Presents for Piñones

We arrived at the village of Piñones at 10 am this morning. The village gets its name from the way they support themselves. The ladies of the village hand-harvest the pine nuts from the pine cones and the remainder of the cones are discarded into piles. As we drove up to the village, harvest time was already complete and there were piles of pine cones everywhere. You can see some the bags of Piñones in the photographs of the children’s service.

(click on a photo to see it larger) The children had a service in the old church building.

We were given a warm welcome by the local Pastor Maximo. The church building here is in excellent condition and is relatively new. You can tell that the women of the village have lovingly decorated the walls and made curtains for the windows.

LuLu, Sandra, and Edith sang while Pastors Ruben (from the village of Palmito) and Rey (Iglesia Getsemani) spoke words of encouragement. Evangelist Ramiro gave a wonderful sermon about how “in the Lord you are made new.” Several young women renewed their faith in Christ. At the end of the service, several ladies came forward and requested help in healing various health issues.

The children had their own service led by Edith. They learned a bible verse, sang, and played games. After services were over, we distributed gift bags to the children. The bags were filled with toys, Christian literature (about how much God loves them), and personal care items. The kids were about to explode with excitement as the saw all the items in the bags!

For the adults we brought clothing donations for all ages. Pastor Maximo and his family received a “Blessing Bag” filled with non-perishable food items, pots and pans, and some utensils. Everyone was extremely grateful for the help from True Path Ministry and Iglesia Getsemani. Until tomorrow, Dios de Bendiga/God Bless You!