Growing a Church

The church in Victoria is growing spiritually, in small steps. We are currently having only 4-5 adults weekly (including ourselves), and about 15 children. The family who worships with us has approached us with desires to do outreaches and make known the formation of this new little church. Their ideas have cultivated into four main areas of ministry:

• Movie nights. The days are getting hotter, and it’s becoming stifling hot in the middle of the day. By the night, the heat has drained all our energy for work. So this is the perfect time to start movie nights – a way to bring the villagers to the church and share with them a small message of God’s love before having a family movie. We will be hosting a movie night once a month until the hot nights come, and then the movie night will be once a week.
  
• Revival. Here, the word for revival is called “Compaña”, or literally interpreted into English, “company.” The revival is intended to bring brothers and sisters together from all different churches in the villages to worship and fellowship together. Since the villages are 5-6 miles apart, this can be difficult to do each week, especially for families without cars, but is not difficult once a month. By hosting a revival, we will be able to get word out that a new church has formed in Victoria, and the brothers and sisters will spread the word to other villages.
  
• Youth soccer tournaments. Once a month, Joshua and Uriel and the teenage boys in the church will host soccer tournaments for the youth in the surrounding villages. Since “soccer” is another word for “life” for these teenage boys, it is an excellent avenue to build relationships with the youth, and to gain access into their school. Our goal is to build relationships with the teenagers. Later, we will begin a bible study for those who are interested.
  
• Women’s Meetings. Pati has a desire to do outreach, also. I have encouraged her to minister to women, as the Bible explicitly teaches women not to teach men. Most women in the villages are alone with their children all day, while their husbands either work in other cities, or work in the mountains or the fields. There are many women who want to follow Christ but who stay silent for fear that they will be socially outcast from village friends and family for their declamation of Catholicism. Pati and I (Lacy) will begin visiting homes once every two weeks, and building relationships with the women. It is our goal to group enough women together to have a Bible study with them, and encourage them to live for Jesus.