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One More Step

We recently had puppies! Five furry fluff balls were born just two weeks ago and they are growing in such a way that leads us to believe that Sheba crossed with a St. Bernard. We know that she didn’t because we have seen few St. Bernards since our arrival ten years ago. The puppies are, however, growing quickly. Of course one of their days equals one of our weeks, doesn’t it?

Lately they are beginning to take steps. Looking like little old men and little old ladies they wobble, stagger, and drop their way from one side of their box to the other. Unlike little old people we know that their time of running and jumping is yet ahead. They are learning to walk one step at a time.

This is similar to church growth. It happens gradually. Though I often want to see instant results it doesn’t happen that way. We take our first wobbly steps then fall flat on our face. We get up and try again only to take another nosedive. Praise the Lord our church has never really taken a stumble. We continue steady with our forty-five (give or take five on any given day) and we praise the Lord again for growth in many of these brothers and sisters.

Thinking about growth, I have an unspoken request. I hate unspoken requests; I never understood how I was to pray for something I knew noting about. But, that said, I have one. Pray for a delicate situation that could and will be resolved when the person involved realizes that they need to surrender their life to God’s control. It is a thorny situation because a wrong heart attitude will affect many people. This is working into a spoken request isn’t it? Anyway, you get my point. Pray for God’s will and protection.

Altemir started the plastering on Tuesday and is making great progress. Our congregation has raised R$1212 and their resources will be matched by a gift from an American friend. With those funds, we should be able to complete half of our second floor. When the plaster work is completed our next big job will be to put in a vinal dropped ceiling. Pray for this project too. It will be BIG and costly ($7000 Yes that is seven thousand dollars. Ouch!). Accomplishing these two jobs will provide a lovely place of worship. If you can help financially with either of these projects please let me know.

Mike
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