Sí Señor, Le Seguiré! (Yes Lord, I Will Follow You!)

Well, after another week of serving the Spanish Fellowship (and Becky was able to be there this Sunday to meet the people), we decided to say 'Yes, Lord - you opened the doors and so we will follow You'. So for now, I am the pastor of the Calvary Chapel Murrieta Spanish Fellowship! I still think God has a great sense of humor taking us from Germany and now allowing us to serve Him in SoCal, with the Hispanics! So until God calls us out somewhere else, we are serving here in this capacity. So I guess we better start learning Spanish.

As you know, when the previous pastor was asked to step down, he left and took a bunch of people with him. That was why I was asked to come in as interim pastor. My church was ready to shut down the ministry, but I asked them to give it one more chance. They agreed, but only if I and only I would lead this fellowship. So here we are.

It was encouraging to see that today the Spanish Fellowship is still healthy and growing. There were more people in service today than last week. And there were several new people too. But more importantly, it was a blessing to see people jumping in to serve. When the previous pastor left, he took the worship leader and one of the deacons. So there was quite a few holes in the ministry team. But last week and this week, I saw people just stepping up and serving. One man will start doing worship, while his wife does sound. The remaining deacons will rotate and translate Wed and Sun for me. Another young lady took over as greeter. An older man (in his 80's) helps out with ushering. Another couple brings coffee and snacks every week so we can fellowship after service. That to me is the body of Christ pulling together! So pray for us as we start this new adventure!

Oh, and to clear something up that some have asked - this is not a paid position, I receive no salary from the Spanish Fellowship. I just want to help them. I work full-time doing construction type work Mon-Fri, (40-50 hours a week). Then I teach at the Spanish Fellowship on Wed and Sun and try to meet with the Spanish men on Sat mornings. Becks and I also have a part-time job doing inventory on the weekends. This is not so regular but it could be a lot of hours at times (just depends on the season). And we still teach the kids/youth at the Arabic Fellowship on Friday nights. So that is life for us in SoCal at the moment. It's not what we expected, but then again, I had never expected to be in Germany either! ;-)