CT News December 2023
December 2023
Dear praying family!
Merry Christmas dear saints! When you click here, you’ll see the blessing of this report in colorful pictures. Thank you for taking the time to carefully scan through the prayer items embedded in each of them.
As we joyfully gathered around as a family this morning, reflecting on the salvific and sanctifying effects on this side of His first advent, we can’t help but yearn for all that it will be one day to sit on the other side of His second advent where justice and peace will prevail. Oh, come Lord Jesus!
It is in the light of justice on this side of heaven that we want to give you a brief update in the saga with the orphanage neighbor. We have collected strong evidence and have prepared well to defend our right to the orphanage land. We even found a crucial piece where the perpetrator admits his wrongdoing. We can’t hardly remember the many hours and resources invested to come to where we are. We feel confident, and yet get puzzled when we see bold/foolish moves from our counterpart. Just recently he went one step ahead and began digging wide trenches in what seems the beginning of a strong wall. All of this on our side of the property. We can’t hardly think that the authorities will rule on his side with all we have documented. But he is dead convinced that he will prevail. Our confidence remains in the Lord. You’ve got to see our pictures to make sense of all we are trying to communicate.
One thing is for sure, as complicated as this case is, it will take a long time to come to a final resolution. For now, the DA in each respective case is considering the merits of our demands before passing it over to a judge. While we wait and pray, we press on with our ministerial responsibilities with the children.
The children have completed their school year and are ready to dive into their summer activities. Pray for us as we contemplate a workable schedule where we find volunteers from the local assembly to come and help us navigate through the next three months. Remember Dani? We were afraid he had arrived at a crucial stage of his pulmonary fibrosis when he started coughing up foamy blood. By God’s grace, the coughing stopped, and subsequent checkups came back normal.
Pray for the children as they have learned of the tensions we are having with our neighbor. Besides that, installing our new director and saying goodbye to our most veteran house mom are no small issues they are going through as we speak. We have seen the Lord at work as they are facing these issues with love and grace. The Spirit of Christmas arrived as the much-needed equalizer to help us transition through all these major changes. Your prayers are much appreciated!
We’ve also concluded a literal season preaching/teaching on the book of Acts to the Centro Biblico Trujillo assembly. In January the leadership will be committed to praying, considering what to teach/preach in 2024. Providentially, we’ll have different guest speakers all of January as we have invited teachers from the Peruvian jungle, the mountains, the coast, plus others from North America and Europe. We are all gearing up for the yearly Bible training that is the purpose for having all these folks visiting with us.
As a family we are incredibly blessed to have our entire family here for Christmas. Abi arrived early on in December and will be here till after New Year’s. A recent new surgery for Pablo allowed us to reflect more and more on the Lord’s goodness on us. He was doing his morning run and suddenly his left knee gave in. An MRI revealed that he had torn 2/3 of his meniscus. Providentially, we were led to a good surgeon who was willing to operate before Christmas time. You won’t believe it … after the procedure, Pablo left the clinic walking… until the doctor told him not to. Your loving prayers and faithful support have been our great companions all along. Thank you so much!
Coming up
- January 5-6, Abi travels back to the US to begin her studies on Jan 8th.
- January 8-20, the local assembly hosts the 2024 edition of the yearly Bible training.
- January 9, our daughter Gabriela will be celebrating her 17th birthday.
- January 8-12, Pablo will be teaching basic hermeneutics.
- January 15-19, Pablo will be teaching ecclesiology.
- January 12-29, we will be hosting former colleagues Steve and Lisa Twinem and their son Nate. We are all looking forward to having them in our home.
Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!
Pablo & Sarah CT (with Abi, Hannah, Gabriela, Selah and Timothy)
