A Birthday Dream

Many of the people in the villages that we work in do not celebrate their birthdays with parties and gifts . . . many do not even know their birth date. The fact is that for many it is just another day. For the girls of Latin America, the 15th birthday is a very special day. However, like the other birthdays, it too is not celebrated much in the villages.

For this reason, on May 20th, we decided to give a Quinceanera party for Celestina, a girl in our Sunday night Bible Study. It was a very special time as most of her family came together to eat cake and celebrate her birthday. While some of you have participated in a Quinceanera at the mission house, this was a completely different ball game!

Almost 30 of us were inside one of the houses that one of the teams built. Celestina, wearing her typical clothing and a tiara (courtesy of FBC Lacombe), sat to the side and tried not to be the center of attention. Derrick read from Proverbs 31 and charged Celestina and the rest of the women who were present to live a Godly life. He also explained the Gospel in hopes that one would surrender his or her life to Christ. However, there were no salvations, but there were planted seeds. After the charge, Derrick prayed for Celestina and we all ate cake and drank Pepsi. Celestina can not read very well, but we bought her a Bible to help her to learn more, and in the process, she will be able to read about the Lord! After eating, we took tons of photos of the family and then watched the Jesus film.

Please pray for the Garcia’s. There were three families present that do not know the Lord as their Savior. Please pray that the Lord will use the message and movie to move the hearts of these families. Pray that Celestina will come to know the Lord before we leave Guatemala (Aug.).