What's a verse?

This was the type of question we heard yesterday in our Group in the Women’s Prison, El Buen Pastor. We are starting a new group of Celebrate Recovery and have about 8-9 new women joining us at the moment. Our requirement is that after 1 month of attendance you receive a Bible with special devotions for Celebrate Recovery Groups.

   The real excitement came for us when we watched them open up their Bibles. It felt like Christmas morning! The ones who received them are not professing to be Christians but you would not have known that by their joy in receiving them. What’s a verse? How do you find the chapter number? New, old testament? Great questions!

            We were teaching on the meaning of hope using the letters of the word hope to illustrate that real hope comes in knowing Jesus as one’s Savior. As we looked up passages they were so excited to be finding them on their own! I know God is just starting His work here amongst them and I pray that He will have the victory in their lives as they seek truth. Keep praying with me!

Other exciting news is that Bob has been praying and seeking God for what’s next, thank you all for your prayers in this. He has been busy helping out with another missionary who is fixing/building a home for a family with 4 children in one of the slums here, Los Guido. He is also helping out in the mountains in Vara Blanca, where the earthquake happened about 2 ½ years ago, as they remodel a community center into a school.

We are also looking at getting involved with Christ for the City Missions. They are in need of help with their short term teams. We will be coming alongside the director, Carlos, helping him with two teams, one in March and the other in April. Thank you for continuing to pray for wisdom in knowing God’s will at this time. Here we are with Magali and Hugo, who work in the slum where we will be helping out with the short term teams. there is about 400 hundred families living here in these conditions, including many women with several children who are without husbands.

We have our first visitor form Maine coming today! Kathy, my sister, is coming down to serve with us and be an encouragement to us as well. We are so excited to have her here with us! She will be sharing on prayer with my Spanish Bible Study and with the missionary women who live here in the city. She will also join me in the prison next Wednesday to share her testimony with the women in our group.