Where does one begin to describe the many works which God has been doing? He has been blessing this town in so many ways that in a way it is frustrating to see that the whole country hasn't converted. Many lives have been effected by the grace and mecy that God has shown here through patience and blessings.
The month of December was filled with many activities to celebrate the birth of Christ. To start off the month we held a wedding for the new family that will be living in Nueva Jerusalen as the temple gaurds. Viktor and Adelaida were married in the local central showing the dedication they have to lovingly complete all commandments that God has given us. The wedding displayed an obedience to God and His word for the whole congregation to be a part, uniting a husband and a wife as God so does with His bride the church.
In Ciudad Nueva there were festivities for the children and for the youth, and on Christmas Eve we held a churchwide candle lighting service. Cono Sur, Nueva Jerusalen, and the central church also held similar activities for the children. There were games, food, and of course an explanation of what Christmas really means. All in all the parties went well. We also held a special dinner/Christmas party for all the workers in all four church locations. The party was very fun and we even got to have a little gift exchange, where Chiqui and I got our first something, a sugar holder, for our future house. Then there was the very fun and interesting Christmas Eve service. Throughout the service the power kept going out in the whole city. The good news is that all of the prepared dances and shows were able to be presented in between power outages, the bad news is that the sermon had to be shortened a lot, and also as a sound team it was a disaster running around frantically trying to turn everything off so if the power went back on it wouldn't damage the equipment. In the end everything was completed, everything was enjoyed, and everything was a tremendous blessing from God.
After all the Christmas celebrating we were blessed with a short-term team from Christ's Church of the Valley (CCV). As usual, the team was a huge blessing in many spiritual and tangible ways. While the team was here we were very active in evangelism presentations, many construction projects, and other social help activities. We were able to go and visit an old folks home and spend some time encouraging them and having fun even though few knew how to speak Spanish. Some of the social activities that we were able to do included an afternoon in Nueva Jerusalen, the poorest community in Tacna, washing and cutting peoples hair for free. The activity proved to be successful with 40 to 50 women and children recieving a nice haircut. Other blessings the team left were many construction helps for families in the church. We were able to make a second room for Viktor and Adelaida's house, William and Rosi's house(secretary at the central church, also in charge of the work in Cono Sur), removing a mountain of dirt and completing a second room in another faithful members house(Sandra), and other works at the different churches. The list is too long to list. On top of all these blessings from the team, the college group at CCV spent time and money to bless the congregation with the completion of many needs and wants that we had here such as tools, games, cd players, etc. Many of those same blessings were used during the stay of the short-term team. In all we were and are very blessed by everything that CCV gave and left here, speaking of the interns as well. Thank you all for your prayers and other helps that you have unselfishly given. They are truly valued. We pray that you continue to be blessed since you have faithfully blessed others with the blessings God has given you.
In Him.
Brian Ridenour |
