My apologies for a delayed post. We have been rather busy.
Caleb’s began making plans a couple of months ago to move to the house of Percy and Lucrecia’s. We have been having services there in the main floor for months now. The rest of the house wasn’t used, so Caleb asked to be able to rent it.
It is an adobe brick house that is quite a lot smaller than what they were in, but it has a few things that tick boxes Caleb was wanting to check. He has been wanting to be more in a neighborhood surrounded by people they can interact with as well as being in a house that is closer to the style of their neighbors.
They did do some few repairs on the place, and we were able to help with a few. We also helped them move some. The move was a bit different because they can only fit a fraction of their things at the new place, so they had to make some minimalism choices.
Having them there has already made things a bit easier with taking care of the church location. I was over one evening this week to clean out the room and paint the floor, for example.
With regard to Esmeralda, she has continued to come faithfully, but she had not yet left Fernando’s. She said she wanted to try to do everything she could to keep peace with Fernando by caring for the farm and taking care of the household duties and so on.
But it’s not working. His abuse has gotten worse, and the last couple services, he has refused for María Gracia to come to church, blocking the door so she can’t go out. This week, he went through the house and broke anything he could find that related to Christianity, ruining some of Esmeralda’s things. He also took Christian books and María Gracia’s Bible and threw it in the muddy ditch and ruined them.
He says that today he will go and sue me and Esmeralda for trying to brainwash María Gracia and also for Esmeralda trying to kidnap her. He says that I have a plan to steal his land by getting Esmeralda to be part of our church.
So, Esmeralda feels she simply has to leave today. We don’t know where she will go, but we plan to help find a place. We suggested the small house where Caleb’s were, but she thinks that would only anger Fernando more.
We had a good time of prayer together last night with our families, Esmeralda, and Percy’s. We are ready to face whatever God permits the enemy to bring against us though our bodies shrink from the suffering.
Please pray for Esmeralda and for us today.
Juan David 