A Glimpse of our Bible Study

Our Friday Night Bible study is kind of fun, I think.  I enjoy watching the people try to remember the verse from the past week.  Sometimes it makes me smile because it is a young child like Yuhayna (9) or sometimes someone like Misael who rips through the verse so quickly that I know he practiced for a while, maybe a day or afternoon mulling over it until they learned it well. I love to see Alma sign hers.  She never learned how to read, but each week she learns the words for the verse. God is surely at work in this.

Enjoy the videos I have attached below. The verse they are signing is:
"When you are angry, do not sin. And be sure to stop being angry before the sun goes down. Do not give the Devil a way to defeat you."  Ephesians 4:26-27.

After everyone signs the verse, if they remember it, we clap for them.

I then teach a new verse usually with an object lesson. In the photos below Gineli and Misael are trying to "get free".  They each have a rope tied to their wrists.  The rope is looped through the other person's rope. They enjoyed trying to step over it, twist around and try to find a way to get loose...to be free.  After they struggled for a while I showed them the trick.  It helped us grasp the concept of how God's grace has made us free. How that freedom is so desirable.  Without Jesus' death on the cross we would still be stuck....bound. (Ephesians 1:7).

Praise God for His grace that makes us free.

The 10th Anniversary of Jesus' Deaf Church

 Happy 10th Anniversary Jesus' Deaf Church!
I'm praising God that He has brought us this far, to this glad day.  We had 42 adults and children for our anniversary celebration last Sunday, October 11.

       We sang, prayed, and thanked God for his love and faithfulness.  Then I showed a slide show with about 60 pictures from our first Sunday in 2005, some celebrations, Bible studies, VBS, baptisms, and our worship up until now. 

       For the sermon I talked about the future.  Though we don't know the future, we know that churches,  like people,  go through unique stages of development. In the beginning we were like babies who cannot care for themselves. Babies soak in everything, learn and holler about their needs. Primary age children start to take some responsibilities.  They dress themselves, feed themselves, maybe even sweep the floor.  During this time our church people grew up and started to take responsibilities, cleaning, sharing God's word, learning the Bible, inviting people to church, and singing.  The teen years are times or rebelliousness.  Some people rebelled in all areas of their lives, and some also rebelled by turning away from God.  Thankfully I think we are approaching the adult stage.  This is a stage of independence and vision.  As adults we have dreams for the church and ask God how we can apply His Kingdom goals.  We work and take responsibility.  We think spiritually and dig deeper into God's Word to find what he wants from us.  We honestly confess sin and try to follow Jesus' example.  I'm looking forward to this new stage of development in our church and pray that God will look upon us saying, "Well done, my good and faithful servants."

After lunch we ate rice and beans chicken.  Yum!

Several of the women helped to serve.

We had visitors from Belize City.  LL has been taking the hour long bus ride to visit out church every other week.  I'm so impressed at his commitment and sacrifice.

I thank God for a great day and pray that the next 10 years will glorify Him.