… And the Lord added to the church daily such as should be saved.
Acts 2:47
Numbers and statistics are not a reliable metric for evaluating the effectiveness of a ministry. From our perspective, we often won’t know whether we are planting like Apollos, watering like Paul, or reaping God’s harvest in the moment. But of course, like all disciple-makers, we passionately hope to see many people saved and transformed by the Gospel!
We are so grateful to see steady growth in church, both in numbers and in spiritual strength. 2 weeks ago we had the largest group of people we’ve seen in a regular service: 34 people! We can’t claim any credit for what the Lord is doing, we’re just thankful for the privilege of serving Him, and for the faithful servants here who labored before us.
Since our last update we have started a choir practice! We have about 10 people signed up. In its current form it’s realistically a very basic voice/music theory class, where our first goal is to help everyone understand pitch and learn to sing on key. We’re working towards singing our first choir number during a church service. I don’t know how long it will take us to prepare for that, but we’re working on it and making steady progress! I continue to give guitar lessons to a couple of people as well.
Those of you who are in my WhatsApp update group have heard about the friend I’ve been able to reestablish contact with. He made a profession of faith with me over 11 years ago (check out this Instagram update from way back!). He went through a very difficult period following his sisters’ death about 7 years ago. He left the church and let his life go way off track. I’ve been reforming the connection with him, and in June we met for coffee and a long talk. We’ve been in touch since then, and for the past two months he has been back in church. He now lives an hour away from us and has been attending my parents’ church in Lazkao with his family. This past week I learned that my mother had the chance to help his wife make a profession of faith! It’s very exciting to see the Lord welcoming back a sheep that was lost.
There is a new elderly lady who has been coming to church for about 6 months now. Many of you have been praying for her and her family. She has gradually opened up and shown increased spiritual interest recently. This week I had the privilege of helping her to understand the Gospel, and she prayed to accept Christ as well! She hopes to be baptized as soon as possible, along with her grandson.
Some of you are familiar with the Christmas postcard ministry we organize each year. For many years, my father Andy has printed and sent Gospel postcards to each of the homes in the towns surrounding his church. Since 2022, our church in Errenteria has also been a part of the project, and we’ve sent postcards to all the neighborhoods in the city. Our city has almost 40,000 inhabitants, in just under 15,000 homes. Please pray for this outreach project. We want to share the Gospel and let people in our city know we’re there to help them learn about God and the Bible. So many people searching for answers have no idea that there’s a church near them where they can learn, and this is one way to reach them.
Last year’s postcard
I have mapped out the different neighborhoods in the city, and we want to raise funds to send postcards to every home. The 19 neighborhoods range from around 100 to 2,000 homes in each, and they will likely cost between $10-$200 per neighborhood. I’ve set up a map with the names of each along with a picture for each, and it would be wonderful if any of you decided to adopt a neighborhood and commit to praying for it by name as we head into the end of the year. Once I have more specific info for each neighborhood, I will prepare a prayer card for each one. Hopefully, they’ll be useful for printing out as reminders for you and your Sunday School or life groups.
Right now each neighborhood is in red, but as we raise funds for neighborhoods the zones will turn green.
Please write me if you’d like to learn more about the project, or if you’re interested in donating to help cover the printing and mailing cost for any of the neighborhoods. You can also join the new WhatsApp group I’ve created to follow the project in real time.
For some updated topics to keep in mind when you pray for us, contact me and I’ll send a prayer card to your home every few months with current requests.
Thank you for your prayers! God bless,
David
Psalm 34:3
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