As the year comes to an end, we wanted to give you a quick update on what's been happening in our Hispanic Ministry here at West End church of Christ. Over the past three weeks, Elias has been studying with a young man named Oscar. He is the son of our visitor Jill. If you remember from our previous blog posts she is the woman from Venezuela who saved our post card invitation in her purse for several months and then came to visit us one Sunday for "confession." Oscar is 20 years old and was in need of some guidance per his mother's request. He was very willing to have some studies with Elias, and his older sister was able to accompany him as well. As a result of these studies, Oscar, his sister Fabiola and her son Lukas, Jill his mother, and Cruz his grandmother have all been attending services with us at West End. It is always so exciting to see new faces walk through those doors on Sunday morning, and yesterday was no different. Because Oscar has wanted a change in his life, he has encouraged his entire family to set new spiritual goals for 2019. Elias passed out the church calendar with events for the entire year, and our new friends were already making plans to attend each one of them. They were especially excited about our spring retreat coming in April. Our end of the month, Sunday fellowship meal was filled with lots of laughter, great conversation, and Venezuelan corn bread. Delicious! We were too busy fellowshipping to get any pictures this week, but hopefully next week we can introduce them to you officially. Please continue to pray for the four families that we are working with so far here in St. Louis, and also for the future families that are searching for the truth this new year. God bless.
The Roque Family
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What a whirlwind December has been thus far, and it's only just begun! We are so excited to report to you today about our "Give it Away Day" that we had this past Saturday. We were blessed to received lots of donations from gently used clothes, shoes, hats, and books to brand new in the box toys, coats, diapers, wipes, and food. We are so thankful to have had so many donations from many of the surrounding congregations as well as from our own at West End. Elias and I spent the weeks leading up to the give away day posting flyers in all the authentic Mexican Grocery stores from Overland to Wentzville. We passed them out to any Hispanic we met out and about, and our two families that attend services even took some to give to their friends and family. Elias posted on Hispanic social media groups daily inviting people from St. Louis area to come. The Thursday before the give away, Lilly and Edgar, Nancy and Moises came to help us organize and set up all the donations. We enjoyed some time together doing the Lord's work. What a blessing it was! Elias was also able to study with one of them about what the scriptures had to say about instrumental music. It was a big eye opener for him, and he was grateful for the study when Elias concluded. Saturday, the day of the give away, Elias and I woke up and prayed that at least a few families had received the flyer and were planning to come and take some of the many items we had waiting for them. Hot dogs, buns, chips, cookies, and drinks were prepared and waiting to be eaten. Our team of helpers were armed at the door with invitations to our Hispanic services, and then we waited... Thankfully, we did not have to wait very long before our first families arrived, and they just kept coming. Each family took away 4-5 bags of donations along with full stomachs. We met several Honduran families which was exciting for Elias to talk Honduran food with them, and Elias was even able to have an hour long Bible study with a man while eating their hot dogs and chips. This man had said he had never ever in his life read the Bible. So of course Elias was happy to change that for him. All in all we had 42 Latinos walk through the doors of the West End Church building that day. Most of which lived in St. Charles. They had seen our flyers at the Mexican grocery stores, and even took pictures of it and saved it in their phone. Success...now 42 Spanish speaking people know where the building is located, that a Spanish speaking service is located in that building, and that we are dedicated to helping and caring for others. What a tremendous event. We had double of what we were hoping for. We could not conclude this post without a big big BIG shout out to Matt and Shana Steward and their children for helping us at this event. Matt just called us the night before and asked when he could be there. Without them, clean up would have taken all - day- long, but with their help we were done in a couple hours. I personally am so thankful because our four boys were so so ready to take a nap. We look forward to meeting these families again, some of which have invited us over to their homes for some good Honduran cooking. God is so good, and we pray that the souls of these 42 people will be forever changed by this one small act of Kindness. On a completely unrelated note, we were able to have success in another area of our lives. Elias was awarded his US Citizenship last Friday at the courthouse in downtown St. Louis. It was a day that we will never forget. Thank you to all our friends and family for your prayers on this matter. This is a huge weight lifted off our shoulders.
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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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