Over the past four months, the congregation at West End has sent out almost 2000 postcards to homes that were registered with some sort of Spanish speaking background. Over these past few months, we were very curious as to just how effective these mailers are, and were they arriving at homes that actually did speak Spanish? Were the people reading the invitation to come and join us at the Iglesia de Cristo, or were they just tossing them in the trash? I know I am guilty of throwing away particular post cards that arrive in our own personal mailbox even before I come into the home. Why should our invitation be any different?
We had heard from a few different contacts we had met in the stores or restaurants that they had seen our invitation before, and they recognized it as one that had arrived to their homes earlier in the month. That was encouraging, but we still had not seen anyone actually walk through our doors just solely because of the invitation they had received in the mail...until SUNDAY. It was a normal Sunday morning for us, four boys were struggling to get out of bed, let's face it...four boys, and two tired parents. Any other day of the week, they are bright eyed and bushy tailed around 7:00 a.m., but Sunday roles around, it's 8:00 a.m., and I have to pry their eyeballs open with a toothpick. We managed to successfully get out the door, each little man tie and shoes on, hair combed, teeth brushed, bananas for breakfast, and only one minor casualty (Eli's belt). We arrived at the building early and with just enough time to have a few melt downs before Bible class, but we made it. Then it happened. As Elias began his Bible class we noticed a certain unknown phone number was calling his church office for the second time, and he looked at me quickly and said, "Kristi can you answer that? Someone could be lost and looking for directions to the building." So, I picked up the phone, and in my very American accented Spanish proceeded to have a conversation with the sweet woman on the other line who later I would find out was named Jill. She asked me in a few different ways what time the "Mass" started, and when could she sign up for a time to attend "confession." Wanting her to come and at least meet us for a Bible study, I explained to her that our worship service is at 10 am and she could meet with the preacher afterward for a counseling session. Long story short, after worship services Sunday morning, Jill and her mother Cruz (from Venezuela) spent 1.5 hours in Bible study and counseling with Elias. He was able to explain to them what the Church of Christ was, and he helped them through some tough family situations they were experiencing. These woman came out of that study so excited, that she asked us for more invitations so she could invite all her friends, family, and co-workers. She said she would be back on Wednesday with her grandson, and she looked forward to studying the Bible with Elias more. Before she left, we asked her how she had heard about the Iglesia de Cristo here at West End. She said that a personal invitation was mailed to her address in O'Fallon, MO. When it arrived she was curious about the church, because the only other Spanish speaking worship service she had been to was very far away and not to her liking. She had kept it in her purse for two months. She pulled it out often to read it and study it. She even decided to take a snapshot of the address and phone number just in case she ever lost it. She confessed that several times she picked up the phone to call us, but decided against it, but when she woke up this Sunday, she immediately said, "Today is the day. I am going." And she did. Please join us in prayer for Jill and her family, for her mother Cruz, for Nancy, Nancy jr. and Moises, for Lilly Edgar and Raul, and also for Elizabeth and her mother and husband. All these people have taken the time to walk through our doors, and we pray that one day they are core members of the Iglesia de Cristo here at West End. Please pray for their hearts that they may be softened and ready to hear the Gospel, and that they will dedicate their lives to Christ. God bless you and thank you everyone who has helped us already so much in this ministry. The Roque Family
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Honduras Mission Trip 2018 is in the books. We returned late Saturday evening safe and sound, and our flights were surprisingly on time, and with a little race through the airport we were able to make both connections to and from Houston with all 7 carry ons, 7 backpacks, 2 car seats, 2 strollers, 4 kids, 3 adults, and a partridge in a pear tree. To say that we felt like the Mcallister Family in the classic movie Home Alone, would be a pretty accurate statement. We were so thankful to have my cousin Whitney with us to help throw a few kids over her shoulder while we ran, or we may have had a "KEVIN!!!" moment. Anyway...back to the mission... We had a very successful trip with lots of wonderful things accomplished. Just to give you a snapshot of our week, here are some numbers to throw at you... Bible Studies: 105 People in those Studies: 212 Visitors to the