Good Start to the Year
Praise the Lord for 12 visitors in our services in January and a family of 3 that has returned and are planning to help in our Vacation Bible School in February! We started our weekly church-wide soul winning before the midweek service. We were able to go to a plaza and witness. Although no one trusted in Christ, we had some good conversations. I remember talking to a young couple who listened and said they were open to the existence of God, but they just didn’t feel they needed God. We also had our monthly Men’s and Ladies’ Meetings. Several visitors came to those as well! A young Venezuelan man named Vianner has come for about a year. Every time we had talked about his salvation, he said that he was saved, but he never could point to a conversion decision. He expressed a desire to be baptized in January. When we talked about what baptism was, I again explained the importance of a time of conversion. He had felt that since he had been in church since a child, he was saved. He allowed me to explain (again) the Gospel, after which he put his faith and trust in only Christ for his salvation! Also, a lady named Sofia came and put her trust in Christ as well! Several others we witnessed to had a salvation testimony and expressed an interest in discipleship.
Spiritual Growth
This year, we started a monthly Leadership Meeting for those who want to serve. I go over a brief leadership lesson, and we also organize upcoming events. It is a blessing to see a good number of our people wanting to serve the Lord! I am currently discipling 5 men and will be starting with a couple others. Christa has completed the discipleship lessons with most of the ladies in our church. She will be starting discipleship with several ladies as well. It has also been a blessing to see the spiritual growth of Natalia, who is engaged to our song leader. She got saved last year and has completed the 20 discipleship lessons with us. She also followed the Lord in believer’s baptism in January!
Outreach
We were able to do two outreach events in January. The first was on King’s Day on January 6. It is a reference to the wise men giving gifts to Jesus. It is a custom for children to receive a special gift, separate from Christmas, on that day. We collected toys, and on that day, we passed out over 50 toys, along with Gospel tracts, to families in our area. We also cut the grass on an abandoned lot next to our church. We let the neighbors know what we were doing and then spent several hours cleaning that lot. Someone evidently didn’t like what we did, since after I came back from dropping off people that night, we returned to find several of the bags of trash and broken bottles strewn in front of the church. We are thankful for several families coming by to meet us, one of which came the next day to church!
2026 Furlough
We will be back in the U.S. from July 2026 through December 2026. We still have some open dates. If you would like us to report back to your church, please send me an email to schedule a meeting: tim.simmons@fbmi.org. Thank you for giving and praying! We hope to be able to see you again later this year!
Your missionaries to Uruguay,
Tim, Christa, Ethan, Evan, Emmalynn, and Elizabeth Simmons
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- Natalia getting baptized
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- Ladies’ Meeting
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- Special service to help refocus our attention on Christ in the new year
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- The group that helped clean up the abandoned lot
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- Giving out toys and tracts
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- Our first Leadership Meeting
