Acacias Community Church

Over the past several months, there have been some changes within the Acacias Community Church.

The first big addition was a prayer vigil. The meeting is held once a month and the participants spend the night praying at the church. The week after the first meeting, three people decided to follow Christ! We are experiencing how God moves, when His church prays.

Another big step for the church involved re-starting the English classes. Last semester Pat Hood began an English class for the women of the church & the school. It was a huge success, with the men asking for a class of their own. As we discussed Pat's class & saw the implementation of it, I began to see a fuller picture of the potential of English classes within the churches. Jeff, Lindsay, Ricardo, & I have been teaching English at the church in Lagao de Itaenga for some time now, but, as for me, I saw it much in the same way as I saw my English classes at the school. Through the new class, I began to see how powerful an English class within the church can be. Tele & Heather saw this as well. So, a few weeks after the prayer vigil started, they started English classes at the church. And what a turn out! The second week Tele had over 30 people in the beginners' class and Heather had around 10 in the more advanced class. A few of the Americans (Paul & Ruth) and an English-speaking Brazilian (Jaciel) are now helping with the load. There are four classes. People from the church, the school, and the community are coming an hour before church for English class. Many of them then stay for the church service. The Acacias Community church has always been very small but over the past several months it has grown dramatically. It has been fun to see.

Here's a video of Pastor Tele talking about Acacias.

Please pray for continued growth within the Community Church of Acacias and that the Lord would use this little church in a powerful way.

Also, the pastor of Guadalajara Community Church (Carlos), some of the other American missionaries, and I are planning to start a new English program at the church in Guadalajara next week. Please pray that the church would be empowered to form new relationships through this program and that the Lord will be glorified.