Since our last report, more people are coming to church to hear the Word of God. The children’s behavior has changed. They are quieter now and their mothers say they don’t run around inside the church anymore. Medical check-ups have been provided over a period of three weeks. In April, children who had birthdays in January, February, March and April celebrated with activities especially designed for them. The community has helped clear and level the land, and they built a dividing wall around the property. Naturally, as church members, we also helped. The people who live here also come to help out two or three hours a week. The parents and children who attend meetings have been asked to help and they are doing so. Compassion and the pastors have encouraged the children’s parents to trust in this work. But really, more than trust us as members of the Church or Compassion, they should trust in God to make the church building a reality. It hasn’t been possible to do more than just preach and let the people listen to the Word, because our current meeting place is very small and we meet under tents in the yard. Because we don’t have the proper infrastructure, it’s not possible to have as many workshops as we’d like. However, so far, we have given a group workshop with mothers of the program with the subject “Nutrition”. There was also a family workshop with the subject “Personal hygiene” and an inspirational workshop with the subject “Communion with God”. The workshops have had 70-120 people in attendance.

We have faced a few challenges. In April we had the Mayor’s promise to help get the land, but people in the community and this area protested and were against the undertaking, so we have talked a lot with the authorities. We also got people we could trust to go to the Project. The Mayor has publicly given a verbal contract and has allowed construction to begin, and we praise God for that. All that is left is for the formal documentation to be processed. However, even with these challenges, people are more ready to listen to the Word of God, because they were somewhat incredulous and didn’t understand what it was about before. There was some mistrust among the people at first. However, the mothers are coming now and are more confident and things are going well. The Lord is at work with these brothers and sisters. 

In the next few months, the construction will take place. The architects and engineers in charge say it will take 2½ months. At the end of the month, there will be another meeting with me, personally, as the pastor of the Church. The building will have offices, restrooms, dining rooms, and everything necessary to receive the children and meet Compassion’s requirements. As the pastor, I really hope the church building will be finished and ready to use in two months.

PRAISES

• The generous contribution received from donors for the construction work of the development center Semillas de Paz.
• Contributions in terms of labor that members of the daughter and mother churches have made for the construction.

PRAYER REQUESTS

• Funds that the church needs to cover some financial commitments that have been necessary to responsibly fulfill the contributions to the construction work.
• The physical integrity of children and adolescents in our impact area.
• The children, adolescents, youth and adults of our context, so that the Holy Spirit will continue to convince them and lead them to repentance.
• The adolescents who received Jesus as Lord and Savior during this two-month period, so that the Lord reaffirms them in their faith and fulfills their purpose in their lives.