Pastora Bethzeida's Church

While Josh and I are here, we'll be spending our weekends preaching at churches in and around the city of Santa Cruz. Last weekend, we worked with Pastora Bethsida's church on the outskirts of the city. The church, pictured on the left, is made out of a metal wall facing the road and a metal roof. Inside is a dirt floor and some benches that are pulled out to seat the members of the congregation. The church is vulnerable to all weather conditions and the dust from the dirt road. But Jesus is glorified here just like He is in our church buildings back home!

In order to get out the word that we were coming to do services at the church, we set out to tell the neighbors about the programs. The members of the church split up into groups of 4 or 5 and took responsibility for a section of the neighborhood. As we went home to home, we would stand at the gate and Pastora Bethzeida's dad (who was with our little group) would call out "Señora!" Then the lady of the house would come to the gate and we would explain our calendar of events for the weekend. Most of the houses in this neighborhood (with the exception of maybe one or two) are one-room dwellings built out of bricks or sheet metal. They all have dirt floors and barely any plumbing. Many of the people we visited were curious about Josh and I just because we stood out, but shied away from making a commitment to come to the services.

Nevertheless, 3 people gave their lives to Jesus in the first service of the weekend. In the following services, several people were healed and rescued from bondage. On Saturday I did I children's service with Pastor Sharon where we talked about Daniel in the lion's den and the kids seemed to have a lot of fun learning about how the Lord is always with us.

The last night of our ministry there, the pastor asked us to stand at the front. Several of the church members lined up and said a few words thanking us for our ministry and sharing testimonies about what the Lord had done for them that weekend. Then they each presented us with a gift, some of them explaining the significance of the item they gave to us. It was hard not to burst out in tears! After the service, we drove to a restaurant where the church treated us to chicken dinners. We had so much fun trying to converse in English and Spanish. I whipped out my dictionaries and the ladies giggled as they tried out new English phrases and taught us how to pronounce them in Spanish.

Please pray for Pastora Bethzeida's church. They need a piece of land and a new building. Also pray that they continue to grow as more people from the neighborhood attend services and come to know more about the love of Jesus!