The day after the Carpenters Crew headed back to the snow and cold in Illinois and Iowa, we had our first outreach in the new Community Center. We still had clothes to give out at our old place, but after that, everyone came to the new building for a great message of hope and the beans, rice, cooking oil and sugar. A lot of praise and worship songs sung by our friends David, Luz-mar and their kids invited the Holy Spirit to descend upon us all and seven people gave their lives to Christ. What a great day!!! 150 families came for the message and the food, so them coupled with the 100 families that the Carpenters Crew gave food to last Thursday took the total to 250 families for the monthly food outreach. We know now that we need to take food further down the canal to the people that simply don't walk the two miles to get to our place once a month. It's a long walk with their kids in tow, plus then they have to carry the 10 or 15 pounds of food all the way back home, so we'll do two food outreaches a month instead of one.
After the food outreach we had our monthly Pastors meeting at our house and was glad to have 4 of them in attendance. Paula and Lynnea made us all lunch and we had a great time sharing our hearts about how God could use the new Community Center for His Glory. Two of the new Pastors to come speak English which made us gringos feel more part of the conversations. We are all starting to work together instead of doing separate things. We all have the same goal in mind, To Further Gods Kingdom!! It was a great time of connecting.
After that meeting, a few Pastors from Austin, Scott McDonald from ROHI, a director of a local orphanage, and a few other leaders from Austin came to have a sit down with us and Roy and Rebecca Busby. They wanted to brain storm together about the upcoming year and some projects we could embrace together in the colonia. After giving our" stories" about what we do we talked about major projects like getting electricity in the colonia. And I don't mean the current partial system of stealing it from existing lines and hooking up to it. A Reynosa official was there along with an electrical contractor to measure everything and give Scott the official estimate. WOW real electricity. It looks like we'll do it in phases of 20 thousand dollars a section. Total cost probably 120K NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR GOD!!!!
THIS IS MY COMMAND,( not a suggestion) THAT YOU LOVE ONE ANOTHER EVEN AS I HAVE LOVED YOU
The Carpenters Crew from Laharpe IL gets it. Moraine Valley Church gets it, Hulls Grove Baptist Church gets it, The Power Ministry gets it, The Junkin 4 Jesus team gets it, Calvary Baptist Church gets it and so do scores of partners with us. They all get the fact that reaching out and loving God and loving people is the fulfillment of the Great Commandment.
The last two months have been an unprecedented time of building houses and building The Kingdom. Since Christmas we have witnessed 15 people give their lives over to Christ, built 11 homes, built a huge Community Center, given out hundreds of gifts to the children, distributed over 10 thousand pounds of beans and rice to the poor, placed hundreds of copies of Gods word in the hands of spiritually hungry people, re-painted a few existing houses and even managed to get a little sleep in between all of that.
The last week was a whirl wind of ministry with the second wave of people from The Carpenters Crew invading the colonia. 46 people drove, flew and hitched a ride with others to come and fulfill their part of loving God and people. 36 of them crossed the border every day while the others stayed back and prayed and prepared all the meals for a hard working group of servants. I have to admit, 3 houses in three days had us a little stressed, but God had a plan to get it all done and still manage to hold a food and shoe box outreach to the Colonia Union on the other side of the canal.
Dedication day was the best day, as is always the case, as we went from house to house singing praises to God for His provision. Manuel, Vannesa and WilliamJr. all gave their lives to Christ during the celebration. A man named Javier was standing in the back of the crowed, listening and watching all that was taking place and came forward as well when we prayed for those receiving Christ. So, Francisco and Delores got the house they had been praying for, Filicito and his niece Angelica don't' have to sleep in their old leaky, wind swept shack, and William, Rosalinna and their family have enough space to allow the kids to sleep in separate beds. HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!!!!!!
The last two months have been an unprecedented time of building houses and building The Kingdom. Since Christmas we have witnessed 15 people give their lives over to Christ, built 11 homes, built a huge Community Center, given out hundreds of gifts to the children, distributed over 10 thousand pounds of beans and rice to the poor, placed hundreds of copies of Gods word in the hands of spiritually hungry people, re-painted a few existing houses and even managed to get a little sleep in between all of that.
