Vacation Bible School this year was a tremendous success. We had about 30 workers every night give up their evenings to invest in the souls of these kids. The Lord honored this immense effort with souls. Eighty (80) children asked Jesus to come into their hearts. We averaged about 100 kids every evening.
Aziel Alcocer, (Iltze and Brandon Dahlman's daughter) taught the memory verse to all ages. Next, Noemi Garza would deliver the Bible Story. This year we decided to have one person, a very serious annointed person, teach the daily Bible story to all ages. The Lord provided Noemi. She communicated the clear message of the gospel to every age bracket. Richard Savage would then close the class by double-driving the message home with yet another child-level personal application to the story and memory verse. The teachers were amazed at the attention given by all of the kids. This year we had a young lady, a mother-figure, and a father-figure present the Gospel. These three people did a tremendous job and God used them mightily.
We are currently strategizing with a plan for follow-up by e-mail, personal visits, and steady telephone contact with the children and parents. We will try and keep the momentum going by inviting the VBS kids back for SONROCK Music and Sunday School class in the basement. We had 15 kids this Sunday and we will continue to do this for at least 3 - 4 weeks to try and build it up by targeting VBS kids. By using the music, the lesson, a light breakfast treat and a loving welcome, I am hoping we can grow this Sunday morning group with God's help. Once we have the kids used to coming on Sunday mornings, we'll start dividing them into regular Sunday School classes and hopefully begin what could be our next youth thrust at our church. Pray for us that God would grant this much needed blessing. All in all I am so grateful to God for His blessings upon our Rio Hondo community.
We've already started making plans for next year!
God Bless You and Thank You,
Ray and Connie Ortega
