Rick Spinos writes

Expecting a miracle II,                                                                              February 28, 2006

It was Thursday evening just four days after our highly successful women's encounter with God weekend and now it was the men's turn. You know how men are , . . . well, without our wives (our helpmeets) we are just, uh, help-less. We almost postponed the men's encounter weekend since the men's cell groups were so late in turning in the registrations for the new retreat participants. The encounter weekend is a three day retreat designed for integrating new members in our cell group structure.
Well anyway it was the last organizational meeting for the men's encounter weekend and we had only received a handful of registrations and so much had yet to be done. We needed to locate 50 mattresses to borrow for those who couldn't bring one and do all the buying. We were about ready to postpone the whole thing for a couple more weeks. As we discussed an alternative date my brother in law, Josué (Sandra's brother) said that he would be willing to buy 30 mattresses on his credit card. Other's showed willingness to pull everything together and make it all work. Soon it became evident that we should go for it and proceed as planned. Later that evening a pastor friend of mine said that he could get 50 mattresses loaned to us.
It became evident that God wanted to do a miracle in the men this time. And that is what happened. By Friday evening most of the supplies were purchased and we began the weekend with 21 new guys won through the men's cells over the last few months.
God truly blessed our faith and it was a tremendous success. Several of our new converts who never bothered marrying their spouses have decided to go ahead and legalize their marriages. One of the married men who has been legally separated from his wife for over seven years went back to her right after the encounter. Several men confessed problems with bondage to pornography and have found the freedom in confessing their bondage submitting to a discipleship commitment of sexual purity. Sandra and I want to thank those of you who regularly pray for us. God has blessed us with a wonderful group of leaders who tirelessly served over the last few weeks with nothing but Christian joy and zeal for ministering to the new group of leaders who will be trained this year.
Praise God for his mercy and grace renewed each day!

                                                                Rick Spinos