Mission
Newsletter - 2004
Raul and Betty Alvarado
Home Tel: (011)(507)315-0103
Office Tel: (011)(507)232-8833
Home email: alva2122@sinfo.net
P O Box 3003
Balboa, Ancon, Panama
Republic of Panama
http://www.geocities.com/iglesiabal/
Photographs
Beloved brothers and sisters in Christ,
We send you a fraternal greeting, wishing always that The Lord will continue blessing you abundantly.
My family is doing fine, Thank God. Raul Jr. (17) and Isaac (11) both finished the school year with good grades; Raúl is passing on to 12th grade and Isaac to 7th grade. Anayansi (7) is studying in second grade at Rainbow Christian School which follows the traditional school year in Panama that runs from March to December. Betty is working hard as a director and a teacher at our school and continues collaborating with me in the work of the congregation in Curundu.
As always, we thank you for the financial and spiritual support you offer us to carry out the work of God here in Panama. The following, is a report of some of the activities we have accomplished thus far. We will also be presenting future activities that we are planning for the rest of this year.
Accomplished Activities (Jan. - May 2004)
Youth National Convention (Feb. 21-24). One hundred and fifty people met in the city of David, Chiriqui to carry out this activity. Raúl Jr. and Douglas Ponce, who are our youth group leaders in the Church of Christ in Curundu, formed part of the group in charge of organizing this event.
Conferences of the Istmus (Apr. 9-11). Three hundred and fifty members of the Churches of Christ of the metropolitan area participated in this event. This took place in the old U.S. military base chapel located in Clayton. Our guest speaker was brother Pedro Batres from Nicaragua. Our goal for next year is to double the number of attendees.
Restoration of the Church of Christ in El Espino, San Carlos. This community is located 75 miles west of Panama City. The majority of the members were not attending church and the few that were meeting were misled by a pentecostal preacher. Since the month of March, I have been working in this town with two other brothers from the church in Curundu. As result of this work, we have managed to restore 17 brothers in El Espino. The second weekend of each month, I have been visiting the members and also evangelizing in this area. I preach every second Sunday of the month at this congregation. Four men are now functioning as leaders at this congregation.
Married Couples Spiritual Retreat (May 14-15). Twelve couples from the church in Curundu and from El Espino attended this activity. This retreat took place in Corona, at Carlos and Nancy Mack’s house. Corona is about 80 miles west of Panama City. Brother Raye Kramar from Escondido, California presented several lessons on Forgiveness In Marriage.
Mission Trip to Santa Marta, Coclé (May 17-19). Santa Marta is a rural community located in the mountain area, west of the country. We invited brother Raye Kramar to evangelize in this community and to preach at the church in Santa Marta where poor peasants live. We shared the Gospel with the principal and five teachers of the only elementary school in Santa Marta. Two hundred children attend this school. We will continue to share The Word of God with them. The principal has allowed the church to carry out activities with the children and young people of the community at this school. On Monday 17th at 10:00 p.m., we descended to the beautiful river of Santa Marta to baptize a young girl named Yarixa Gonzales. Thank You God!
Bible studies in the homes. We have Bible studies in the homes of non-Christian families every Tuesday and Thursday. Presently, we are studying on Tuesdays with Luis and Mónica Rodriguez and on Thursdays with Luis and Mitzi Nieves. On June 5th, we will begin a series of Bible studies in the homes of two members who live in key points of the city. These two studies will be done on Saturdays at 5:00 p.m. Brother Elio and Serafina Vergara who are collaborating with us in Curundu, will be responsible for one of these Bible studies, and Betty and I will preside in the other class. As a result of our home Bible studies, we baptized Antonio Watson who had more than 20 years listening to the Gospel. Thank You God!
Evangelistic Campaign in Alton, Texas (April 2-7). The brothers in Reynosa invited me to speak. It was a surprise for all that 22 individuals were baptized as a result of the seven messages I preached. May All the Glory be for God!
Curundu Christian School (March-December). We began the school year with 29 students that are distributed within the levels of daycare (5 children), pre-kinder (4), kindergarten (5), first-grade (11) and second-grade (4). Presently, our staff is composed of a principal, four teachers, an assistant, a secretary, a janitor, an accountant, and a part-time nurse and Psychologist. This school year, we have completed the first bimester successfully, and we are looking forward to our mid-year cultural presentation in August and our school fair which will be August 14th. One of our goals for the near future, is to raise funds to build a new school building. The church has the property. We just need the necessary funds to expand. Please keep this goal in mind. Pray for The Lord to open a way for this need to be fulfilled.
Future activities (Jun. - Dec. 2004)
FriendSpeak Program (Jun. 21 - Jul. 9). A group of four teachers from the Church in Escondido, California will come to the city of Panama to teach English with the Bible, using the books of Luke and Acts. Thirty-Eight students will receive 15 hours of English classes each (an hour each, from Monday to Friday, for three weeks). Of the 38 students, two are members of the church; 26 are students of the Specialized University of the Americas (UDELAS) and 12 are residents of the community of Curundu Plain where the church is located. The classes will take place in the Center of Intelligence and Language of the Americas (CILA) which is the Department of English of UDELAS. The main purpose is to win these university students for Christ.
Youngfriend Program (Jul. 27 – Aug. 4). A group of eight brothers (6 adolescents and 2 leading adults) will travel from Rhode Island to Panama City to teach English using the Scriptures. Besides having biblical discussions in English, we will have a Youth Camp the weekend of July 30th – August 1st and also we will carry out other recreational and spiritual activities for the teens. Our goal is to have about 40 youth participating in this activity. Since our emphasis is to preach the Gospel to the non-Christian, the majority of the participants will be teenagers that are not Christians.
XVI National Conference for Women. The ladies of the Churches of Christ in Panama will participate in their 17th annual women conference in August of this year. They are contemplating having this event at the church building in Curundu. Please pray for the guest speakers and for the committee in charge to carry out all plans according to God's will.
Evangelistic Crusade (Aug. 6-8). With the confidence that the biblical classes in English will motivate the participants to know more of the Gospel, we will have an evangelistic campaign the first weekend of August. Our guest speaker will be Pedro Batres from Nicaragua.
The work we are doing in Panama has produced good fruit and we trust that in the next months God will give even more fruit. Please continue praying for my family and I. My prayer is for you to continue collaborating with this good work that is being accomplished in our beautiful nation. We thank you very much for participating with us in extending The Kingdom of God in the Republic of Panama.
In Christ' Love,
Raúl Alvarado
»Back to top |
Germany
Panama
USA
|
