Hey all!

Think its time for another update. So, im into my 3rd week serving here in Milagro. It has been good to finally get over all illness and get started working into what God has for me to do here. I´m working with Pastor Carlos Peña in his church and going round with him visiting the various cell churches he has too. It has been a joy to serve here...just to go into someones house, listen to them and where they are with God, pray for them and try to encourage them. God has been speaking so much to me, and giving me and the Pastor the same verses over and over again and pointing our hearts in the same direction. Praise God for that! It has been such a joy just to listen to people´s joys or sorrows and pray for them. God has really been confirming that this is exactly where i´m meant to be and has given me such a heart for the people here. I´ve been working a little with the pastors kids. Roxana is 16 and JeanCarlos is 14, they both lead the worship in church and have a huge potential. I have learnt so much from them, just even watching them worship. They are not the most talented musicians, but they have deep hearts for worshipping God and to see others worship him, and thats all that matters! Music is only a vehicle! I´ve been teaching a few songs in the church and they seem to have enjoyed getting some new material. We learnt Forever God is faithful, and When the music fades, in Spanish...praise the Lord for these songs that God is using! I will be starting to teach a little piano and doing some classes about music and how it fits into worship, but how we need to primarily be worshippers. I would appreciate your prayers as i begin to prepare things for that. Thank you again for all your prayers, Know that I´m praying for you. Yes my work is over here this year, but God has put it on my heart to pray for you all and to pray for so many things back home...know your not alone and that God is walking before you!

There is a great need for prayer here...One woman we´ve been seeing really wants to make a committment to God in her life, but she has a lot holding her back. Her husband has a huge problem with alcohol and beats her because of this. She hasn´t been working recently, and because of his addiction, neither has he...so they have no money to send their three young kids to school. Pray for opportunities to talk to her more and encourage her to surrender her whole life over to God.

Over the past while God has been really challenging me to live by the Spirit...and he has been convicting me for how I have lived my life over the past few years...and i came to the conclusion that it wasn´t really that different to that of a non christian. This has hit me hard! I feel at home it´s just so easy to fall into apathy as a Christian, and the devil uses this to further us from God and His service. Since coming here, God has shown me such an urgency of needing to wake up and tell people about Him and what He has for their lives....and to live my life in a way that expresses that. Ask yourself...is your life that really different to that of a non christian? So often as Christians in Ireland we can learn the right things to say, learn nice language to use in prayer, learn where to go...and just remain content in being comfortable. Spiritual laziness is a sin! God has shown me that I need to be reflecting Christ in all I do...and that hasn´t always been the case. I´ve been reading 1John and this verse has really challenged me...

´God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin´

I praise God for this truth and it´s so clear for us. It´s time to stop talking about whats we´re going to do, to stop proclaiming we´re living for Christ...but finally start living for Him with all our our lives. This requires a daily crucifying of oneself and allowing Christ to live in our lives...then people will only see Christ!! Imagine the outcome! May it be the deepest desire of our hearts that Christ is lifted up as Lord of our lives, and that we don´t just say that phrase with words, but we show it in every second that we´re alive.  We need more of Christ in our lives...and it´s my prayer that you would all seek to daily walk in His Spirit....and if we do that, this is the outcome...

´The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.´

May Christ reign in each one of our lives....may we start praying for our friends and the people around us who don´t know him. There is as much need right where you are, as there is over here.

Thank you all for your continued prayers and encouragement over these past few weeks.

Pray against the culture shock that I´m facing here again. The devil will try to make little frustrations much bigger than they actually are, but help me pray against that.

Love Jon