The last week was a whirl wind of ministry with the second wave of people from The Carpenters Crew invading the colonia. 46 people drove, flew and hitched a ride with others to come and fulfill their part of loving God and people. 36 of them crossed the border every day while the others stayed back and prayed and prepared all the meals for a hard working group of servants. I have to admit, 3 houses in three days had us a little stressed, but God had a plan to get it all done and still manage to hold a food and shoe box outreach to the Colonia Union on the other side of the canal.
Dedication day was the best day, as is always the case, as we went from house to house singing praises to God for His provision. Manuel, Vannesa and WilliamJr. all gave their lives to Christ during the celebration. A man named Javier was standing in the back of the crowed, listening and watching all that was taking place and came forward as well when we prayed for those receiving Christ. So, Francisco and Delores got the house they had been praying for, Filicito and his niece Angelica don't' have to sleep in their old leaky, wind swept shack, and William, Rosalinna and their family have enough space to allow the kids to sleep in separate beds. HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!!!!!!
IT'S NOT THE BUILDING-----IT'S THE BUILDING
I love it when a new team arrives and their all excited about building a house for a very needy family. Well this week the Carpenters Crew will be building 3 houses with a team of 46, of which only 32 will travel to Mexico everyday. The rest of the team stays back for cooking and other ministry opportunities in the States. Yesterday we got a late start, as usual, on the first day, but managed to get four walls up on two houses. The funny thing is that when we finished supper last night and had some sharing time, not one person mentioned how great it was to be building a house for a family, but they talked about seeing God in the little things. The faces of the children, the fun they had with them, the small child interrupting you, just to say hello and shake your hand as they came home from school. The men fishing all day in the canal. The way the family pitched in and helped with the building. The smiles from Felicito as progress was made. Do you get it yet? it's not about the building silly, it's about the building silly-- of the Kingdom, and relationships with people from a different Country and Culture, and Language and social economic status. It's about LOVING GOD AND LOVING PEOPLE. Who's kingdom are you going to build today?
EXPECT THE UNEXPECTED
Do you start your day wanting God to use you? To expect God to show up and use us, we need to be available. Every day we start out with Our plans. What if God wants to interrupt those plans for a higher purpose? Be ready today for an interruption! Maybe it's someone at work that needs some time with you. Maybe someone will need a tire changed on the side of the road when your in a hurry. Maybe someone needs a financial blessing and you have an extra $50.00 in your pocket. We get to experience opportunities almost every day and the question is, Are you listening to what the Spirit has to say to you today?
While we await the arrival of the Carpenters Crew on Monday, there is always a lot to do to insure the team has everything they need to get the houses built. Some of the siding wasn't delivered Monday and we need to get that. Paint, nails, saws, screws, ladders and everything else needs to be ready to go, so the Team can hit the ground running with some sort of organization. But we always encourage everyone to be flexible, because I sometimes forget things. 3 families are about to have their lives changed and our lives will be interrupted for a few days to allow God to fulfill His purpose in their lives. So get ready for an interruption of some sort today and know that it's God and He wants to use you to be a blessing to someone.
While we await the arrival of the Carpenters Crew on Monday, there is always a lot to do to insure the team has everything they need to get the houses built. Some of the siding wasn't delivered Monday and we need to get that. Paint, nails, saws, screws, ladders and everything else needs to be ready to go, so the Team can hit the ground running with some sort of organization. But we always encourage everyone to be flexible, because I sometimes forget things. 3 families are about to have their lives changed and our lives will be interrupted for a few days to allow God to fulfill His purpose in their lives. So get ready for an interruption of some sort today and know that it's God and He wants to use you to be a blessing to someone.
