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IMMANUEL, GOD WITH US

M. Josue Gutierrez

“The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel (which means, ‘God with us’).” (Mathew 1:23)

On Sunday Dec 24, we held our Christmas Worship Service, entitled: “Immanuel, God with Us.” Since we considered our apartment is too small, we rented one hall by faith. On Saturday afternoon, we prepared the hall by cleaning up and organizing the chairs and tables. M. Maria and Sharon worked very hard to do so. Dario also came to help. After we set the hall up, we prayed together for the invitees to come.

We had 20 participants in our Christmas Worship Service, 9 of them invited by Dario and Karen. They did an amazing job inviting people. They invited all of their families, some friends, neighbors and some classmates. All of Karen’s family joined us, two brothers and her mother. Karen’s mother visited for the first time ever. We are praying for her family to join us every Sunday like she did. Dario’s cousins also joined us. Sadly, his parents and his brother did not come, but we are praying for his family as well. Dario and Karen have been a blessing to our family this year. They are working as precious coworkers in the ministry and they are very faithful and works wholeheartedly.

In the Christmas Worship Service, we sang precious Christmas songs. Karen prayed for our ministry’s prayer topics and M. Josue preached the message based on Mathew 1:18-25.

We learned that the baby who was born is Jesus, our Savior, and Immanuel, God with us. That baby grew up as a sinless man and died in the cross for us to pay for our sins and restore our relationship with God. God loved us so much that he came to earth and died for us. He is Immanuel, God with us. He will not rest looking for us. We need to repent of our sins and embrace God’s gift of love thru Jesus. Most of the participants confessed Jesus as their savior and repented of their sins. God’s grace was abundant in our Christmas Service.

After Christmas Service, we ate delicious Christmas food prepared by M. Maria and Sharon. We mixed Venezuelan and Panamanian Christmas food. We had Hallacas (a Venezuelan tamale), chicken salad, Christmas Baked Ham and rosca bread. We had a great time eating together and people was filled with grace for the message. After we ate together all of the people were willing to help to clean up and all of us worked together to leave the hall as it was given to us.

We pray for all of the participants to join us regularly in the Sunday Worship Service, especially for Karen’s family. We prayed to continue to work together to spread the Word of God thru the campus of the National University of Panama. We pray for Dario and Karen to be a source of blessing for Panama and they can be established as a house church in 2018.

Prayer Topics:             

1. Panama becomes into a Kingdom of Priests and Holy Nation.
​2. M. Josue and M. Maria study the Bible with at least one student each week.
3. Raise one Abraham and one Sarah of faith.
4. M. Juan Baek be filled with God’s wisdom to lead the ministry.
5. Baek’s family be healthy and safe in Venezuela.
6. M. Josue preaches powerful and heart-moving messages thru the Gospel of John every Sunday.