La Marcha de Victoria

Last weekend, we had our first "Marcha de Victoria" - Victory March! A couple months ago, God laid this burden on our pastor's heart - that our church would march through the streets of our neighborhood with music, candy, balloons, inviting everyone to "come and worship the Lord with us!" For the past month or so we have been preparing - getting signs made, making fliers, drawing up a map of our colonia to show people where our church is, praying, and transferring this vision into the hearts of our people. We invited Elder Wakefield's church to march with us. Twenty-two people from his church showed up! Their group along with our church made for quite the exciting, Holy Ghost march! 

The day started out with a bit of hitch - the banner that we had ordered was done wrong. In Spanish the verse translates into "I will rejoice with those that say to me, we will go to the house of the Lord". Instead of that, the sign read "I will rejoice with those that deserved it, we will go to the house of the Lord". Oh my word! Really?! The words "me decian" (they told me) and "merecian" (deserved) are very close...

...fortunately so!! With a little Sharpie and white-out we got the problem fixed. 

Every Sunday we go out on outreach right before Sunday school. We mount a speaker on top of the van and drive through the streets announcing that Sunday school is about to start. This Sunday was no different, except for the fact that these little guys got permission from their mom to ride to the church in the van with the outreach team! 

Beatriz and Nicole

While we waited for the the time to start our march, we gathered in the front patio of the church to sing and get our vocal chords warmed up for the march. 

These are the guys that marched in front holding the banner. 

A bunch of kids showed up early so they could march with us. (Instead of us picking them up as we marched past their houses.)

What could have turned out to be a very hot and tiring day for this little guy turned into a very fun one! He has a smart little mama :)

These two ladies wanted to participate but couldn't walk the route. Instead, they rode in the van with the chauffeur - Mom. I checked on them halfway through the march and they were sitting back there smiling and clapping their hands along with the music! 

Paulina and Miguel Angel

When we arrived back at the church there were refreshments for everyone. 

We pretty much went right into the church and got started with the service. Abner started it out by reading a few verses. (Look at all those kids! The first three rows were filled with them!)

Such a beautiful sight - for many of these kids this was their first time to ever be in an Apostolic service feeling the presence of God. 

We had a mini service - sang a few songs, but tried to keep things a bit shorter to be able to have the kids out at the normally scheduled time. Dad preached - 

To keep the kids' attention, he had them doing different things and quoting Scripture verses. This is Ailyn (pronounced Eileen), and she is a little girl we have mentioned a few times on this blog. She came to our very first Sunday school class a couple years ago and has been one of our most faithful kids since. She does NOT miss a Sunday!! She has such a sweet spirit and is an absolute joy to have around. In this picture she is quoting Acts 2:38 for the congregation! 

We are anxiously awaiting the day when we see this verse fulfilled in her life. 

Sunday school kids at the altar for the first time

Hno. Mario was such a huge help - he prayed with each kid with such a burden - the service wouldn't have been the same without him. We need more altar workers like him!! 

Pastor praying with the kids

This is Armando - a lot of the time his dad won't let him come to Sunday school, but when they do come, they are always so excited for snack time. These kids can break your heart!
Hno. Mario was praying with him and later told me that Armando didn't really know how to pray or what do say, but just cried and cried. It was obvious he was feeling the touch of the Lord. 

We are planning on doing this much more often. The march, the service for the kids, giving them an opportunity to really pray and get the Holy Ghost. Nothing, nothing, nothing can compare to this! 

~Bethany~