El-Cielo
Reaching 8,000 plus Spanish speaking population
I recentlyattended a church planting conference in sunny Florida this past week. It was a good conference which brought speakers such as Andy Stanley and Rick Warren. I have to say I learned a few things from them and the other speakers in our break out sessions. Before leaving on vacation, I mean the conference; we had a hard time looking for someone to fill my spot as preacher for our Sunday service. It happened to be that both the other man that helps me to preach and myself needed to be out of town the exact same week. We thought about all our options: another Spanish pastor or preacher in the nearby urrounding area, a strong leader who has risen out of our Bible studies and groups, a Spanish-speaking missionary on state-side assignment, or just someone who would be interested in giving a Bible lesson in Spanish of course to our Sunday group, but we found none. Needless to say, it made us realize the importance of our EL CIELO Ministries. Right now, we are trying to reach the approximately 8,000+ Spanish-speaking population in both the Capital City and Sandy Creek Associational areas and there is just one Spanish Southern Baptist Ministry, us. If EL CIELO Ministries ceases to exist for whatever reason there will be nearly 8000+ Spanish-speakers in this central Illinois area who know very little to nothing about the Bible, yet alone a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. We are talking about 8000+ souls who are on a fast track to hell unless the LORD intervenes! We are happy to say that the LORD has placed EL CIELO Ministries in such a time as this in this place to try and minister and be a witness of the gospel to these folks. So far in Springfield, we have begun to hold consistent Sunday afternoon services, Bible studies, counseling sessions with couples, ESL classes, and various evangelistic outreaches. Our group is not as big as we would like it to be yet, but we continue to trust that the LORD will provide within time. In Beardstown, we have several Bible studies as well as faithful families and single individuals who continue keeping touch with us on a daily basis. We are even planning to share Jesus’ love to one particular family through a house renovation project at the end of May with the help and financial assistance of another church. We have hosted a wide amount of evangelistic outreaches through soccer activities, water bottle (with our own logo & info) distribution, block parties, and gospel of John and tract distributions. We have not begun any kind of Sunday service there only because of work schedule conflicts with the different families and individuals, and because we do not have other Spanish speaking individuals who would be able to lead and minister with us in this town. During a time when we are seeing the LORD work in this area through the many activities and outreaches, we also continue to see a major drop in our funding, not to mention all the spiritual warfare we are facing on a daily basis. When the LORD is at work in an area or a person’s life, the evil one will try and intervene in any way he can and these kinds of things begin to show up. We ask that you do not let the evil one interrupt and exhaust our means of sharing the gospel of the one we love with all our souls, the LORD Jesus Christ! We ask that you continue praying fervently and daily for my wife and I, and ask that you continue giving joyously, even sacrificially, to this crucial ministry in the central Illinois area. We trust you will do so! God bless you! En Cristo, Luis & Letty Olmos EL CIELO Catalytic Missionaries