Three things to take with you soul winning

Every soul winner’s “survival kit” should contain three essential items:

1. Prayer

2. God’s Word

3. Passion for souls

Saturday afternoon was our first official church-wide soul winning effort for 2012. We are excited to report that 32 folks enthusiastically showed up, ready to sow the seeds of God’s Word in the hearts of the lost souls in Pilar.

First and foremost, we prayed together for those with whom we would come in contact.

Secondly, we armed ourselves with our Swords, God’s Word. Each group actually took a religious survey to help initiate a conversation that would lead into sharing the Gospel. Each person who participated in the survey received a John/Romans as well as other church literature. Everyone has gone through an intensive soul winner’s course called Netcasters, where we memorized key verses to share in witnessing.

That leads to the third crucial ingredient: passion for souls. As you are reading this on your computer screen, I wish there was a way for you to feel the energy and enthusiasm of every believer who came back from soul winning, sharing the contacts they made and even the folks they led to Christ on the street! As the people answered the questions on the religious survey, we realized that every individual has a story and each one is important to our Heavenly Father.

As we regroup after the summer and begin the 2012 cycle of the school year (March – December) with all the church events that includes, we are praying that this Saturday afternoon would be an indicator of what’s to come the rest of the year. Please pray for God to bring forth the increase as we continue to sow the seeds of the Gospel.

To our supporters, we want to say “thank you” for supporting us with your prayers and finances that allow us to be a part of the great work God is doing here in Pilar. Please don’t stop praying!!

By His grace alone,

James & Amy Greenwood

Summer Camp report #2

Summer Camp. Exciting. Exhausting. Full of blessings. Hot. These are just a few words that describe the two weeks of summer camp craziness this pastor and his wife experienced. Not only did James preach for the jr. high camp (click on link to read the full story), but the next week we took the teens to one camp on Monday, and then took the children to another camp on Tuesday. James ran back and forth between church and the two camps all week while Amy served as a counselor at the kids’ camp.

Although all the activity was strenuous for these “old folks,” the campers had a great time and can’t wait till next year! One of our church kids trusted Christ and many others made important spiritual decisions. We are proud of two special church kids who received the “Camper of the Week” award – Jaden (jr. high camp) and Martin (kids’ camp).

Monday – The teens headed north to their camp.

Tuesday – The 8 to 11 year olds headed west to their camp.

Jr. High Camp

The Lord blessed us with a great week at Jr. High summer camp. James was the main speaker for the week. He had to drink a caffeine-loaded Coke before each service to make sure he had lots of energy for this age group! There were 4 professions of faith and over half of the campers made other important decisions. Praise the Lord for the tender hearts of these kids.

Amy thought she was just going to help her husband, but they needed another female counselor. So, she ended up pulling double duty! It was tiring, but a blessing to her to lead two girls to Christ and have an impact in the lives of the girls in her group.

Counseling Time

Our team flag…and the winners of the week!!

We are so proud of Jaden, who was chosen as one of the “Campers of the Week.” He was very encouraged to get to be around Christian boys his age.

Game Time

Campers of the week from each team

One of the campers from our church, Elias, memorized all the Scripture verses and was able to recite most of them in front of the whole camp for a chance to win extra points for his team. We are so proud of him!

We still have two more groups of campers left to go… Thank you for your prayers!

Vacation Bible School

Thank you for praying for our VBS this week. It was a HOT week, with Thursday peaking 102 degrees and Friday reaching 97 degrees!! Even without central AC, that didn’t hinder God from doing His work! There were about 25 kids and 10 moms each day, and 3 professions of faith. Some of the visitors came because of a radio announcement, but most were invited by a church member.

We are so blessed to have such a great group of servants who were each in their place, on time, doing their part. Each leader poured their heart into their teaching, crafts, or games.

One of the highlights of the week was the mom’s craft table. We invited the mothers (or grandmother or nanny) to stay to make a craft and listen to the Gospel while their children were enjoying VBS. It’s really an amazing ministry as more unsaved ladies came every day! Many solid contacts were made and several promised to come to church on Sunday. Please pray as we follow up with each of these.

Below is a little summary video we put together.  Enjoy!

Thank you so much for your prayers!

