And so it was. Over the next 20 years, the church in Aguas sent 7 young people to Bible School, launched one couple into ministry who are now a pastor and his wife in Aguas itself; another couple who are ministering in music at a church in Monterrey and run a Bible bookstore there; another couple who are serving as missionaries in the muslim world, and three others -- our own daughter, son, and daughter-in-law -- who are now serving with us as Short Term Assistants under our own AFLC mission here in Mexico. Not to mention our daughter's roomate from the Free Lutheran Bible School in Minneapolis, who came to know Jesus in our church in Aguas and who together with her husband, now serves as a missionary of the World Mission Prayer League in Mexico.
Here in Jerez, the Lord has again made clear to us that our purpose in this work is not just a Sunday-go-to-meeting church for people who are already Christians, but a hospital for people in need of spiritual and emotional healing as a result of sin -- whether their own or someone else's. This is to be a place where people come to find healing, restoration, deliverance, and wholeness in Jesus.
Recently we have been reminded that there is a fine line between a hospital, where people come to find healing, and a hospice, where people go to be made as comfortable as possible while they die. They aren't the same thing!
Pray that we would be faithful in bringing about a place of healing, deliverance, and strengthening; not just a comfort zone for people who never recover! We need the outpouring of the Holy Spirit's power in our life and ministry to make the difference between these two. Pray for us!
