December Baptisms

Hermana Julia is 86 years old, and insisted she be baptized before she goes to Heaven. It was a big blessing to see her obedient heart. Steve led her to the Lord about 2 years ago. Before that, when you visited her house, you would see all of the Catholic icons in her home. After salvation, she got rid of them.

This is Wilfredo, who was brought to church by his friend Santiago. Both men are in the middle of the discipleship series right now.

This is Hollanda. She was saved about a year ago. She recently completed the discipleship series and faithfully attends our Ladies Bible Study.

Christine led Cristian to the Lord last October and he was very excited to get baptized, following the examples of his parents and older brothers. He is one of those kids that is always ready to answer all of the review questions after a lesson in Sunday School.

Here is Steve with four of the five that were baptized (and Caleb, who decided he should be in the picture too).

Preacher "boys"

Wiliam Cuellar is preaching his first message. This was a very exciting day for us, to see our "preacher boys" behind the pulpit for the first time.

Gustavo also preached for the first time last Sunday. Although he is a soft spoken man, he did an excellent job his first time preaching.

November Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

We would like to start our letter by thanking you for your prayers. Rosa is thriving in school, and we are amazed at how well her Spanish has developed over the past three months. Although she is half Salvadoran, she definitely stands out at school because of her excellent English, her light skin tone, and her height. She enjoys being called the “new kid” at school.

Caleb had his second birthday last month. Many of you may remember that Caleb was almost born on the same day of our first church service. We had our first service at Misión Bautista Central at 4 in the afternoon, and Christine gave birth to Caleb a little after midnight. October is a special month for our family and our ministry.

Christine’s pregnancy is going very smoothly. We ask you to pray for the birth of our third baby in early April of next year. The baby will be born here in El Salvador. Obviously, the experience is very different from the States. Christine knows what to expect this time around, since Caleb was born here also. Please pray for a healthy baby, and for Christine.

Since we just celebrated the two year anniversary of the church, we have been reminiscing over the first two years. We are so grateful for all the new people God has brought to our church, and for the strong foundation that is being laid through discipleship and other teaching. Our Ladies Bible study has been in session for three months now. We started with three faithful ladies. Now, we have six ladies coming. We are excited about the growth, the sweet spirit the ladies have, and for their eagerness to learn. Please pray for Christine as she studies and prepares lessons to share with them.

The men have a prayer service each Wednesday. The attendance to that meeting has more than doubled, as has the attendance to Saturday Soul-winning. We have some good faithful men that are starting to learn to preach in the month of November. Please pray for Wiliam and Gustavo as they begin to write sermons. Pray that they will always rely on God to share His Word with others.

We have been sharing the story of Marlon Escobar with you. His brother Mauricio has been saved and baptized, as has his girlfriend Dora. We are excited to tell you that they got married. Steve was one of the witnesses to the ceremony on Friday, October 22. Mauricio is excited to start serving in the church any way now that he is married. Marlon´s wife, Carla, has begun discipleship lessons with Christine. We are very happy about this because it has taken her about three months to finally make this decision. She also attended her first Ladies Bible Study this week. We are thrilled with the way God is working in this family.

Still speaking of the Escobar Family, we have more good news to share. Marlon and Mauricio’s father accepted Christ as his Savior last Saturday. This was certainly a result of the change he has seen in his son’s lives. He has also begun the discipleship lessons. Out of seven adults that live in that home, we have reached and are discipling five of them. Praise God for his power to change lives. Please continue to keep the Escobar family in your prayers. Pray that they will continue to grow spiritually.

We thank you again for your prayers and faithful support. Have a wonderful Christmas.

Yours in Christ,
The Cernas

Mauricio and Dora's Wedding Day!

This is Mauricio's mom, Mauricio, and Dora, on the day of their wedding. They are waiting outside of the courthouse.

Here is Steve with Mauricio and Marlon. Steve found Marlon while door-knocking last December. Since then, almost all of his family has come to know Christ as Savior.

Steve, Mauricio, Dora, and Dora's friend, Vanessa. Steve and Vanessa were the witnesses.

