We want to start out by thanking you for your continued support and prayers. The last two months have been the most unique in our lives and our ministry. However, with the great challenges that we have had to overcome we have had great rewards.
We have had to make adjustments, along with almost everyone else in the world, in the way we do things, and with the Lord’s help and a lot of YouTube videos we have continued on. We are grateful to be living in a time in history that has afforded us the technology to stay connected to family and friends. While we have been social separated we have stayed spiritually connected.
Our church has continued online with weekly services, men’s meetings, ladies meetings, and teens meetings. We have seen the Lord bless the online services. Every week we are having new people form our community and around the world connecting to our services or watching them later during the week. We are reaching more people now with the gospel than we have at any other time. We have even been contacted by families in the community that have let us know of their plans to join us in our regular services when we are able to start meeting again.
One of the the greatest challenges for us is the fact we don’t have our own building. We technically could hold services if we had our own property as long as we maintained the attendance below the government recommendation. However, we are using a public building to meet in and until further notice this building is closed to everyone. Please continue to help us pray for this need. Just before the world wide shutdown for the COVID-19 we had found a property that was ideal in every way, including price. Unfortunately, the building sold before we could raise the funds to make the purchase. We know the Lord knows our needs and we are trusting in HIM. Would you pray with us for this need, and if you would like to send a donation to help purchase property for Iglesia Bautista Gracia you can send your gift to the address listed below; designated Grace Property.
The Bible college has went fully digital and we continue to teach all classes online. It has presented it’s on challenges, but we have seen the Lord bless this as well. Also, we are having a weekly meeting via ZOOM hosted by missionary Jason Holt that has been attended by more than 20 pastors, missionaries, and Bible college students.
Just like you we want to get back to doing ministry “live” and in person, but for now we continue to ask the Lord to help us be creative in how we do ministry, train, and evangelize for his glory and honor. Without a doubt we are learning things that will help us improve how we reach people with the gospel going forward, and will this time will help us appreciate more our weekly in person meetings.
Again, thank you for your prayers and faithfulness always to our Lord and to us. We can not express sufficiently our gratitude. We pray that the Lord will greatly bless you for your faithfulness.
In Christ,
The Smitheys