Jones Journal e-Mailer for 2010-03

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Dear Friends,

Greetings in Jesus!

If you'd like to read past issues, see Newsletters. This monthly e-Mailer includes updates on ministry, family, praise and prayer.

* January's KidsQuest Crusade was moved to early February and held at our girl clown Ling's church. What that means is it was actually held at Pastora Dallis Quiñones' church in Chilibre. Here you see her leading the children in worship at the Crusade.

I know Dallis would appreciate your prayers for her transition into full-time pastoral ministry. For the past few years she was teaching English at the LACC high school while pastoring. She is also opening a pre-school with all the challenges of raising funds and coordinating the construction project. Let us know if you would choose to donate toward the purchase of sand, cement and blocks.

* February's KidsQuest Crusade was held in San Miguel de Exquisito in the Chiriquí province, coordinated by Edilma de Villarreal. Katy, Brian, and Otoniel are waving with the prizes they won for bringing the most new visitors (47 visitors between the three of them!).

* Last week was the Annual Guaymí Family Retreat. We had 850-900 children each of six classes, so we estimate there were probably over 1000 kids total. Overall attendance was estimated at 4500. The largest group of new believers was baptized on Friday--over 100! We invite you to see a 4 minute video montage of the retreat now uploaded to the Media page of our website. We used our new Flip HiDef camera given to us by Chloe who received it being blessed by Christian Center of Lenexa Kansas. Thanks Pastors Purkey for blessing our MKs!

This ever-growing annual event highlights the results of effective collaboration among national leaders & churches, US pastors & churches, missions organizations, and career missionaries.

- national leaders & churches: Julio Valdés and the dedicated team from his church. Our team of children's teachers came from this church, plus another team from a church in Chiriqui province.

- US pastors & churches: Roy Rhodes and his team from Crosspoint Church in Paola, KS brought their largest team to date with 17 people. They have come several years running. This week is the highlight of their year--their words, not mine!

- missions organizations: Convoy of Hope Reps. Bethany Thompson & Claire Balch attended this year. Convoy donated a container of food, clothes, shoes and toys as they have done each year. Mike King, Director of Pathfinders (Royal Ranger teams that do construction where there is no road!), along with Ron Harrison, came to see progress on the schools that they have helped to build in the very remote areas of Duíma and Soloy.

- career missionaries: Terry& Julie Bell (coordinated many construction teams on LACC schools in Duíma & Soloy), Rod & Sherry Boyd (LACC Central American Coordinators), Larry & Dorothy Cederblom (started the LACC school in Duíma), and us, the Jones Family.

When we partner together with each other and the Lord of the Harvest we get to experience what the founders of our movement established in 1914. At the second General Council of the Assemblies of God in Stone Church in Chicago, they unanimously adopted this resolution, saying,

"We commit ourselves and the Movement to Him—speaking of Jesus—

for the greatest evangelization the world has ever seen."

I got to hang out with Gilberto during the week, who you may remember from the 2006 video report. He practiced his English with me calling me, "my friend."

Please pray for these upcoming events:

- this Saturday is the next monthly seminar for Children's Ministries leaders with the theme of making and using puppets, led by Manuel Miranda, Dallis Quiñones and Fanny de Quinzada.

- also this Saturday I'll be speaking at the Children's Festival in Santiago, central zone, led by Rigoberto Mitchell. Several hundred children will parade through town, pray for kids around the world and be challenged by God's Word.

- next KidsQuest Crusade is 19-21 March in San Juan de Dios up from Antón, where we held a Crusade a few years ago. Pastor Pedro Santamaría wanted to take the Gospel via KidsQuest to a church plant sponsored by his church in Antón.

* Yvonne is in a Beth Moore Bible Study and will be joining those ladies for a beach retreat this weekend. She's also been involved with the women's ministry project from Panama International Church at Metro Kids orphanage. They stayed up till 1am putting together backpacks with clothes and school supplies for the children. The students receive them this week just before school starts.

* Chloe appreciates any and all prayer as she continues her challenging nursing classes. She was just named R.A. (Resident Assistant) for her floor next year!

* Anthony has the three day Ocean-2-Ocean cayuco race on the 26^th-28^th of this month! This Saturday is the final pre-race, the Gamboa sprints. They switched boats from "Bad Company" to "Carioca."

* Celina still has an artistic eye for beauty. She took some photos of this Guayacán tree in our front yard that literally sprouted these gorgeous yellow flowers in one day.

* Gracie has been practicing with the worship team at Panama International Church putting her piano lessons to good use. Yvonne says she'll join the team leading worship this month.

It stands to reason, doesn't it, that if the alive-and-present God who raised Jesus from the dead moves into your life, he'll do the same thing in you that he did in Jesus, bringing you alive to himself? When God lives and breathes in you (and he does, as surely as he did in Jesus), you are delivered from that dead life. With his Spirit living in you, your body will be as alive as Christ's!...

So, what do you think? With God on our side like this, how can we lose?

Rom 8:11, 31 The Message

Yours for Them,

Kirk for all