Recap of the Month of August

Dear Supporters,
What a great month August was. I am sad to see it go... We celebrated this month with 6 people that decided to get baptized and dedicate their lives to Jesus! This month was also highlighted by: a missionary trip to the border between Venezuela and Colombia, summer camp for the youth, and a wedding in the church. I will be writing in a little more detail about the summer camp and mission trip in my newsletter for the month of August. We also have an intern that has decided to come on-board full time and work with the church in Cua! He is a Venezuelan college student that has been working with us during the summer and is currently preparing to serve overseas on the mission field. He is going to work with us full time starting in September till help prepare him more for his life of service. I personally am very excited to work with him as he will be greatly needed with the departure of Eric and Sam this next few months. Praise God for providing more workers for the harvest field!
Blessings,
Matt J.

A Season of Change

I imagine that about this time in the US the weather is starting to change again and we move back into the school year. To me this always signaled the beginning of fall which was a wonderful thing because this meant the start of football season as well. However, this post is not about fall, nor school, nor football (perhaps I will comment on the future super bowl champion Chicago Bears in a later post...). One of the integral members of the missionary team we have down here is Sam Schutz. Sam and I have lived together the past year and we do just about everything together. He is the worship leader here in Cua and has developed quite a music ministry his last 2 1/2 years on the field. However, he recently announced he is leaving the field in November to pursue an MDIV degree. That means that he leaves in November and then Eric, our team leader, leaves in May. All of a sudden I feel rather lonely here on the field. The three of us have spent the last year and a half working together on this church plant and I am going to lose both of them over the course of the next nine months. This means many changes for myself. I often times feel I am in over my head here (especially now that they both are leaving), but know that God has called me here for a purpose and will skill me in the areas necessary to finish the job of planting a self-governing, self-supporting, self-propagating church here in Cúa. I appreciate all of your prayers and support as this next year or so will be difficult for me. However, God has done so much just to get me here on the field and allow me to stay that I know deep down this is where he wants me for now. More to come in the next week or so....
Blessings,
Matt J.