The Ladies Retreat was a success! On Thursday night, as Bro. David, Sis. Yonda, Antonio, and I were unloading the sound at the camp, rain was pouring. It had been raining nonstop for a week, and all of Costa Rica had been affected. Sis. Yonda had already received calls from the southern region, saying that they were not going to make it. She also got a call from Region 4, saying that the bus driver had refused to drive them, and they were not coming. That is except for the ladies from Buenos Aires, Costa Rica. Those 6 dear souls, hopped on a regular bus, and braved coming through the mountain, to get to the ladies retreat. Sis. Nena Arias, Marvey's wife, came and said to me, after the service had finished, Sis. Jessica, we sold tamales, we sold everything imaginable, and there was NO WAY we were going to miss this congreso. I was so proud of them! With all that, we had, I think, around 170 ladies come in. Great for a first retreat in a campground setting..
The first service started, with Sis. Yonda giving a great teaching about character. How we needed to have good character in order to be able to live an upright life. Then the next service was taught by Sis. Tammy Parrish from Odessa, Tx. Sis. Tammy has an outstanding ministry of servitude to pastor's wives. She is also Bro. Terry Pugh's secretary, and holds a number of other capacities. I was able to translate for her, and we had a wonderful service. She spoke on Living for God in Babylon. The ladies responded very well. Her second teaching was about worship. It was a very tremendous service. Sis. Mileyna, one of our pastor's wives that has Fibromalagia, jumped up at the end of the preaching, ready to receive her healing. I went to pray for her, and I felt the healing hand of God. We will give more updates on that later. Mileyna said she felt God touch her. Sis. Tammy had the ladies march around the place 7 times, and finish with worship.
In the night service, Tanya asked her mother if she could translate, and so she did. This gave me a chance to rest my voice, for the next day. It was a good message, about healing the hurts. After this message, Sis. Yonda did a great job with bringing in candles, and candle holders. Sis. Yonda lit my candle, and I turned off the lights, and we lit everyone's candles, as Tanya sang a song. It was very beautiful. The ladies were touched. Sis. Yonda was showing the ladies how we can all, together, be a light in this dark world.
On Saturday we started off at 6 a.m. with Oracion Enfocada. All of the ladies showed up! Sis. Yonda had many of the wives participate, and the hour flew by. After this, and some presentations, I spoke. There was such a dynamic move of God! 12 ladies received the Holy Ghost for the first time! It was extraordinary. I went to the keyboard after praying for the ladies, and the women were so excited, they were running round and round the building, dancing and shouting! This went on for quite some time.
After all of that died down, Sis. Tammy came to minister again. I translated. The sisters were still so pumped from the previous service, that I had to admonish and say that we had to be sensitive to the spirit of God, and LEARN how to listen to his voice, and to the different moves of the Holy Ghost that there are. A hush filled the place, and all I remember is weeping so hard, that I fell on my face in the presence of the Lord. When I got up, there were ladies thrown all over the altar weeping and crying. No one had to call them. They felt the spirit of God, and responded in like manner.
It was an extraordinary retreat...
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