By His grace alone,

James & Amy Greenwood

Christmas Banquet

Thank you for praying for the teens’ Christmas banquet. With the help and close supervision of the youth committee, ten teens planned and executed a Christmas banquet in order to raise funds to go to camp. They did a great job preparing and serving the food and raised about 50% of the needed funds!

Praise the Lord for seven unsaved visitors who heard the Gospel! Two indicated they would like to trust Christ. Please pray as we follow up with those.

We are also proud of our oldest son, who accompanied James for their first musical special together! You can see the video here.

Please pray for the teens as well as the children who are going to camp in January, that the Lord would begin to work in each of their lives and hearts even now.

By His grace alone,

James & Amy

2011 Ministry Summary

Summary of 2011

Stateside: We wrapped up a short furlough in February with basically a zero net support gain, maintaining approximately a 91% support average. We held 23 meetings in those 20 weeks, 4 of which were for new support.

Evangelism: We held special evangelistic meetings throughout the year for the church’s one year anniversary, a sacred music concert, monthly ladies’ meetings, monthly youth meetings, and our first missions conference. For evangelism training, we taught the Netcasters course on Wednesday nights. Several folks have made salvation decisions in these meetings and on visitation. Everyone who shows interest receives follow-up by either the pastor or a church member, but only a handful have shown lasting fruit so far.

Discipleship: Our discipleship program continues to be the church’s primary strength. We held two semesters of Sunday discipleship and Saturday youth discipleship as well as 10 weeks of one-on-one with various new believers. The church body has faced several difficulties from within and without. Praise God for wisdom and patience in dealing with these situations.

Training Nationals: There are three men in James’ Thursday night deacons’ training. They have studied three leadership books and have been involved in visitation and new believers’ discipleship. The church will vote on the deacon candidates in January. We are still praying for a pastoral candidate.

Church Building: In September we began a second service to accommodate for growth. Between the two services, the church is averaging 85 in attendance. The Argentines have given almost 50% of the total $20,000 raised for the purchase of property. We continue to search for land in the city center and are also talking with the owners of our current location about the possibility of buying.

Goals for 2012

Following God’s leading, our goals for 2012 are:

· Begin Saturday morning evangelism door-to-door within a 3 mile radius of the church

· Continue small group and one-on-one discipleship

· After the deacons are voted in, continue leadership training as well as visitation times

· Continue to raise funds for the purchase of church property.

Prayer Requests

· A national pastor to take over this church plant

· Wisdom and funds to purchase church property – our rental contract expires in June!

· Spiritual growth and unity within the church body

· Spiritual and physical protection of and provision for our family

Another FIRST…

It seems we’ve been passing so many milestones of “firsts” lately – first anniversary, first deacons in training, and first church wedding, just to name a few. We celebrated another first this weekend – the first quinceñera in our church. In case you are wondering, a quinceñera is a type of “coming out” party for 15 year-old girls in the Latin culture. Traditionally, the party involves much dancing, alcohol, and the father spending way more money than he can afford for the sake of impressing his friends.

This was the first Christian quinceñera for most of our church people to attend and certainly the first to plan for the family of the birthday girl. So, we talked through each aspect of the event to evaluate how it can glorify God in every way. We are thrilled to say that the music, program, dress, and general atmosphere did honor the Lord and glorify His name. Instead of the birthday girl being focused on herself and her wishes, she was more concerned that her unsaved guests hear the Gospel and accept Him as Savior! That is God’s working in her life and the godly influence of her parents! We were also glad to see so many church folks pitch in to help out the family with the preparations and clean-up so the parents could actually enjoy the party too!

James giving a challenge to the birthday girl and the Gospel to the unsaved

Church update:

· Praise the Lord for continued growth. We’ve maintained an average of 85 since November. Anyone who’s had to go to two services to accommodate growth knows it’s not any fun, but certainly worth it! There is no way 85 could fit comfortably in our building.

· Yesterday there were 30 children in children’s church. No, we don’t have a bus ministry and there aren’t even kids who live nearby since we’re in a commercial district. There are just a lot of families bringing their kids, nephews, and nieces. Lauren brought her neighbor friend too. Later, the mom told Lauren that the girl really enjoyed church and that “Lauren’s daddy is a really good singer!”