Dora, signing the certificate.

Happily Married! Pray as we help teach this young couple (he's 24, she's 20) learn how to trust in God for a happy marriage. Pray for their two young children also, named Natali and Esteven.

King David is crowned

My sister sends me craft supplies every once in a while. She happened to send very fancy "jewels" recently, which turned out to be perfect for making crowns when we studied about David becoming king. I can't tell you how excited the kids were to make these crowns. If anyone wants to send us something, some craft supplies are always a good idea!

This is Nati, Dora and Mauricio's oldest child.

This is Michele, Marlon's oldest.

This is Cristian, the son of one of our most faithful families, the Cuellars.

Mauricio and Dora

This is Mauricio, and his girlfriend Dora. For those of you that have been following our prayer letters, you will be happy to know that this is Marlon's brother! Marlon has had such a changed life, that his brother has positively been affected.
They were baptized two weeks ago. We are excited that they are getting married within the next few weeks, and are faithfully bringing their children to church. They really want to do what is right and we are enjoying teaching them what we can.
Christine is discipling Dora, and they have completed 7 lessons so far. Steve has completed 6 lessons so far with Mauricio.

September Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

It is an exciting time to be writing a prayer letter. The Lord has done so much in people’s lives since we last wrote. More people are taking steps to grow in their faith, and God is allowing us to develop various areas of the ministry. On a personal level, our family is very thrilled about some new developments.

In our last letter, we wrote about Marlon Escobar. He was saved in December of last year. Thank you for praying for him. He was baptized two months ago, and is now starting to get more involved in the ministry. Also, his brother Mauricio has been coming to church with his girlfriend Dora. He expressed to us the desire to let God order his life. If the Lord permits Mauricio and Dora, who have two small children, will get married in our church this month. Mauricio also has started discipleship lessons with Steve. Please pray for the continued spiritual growth of these two brothers, and that we would be able to reach more of their family.

About 2 months ago, a young man named Santiago was led to the Lord. He has been studying the discipleship lessons for over a month now, and his spiritual growth has been evident. By God’s grace, Santiago was baptized this past Sunday, and he has expressed a desire to learn how to lead people to Christ. Please pray for his spiritual growth.

It is exciting to see how God is answering prayers in both the men’s and women’s ministries. Every Wednesday evening, the men of the church get together to pray. We thank God that the group of men that get together to pray is steadily growing. This is strengthening the group’s faith since we are seeing answers to prayer on a regular basis. If the Lord permits, it is our desire to start a Bible institute next year, so that these men could be trained further to serve the Lord. Also, Christine has started a Bible study with some of the women of the church. Every first and third Tuesday of every month, Christine teaches the ladies about marriage and motherhood from a Biblical perspective. We pray that the Lord would continue to touch the hearts of the men and women of the church to fulfill God’s will for their lives.

Thank you so much for your faithful prayers and support. One burden that God has placed on our hearts since the beginning has to do with the development of world missions in El Salvador. God has already used El Salvador in a great way when it comes to world missions. We believe that so much more could be done. With the Lord’s help, we are trying to foster a heart for world missions in our church, and believe God will allow us to eventually train and send missionaries. Currently, we are helping to support nine Salvadoran missionary families on a monthly basis. Some live in El Salvador, and some are in Europe and Asia. We are currently helping to support a Salvadoran Baptist church planter in Romania. There is no doubt in our minds that if we continue to be faithful to the Lord, that He will eventually raise up many more missionary families from El Salvador to different parts of the world. Obviously, your faithful prayers and support are going a long way in making this vision a reality.

Finally, we are thankful to God for giving us a new baby. Christine is two months pregnant. Please pray for us as we prepare for this new addition. Rosa is excited about having a new sibling. Her first reaction to the news was: “Are you serious?” Please pray for our little girl as she started Kindergarten in a Christian school three weeks ago. Caleb is growing, and can pretty much say anything he wants to say. God has kept us healthy over the past few months. May the Lord greatly bless you.

