Dear Burd and AP and Church Family,

Boy , it’s been busy, but  a nice cool  few weeks, We’ve been seeing daily miracles of food multiplication and the weather is  just wildly “cool”, max 80 degrees with a cool wind. I’ve been trying to send pictures all week as new children arrive and the playground is chock full of  VERY early laughter and good use of the equipment so many of you contributed to get built.

Something  happened I felt a particular urge to share with you  tonite.

A couple of weeks ago. on a Friday (our Church day) a new 24 year old girl showed up with Theodora.. Theo explained that she was approx. 6 months pregnant (the girl Hilaria, doesn’t speak Spanish so Theo had to  translate) She explained that this was Hilaria’s 7th pregnancy, that Hilaria was in a dual marriage , 1 man 2 women, and that her husband was very  physically abusive, had beaten and kicked Hilaria that morning and Hilaria was having contractions and bleeding. Hilaria had gone to Sector de  Salud, and been refused any treatment until she  showed up with a sonogram.

Immediately, my jaded flesh smelled a quest for money. Money that we did not have. But  there lay a surprise in store for me.

Praise Yahweh, Theo and her sister Catalina  said they could each put up $100 pesos to help- but asked if we could  pitch in the rest- about $150.00.pesos. ($15.00 US dollars) to get the sonogram done.

We obviously were so moved and excited that Theo and Catalina , struggling themselves to support very larg (or  more truthfully, not too much) hesitation, pitched in the rest and got the sonogram done at a 24 hour lab and had her seen/ treated at SDS.

The pregnancy is high risk, Hilaria is so malnourished (her weight is 98 pounds at 6  months along) and she really needs our prayers that she can escape this abusive relationship. But the FRUIT in Theo and Catalina is so very encouraging to us.

The BIG DEAL here lies in seeing two very new sisters in the Gospel  pull out their wallets to show love to a new believer. Unheard of amongst different tribes, UNHEARD OF. Remember they believe that there is NOT enough GOOD in the world for everyone so they scrabble amongst themselves to the death for the smallest scrap of blessing; a kilo of rice , beans, a sack of used clothing………and here  we have these 2 offering to HELP a stranger.

I must remind you that we , Frank and myself are just people , people like you all. People with doubts and fears and very real bills to pay. But like you, whether you know it or not , people who know that others look to us as BELIEVERS for guidance by seeing how we respond to such pleas, and circumstances

 Honestly, when they arrived and started telling me the circumstances that day, I thought, well I thought, it was just another  way of asking “the Church for money” without really understanding that we/they/us ARE the Church,

We have no mysterious headquarters somewhere in the  USA that supplies our every need. We don’t even really have a clue as to what money we we just know we better do ocome in to keep or not keep us going each month.   It’s just us and a Very Awesome Great Faithful God and our mixing our faith (believing the unseen ) with actions (in this case giving what we could not)!

 The oxygen sensor was just deemed “history”  in our only vehicle, The brakes front and back are shot,  I owe the dentist for  my dry socket etc…but there was no IGNORING HOLY SPIRIT, saying “give, join your faith and actions with theirs.”

And so we did, and  that we just as you  are RELYING on the spiritual principles of sowing and reaping and of demonstrating our love and faith by loosening our purse-strings

I don’t think it ever becomes so EASY as I believe that we just come to KNOW that when we feel the nudge or the PUSH of Holy Spirit to give, well, we  just do so.

As I recall, in none of the

Gospels did anybody pop up and give Jesus a pep talk when His spirit was vexed about going to the cross and dying that ugly yet unbelievably awesome death for us. No one showed up and URGED Him on or reminded him His flat bread bill was due (Feeding 5000 could not have been cheap.). He heard the Father, He knew the Plan and His part in it and He stepped up and took his place. Some folk have the thinking it was easier for Him than it would be for a regular “man”. But  he was 100% man  as I get it and He sweat tears of blood that that awful death would pass by Him.

He became like us and we must  bit by bit become like Him and yes , we canA couple of weeks ago. on a Friday (our Church day) a new 24 year old girl showed up one day during a time while we were having visitors with Theodora.. Theo explained that she was approx. 6 months pregnant (the girl Hilaria, doesn’t speak Spanish so Theo had to  translate) She explained that this was Hilaria’s 7th pregnancy, that Hilaria was in a dual marriage , 1 man 2 women, and that her husband was very  physically abusive, had beaten and kicked Hilaria that morning and Hilaria was having contractions and bleeding. Hilaria had gone to Sector de  Salud, and been refused any tretment until she  showed up with a sonogram!

Praise Yahweh, Theo and her sister Catalina  said they could each put up $100 pesos to help but asked if we could  pitch in the rest- about $150.00.pesos.

We obviously were so moved that Theo and Catalina , struggling themselves were finally  showing LOVE to their “neighbors” that we pitched in the rest and got the sonogram done at a 24 hour lab and had her seen/ treated at SDS.

The pregnancy is high risk, Hilaria is so malnourished and she really needs our prayers that she can escape this abusive relationship. But the FRUIT in Theo and Catalina is so very encouraging to us. I thought you guys would want to know that as well. Praise Jesus!!!!

We thank you all back there at Harvest of Faith for all you do for the people here..nd pray the Lord multiply your giving……….,

beyond our wildest imaginings. Hang on , stay the course and believe in the I Am. He Is whatever you need and more.

Much love and many many blessings,

Pastor Frank and Sis Detra