manna?

Checking in from South America

Posted by Greg

Going well.  On the business side we’ve had meetings with two churches.  The church in Barranquilla (on the Caribbean coast) has a weekly attendance (in 12 services, plus video overflow rooms) of 20,000+ people.  I have been negotiating with them on behalf of the architecture firm I do work for to build a new 5,000+ seat auditorium.  We also flew to Bogota (500 miles to the south) to meet with a church there that has over 40,000 members.  They meet in a converted warehouse with 6,000 seats now, we are discussing building a 12,000 seat arena for them.  Both churches are on television throughout latin america.

Tomorrow I preach seven services for the Barranquilla church.  First one is at 6am, each service lasts 2 hours and the last one starts at 8pm I think.  That’s what they have to do to fit all those people in throughout the day.  Yesterday I was interviewed on their television channel for their daytime tv show.  Please pray for me, as I’ll be praying for manna.

The more I’m here the more I appreciate and miss all of you and what God is doing in our tiny little corner of the world.  We use to think of ourselves as the church and sending missionaries down here.  Both of these churches have missionaries and daughter churches and broadcasts via web back to communities in the USA.  This is a global century.  We at manna? are just a little piece of what God is doing it the world.

I’ve been negligent about taking pictures because I’ve been running around so much.  I ran around the hotel and block around it this morning and took some shots.  You can see them here: http://web.mac.com/senor_juan_valdez/Site/Blog/Blog.html.  I’ll take some more tonight and tomorrow and throw those up as well.

Adios,

Senor Juan Valdez

Comments:

1. Wow!  I can only imagine.  MUCH prayer for our brother, yes?  It strikes me that what Greg is doing is simply a microcosm of God’s grand plan of redemption.  His fame is being spread throughout the earth, as Columbians minister in the US and Americans minister to Columbians.  Who but God could have dreamed this up?  I am also awed by the incredible way in which our Father leverages every detail of our past for His greater purpose.  No mistakes, no accidents, no wasted experiences, no “woulda, coulda, shoulda.” How could anyone have foreseen that our brother would literally be preaching his butt off in Columbia, being used by the Father in a powerful way to reach tens of thousands of people, in a language he does not speak, to a people he does not know, in a setting he is not familiar with, on a trip that was supposed to be about “closing the deal.” And through all this, Greg’s greater good will be served, just as surely as God will receive greater glory.  A taste of this can only leave us thirsting for more.  You go, my man!  We can’t wait to have you collapse in our arms as we welcome you home.  Peace.  Dave

   Posted by  on  05/24  at  10:18 PM