I love the LORD, because he has heard my voice and my pleas for mercy. Because he inclined his ear to me, therefore I will call on him as long as I live.
Psalm 116:1-2
I love the illustration given to us in these first couple verses of Psalm 116. This is not the only Psalm that this is illustrated to us, but God has inclined his ear to hear our prayers. How often do we get distracted and misarrange our priorities to not hear the little voices calling unto us. I know as a father it can be easy to let things distract me and keep me from the little things my kids have to say. I am so very thankful for the Lord who reminds us through example of what it means to not be to busy to stop and listen. There is also great encouragement in knowing that our God is ready to hear us call upon his name. May we not forget to pray.
As many of you have been praying ministries are now moving forward at Iglesia Bautista Biblica Jerovia. We are excited to be working with teams that have a passion for the Word of God and a desire to share the hope of Salvation to those in their community. Working with national partners means that we get to serve in rolls of encouragement and providing some support to those leading the programs. Building up leadership will be important as we move forward in serving the people of Paraguay. We have had a few meetings with ministry teams and are excited for those that God is allowing us to work with.
Abel and Liz are some of those that we will be working alongside in the Kids Club ministry. They have a great love for the Lord and a desire to serve the kids in the community. Part of our role in the program is to support the leadership and to help in training in areas of leadership.
We are excited to work along such a great group of people and to be able to invest into their lives as they prepare for future ministries.
April is fast approaching and some things are happening to move in the direction of local church planting. Will you please begin praying now as April 12th and 13th we will be having missions conference with the focus on Local Church Planting. Our guest speaker from Argentina will be sharing and encouraging the church body in this area. We have started a church planting team (which I will share more about later) and now we are waiting for men who feel called to this ministry to come forward. Please join us in praying for this!
As for the family, things continue to go well. March 13th was Kathleens Birthday, and it was a blessing to be able to spend a couple days celebrating the years God has given her. We even went and grabbed a little dinner at her favorite place in Brazil. The kids continue in homeschooling and twice a week a tutor comes over to help them with Spanish. We are super excited for how they are advancing in the language and using it more and more.
If you know Elijah, you know he can be quite the character. He loves connecting with people and has his own unique way of doing so (mostly, just being silly). There have been lots of cultural lessons along the way, but watching him adapt and grow has been nothing short of a blessing.
His favorite parts of being in Paraguay are 1) knowing that God sent us here, 2) his friend, Ian, and 3) His dogs!
A lot of things are moving forward in ministry and we are excited for what lies ahead. Please continue to pray for 1) hearts to be open to the gospel, 2) our family as we invest into lives, 3) that God would be glorified. We truly are blessed to serve our Lord in this way. Now how can we pray for you?
Jaha Paraguay Pe/ Let’s go to Paraguay!
The Loucks Family
Loucks 2 Paraguay 