Faithfulness is Contagious

Thank God, faithfulness is contagious! As you may recall from my February report, sometime last year, Alvina Valencia and her two children, Marina, 13 and Isaac, 4 began attending our church. At prayer time, Alvina would ask for special prayer for her husband, Luciano. Once in a while he would accompany his family to church, and last November we had the privilege of holding a worship service in their two-room house. 

Worship service at Luciano and Alvina's house

In January, Luciano quit drinking and started coming to church regularly. In February, he started Bible studies.

“I’m so happy because God did a miracle in my life with my daughter”

Mr. Luciano’s smile spread from ear to ear. We were about to have our second Bible study together, but I wasn’t about to miss this story!

            “Tell me about it!”

“My daughter Marina was an average student. She was getting by like scrape dog with 72%.”

“Scrape dog?”

“Yeah, that’s how we call it here when you barely pass. And along with all the rest of the barely passing students, the teachers make her go to extra classes and pay $6 every Saturday. I think it’s just something the teachers do when they need a little extra money.” He laughed.

Here in Belize not even public education is free, and many families make big sacrifices to try to give their children a good education.

“At first she started going because that was the only day they gave those extra classes and she needed it to pass.” Luciano continued.

I well remembered when Marina had begun to miss church. Lyli and some of the other missionaries had spoken to her, encouraging her to be faithful and to be an example and testimony to her family.  Now I learned that Mr. Luciano, who grew up Adventist himself, had been inspired to encourage his daughter at home as well.

 “I told her, ’You have from Monday to Friday to learn it.’” Luciano continued. “‘Pay attention and learn it. The teacher can fill your page with demerits for not going to school on Sabbath if she wants to.’ 

“I gave her 50 cents every school day to buy juice and chips at school. I told her to be faithful to God and pay her 25 cents of tithe each week. I don’t know how it happened, but it’s like a miracle! When she stopped going to reinforcement on Sabbaths and started paying her tithe, her grades went up from 72% to 88%!” He beamed. God’s faithfulness to Marina when she decided to be faithful to Him has obviously encouraged Luciano to be more faithful too.  Praise God for His great faithfulness and that He is willing to make us faithful too!

 “Since I stopped drinking this new year, there is so much more peace in my home.” Luciano told me. “I don’t fight any more with my wife. I want to be a good example for my kids. The other day the police raided a house on our street, and took the young man away in handcuffs. Isaac asked me why, and I told him because he was doing bad things like selling drugs. Isaac said, ‘I’m so glad my Daddy doesn’t do bad things like that guy!’ and I felt so good because I want to be different then I used to be and I want God to keep changing me so I can be a good dad for my kids.” Luciano finished with a smile.

On March 3, 2018, Mariana was baptized at the Chan Pine Ridge church, and her dad Luciano recommitted his life to the Lord by a public renewal of his baptismal vows.

Luciano and Marina are at the left of the Pastor (blue shirt and tie)

 

Marina's baptism