church: 17 Restorations: 7 Cerro Grande: 40 children Monday attendance: 80 Monday VBS: 19 Tuesday Attendance: 89 Tuesday VBS: 25 Wednesday Attendance: 102 Wednesday VBS: 32 Benevolence: 175 backpacks filled with School supplies 300 pairs of flip-flops 50 bags of food for 50 families to last them 2 weeks ($600 worth) 150 Bibles God is so good. There were so many families blessed by this mission work, and the church in La Canada has grown in more ways than one. The construction on the children's classroom above the first floor was officially completed while we were there. It turned out beautiful. It now has a roof, doors, and windows, and the metal steps have been ordered and should be arriving soon. The construction team worked so hard, even with the set-back of the rain that we had, they completed the project with flying colors. Sunday we were able to complete our Seminar in two different congregations. The Iglesia de Cristo en San Miguel and in La Canada. The seminar consisted of three different sessions of about "Caring for the People of God" which was chosen in order to break the cycle of living in sin that seems to so easily consume the churches in Honduras. 1. Caring for my Salvation in Christ 2. Caring for the new generation of Christ 3. Caring for my relationship with others in Christ Our children's VBS and Gospel Meetings became known around the community and people came from miles around...literally. Our teams planned their lessons, crafts, snacks, and meals and their hard work and dedication paid off. The children learned about what it meant to love the Lord with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They learned it in a song, in sign language, and memory verse. A mission trip is never complete without a few setbacks and unexpected road blocks...and this year that road block was literal. We are thankful that God was able to help us work around those unexpected schedule changes and still complete all the projects we came to complete in Honduras. Set back #1: The rain. It rained, and rained, and rained. For the first 3 days of the campaign it rain, relentlessly. I have never witnessed a rain that never let up even for a minute for about 60 hours. Because of this rain several things had to be rearranged in our schedule. The road was washed away to Villa Claudia (one place of government housing that we were going to pass out the backpacks) and we could not do our Saturday VBS there, we even tried to just go pick up the kids and bring them back to camp, but this resulted with a bus stuck in the mud and a dent in the rental van. So we moved our benevolence to Wednesday afternoon...and it all worked out. We spent the day, Saturday, instead organizing the rice, beans, powdered milk, coffee, chicken bullion cubes, Maseca, shortening, oatmeal, salt, ketchup, pasta, and spaghetti sauce that we were able to purchase for 50 families. For only $12 a bag, we were able to feed these 50 families for 2 whole weeks. Thank you to everyone who donated to this cause. Speaking of donations, it was so exciting to see the look on the children's faces when they received their backpacks and school supplies, plus a surprise pair of flip-flops. I was able to witness personally the outrageous prices of the backpacks and school supplies there. The backpacks alone were around 700 L for nothing super fancy which comes out to around $30. That is crazy! There were so many flip-flops that we were able to let the moms, dads, grandmas, aunts and uncles, and their baby dolls, jk, pick out a pair to use. They were so excited to have shoes that people in the streets were coming out of their houses to see what the commotion was all about. Set back #2: because of the rain, the electricity was out for around 15 hours total. Luckily we had our flashlights, and we were able to go to worship semi-decent looking, even if we had to take cold showers, and go with frizzy hair. Set back #3 the road was closed due to construction at the bottom of the small mountain where the church sits. Which means everything that we did or brought to the church building had to go from the top down, which isn't so bad going down...but going up is a whole different story. Our knees and muscles are sore in places we never knew we had muscles. Personally it was my first time to carry a toddler up that mountain, and ouch! I am sure the Latinos were thinking we were nothing short of out of shape gringos...which may be slightly true for some of us. There were some more individual set backs that some of our team members had, but they were able to overcome them with grace, and thankfully the entire team is now home safe and sound and back to the old grindstone. After a tiring but encouraging week, we have come to several conclusions. They are: 1. Although it was extra tiring taking all four of our boys to Honduras, it was so beneficial for them and us. They were able to keep the Honduran children entertained while we were preparing lesson crafts etc. They were also able to be examples to them in the class, most days they were good examples :), pray and lead songs in Spanish, help get our foot in the door for Bible studies (who's going to look dangerous when they have four crazy boys running around them), and they were able to help clean up trash and carry things down the mountain for us. It was truly a growing experience for them. We pray that one day they will be leading these mission teams to Honduras. 