Last Night at the Vineyards

Jackson and Judeson with their new friend Miguel

I know many of you have been praying for Jackson and Judeson on this trip.  We are so grateful!  Thank you!  It has been a good trip even though Judeson has been struggling emotionally.  He certainly has had a harder time than Jackson and it has meant that Sheri has stayed back from events with them more often than we would like.  However we know that lots of action each day is something they don't do well with even at home.  So yeah, keep praying!  Please pray especially for the long trip home which starts on Tuesday!
We did get the boys out to a town about an hour from here where the High School team was doing kids and women's ministry as well as putting the roof on a house for a family.  That is what you see pictured in the background.  Miguel (pictured with the twins) and his family will move into that house once it is finished.  They played and played in the dirt and dust!  We threw them in the water trough to clean them off once we were ready to leave!

Last night I was out at the Vineyards again with a team of 7 from our church.  Some new folks came along who haven't been out there before.  This time they gave the message rather than me.  My hearts desire is that the local church here would take up the amazing opportunity that this ministry represents!  They can totally do it!  I have trained them in years past, they have also carried on this ministry without me in the past for a season.  However currently no one is going out there to tell these people the truth.  There are so many young men who want to know the truth!  Let me tell you a quick story.

A few nights ago a young man approached me by the name of Neftali.  He is from the South like everyone else and he had a question for me.  I had just finished preaching and he wanted to know if I could interpret a dream for him that he had.  I gave it my best effort telling him not to trust my interpretation as the ultimate truth but then I directed things toward the message I had just preached.  I wanted to know what he thought about it, what he believed etc.  He proceeded to tell me that he had a Catholic Church back home where he had heard some of the things I mentioned, but there was much he hadn't heard before and he had never understood the bible as a comprehensive story (that is how I had explained it in my message).  So we continued to talk and I could see that he was very interested in the Word of God and knowing more.  I made sure he got a Bible Tract that I had brought from home and encouraged him to read it and cross reference the bible verses in the tract with the verses in his bible at home when he returned there.  Well last night he approached me again, this time with his phone in his hand and his sister on the other end, back home which was about 5 states away. He was asking that I pray for them as a family.  So after getting some more info on his family, I prayed for them so that his sister could hear.  Afterwards, he and I talked some more and he had read through the tract and was so excited about what he was reading!  I proceeded to get his phone number and connected him to a leader in our local church down here.  I also have kept his number and through WhatsApp, I will be able to continue to encourage him and disciple him in God's word!  Technology is amazing when used properly for good!

Please pray with me that this ministry would continue once we leave.  There is no reason it couldn't.  Last night we had about 130 mostly young men watching the Christian movie we showed and listening to the preaching afterward.  And this is one of the smaller Vineyards that we go to!

Today we are off to the Children's Home with the High School team.  Looking forward to another day of ministry!