Prayer Blessings Week Three

This week has been filled with much spiritual warfare, but God has been so good.  We have come through the week victorious over satan and all the things that he has thrown in our direction.   Why? Because God is the victor and He has conquered death and sin.   

Our week leading up to Easter was filled with much anticipation and expectancy.   We knew that God was going to do a work and He did.  The thing is that He didn't do it in the way that we expected and I am so glad.  God has a specific plan and agenda and it is His will that we bring glory to Him!  So today it is my goal and aim to bring glory to God.

For the past few weeks, we have been praying specifically for 7 different people to attend church on Easter Sunday.  Out of those 7 five said that they would be coming to church.  One by one these people started declining and only 1 out of the 7 came yesterday.  This may seem very discouraging and it was for a moment, but God who is rich in mercy had other plans yesterday.  There are times when it is the person that makes the clear choice to reject and there are other times when circumstances like sickness happen to intervene.  We are continuing to pray for these to come to Christ, and it may just be that God will use a different avenue than what we expected.  The great thing is that He is God, He has a great plan, and He is a great Savior!  We are resting in that today.

Praise Report:  

• We had our highest attendance yesterday in the life of the church.  To us, the only reason this is significant is that more people were able to hear about our Savior.  We do not go by numbers to record what God is doing, but the hearts and lives that He changes because of His Word going forth.  

• 9 people trusted Christ as Savior yesterday.  17 people raised their hands saying that they needed Christ, but we only know of 9 that professed.  We are praying for the 8 that know of their need to turn to Christ.  

• 4 people were baptized yesterday.  It was a great ending to an Easter service!

• Over the past week, we have been praying for workers in the church.  There were so many ministries that were in need of workers to keep things running smoothly.  We are outgrowing many of our ministries, and so I had it on my heart to pray for 10 new workers.  This week God provided 10!  He also provided extra workers for the Easter service so that our nurseries would have enough staff.  God blessed abundantly and we are so grateful.  

• We also found out this week that there will be 250 pastors coming to the Pastors Conference in Zambia.  This number keeps on growing and for that we are thankful.  Now we are praying that God will provide the funds needed so these pastors can come.   We need an extra $5,000 for these pastors.  The eternal reward far surpasses the monetary value.  We know that God will use this conference in a mighty way to reach Zambia and the Congo for Christ.  

• We have over 200 miles of prayer recorded and are asking for more.  We know that God answers prayer and because of that we will not give up praying!  Please consider joining us in prayer.  There are horrible things going on in our world, but God wants to bring Himself glory in the midst of these things.  He wants to overcome the world and I believe that He will show us Himself more than ever before during these last days!  

Today we are praising the Lord for what He has done, and in the words of my husband, "may the power of Easter shape today, tomorrow, and the next in each of our lives."

Much love,

Valerie