Worship and Bible class attendance:
- Sun am – 37 (2nd); 56 (9th); 89! (16th); 52 (23rd); 58 (30th)
- Sun pm – 31 (2nd); 28 (9th); ns (16th); 33 (23rd); 22 (30th)
- Sunday Bible study average – 48
- Midweek study average 22 / Other - 21
Recent congregational developments and activities:
- Friends and Family Day! (see below for details!)
- The Special Committee for the Bible School has been working on the internal rules and regulations for the school. They are making good progress and will soon be examining the curriculum to be offered to the students.
Conversions / identifications / restorations: Two families were added to the family of God!
- Baptized! - Mirian and Guillermo Sanchez. Mirian is the sister of Ruthy Pacua, who was baptized just a few months ago. Ruthy invited both Guillermo and Mirian to come visit the church to see what we were all about. They had been thinking a lot about their faith lately but had never found the answers to their questions. After a few studies with them, and especially one that focused on all the various aspects of baptism, they decided they had found the right church. On Tuesday September 4th, this wonderful family was added to the family of God through baptism! Praise God!
- Baptized! - Hector and Patricia Paredes. Hector is the brother of our member Ramon Paredes. He and his wife, Patricia and their son, Alex, have been attending and studying for more than a year now. Once they learned that they not only needed to be baptized for the remission of their sins, but also needed to correct their marriage situation, Patricia decided she wanted to be baptized and married on the same day! On September 22 they were baptized in the morning and married that evening! What a truly exciting day it was!
- Claudia Larrea - has been struggling recently with her faith and was missing many of our assembly times. She has returned to her first love and is asking for prayers. She is a truly sweet and precious soul!
Special Activities:
We had a very special “Friends and Family Day” on September 16 with some 89 people in attendance!
Many members brought their neighbors, coworkers, relatives and classmates to participate in our worship to our Lord. After worship, we presented a little photo gift to all those who had been baptized in the last year. We then took the group photo above and had lunch together afterward. It was a beautiful day in many different ways. Please pray for all the contacts that were initiated from that day!
- English Campaign Contacts. Our studies continue to go well and we are advancing toward more serious Bible studies with each one. Please keep Blanca, Daniel, Sergia, Antonio, and Graciela in your prayers that they may be touched by the word of God.
- We are continuing our Sunday morning Bible study hour on the family. The series is called, “Christ: The Hope of the Home” and we will be covering all aspects of Christian living within our homes. It has been going very well!
- Our Wednesday evening Bible study hour has been a study about denominational doctrines in comparison to the Bible. We have covered several groups and doctrines and it has been well received by all those attending the classes.
Evangelistic efforts:
- Daniel and Cristian Monges are painters that we contracted recently. Through various discussions we learned that they are very religious and when Cristian learned that I was a preacher, he asked if I would teach him how to prepare sermons. We have since begun a course on Homiletics and I am praying that through this study he learns a great deal of truth from the Bible!
- Decli Enciso’s nephew, Alcides, and her neighbor, Eli, have been continuing to participate in our weekly Bible study group in her home. They are growing in knowledge!
Steps toward mission goals:
- A new mid-week Bible study group has formed in Ñemby! There are several of our members who live in that suburb of Asunción and they decided to form their own area study group. They are praying (and so are we) that this will eventually develop into a church plant in the town of Ñemby!
Plans for near future:
We are scheduled to have a mission team workshop this next month. Jerry and Gail Heidrich will be returning to Paraguay to help the team with another upcoming transition and to serve as counselors for the team members.
Personal HIGHLIGHT(s) of the Month: Two precious families added to the Lord’s church through baptism, a wedding, a new mid-week Bible study group started, and a very successful “Friends and Family Day” were the highlights of September for us! What wonderful blessings!
Personal study:
I am currently reading / have read:
- “Everyday Evangelism” by Randy Becton.
- “Estudios de la Biblia” by Monroe E. Hawley - this is one of many books I am reading to see if it should be considered as part of the curriculum for the students of the Bible School.
- “Preaching” by Fred Craddock
Culture and language study:
We continue to take classes in Spanish and we continue to learn something new every time. We are certainly more comfortable with the language but it is going to require some more time to learn it well.
Visitation:
- Prisilla Santandar is a contact we have had since last year, but she had stopped coming. We went to visit her in her new restaurant she opened which explained why we haven’t seen her in a while.
- Elba Agüero - she is struggling with some family problems, so we went to encourage her and give her our love and support.
Family activities:
- We want to say “THANK YOU” to all the children at Central Avenue church of Christ who made their own cards for us and sent them to Paraguay. We LOVED them!
- We attended a “Town Hall Meeting” at the U.S. Ambassador's house to learn what is required for overseas voting.
- Andrea has developed a new hobby in which she has grown a green thumb! She now really enjoys gardening and is having good success at it.
- Andrea helped plan and organize the recent wedding of Hector and Patricia Paredes.
- I was recently given the opportunity to preach at Margaret Street church of Christ while still in Paraguay via Skype.
- We went to Jazz Festival concert at the Municipal Theater which featured some outstanding talent.
Plans for the near future:
- Andrea will be traveling with the mission team ladies to Brazil for a South American missionary conference.
- Next month we will have our annual Men’s retreat where we will be examining our goals for the congregation.
- We also have a team workshop and annual team retreat coming up.
- Our 17th wedding anniversary!
Our Mission Team Goals for 2012:
Evangelism: Each member of the team has developed and committed to some personal evangelism goals. Collectively, we are praying that we will generate more than 120 new contacts and conduct more than 750 Bible studies. These studies will include both evangelistic and member studies. We also plan to use public advertising, special events, and seminars to generate contacts. We also pray that we will continually encourage and develop a more evangelistic spirit within the congregation.
Edification: The team is working to develop leadership within the congregation through the mentoring process, special workshops, and by utilizing studies that focus on servant leadership. We are also developing ideas and working on logistics for the possibility of having a specialized “Bible school” in Asuncion, Paraguay.
Edifice: (Building Construction): We pray that we will complete construction of phase 1 of the building this year. All paperwork has been acquired and we are requesting estimates to begin construction.
Troy Spradlin
If you would like to see the report, complete with pictures, please click here.