Ladies' Class...

I wanted to take a minute to let you know about some exciting changes in the ladies' classes here. As of January, Jose has turned over the responsibility for these classes to me and Friday was the first class of the new year. One of things I talked to the ladies about is serving the community and suggested that we try to find ways to do this together once or twice a month. I asked for ideas on how to do this and at first they didn't have any.

So I mentioned that the clinic up the street has a maternity home where pregnant women who live in hard-to-reach rural areas can come for the final weeks of their pregnancy. I suggested maybe sometimes we could take food or baby items to the ladies there and visit with them. The ladies said they liked that idea so I wrote it down and asked them for suggestions again.

This time, Deyci spoke up. She said she knows of a lady whose husband recently died and the lady has cancer and has several children (she thinks three) and really could use some help. I asked what she thought she needed and she immediately said, "Food." She then said also clothes for the children, but probably mostly right now could use some food. I wanted to run with this idea (strike while the iron is hot and all...) so I asked if anyone was available to help with this plan this weekend. Felicita spoke up and said, "God has blessed me. I can bring a pound of rice and a pound of sugar." And then Deyce said, "God has blessed me, too. I can bring some pasta and some rice and some soap...I'm sure they need soap, too." I told them I'd bring some food, too, and we set a time for 3:00 today to meet up and go take the food items. (I brought a flat of eggs and some beans, in case you're interested.)

We met today and took the food with the plan of praying with Cecilia, the mom, while we were there. Unfortunately, she wasn't home, but two of her young boys were, and her brother-in-law was there watching them. We left the items with him and told him we were from the church and we'd like to come back and visit later. He seemed very grateful and the boys seemed excited about the food. We're going to try to go back on Tuesday and visit with Cecilia.

But what I want to point out is that these women who took the food with me today are not in good financial situations themselves. Most of us in the United States would consider them to be poor. But these are beautiful women who love God and realize that there's so much more to blessings than how much material goods we accumulate. The fact that they could answer, "God has blessed me..." and then go on to say what they could contribute was so powerful for me to witness. What a lesson we can learn from their generosity.

Please be in prayer for the ladies here as we endeavor to find more ways to serve God and also for Cecilia as we try to reach out to her and her family and help them.