The best news so far...

You didn't know it, but I've been owing you some really great pictures of some really great events. Since the start of 2009 we have witnessed three people give their life to Christ in baptism, and since August of 2008 we have seen a total of eight!!! You knew about Francisco and Geraldo back in August, and then at the beginning of December we had two more, Talis and Jefferson. So that's the latest I had you caught up on...little did I know jsut a few weeks later I would be uploading pictures of four more!

This is Tiago. Tiago was invited to church by his girlfriend, Kelly, a longtime member at our congregation. We all fell in love with Tiago the first time we met him, how could we not with that smile? From day one we could see he was a genuine, caring person, and from day one he was excited to become a part of a church family. With just a few weeks of Bible study, he knew that a life in Christ was the right choice for him. We welcomed him into our family the last Sunday in December. Hoorayyyyy Tiago!

This is Ingrid. You have heard about Ingrid before, indirectly, when I blogged about her little sister, Isabel. Ingrid is 12 years old and the oldest of three children in an amazing, servant-hearted family. Ingrid has served God her whole life, but recently decided she wanted to study about baptism. She studied with John and Samantha and decided she was ready to commit her life to God. We are so happy for her decision!

This is Rosendo, the oldest of Geraldo's four kids. Since his dad was baptized, he has come to church faithfully and even gotten involved with the teenagers. The whole family is in the popcorn business, selling popcorn on the streets when they are not in school. They are great salesmen, which is good news for us! Since Geraldo's baptism they have brought more neighbors and friends to church than we ever could have imagined! John began studying with Rosendo a few weeks ago and he made the decision to follow in his dad's footsteps and give his life to Christ!

This is Socorro, Geraldo's wife and Rosendo's mom. You know where this is going... Geraldo is such a good salesman that he was able to convince his wife to join him for church each Sunday (although he gave his kids no choice. Ha!) She is a beautiful woman, as you can tell, but also so kind, sweet, with a very gentle demeanor. Though she always has a smile on her face, I could tell she was skeptical of the whole church thing, and was probably there more to support Geraldo than to make any changes herself. Well, that all started to change when she saw the church being the church, serving her family in ways I would imagine they had probably never been served before. As John studied with her and then began to study with Rosendo, mom and son decided to be baptized on the same day. It was a REALLY GREAT day!!
Please be praying for these new brothers and sisters, as well as for the other four I mentioned at the top of this post. We are so excited to see our church family growing, but we also know that they are especially prone to Satan's attacks. God is so good, and so faithful, and we pray that He continues to bless our little congregation with days like this!

*Special thanks to John Jewell for all of the fantastic facial expressions in the above photos