A LEG ON E-BAY !!! AND 4 FAMILIES FOR HOUSES

Well I found a used leg on E-Bay for Eliazer. $500.00 for a carbon fiber below the knee size 10 foot, exactly what Eliazer needs. When I showed him and his parents the photo, I could see the hope restored in their eyes. I really want to help this family, not because they deserve it, because life choices put them here. Out drinking at 3 in the morning with his buddies when the accident occurred, left him alone and seriously injured because his buddy crashed the car and they all ran away from the scene leaving Eliazer alone and trapped. Months in the hospital and several surgeries later, his home coming party consisted of a drinking party with friends and relatives. His dad has rarely lifts a finger to help us even though he is a skilled carpenter and we could use the help, and the other day Paula said he laughed as he watched her struggle with some heavy awkward boxes she was moving from the truck. So why should we go out of our way to help them? So why would Jesus help you and me? Because of our wonderful and helpful attributes, our earnest devotion to Him and His kingdom? Our faithful and loving acts of generosity and kindness? NO!! BECAUSE HE CHOOSE TO PERIOD!. Not by any acts of righteousness that we have done, the bible says, our righteousness is a filthy rag, but because of His great mercy He helped us and lifted us up and gave us a hope and a future. We scouted out many families last week and have several that we will build in the next month or two.

A WOOD LEG ??

21 year old Eliazer lost his leg in a car accident several months ago, some of you might remember me mentioning that on the blog. Well his Father is trying to do something to give his son mobility, so he is making a mold out of wood and maybe fashion a fiberglass one after. His wheel chair doesn't roll very good on the road in the colonia and a prosthetic is about $4000.00. I drove to a few prosthetic companies in our area yesterday to see what I could find and there are no used ones available here. I'll try E bay. We pumped the concrete onto the roof of the children's classes yesterday and in two weeks we can remove the forms and install the windows and doors and another prayer will have become a reality. As we studied in our bible class Wednesday night about how to get our prayers answered, the focus was on us getting the sin out of our lives thru confession, but I like to take the reality of the cross doing that, and now to walk in the truth and help the poor and feed the hungry as it says in Isaiah 58, then we will call upon and the Lord and he will hear, and cry out and He will listen. So if you feel your prayers are bouncing off the ceiling and God is not answering you, don't look at what your doing about your sin, look at what your doing for others out of a heart filled with gratitude because your sins have been forgiven and you no longer live, but Christ the Righteous One lives inside you!!!

MUCHOS NINOS

Saturday we finished Catarinos house before we attended the monthly Pastors dinner at Pastor Eduardo's Baptist Church. We all meet once a month to discuss various aspects of ministry in the colonia and what we can all work together on. About half of the Pastors were there this time and we had a great time in the word, in prayer and in the breaking of bread together. Paula and I wanted to get their feedback on whether we should continue feeding the colonia at our ministry center once a month, or if the Pastors would prefer distributing the food at their churches. We all see the need for the food hand out, and the Pastors want the people to look to God for their provision as do we, so we'll let them hand out the food once a month and see how that works. We really enjoy having everyone come to our place to hear a message and receive Gods blessing of provision, so maybe we'll do a hot dog outreach once a month or something. The family in the photo is Martin and his wife Maria. They have seven children and her sister also lives in the back section of their makeshift house and she has six kids. A family from our church in Mcallen wanted to donate the money to build a house for a family, so this is the family we see with the greatest need right now. The problem, as so often the case, is that some of the old house will have to come down to make room for the new. I'm trying to figure out if there is enough room to build the sister a house as well on the same lot. Today we pour the concrete roof on the classrooms at Pastor Victors church. It was going to be wood and tin, but since my knee can't handle the work on the roofs yet, we decided to spend the extra money and do the concrete roof and then we can build a wood addition on top one day. Adios, gotta go