Dear
friends and family,
“…Open your mouth wide and I will fill it.” Psalm 81:10 NASB
This past week I have been reading the
biography of George Muller again. It never ceases to amaze me the courage this
man of God had to face such huge obstacles with prayer. The verse above is one
that is quoted as being an inspiration for him as he started off on the quest
to build the first of many orphanages started by him. The question remains, “Are we opening our mouths wide to be fed by
God or are we trying to feed ourselves with our own hands?” Too many times
even in ministry, I have found myself trying to “feed myself and ministry” in
my own strength. That only leads to eventual starvation. Only when we take
steps of faith centered on what God desires for us, can we have the refreshing,
nourishing, wonderful and fulfilling experience of being feed by His hand.
Our January Camps were very blessed. We had around
45 kids and teens each week. It was one of the rainiest Januaries we ever had
here which made activities extra challenging to manage, yet God blessed us with
new ideas and with nice weather at the right moments. We also had eleven
Students for our five day Adventure Program Training and six students for our
one month Camp Retreat Leadership Program.
The road for Campsite
#2 is opened! What a big blessing and an exciting happening for us. First we bushwhacked
through the brush to pen a trail then we were able to rent a bulldozer to do
the initial clearing and then a scraper from the City Hall came to do the
finishing. The new road is about 400 yards long. We wanted to be a little ahead
on the construction but we had many weekend church retreats on the last months
of 2015 which were wonderful. The next step is to begin construction of our
first building and take electricity and water to this new facility.
During their summer vacation the boys did a lot
of work around the house. I would like to say they offered their services
voluntarily but a little persuasion was needed to get them going… They got a
cemented area done for our picnic table and one to park the car. Telma did an
awesome job keeping them busy. I told her that if she was in charge of building
the pyramids, I bet we would have twice as many of them today! HAHAHA!
My father, who is in charge of the training
department of Victoria Ministries and a big chunk of the financial and
reservation departments had to do radiation treatment for prostate cancer for
two months (November and December) in a town 4 hours away. He is all done with
that and is now waiting to do further testing in two months to see how his PSA
levels are doing.
For February we will be having our Carnival
Camp for a Church in Uberlandia. One hundred and twenty young people are
expected to come.
Please pray for:
-the clearing of the first construction site
of Camp #2.
-more staff.
-for my dad, that God may heal him.
-thanks for all the blessings during
January Camps
and
training.
God bless you!
Your
Friends,
Marcos,
Telma and the boys!