2. Be Flexible! We may have had the groups prepared, schedule planned, and our ducks in a row months before we embarked on our trip, but we quickly learned that all our organization can fall apart with one swift rain storm. Being flexible, and not stressing out about the little things can make all the difference amongst what could turn into a sea of chaos. 3. Each congregation and area of location has their own unique obstacles. Not all churches have the same schedules, communities, problems, members, or financial circumstances. We need to remember this when we plan a mission trip. When you are planning your trip, make sure you ask the local preachers what schedule the community has as far as time in their homes, work schedules, meal schedules, daily activities, and try to plan evangelism around them. YOU CANNOT expect for the locals to conform to your rigorous, americanized way of life, it will just cause unwanted stress. We want to thank each and every person who contributed to our mission efforts, and made this trip possible. We could not have made it happen without you and your generosity. May God bless you ten fold. We love you and thank you again. The Roque Family. The passports have been purchased. Our vaccinations are up to date. We've begun our probiotic supplements. We've spent our life savings in tiny bottles of travel sized liquids (kidding), and our bags are packed ( in carry-ons this year since they decided to charge $25 now even for luggage on an international flight, and I am not sure how I am going to repack our dirty clothes once the trip is over). Honduras Here we Come!
These past two weeks have flown by as we have been evangelizing, making new friendships, and preparing for our Honduran mission trip that begins this Thursday. We have been packing our 6 army duffle bags full of benevolence items for the children in Tegucigalpa, and we are blown away by the generosity that has been shown to us and the people of Honduras. I cannot wait to show you all the pictures and stories of our trip when we return. After 3 years of absence from the Honduran mission trip, the boys and I are ready to help translate, teach kids classes, and see our family. This will be the first time that our two youngest boys will get to experience Honduras. Please pray for us, we are sorely outnumbered on the airplane ride, and it's a very early flight. We are loaded down with snacks, stickers, electronics, and bubblegum to help ease the craziness. 4 am is going to come early for them Thursday morning. We also ask for you to remember us in prayer throughout this week and the next. We have some specific requests that you petition on our behalf. Please pray for the: gospel meeting seminar vbs and children's classes evangelism efforts restoration efforts safe travels easy immigration passage going and coming health and safety of our team health and safety of our children specifically safe travels of the 7 Latino preachers attending the hearts to be softened and ready to hear the Gospel our families in the US to be safe while we are away our flights to be on-time and to arrive safely We greatly appreciate your support in our Mission efforts here and abroad. Your prayers have already made all the difference. Our mission work here in St. Louis continues to move steadily. Our new family from the D.R. was caught in a predicament as her husband left town for the week for a work commitment and took the car keys with him. So Elias was able to pick them up from University City Sunday morning, and we had all our families in attendance once again. We had a wonderful time chatting and getting to know our new family at the potluck following services. The rice they brought was delicious too! We are so thankful to have two bilingual members from West End fill in for Elias this week while we are away on Mission. Kyle Crews and Paul Sanchez have so graciously and bravely offered to lead singing, pray, preach, and teach Bible class Wednesday night and Sunday morning. If you see them, please give them a pat of encouragement and a quick Thank you! We are so blessed to be able to leave the congregation in such good hands, especially this early in our ministry. We will leave you this week with a sweet picture of our littlest love with his new friend. She walks back and forth during services asking for snacks or toys from Abel, and he usually isn't too obliged to share. (Frankly, when he sees her coming, he tends to start saying NOOO, "DOOE" or "Go!" and pointing for her to go back to her mom). But this time, Abel shared his veggie straws, coloring books, and goldfish gladly, and I was thankful to sneak this sweet picture of them. |
AuthorElias and Kristi Roque have been married for 9 years and during this time have planted/grown 4 congregations. They have 4 boys 7 and under working alongside them. Archives
April 2024
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