Prayer Meeting with Friends

With relaxed regulations for meetings and with recently renewed interest, Steph and I felt it was time to try for a prayer meeting again. We have always tried to have our own mid-week meeting with just our family in which we sing English songs, but last night was all in Spanish.

We invited Fernando’s, Rafael’s, Percy’s, and Alicia for a 7:30 time of singing and prayer with a snack to follow. Fernando had Esmeralda call me in the afternoon to say they could not come. She was upset.

“I don’t know why we can’t come.” She said.”Yes, I do. It’s because Fernando said no, but I don’t know why. He says it’s too late at night, but I don’t know.”

I expressed my disappointment. “Fernando said we will be there this Sunday morning. And he says we will bring lunch and stay for the afternoon. A ver. We will see.”

She sounded pretty frustrated. She has been wanting to come for weeks, but Fernando always has people over for Sunday lunch, and she must cook for him and entertain the guests.

On Tuesday, Esmeralda went with Steph to Conchacalla to help with Walter’s vaccines. While they were together, she asked Steph how she could be baptized as a believer into the church. She wants to learn. She is nearly ready to make the step, we feel.

Keep praying for Esmeralda and for Fernando. The devil is working hard to keep them out of the kingdom.

We were blessed to meet with Percy’s, Rafael’s, and Alicia. We sang for just over an hour, then I shared a few thoughts from Colossians 1 on the power of the Gospel.

Elisabet requested that we pray for her and Rafael and all of us that we would be shown what is right and what is wrong. She said they want to follow God because they love Him, but the bad things of this world keep getting in the way. She asked for God’s protection from el mal de este mundo, the evil of this world.

Alicia gave her testimony of how Jesus has been searching for her. She said she was kilómetros y kilómetros lejos del Señor, far, far away from the Lord, but He came searching for her. She said it is the most marvelous life to know the Lord.

Her request was that God would permit us to meet again next week to sing praises to Him. And she begged repeatedly that the others would come again. She also thanked me for picking her up and taking her home, as she cannot drive.

I requested prayer for Peter and Maryann whose first flight to Peru is today. We are thrilled that all of their paperwork is in place, that God allowed a new Peruvian President to be installed in time, and that all looks clear for their arrival.

I then prayed. Everyone else prayed along with me in quiet voices. And after prayer, we had popcorn and brownies and talked. It was a beautiful evening.

Lucrecia and Alicia washed dishes and put the kitchen in order after snack. Alicia was telling her they must meet every week here. They seemed happy to consider coming again.

Rafael and I chatted afterward. He was fussing about my not having a jacket on and made me leave the room to put on my poncho. He almost wouldn’t let me take Alicia home, but agreed then. He plans to go with me to Cusco to collect Peter and Maryann. He’s a dear friend to me.

He and Percy said they want to come some evening to play 10,000 together. I told Percy Rafael loves to play, even though he can’t win, which made Percy laugh and Rafael splutter. Maybe we can have a social evening soon.