Seeing God at work!

Pastor Nathan mentioned to Jeff a while ago that he would like us to visit a tent city that he has been ministering in for a bit now. Finally Saturday we made our visit. What I had envisioned was the pictures you see on TV (and most of what we have seen so far) with tents lined up right on top of each other. This type of tent city can be intimidating and overwhelming to consider how to even begin doing any type of ministry with the mass of people. What I envisioned and what we encountered were two totally different things.

There absolutely is a lot of need here. Most of these people live in tents, some have been blessed enough to have received a "house" from a Spanish organization. There is little to no opportunity for work here. The only source of water in this city is a water truck that comes through every day for people to purchase and fill jugs of water. Protection from the sun is inside one's tent, some of which had to be 100 degrees. There has been no American presence here.
As we drove our way through the "roadway", I began to notice a few things; people actually have fenced in their yard, some have gardens growing, many have curtains hanging in their doorway...all of which to me means, this is their home. They have taken permanent residence here. This particular piece of government owned land allows people to make this their home which is different from many of the tent cities we have seen before.
Pastor Nathan explained to us as we drove that he started a church 2 months ago here because after the earthquake, some of the members of his church in town had moved out here and he visited them to pray with them and to minister to them. More and more people began to accept Christ and now he has a church of about 50 members here as well as his growing church in town.



We reached the church/school and were warmly greeted by a few of the leaders. Right now the church meets in this tent as well as half of the 150 kids attending school. The other half of the kids meet in an identical tent just a few yards away.

We made our way around to a few of the church members' homes and they gladly let us look inside. They seemed proud of what they have made of their homes.

We know God is working here and we are so blessed to be part of what He is doing. We look forward to building relationships with these families and coming along side them. Wednesday we will take a team of people to play with the children as they finish school, then we will distribute rice and beans to all of the families connected with the school. We will also set up a large military tent which will allow more space for church and for the children to be separated for schooling. Please be in prayer as we seek God's guidance and as we build relationships and minister to these people!

Partners in this mission!

~Deb