The year is flying by with summer around the corner. So much has happened since our last letter. Around mid-March we celebrated an annual event at our church, the Kite Festival. This year we asked each family to decorate a kite in a way that best represented their family. The people loved the idea and almost every family in the church had their kite ready to fly after the church service. It was a wonderful occasion marked with food and, as you can imagine, smiles and laughs in abundance.
Beginning the first week of April, our church held a week of concerted prayer. We asked as many as would be willing to commit to praying each day for the concerns of our congregation. That event also coincided with Easter week. On Good Friday the church building was filled in anticipation of a concert by a well-know Christian singer. To our dismay, at the last minute, the guest singer canceled due to a death in the family. A substitute singer was contacted who did a beautiful job. The evening turned out great. Two days later, Easter Sunday, we held another annual event, Easter sunrise service. Later that morning, our church choir presented an Easter cantata. This year for the first time ever, someone other than me organized and conducted the choir. I was delighted to see someone take the initiative. Twelve of our finest participated in the cantata.
On to May; May 6 we enjoyed the music of a men's trio. They were marvelous! They played guitars and sang far beyond our expectations. The congregation was delighted. We had over ninety in attendance. The following Sunday was Mother’s Day, always an important event in our church, as it is across the island. Over one-hundred were present for the occasion. Gifts were parceled out to every mother and special music, a special message and a special dinner was prepared and served by the men.
For the last ten days, Dr. John Ketchen, president of our mission, and his wife Marsha visited with us. We had a wonderful time and appreciated their encouragement.
Since we last wrote, two of our church families have moved to the States. A part of our heart went with each of them. They are deeply loved and will be missed. One family moved to MO and the other to TX. Even though we miss them the Lord has already brought others our way. I am always amazed at the dynamic nature of the church; always changing and evolving. In spite of their departure the attendance holds steady and continues to creep forward.
Three weeks ago we began a step forward in improving our worship service. Each Friday the musicians meet for practice. New songs, new arrangements, and harmony among the singers are the goals.
Well, I am out of space once again. So MANY details have been skipped over. However these headlines will help update you somewhat. Thanks for your interest in this work.
Johnathan and Mary Reece
Cross-cultural ministers to Puerto Rico
3 comments:
Johnathan & Mary, I wandered around the blog site, and it seems to work very well. Lots of good photos! Nice format. Good layout. I'm excited to see how it develops.
This is very nice! Thank you for continuing to include me in your emails. It is good to see that the church is prospering!
Omar
Hello everyone! We miss you all very much and it's so fun to receive your email updates with all the wonderful pictures of "old" friends. We hope to visit you all soon! I wish we would have known you guys (Mary & John) were in Michigan a couple weeks ago, we would have tried to see you! God bless you all, and hopely we'll see you soon! Love ya!
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