What Happened in August!

Newsletter - July 27, 2014

Urgent Need in the Comedor

   Three days per week, Pastor Pablo drives the Su Refugio bus into town and picks up 90-95 children we have identified as not receiving proper nutrition. We bring them out and give them a nourishing meal for their bodies and a spiritual message for their souls.

   A local organization had been contributing food and financial donations but has scaled back their support and we now do not have enough resources to continue at this level. The total cost for this operation, transportation and food, is about $180 per week, or $2 per child – about 67 cents per meal.

   You have an opportunity to make a difference. By contributing just $10/week ($40/month), you can keep five children on this list. 100% of your donation would go to the children – we are covering the overhead and administrative expenses. 

   Although all donations are appreciated, for this need we are really looking for repeating donations, weekly or monthly, for any amount. Include in the Memo or Comment section the word “comedor” and we will make sure your donation goes straight to the comedor!

Do You Know God Like This?

IF YOU are a Follower of Christ, and have not participated in a worship service in another culture and another language, you are missing out on a big part of who God is. It’s one thing to know in your head that God is praised all over the world, in many cultures and different languages, but until you have personally been part of it, you cannot fully understand. There are some things you can only get through personal experience.

This concept of personal experience even applied to Jesus: the bible says…

            seeing the people, He felt compassion for them – Matthew 9:36;

            When He went ashore, He saw a large crowd, and felt compassion for them – Matthew 14:14.

Certainly Jesus knew about the people, but the bible says that when he saw the people, he had compassion for them.

If you are able to see people who do things different from you, eat food you’re not used to, speak a language different than yours, in a different part of the world, giving praise to God the same way you do, it will change the way you understand God. You will see Him as bigger than you could otherwise know. You will see Him as caring for people you never even dreamed about. You will see how small you are. You will see how blessed you are that you can be part of such a large family. And if you are a servant of His, you will know how privileged you are to be chosen to serve.

I have been fortunate enough to see people praise God in six different languages. I have seen preachers fervently preach and teach about God in six languages. I have an appreciation for how vast God is because of these experiences, yet still, with each worship service in another culture, I am amazed at the great size of our God and the impact He is having, at least in the parts of the world I have been able to visit.

My plea to you is simply this: visit another country where the language and culture is different from yours, and attend a worship service. If you do not know the language, by all means go with someone that can translate for you. See the passion of the people as they sing the words that you may not understand, see the enthusiasm of the preacher as he proclaims God’s message and know he is teaching about the same God and the same bible you know, be changed for the better! You will not regret it!

You bought the bins!

Remember our call for donations to buy bins so we could sort and organize the material and supplies that had been donated? Here are some before and after pictures of the material in suitcases, empty boxes, and empty shelves.

WITH YOUR DONATIONS we were able to buy all the bins we needed and Sandy and another “tia” sorted and filtered the donations so now we know what we have and can easily find what we need!

THANK YOU!

Before:

After:

Can Prayer Be Unwanted?

This morning I was reading through Proverbs 28 and verse 9 really stuck out:

            He who turns away his ear from listening to the law,

                        Even his prayer is an abomination. – Proverbs 28:9

I remember where the Bible says husbands that don’t live with their wives in an understanding way can have their prayers hindered (1 Peter 3:7), but here we are told prayers can be an abomination to God. [Abomination: a vile, shameful, or detestable action; hateful beyond belief.]

Who is the person that turns away his ear from listening to the law? This would be someone who knows God’s law, who knows what God desires, yet turns away from these things because it might not be convenient for them. These people are everywhere! I think Solomon is referring not so much to unbelievers, because they don’t generally know God’s law, but to believers – people who call themselves Christians and may even be going to church.

And that is the danger. There are many people who know God’s law but have turned their ears away from His law, looking for something they want to hear.

For the time will come when men will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. – 2 Timothy 4:3-4

 How do you know if you have turned your ear from listening to the law? Don’t look at your heart, for The heart is deceitful above all things and beyond cure (Jeremiah 17:9). Instead, look at your actions, look at how you are living your life. Certainly your actions do nothing for your salvation, but your actions and how you live your life are a reflection of your faith and your belief (faith without works is useless – James 2:20).

The Message translates Proverbs 28:9 like this:

            God has no use for the prayers

                        of the people who won’t listen to him.

Are you listening to God’s word, or have you turned your ear, deciding there are parts of God’s law that just don’t fit into your life at this time? Or are you enjoying the benefits of being a child of God?

Can you afford $6 to buy a plastic bin?

We have received donations of yarn, material and sewing notions, but all of it is still in the suitcases and cardboard boxes they came in. As we develop the Center of Hope, we want to use these items to teach women to sew, knit, cut hair (not with these items, of course!), and other skills to help them support their families.

As you can see, we have a storeroom full of empty shelves. We don’t really want to put suitcases full of material on these shelves; can you imagine trying to find what you want?

We are giving you an opportunity to help (by asking for your direct support). For $6 you can buy a 12-liter plastic bin; for $6.50 you can buy a 20-liter bin; for $8.50 you can buy a larger bin (I don’t remember the size).

This is a 12-liter bin, cost = US $6

This is a 20-liter bin, cost = US $6.50

This is a larger bin, cost = US $8

 

PLEASE, consider buying 1, 2, 3, 5 or 10 bins for us. You send us the money and we will buy the bins! How else can you contribute directly to needs in-the-field?

Since we’re in Paraguay, how can you send us the money? It’s a few keystrokes away (if you want to do it, you can do it – but will you do it?)…

1)   go to www.uwm.org

2)   click on GIVE
you can mail a check to the address shown, or use a credit card…

3)   click on GIVE ONLINE (for credit cards)

4)   under Designation, select Missionary

5)   below Missionary, scroll down and select Stevener, Bill & Sandy – 27668

6)   to the right, in the amount area, enter how much you want to spend on the bins

7)   click “Add” to finish this part of the form

8)   continue to fill out the rest form (name, address, credit card info, etc)

Please send us an email or FB message letting you know how many and what size bins you want to buy.

Thanks!