Glory to God in the highest!

“Glory to God in the highest,

And on earth peace, goodwill toward men!"

The holiday season is a very busy time of year here for the ministry. We seek to impact the community for Jesus' sake as much as possible during the holidays. We had activities with all the sponsored children of In Calvary's Care. We had a puppet show for the younger kids and our church's youth drama team presented a drama to the older kids. Vicente, the ICC director, wrote and sang a rap song. Jared shared a message from the Bible with the oldest group. The message behind it all was the importance of celebrating and honoring Jesus every day of the year, not just at Christmas time. You can see pictures from the events on the In Calvary's Care Facebook page. Click Here!

The sponsors in the States sent a Christmas donation to the sponsor kids. We divide up all that comes in evenly between the kids and they are given a gift certificate to a local store where they can pick out clothes, shoes or toys. The kids get so excited. For many of them, this is the only Christmas gift they receive. We gave that out Christmas morning. What a great way to spend Christmas day!

We had a special Christmas dinner for the church on the 26th after our regular midweek study. We had fried chicken, potato salad, bread, soda and Christmas candy. It was a good time of fellowship as the members of our church grow closer together as a family. 

On New Year's Eve Jared and I had a pizza party at our house for the youth group kids. It was so much fun! The kids are really forming strong friendships with us and with one another and have begun to hang out consistently outside of church. 

We were planning to have another activity for the youth during Christmas break, but then Jared contracted Dengue Fever. He was sick for about 8 days. For those of you who don't know what Dengue Fever is, it feels a lot like the flu. He had a fever, chills, was very achy and extremely tired. He also had a very itchy rash on his arms and legs. The only treatment is rest and to stay hydrated. We are so thankful that his case didn't worsen to the point of needing to be admitted to the medical clinic. He was able to stay home and he was still able to teach. He missed one Sunday and our good friend Vicente stepped up and taught in his place. The Lord was definitely merciful to Jared and we are thankful he is feeling better now. 

We had a team come last week from Calvary Christian Fellowship in Colorado. They made many improvements on the ministry house, replacing doors, repairing things that were broken and painted the entire inside of the house. They also went out into the community and shared the gospel. Many people received the truth into their lives and many seeds were planted. The team worked hard and we were so blessed by them. The house really got a face lift and it will be a blessing to the hundreds of adults and children who walk through those doors each month. 

Speaking of hundreds of children, the number of children sponsored keeps climbing. Each month the number goes up. It is amazing to watch the Lord put it on the hearts of those in the States to make a monthly sacrifice to help a needy child in our community. We have over 240 children currently in the program. It is an amazing program the Lord has put together here. To know that each one of those children has a person or a family or a church praying for them by name, it's awesome. Please pray the Lord gives us the wisdom, the understanding, the ability to share His love and His truth with them. The world is pulling at them. Satan wants to destroy them while they are still young before they have a chance to take a stand for Jesus. Please pray for these precious little lives. Glory to God in the highest!