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OH BABY IT'S COLD OUTSIDE AND INSIDE IF YOU LIVE IN THE COLONIA
Nasty is the best way to describe the weather down here. Right now it's 38 degrees, and for those of you up north, it's above zero and to us and our friends in Mexico, it might as well be below zero. Cold is cold and with the constant drizzle, it's raw. We had to go over yesterday because Paula and Lynnea have been helping Naomi make a dress for her little five year old girls birthday party on Saturday. They got it all done as Alan and I cleaned up all the drywall debris from the Center. Alan washed the floor because it was considerably warmer in the Center because the Power Ministry insulated the roof and the walls, wow what a difference. The girls were in our house sewing, with two propane heaters going full blast and you could still see your breath. All the kids were so bundled up, that all you could see was their eyes.
I'm so glad we got two of the three foundations poured Wed, because that cement truck ain't getting down the road in the colonia for a while. The Municipality was going to have a Caterpillar scrapper come through the colonia on Thursday and fix the road, but with the rain it didn't happen. The wood for all three houses will have to wait until next week as well.
We attended a mini missions conferance last night, held by the Net Menders Ministry from MN. They are a support team for many different Missionaries and hearing the testimonies from them was a inspiring. Manos Huntos is hands together and they are working with many missionaries and doing various building projects in Mx. We supply some of their food outreaches with beans and rice. Speaking of beans, We have partnered with another missionary and Rick Caywood Minisrties to get some of our beans to the poor in Cuba. Rick set the whole thing up and He donated the rice and we donated the beans, Awesome!!! So we have sent beans to Cuba, Somalia, Uganda Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, The U.S. and God only knows where else the beans have traveled to. We can't do it without you, so Thank you again for all the prayers and support that keep it going, all for the Glory of God.
I'm so glad we got two of the three foundations poured Wed, because that cement truck ain't getting down the road in the colonia for a while. The Municipality was going to have a Caterpillar scrapper come through the colonia on Thursday and fix the road, but with the rain it didn't happen. The wood for all three houses will have to wait until next week as well.
We attended a mini missions conferance last night, held by the Net Menders Ministry from MN. They are a support team for many different Missionaries and hearing the testimonies from them was a inspiring. Manos Huntos is hands together and they are working with many missionaries and doing various building projects in Mx. We supply some of their food outreaches with beans and rice. Speaking of beans, We have partnered with another missionary and Rick Caywood Minisrties to get some of our beans to the poor in Cuba. Rick set the whole thing up and He donated the rice and we donated the beans, Awesome!!! So we have sent beans to Cuba, Somalia, Uganda Africa, Mexico, Guatemala, Honduras, Haiti, The U.S. and God only knows where else the beans have traveled to. We can't do it without you, so Thank you again for all the prayers and support that keep it going, all for the Glory of God.
I GOT NOTHIN
I have been sitting at this stupid computer for about twenty minuets, check e - mail, read a few stories on yahoo, and came to the blog and , wanting to give an update, I'm drawing a blank. Not because there's nothing to update, Alan got all the lights hooked up yesterday in the Community Center, Carmelo and I got things ready for the concrete today, Rick and the boys from New Life came and finished hanging the sliding doors on the center. So it's not like we did nothing all week, maybe it's just Super Bowl let down syndrome. All the hype and build up and then a blow out game. Oh well we had a good time anyway. Kelly, Paula, Lynnea and John made some tasty food.
A blowout game is when one team beats the other in such a huge way that it's hardly worth watching but we all did, WHY? I think because we love to watch a train wreck. And that's what is happening in the kingdom of darkness a train wreck. Satan knows his time is short and he is just ramping up his attacks even though the game is over, we have already won, and to the victor goes the spoils. REJOICE MY FRIENDS WE WIN.
A blowout game is when one team beats the other in such a huge way that it's hardly worth watching but we all did, WHY? I think because we love to watch a train wreck. And that's what is happening in the kingdom of darkness a train wreck. Satan knows his time is short and he is just ramping up his attacks even though the game is over, we have already won, and to the victor goes the spoils. REJOICE MY FRIENDS WE WIN.
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