Sunday Highlight: March 19, 2023

For our missions prayer time today, let’s pray for two of our missionaries serving on the island of Puerto Rico. They are Roy and Vilmarie Vidal — our church supports them through our Cooperative Program giving. Roy and Vilmarie have planted a new church, Path of Grace Baptist Church, in the city of Villalba. It’s about a 35-minute drive through the mountains down to the larger city of Ponce on the island’s south coast. Roy, Vilmarie and their two young children moved from Venezuela to Puerto Rico and settled in Villalba. There are Catholic churches in town, but the nearest Baptist church was far away. When they talked about the distance, their pastor encouraged them to plant a new church.

So they did, in 2021. Other Puerto Rican Baptist pastors pitched in and our North American Mission Board provided training and support. These days the church sends out witnessing teams to introduce locals to Jesus and the new church. Church teams have also been busy helping rebuild homes damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Maria. Note that our North American Mission Board’s Send Relief program has helped them.

The area around Villalba suffered heavy damage from the high winds and mud slides. Roy has found that many locals are senior citizens; many of them lived in the United States but returned here to retire. Let’s pray for Roy and Vilmarie. Let’s pray their church will grow and impact their entire city.