Dear co-laborers in the Lord’s harvest field,

Greetings from Pereira!
We’ve had a very mild start to the year, in regards to the weather.   The cold up in the U.S. hasn’t reached this far south, but we’ve had relatively mild weather anyway.

Attendance
We praise the Lord that over the Christmas holidays and into the New Year that attendance did not fall off much, and now with people settling into work and study once more attendance is actually up.  We rejoice that some people who had fallen away have appeared once more and seeds that were planted years ago have started to bear fruit.

New year, new year
In Colombia most of the schools begin their new year of instruction shortly after the New Year. There are some schools that follow the US style of August to June instruction, but most of them follow the more logical (for a tropical country on the Equator) system of starting the new year of study in late January or early February, they have a short midyear vacation in June and end the school year in November.  So our youth and children are beginning their new school year and high school and college students are mapping out their year’s assignments.  

First Baptism of 2014
We have known María Piedad for almost 12 years now.  We have been with her when her mother passed away, when she married her husband, when her elder son died and through many other crises in her life.  On January 5 she was baptized into Christ. The Lord’s love shown to her through your ministry through us lead her to the point where she was ready to allow Him to become the Lord of her life. Please lift her up as we continue to teach her and her family.  Pray especially for her husband, Pastor, (yes, that is his given name) and her son Yeisson (pronounced Jason), both of whom need to allow the Lord to govern their lives as well.

New opportunities through Sheri’s job
Sheri has been working at the Colombo Americano English Language Institute for several years now.  The income helps to pay the bills but more importantly this gives us a point of contact with many people and many opportunities to minister to people in need.  Already this year the Lord has allowed her to witness to her class about marriage and how a Christian approach to marriage yields better results than societies bungling does.  Because of the opportunities the students gave her to speak on the subject, one of her students approached her about counseling.  We look forward to following up on this lead.  One of her coworkers also opened up to her recently.  We’ve been witnessing to her for several years not, but finally the seeds are taking root.  This also gives us the opportunity to show the church the importance of using our job as a witnessing tool for Christ.  We all have opportunities to love people and to minister to them, but too often we are afraid or negligent in doing so.

The Lord’s protection
One reason we prayed for a newer vehicle with low miles on it was to obtain a vehicle that had not been “messed with” much.  We praise God for answering that prayer and providing us with low mile transportation.  However, someone had already gotten around to messing with the return line from the fuel injection system.  As a result, the return line popped off under the rear seat and drained almost half a tank of gasoline onto the ground behind us.  Thankfully no sparks found their way to the fuel and we were able, with a friend’s help, to diagnose and locate the problem.  We praise God for protecting us and for helping us to fix it better than factory.

Thank you!
Thank you for praying for us and supporting the work that the Lord is doing here through our ministry.  Thank you for being a part of our team.  Thank you for taking time to lift us up before the Lord’s throne!  Thank you for making it possible for us to live and work here in Pereira.


In Christ,


Paul and Sheri Moreland