Dear Friends and Family,
It is hard to believe that July is already here! We hope that you had a nice 4th of July. Last month we kept busy finding ways to push forward! Besides leading normal services and visitation evangelism, Jeremy had the opportunity to preach to the missionaries at the language school. It was good to encourage them to persevere when times get difficult. As for the church, now that we have our meeting location, permits, etcetera we have moved forward with an official church name – Iglesia Bautista San Pablo Para Cristo (San Pablo For Christ Baptist Church). We designed new tracts, but they were declined by one printer for being “religious.” The second printer never delivered them and after 2 weeks had to give us a refund. This led us to invest in buying a nice printer that we can use for printing tracts, invitations, and church materials. We have also made up our first church sign and are working to make some changes to the building where we meet. For Father’s day, we had a special service and had some new visitors. We are now finalizing plans to do our first Vacation Bible School (VBS). We are a small church but we are trusting in God to do big things!
As for our family, we are doing pretty well. The kids recently finished the school year. It was a big goal for many teachers to get kids back on track after missing so much education throughout the pandemic. We are proud that all of our kids did an excellent job. Lila and Ellowyn scored all A’s and Elijah also did very well and made great progress in his Spanish. At home, we had a little complication due to some refrigerator issues. We lost some food, but that seems to be all straightened out now. Near the end of last month, Tropical Storm Bonnie passed over Costa Rica and Nicaragua. We were expecting massive rains, power outages, and even landslides. Somehow, it passed over and we didn’t really experience any more rain than normal! Jeremy was even able to go visiting as usual! However, one morning, as Jeremy went to the back porch area of our house, he found a fairly large snake that had somehow entered through an opening in the screen. We think it was probably a boa constrictor (not venomous), but they all look pretty similar. Jeremy managed to remove it with some brooms. Thank God for His protection!
This month will be an extra busy one. We will need God’s help to pull off all of our VBS plans. Please pray:
1. That God will help us as we plan our first VBS.
2. That God will continue to save souls and add new members to the church.
3. That God will lead us and guide us as we continue to develop the church ministries.
In Christ,
Jeremy, Michelle, Lila, Ellowyn, and Elijah Blanz
