Dear Praying Family,

Holy Week was the busiest week of the year in Antigua. Many thousands of people converged on the city to participate in and watch multiple processions every day. Many families stayed up all night on Thursday to make elaborate sawdust carpets on the road in front of their houses. Good Friday featured processions all day. I watched one shrine of Jesus with the cross pass by with the phrase, “…to the end of the age,” on a plaque. I’ve never seen Matthew 28:19-20 on a Catholic shrine before! Of course the heart of the Great Commission was

missing.

"They bear it on the shoulder, they carry it and set it in its place, and it stands; from its place it shall not move. Though one cries out to it, yet it cannot answer nor save him out of his trouble.” (Isaiah 46:7) I asked one lady why she participated in carrying a shrine of Mary. She said she wanted to experience part of what Mary and Jesus felt in His Passion and hoped to pay for some of her sins. How sad! Christ’s death paid for sins once for all (Hebrews 7:27). We don’t need to “crucify” Christ repeatedly in mass or in processions.

Praise the Lord that the saving message of justification by grace is being proclaimed throughout Latin America! Millions who used to live without hope are discovering a personal relationship with Christ. During Holy Week we helped our church hand out thousands of tracts to the masses of people who flocked to our town. Nearly everyone gladly took the tract titled “The Cross of Christ.” Though Latin culture is entrenched in Catholicism, most people are willing to hear a gospel message.

The rainy season has started in Antigua. It had only rained once since we have been here, but now it may rain every couple of days.

Angela is in Level E in her Spanish study. She has been carrying on conversations regularly! Following the messages in church is still a bit challenging, but she understands much more now.

The orphanage where we were helping out closed its doors to foreign volunteers. However, God used this turn of events to give Angela an opportunity to volunteer at a local clinic. This will be a very valuable experience as she will be using her Spanish in a medical environment!

I am in my second trimester at seminary. I’m taking a class on Catholicism which is very interesting.

In my Sunday school class last Sunday I spent about half the time answering questions from a man who does not yet know the Lord. Please pray for Omar. He is searching and seemed very close to accepting the gospel. I talked with him for about 30 minutes after class.

We have the opportunity to meet many different people at the language school. Of course all our friends leave after a month or two! We invite people from the school to our home every week. Please pray that we will be a clear witness to those who do not know the Lord. Please pray specifically for a friend from Israel and two friends from Germany.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. We appreciate the sacrifice many of you have made for us to be here. God is certainly using this time to stretch us and grow us as we prepare to arrive in Peru by December.

In His Grace,
Jonathan and Angela Stone
jastone@abweperu.org
www.abweperu.org/jastone