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Week In Review – September 15, 2014
What an amazing week! Friend, God is at work among the people in Bucaramanga, Colombia! Here is a quick rundown of what we’ve been up to.
- Our first church plant here, Iglesia Bíblica Bautista El Faro, just completed 2 months since it’s inauguration. We are still seeing new visitors every week, during the Sunday, Tuesday and Friday services. Regular attendance is slowly but surely growing, as is the offering. They are nearly at a point already where they can take care of their basic monthly expenses (rent and utilities). This is a great step!
- Aubrie has been taking the kids out after our song service and doing a special program for them. This was a stretch for her, but a huge blessing to them! Her group keeps growing each week (there were 8 kids yesterday!), and the children look forward to their special time each week.
- Many people in this area are learning (or want to learn) English, so we decided to begin services once a week in English to give them a chance to practice. We hold this special service right before our main Sunday morning Spanish service and encourage people to stay for both. What I didn’t know was that we would also attract a few foreigners that live here who also speak English. In addition to a few Colombians that come, we have a gentleman from Texas, a Korean who grew up in London and his family and others that join us each week.
- Several are plugging into discipleship, meeting with me throughout the week. It is wonderful to see each progressing, growing in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.
- Many families are excited about getting involved in serving in various ministries of the church. This is one of the most exciting things for me! There are also a few men that are wanting to go further. Pray for these that God would enable them to do the work of the ministry and enable me to train them!
- The family is doing well. This week our girls are on vacation from their preschool. Aubrie and our next little baby are fantastic. We find out on THURSDAY if we’re having a boy or a girl! Amira and Anabel are split as to which they want, but they’re both enthusiastic about having a baby around.
- A special thanks to the DeGaetano family for the gifts they sent us for the new baby this week! Also to Plantation Baptist Church for sending a few books by Striving Together publications to distribute to people in our church. What a blessing!
- Just like in many parts of the U.S., it’s fair season here as well. The “Feria Bonita” is going full blast. The difference is that the fair here takes place literally all over the city. Bike races, concerts, art & craft sales, food, games and much more draw people out of their homes to wander around the city. It’s a great opportunity to get the Gospel into people’s hands. Please pray as we pass out tracts this week to some of these people.
- We continue to see the Gospel change lives! Thank you to those that support us to make this work possible.
- **Family funny — I had a dream I went to Walmart a few days ago. Weird…
How can we be praying for you?
Bed Rest? What’s That?!
It has been an interesting week, to say the least. Not exactly what we planned, but God knows 🙂
We got home late Monday night from a missions conference about 9 hours away (BTW, thanks to the good folks of Grace Baptist Church in Newport NC for an awesome week!). Tuesday was our only free day before leaving for another two conferences starting on Wednesday. Well, since we’re hardly in town these days, we scheduled an appointment with Aubrie’s doctor. With one month to go on our pregnancy, we found out that Aubrie was having contractions every 7-8 minutes, was 4 cm dilated and 50% effaced! Basically, she was way ahead of schedule and at risk to go into preterm labor. Soooo, off to the hospital we went. Aubrie’s doctor wanted to get her hooked up to an IV to get lots of fluids in her and continue to watch her contractions and the baby.
Long story short, we only stayed a few hours before they sent us home with very specific instructions for Aubrie to be on bed rest, mainly to keep this baby from coming too early. The goal is to get us until May 3rd when she’ll be a full 37 weeks. That’s still 3 weeks early, but it will be far enough along that the baby shouldn’t have any complications.
Wait… bed rest? What’s that??
Like I said, it’s been an interesting week! I cancelled our other two conferences and decided to stay home to take care of Aubrie and Amira. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve occasionally cooked meals, washed clothes, washed dishes, changed diapers, cleaned the house and kept up some with our 2-year-old before… but this has been a whole new ball game. Taking care of these things exclusively while Aubrie rests has been an eye opener to how awesome of a wife and mother she is! To think she does this stuff all the time, without complaining and still keeping up with me as we travel… well, it’s amazing! And some people say that housewives don’t have real jobs… ha.
I know you’ll read this Aubrie… Thank you. I love you and appreciate all you do. You’re the best.
Now, if we can keep this child cooking for just a little longer that would be great. Only a few more days left until we can reach 37 weeks. Aubrie is still having plenty of contractions, even with rest. But we know our next little princess will come when she’s ready, and God will give strength and grace to bring her into this world.
I’ll let you all know when our girl arrives. As the day approaches I’ll be posting pictures and micro updates on our Twitter and Facebook accounts if you’d like to stay even more up-to-date. Thanks for your prayers. We love y’all!
Here’s a video of Amira getting ready for her little sister’s arrival. She and her mommy have made a book to read to her. It is adorable.
The Big Announcement
Yesterday I posted on Twitter and Facebook that we would be announcing something big. Last time we did that, it turned out to be our survey trip to Colombia which preceded deputation. Well yesterday after posting the teaser, there ensued a great swarm of speculation… from “congrats on the twins” to “baby?” to “boys, girls, or both?” to…. wait, everybody really guessed that we’re having a baby? Could it be that simple? Was it that obvious? Hmmm
Actually, all of the guessers was at least partially right. Yes, we are expecting our second child!!
So now, questions fill our thoughts…. What will we name him (I’m pretty sure it’s a boy lol) … or her? What will he or she look like? How will we fit it all into our schedule? But really, we’re so thrilled that God would be so gracious to us in entrusting another precious child into our care. Looks like we’ll get to know the newest Vance in late May or early June.
It will be interesting to see how our little Amira reacts to not being the little baby anymore. If you have multiple kids, how did your older one react when they got a new sibling? Feel free to respond in the comments.
Thank you all for your prayers. Be praying for Aubrie especially as we will be travelling for some far-from-home meetings coming up this fall and into next year as we present our ministry in Colombia.
New Recruits!
The Vance family, decked out for Boot Camp!
Wow, what a great week at Vacation Bible School! We were honored to be at our home church’s summer kids program most nights this week and let me tell you, God worked in amazing ways! The theme was “Boot Camp — Get In The Lord’s Army.” Several hundred kids attended, over a hundred teens and adults from Lighthouse helped pull it off, and at least 44 kids spoke with counselors and made professions of faith, making Christ Jesus their Lord and Savior.
It was very odd to just walk into a VBS at Lighthouse and not have much to do with pulling it off. Very different from years past, no doubt. We were able to help with crowd control and decision counseling, and praise God, both Aubrie and I were able to lead a few children to Christ!
Pastor Blackstock also announced that the offering from the penny march would go toward my friends Will Hill (missionary to Japan), Beth Johnson (missionary to Morocco) and us (missionaries to Colombia, of course). What an honor! Thank you guys, we love you!
Remember what Christ said:
“Likewise, I say unto you, there is joy in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner that repenteth.” Luke 15:10
I’m In The Lord’s Army. YES SIR!
Ever since I can remember, Vacation Bible School has always been one of my favorite times of the year. From the awesome Bible stories, memory verses, fun songs, prizes, skits and more, it’s always such a blast! Please be in prayer for my home church as they kick off their annual VBS tonight at 7 PM.
It is always humbling to think of so many kids coming into the church and hearing the Gospel clearly for the first time. Pray that everything will go smoothly. Pray for all the counselors as they work with the children that are being dealt with. These children’s eternity is at stake!
May God move in their hearts.
May the Holy Spirit convict them of their sinful state and need for Christ.
May all their trust be placed in what Christ has already done to pay for that sin.
May Christ be magnified, glorified and exalted above all else!
The Vance Family 