July Baptism Celebration

The previous post (July prayer letter) mentioned that Marlon would be baptized soon. He was baptized last Sunday.

This is Marlon and Carla's little boy, Anthony, that has kidney failure. Please keep him your prayers.

July Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

We greet you from soggy El Salvador. We are in the middle of rainy season as we write to you. The upside of rainy season is the cooler weather we get to enjoy. The downside is that everything stays wet! Everything from our laundry, to our church that does not have a roof over the entire building! But we are also grateful that we are in the city, where the main roads are paved and we can still get around fairly well.

Last Monday, we invited Marlon Escobar and his family to our house for dinner. You may remember Marlon from our last prayer letter. His wife, Carla, was saved a few months back through another ministry in the capitol city. They have two children, Jamy and Anthony. Their little boy Anthony is two years old. He suffers from kidney failure and has had serious health struggles throughout his little life. While this is very sad, we are grateful that this trial is what God has used to bring this family to Him. Please pray for the health of Anthony Escobar.

We had a very nice time at our dinner. We talked about the struggles and joys of parenting, and we also shared testimonies. It looks like Carla will begin discipleship with Christine in the near future, while Marlon just finished the course and is now learning how to soul-win. Our prayer request is that this family will grow in the things of God and see His hand in their lives.

This story gets even better! Marlon and Carla live with many family members, as is quite normal in El Salvador. Besides Marlon’s family, Marlon’s brother has a wife and two children that live under the same roof. Also, Marlon’s parents share the same house. We have the opportunity to minister to this entire family. We are grateful that three other family members have come to church on different occasions. Please pray for us as we try to reach the rest of Marlon’s family.

We wanted to share with you that we had another Youth Activity a few weeks ago. It went well, and we ask you to continue to pray for us as we try to reach the teenagers of El Salvador. There are so many things pulling teenagers away from God, that it is not an easy ministry. But we will not give up, being fueled by your prayers and God’s power.

We are planning another baptismal service in the next few weeks, and we are praying that we will see Marlon get baptized. Also, a lady named Holanda has the need to get baptized. Christine is discipling her and spoke with her about baptism. She feels she “needs more time” and did not want to get baptized last time she had the opportunity. We ask you to pray that Marlon and Holanda will see the need to be baptized. We hope that in our next prayer letter, we can tell you that they have both been baptized!

Thank you again for your prayers for us. Thank you for praying for the people we are ministering to. Please uplift the Escobar family in prayer, and pray for their son’s health. Continue to pray for our Youth Group, that God will give us wisdom in ministering to the teens. Also pray for our upcoming baptismal service, that recent converts will take the next step in their spiritual walk. And as always, please uplift our family in prayer. Please pray God will keep all four of us strong, physically and spiritually.

The Cerna Family

The past month of ministry

We had a visitor this month, he is pictured here with our family. Scott took all of these pictures you are about to see of our ministry over the past month. He took pictures of things that I take for granted, since I see them everyday. I am glad that I get to share these with you.

This sticker is very common to see on front doors. It says "We are missionaries with Christ and Mary." El Salvador is still a very Catholic country.

And here is another proclamation of faithfulness to Mary.

Steve, out soul-winning. Every front door has a "porton" in front of it, which is a door of bars. This door is very important to protect your home from being robbed in a crime-soaked country. It adds a level of security.

In the front of this group, you can see Wiliam and Mareleny. They are some of our faithful members. Wiliam is now discipling another man named Israel.

Juan Carlos, part of our soul winning group from San Miguel, is witnessing to the tortilla lady. In front of her is the big bowl of corn dough that she is frying into corn tortillas. This is probably the most common food here.

Stevito, out soul winning with Uncle Steve. He is a fearless soul winner, and frequently leads more adults to Christ than anyone else in our group.

Our most faithful teenager, Jose Luis. He is also Caleb's best friend :)

The man with his head turned is Israel, who is being discipled by Wiliam.

Our Sunday kids class is rather small, but mighty! These kids have each memorized 10 verses and are getting ready to memorize a second batch of 10 verses. This Sunday we have a party to celebrate their accomplishment.

