankful for grace!) We prayed with her once more, embracing her and just asking the Lord to open her eyes to Jesus amazing grace and salvation.. Told her to read the Gospel of John, asking the Lord to help her understand what she's reading. Please pray for Annie's salvation and that she would soon declare His praises!!!
Lord willing we will take them to a hospital on Wednesday afternoon so they can get checkups. I am especially concerned for Annie. I don't know how much she's been on crack, but i really want to know how much its already damaged her body.

I don't know if I am doing a good job here, but what I am trying to convey is a sense of wonder as we see the Lord weaving everything so perfectly to accomplish His purposes. We were not planning to go there tonight, but God wanted us to go there. We thought (at least I did) that maybe I should give up on Kayla, but God used my mom's comment to convict me and to move me to pray for Kayla. We are naturally selfish and proud and yet God pours His love in our hearts and has sent us to speak of Him to these girls. Our God is continually enlarging my "wow," opening the eyes of my heart to his power, riches in grace, his love and all that makes Him so worthy of all our admiration, worship... of all our lives.

God bless you so much. Thank you SO much for praying!!

PS We went to visit Laurie, but she wasn't there last Sunday. Jaime, though, did come to church for the *third* time now! :)