Tim and Christa Simmons Prayer Letter: Sowing the Seed

Sowing the Seed

From giving the Gospel to taxi drivers to soul winning at bus stops, we have plenty of opportunities to sow the seed of the Gospel. Our prayer is that everyone would get saved, but as you know, that sadly doesn’t happen. We are continuing to go soul winning with some of the men who have recently started coming to church. They may be rough around the edges, but they have a zeal to reach others, which I want to encourage. We enjoy passing out Chick tracts that have a soccer theme (the most important sport here by far) to people at parks, bus stations, and other public walkways. As people are open, I will try to witness to them. When we went the first time to a bus station in October, I saw several individuals walking across the street while reading their tracts. Christa also continues to take some Spanish classes for foreigners. It has helped her improve her Spanish, but even more importantly, it has given her opportunities to witness. She also will regularly witness to taxi drivers. We have the contacts of several of them who have said they are interested in church. Pray that the Lord will give us wisdom to know how best to reach these precious people with the Gospel.

Spiritual Growth

We praise the Lord for the spiritual interest and growth several people have shown. Maria recently completed Level 3 of discipleship, and Yamilsa completed Level 2! With the men, it has taken a little longer, mainly because of work schedules, but I have still been making steady progress with them. Federico is very faithful to church and even goes soul winning with us and serves in any way he can. The only problem is that he has not trusted in Christ yet. I spent over an hour with him recently explaining what the Bible says about Hell (he struggles to believe God could send people there) and explaining why we need salvation. Please pray for his salvation and growth. Jhon, a young man who recently moved here from Venezuela, has continued to come to church and even brought his younger cousin recently. He is only 18 and would like to get to know other young people who are Christians. As of now, we don’t have a youth group, but we are planning to do more to reach teens and young adults, as the summer months are fast approaching here in Uruguay. Please pray for the spiritual growth of these people.

A Short Visit

Bro. James Belisle, our field service coordinator from our mission board, was able to spend three days with us in between his visits to missionaries in neighboring Argentina. Our vehicle was in the shop while he was with us, so we were limited in where we could go. We invited our church members to our home to welcome him to Uruguay. Alexis prepared a Uruguayan-style barbecue known as an asado, which takes two-plus hours to prepare. It was such a blessing to be able to talk with him about the struggles and blessings of serving in Uruguay.

Praise

• Visitors in church!
• Maria and Yamilsa making progress in discipleship
• The passion for the lost that our people have!

Prayer

• The Lord to prepare hearts to receive the Gospel
• Federico’s salvation
• Our people to grow
• My health: I’ve been struggling with some health issues. I have gone to the doctor and am getting some tests done.
• The presidential election in Uruguay: An election was held on October 27, but no candidate received over 50%. There will be a run-off on November 24.

Thank you for continuing to give and pray! We love you all so much.

Your missionaries to Uruguay,

Tim, Christa, Ethan, Evan, Emmalynn, and Elizabeth Simmons