The lady with the pink shirt is named Tita. She has completed the discipleship lessons, and is now starting to disciple a new convert in the next week with Christine.

A home along the railroad tracks. This property is owned by the government. Since the railroad does not run on these tracks anymore, it has become home to thousands of poor and homeless. They construct homes out of whatever materials they can find.

This is one of those families. Notice the bed springs that the girl has her hand resting on? It is very common to see these acting as a fence around the shacks. This family comes to our church. The children that come are Miguel, Pablo, and Morenita. The mother, pictured in the background, is named Morena.

Baptisms of Ronald, Victor, and Sofia

Missions Conference Pictures

Singing about Missions. This is a view from the side of the main room where the adults meet. We are praying we can find a bigger building in the near future. We are usually over-flowing with people on Saturdays. Our Sunday services are not usually as full.Monica, Pimpo and Estevito, along with Rosa and Caleb. They are standing outside of our church building (which is actually a house that we rent).

The banner says "Hasta lo ultimo de la tierra" , which means "Unto the uttermost part of the earth" This is about 15 minutes into the service...people were still trickling in. That's how it is here! Everybody is usually in place by the time the preaching starts.

Christine and Steve, with our guest missionary, Luis Castro, and his wife and daughter.

Steve Cerna and Luis Castro, who was a missionary in Mexico for 15 years. He now serves here in El Salvador. Steve learns so much from him, he has so much experience with church planting.

Some of our "bus kids". It took me five tries to get theses boys all smiling and looking at the camera. I made it very silly, acting crazy to get them to look at me...it finally worked. These four boys are the most energetic of all the kids who come. Pablo, Denis, Kevin, and Malaquias.

April Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

It is a great pleasure to be able to share the many blessings the Lord has bestowed upon us lately. Although we have been tempted to be discouraged, God continues to manifest His love toward us. Over the past few months there were two activities that have really encouraged us, God is opening doors as we go door-knocking, and our family has been strengthened.

Last month, we were able to have our first missions conference. It was the first time Steve taught faith promise to the church members. As a result of the conference, the church has committed to give $70.00 per month to missions. This is a huge blessing considering the current size of the church, and the economic struggles of many of the members. In fact, the church has started supporting its first missionary with $50.00 per month. Please pray that the church would continue to be excited about missions. We are excited about these developments, and have no doubt that God will allow us to eventually take on many more missionaries.

Just last week we had another teen activity. We took the boys of our church to play soccer and to eat dinner. Ten kids showed up for the activity. It is a blessing to see some teens being more faithful. One of our faithful teens (José Luis Alabí) taught Sunday school for two weeks, and is very involved in our door-knocking ministry. Please pray that God would use us to impact the lives of more teens.

We are excited about the door God has opened us through door-knocking. Originally, the goal was to knock on the doors of 25% of the city twice this year. However, after the first three months of the year, things have gone so well that now we will attempt to knock on 90-100% of the doors of the city this year. This is an ambitious task, seeing that there are only about five door-knockers in the church, and it is a city of about 400,000 people. Nevertheless, in God’s strength, we believe that it can be done. Eventually, the experience will lay a good foundation for training workers, and for knocking on all the doors of the city several times per year.

The Lord has blessed our efforts. People have been coming to church from different areas of the city. Just recently we led a young man (Marlon Escobar) to Christ at the door of his home. Shortly after receiving Christ, he quit playing rock music in a band, married the woman he was living with, and started the discipleship course with Steve. He has been coming to church over the past month. Please pray for Marlon as he continues to learn about God, and mature. There is no doubt in our hearts that there are many more Marlons throughout the city, and that God will lead us to them.

Rosa has the same passion for souls as her Daddy. Before going door-knocking with Steve this past week, she announced that she planned on winning four souls for Christ. Rosa isn’t quite fluent in Spanish to do this, but the desire is certainly there. We believe that in a few years, she will be Steve’s favorite soul-winning partner.

