Thank you so much for your prayers!
I had asked prayer for our March 13th event… but I mixed up the date. We’re actually going to hold it tomorrow, Monday, the 16th. So, there’s still time to pray for a good attendance and for relationships to be deepened and new ones to be formed at El Faro. In case anyone showed up on the 13th, I spent the afternoon at the church working on preparations for the event and enjoying the natural beauty of the property (the above photos). Fortunately, Coronavirus has not broken out in the area, but we are aware of the potential. We’ll be mostly outside and none of the games require being close together, but we would appreciate your prayers for safety and good health. We can take advantage of this opportunity to help prepare people to take wise precautions without panicking. We prepared a fun video promoting the event. 
You could check it out by clicking on the map of where the games will be located on the church property or looking up Iglesia Cristiana El Faro on Facebook. We wanted people to know that, along with having fun, the bathrooms will be clean and the cars supervised since we’ll use a different part of the property so the parking area can be used for games.
In the same vein, please pray for wisdom for the church leaders as to how to respond to the virus and to find creative ways to continue to minister to people without putting anyone at risk.
Please continue to pray for resolution to the conflict in the El Faro church. Thanks so much for praying when I last wrote. The service the following day focused on Communion and God’s desire for unity in His church. The couple was there, but they haven’t been back for the last two weeks. This brings a measure of relief to the situation, but we would still like to see reconciliation. Please pray for the Lord to be working in hearts and for wisdom for the church leadership.
The ladies’ group has maintained the higher attendance. Last week one of the unsaved ladies who has been coming for 3 weeks told me how much she is enjoying studying Jonah and said that each week leaves her hungry to come back for more. That’s encouraging! Please pray for the salvation of the unsaved ladies who are coming and for growth in the lives of the believers. Since schools will be closed March 20-April 20, we need to decide what to do about the group. Normally we don’t meet when school is out, so please pray for our leadership group to make wise decisions as well.
After the meeting, two of the ladies were interviewed by a team here filming at all the TEAM ministries. The article on El Faro might not appear for a couple of years, but I’ll let you know when it’s ready. These ladies also expressed how important the ladies’ group is to them and how they’ve integrated into El Faro. God is at work!
I have one more prayer request to share. On March 3, I took Belkis to the airport for her flight to Seattle, WA. She is staying with some Venezuelan friends and looking into the possibility of seeking asylum. Please pray that the Lord continue to order her steps, and for wisdom in decisions she needs to make, for the provision of the best people to orient her to the process, for free legal counsel, for insurance, for good health, and for provision of all that she needs. At least 6 months will pass before she could have permission to work, so if you’d like to help her out, let me know and I’ll find out how you could do that. Also, if you have any advice to share with her and don’t already know how to communicate directly with her, let me know and I can send her that info and put you in contact. Belkis had a tremendous ministry in El Faro for the 1.5 years that she was here and I’m sure the Lord will make her a blessing while in the US as well.
As always, I’m extremely grateful for your prayers. We need wisdom in a lot of decisions that need to be made. “We can make our plans, but the Lord determines our steps.” (Prov. 16:9, NLT)
May God richly bless you and guide you,
Brenda
