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.