So it all began on 17 March 2020, when the news came that there was a lockdown and we were all to stay at home. So we quickly decided to leave Santa Cruz and Betesda. We quickly packed the essentials and moved to my parents’ home in the Sommerfeld estate. At first we lived with our parents, but then a small house near the church became available, so we moved in there.
There was no church service on the first Sunday, so we listened to the sermon on the radio as a family.
How did we spend this time as a family? We simply enjoyed the time together; for us, it has been nothing but a great blessing so far.
I wanted to do something rather than just get bored, so we quickly decided – once we realised after a week that the ‘quarantine’ was being extended further – to hire a threshing machine. So we spent the first three weeks working flat out on the threshing. After all, it was harvest time.
During this time, we were also able to run discipleship courses, do radio work, preach in Sommerfeld and La Gracia, and visit lots of different people – both believers and non-believers – so our time was by no means boring; quite the opposite, in fact – it was full of work.
I also noticed that my fellowship with the Lord had grown. We now have much more fellowship with the brothers and sisters from our church here, because we are now living here in the colony as well. So we view this time as a positive experience.
During this period of more than two months, we were also able to do a great deal with the radio station here in Sommerfeld: - Live Bible study - Live programme ‘Leeda und Gruß’ - Recorded songs for the radio.
These additional photos show, on the one hand, work carried out at the church and, on the other, how we helped a family move house. We’ve run discipleship courses with these people. They have their own plot of land, but no house yet. So they’ve moved what they had onto the plot and want to live there. Many people helped to move their belongings over. They have had to leave the house where they had been living because they have come to faith in Jesus. The house had always been part of their parents’ land, and now the parents have sold the land because their children have come to faith. That is why they have now had to move. Please do pray for them.
Report and photos by Hermann Friesen.