Caleb has shown us what a difference there is in raising a boy. He keeps us quite busy pulling him down from tables, chairs, steps, and anything else he can climb. He is not quite as outgoing as Rosa, and prefers to be with his Mommy. That is, unless there is something to climb nearby!

Continue to pray that God gives us His direction in our ministry and our family. We ask you to pray for the developing teen ministry, door-knocking efforts, and for God to lead us to more men like Marlon. We also ask you to pray that our marriage will continue to be strong, and for discernment and wisdom raising Rosa and Caleb.

Yours For Christ,
The Cernas

February Prayer Letter

Dear Praying Friends,

We hope and pray that you have had a blessed start to 2010. It is an exciting year for us for many reasons. Despite the trials that Satan tries to discourage us with, we continue onward, with as much focus and intensity as ever.

One of the greatest challenges that we face this year is bridging the gap between evangelism and discipleship. By God´s grace we have gotten the opportunity to disciple several people during the past couple of years. However, most of the people that we’ve discipled were led to the Lord elsewhere. In order to be able to disciple more of those that we lead to the Lord, God has impressed upon our hearts to improve follow-up. Over the past two months we have been sending letters and visiting every week those that have been led to Christ. We also pray for these prospects every day. Please pray that, eventually, many of those that have been led to the Lord will receive discipleship.

Another great challenge that we face this year is with the youth. Thankfully, we had a teen camp two months ago, and our young people were challenged to live for God. Please pray for Ronald Figueroa, José Luís Alabí, and Victor Asencio. These young men are being discipled by Steve, and they have been faithful to attend church over the past few months. Mormonism is very active here in El Salvador, and this cult has been targeting teenagers aggressively over the past few years. It is sad to see how many teenagers have fallen prey to this false system. Please pray that we can minister to the youth, so that they would not be deceived by a cult.
We are confident that if we continue to trust in the Lord and work hard, God will eventually give us a strong youth group. In the future, we plan on having more activities with the youth, and even a youth service. For all of this, there is a great need for God´s wisdom. Brother William Cuellar just recently got married, and God is developing a greater burden in him for the youth. Please pray that God would give us more laborers that will be involved with the youth.

If the Lord permits, March 6th and 7th are the dates of our 1st annual missions conference. As a church, it is our goal to be able to support one missionary family on a monthly basis. Even though, at the moment, we are a small church, there is no doubt in our minds that God will start using us to support missionaries. We pray that over the course of time, the church will not only be able to support missionaries, but to train and send them as well. For the conference, we’ve invited Pastor Luis Castro, who was a missionary to Mexico for 16 years. Please pray that our hearts would be challenged to participate in missions in a great way.

We are thankful for your prayers for our family. As some of you know, Rosa broke her arm on New Year’s Day. That was quite a difficult day for her (and for us also). It was actually good that Christine broke her foot last October, because Rosa was not quite as scared of the visit to the hospital and the placement of the cast. She recently saw all of this happen to her mom. That certainly helped ease a difficult day for Rosa. Even with a cast, she was still a bundle of energy that only runs on one speed- full blast! Her broken arm did not slowed her down at all. In fact, Christine continuously reminded her that her arm was broken and she needed to slow down.
Caleb is talking a lot for his age, thanks to a talkative sister that helps him learn how to speak. He has been healthy and we are grateful. He is starting to be more fun for Rosa since he can actually play with her now. We enjoy watching them together. As always, we ask you to pray for our children’s health. We also ask that you pray God gives us continual wisdom to raise them properly. It is a daily challenge that can only be met with God’s help.

Thank you for your prayers. We are able to minister in El Salvador because of your giving and your praying.

The Cernas

Youth Group Ice Cream Sundaes and Game Night

We invited the teens of our church to make Ice Cream Sundaes and play games at our house after church Sunday. They thoroughly enjoyed the huge bowls of ice cream I dished up. They couldn't believe all the good stuff we had to put on top...it was a real treat for them. Afterwards, they got into a serious game of UNO. We feel that the night was a big success, drawing our small group of teens even closer to each other. Pray they will grow in God's grace and become great leaders in the church one day.