GOD ALWAYS HAS PEOPLE TO HELP THOSE IN NEED

Friday, George and Bonnie brought several winter servants that live and serve at the Rio Grande Bible Institute to come and help us finish the house we have been building for the "Twins" in Reynosa. We had a lot of work to do, but as the old saying goes, " many hands makes little work". We had the rafters and the roof on before lunch and the porch, trim and finishing touches were all done by 3:30. We shared the Love of Christ with the family in a very practical way, by meeting their needs. The group from RGBI shared about how they love to come to Texas and serve, instead of Wasting their lives playing shuffle board, square dancing and finding a cheap place to eat. They understand that giving of themselves, for the benefit of others, is what God created them to do. We had an informal dedication so the family could sleep in the new house, until next week, when we hope to have some people from Church join us and have an official dedication. We bought them two new beds so they didn't have to sleep on the floor until next week. and we will bring everything from curtains to diapers to bless the family even more, before Victor carries his bride across the threshold of their new home. While we were building the house, Paula and the girls prepared 150 bags of food for yesterdays outreach. Again George and Bonnie showed up at our house at 7:00 am with two more people, Stan and His wife that are training and learning Spanish at RGBI to become Missionaries to a Spanish speaking Nation. We headed back to Mexico to hand out the food and juice boxes for the kids, along with notebooks, pens and paper for the older kids in school. We sang praises to God and had a brief message before all 158 families recieved their food and headed home. George and Stan handed out suckers to all the kids as they left. A few families stayed behind for prayer, one women has cancer, another had asked for prayer for her entire family that is sick with the flu. On the down side of ministry to the poor, we had bought a house back from a family that needed to move and we moved a single Mom in there to live as long as she needed, rent free and we heard yesterday, that she sold the house to someone else. Even though it wasn't her house to sell and after all the help we had given her, we couldn't help but feel used by her. Oh well God knows! Caleb had His fourth birthday last week and we had a "Cars" pinata made for him and Paula made Chicken and mole'. We didn't get home until 4 in the afternoon and then Rick and Diane took us out to dinner. I had to go and meet the POWER team in Hidalgo, Tx at 11 o'clock last night to pick up over 300 bibles and tracts they had for me. They have spent two weeks ministering all along the border. Google POWER MINISTRIES and see the great things they do. Today they have a carnival at an orphanage in Reynosa for the kids.

TEMPERAL VS ETERNAL

Just where is it that we find our meaning and purpose in this life? What drives you? What gets you out of bed everyday? Where do you want to spend your retirement years, and what will you do when you get there? How much is enough when God asks you to give money to help a poor family? How much time do we spend at the feet of Jesus? How much time do I spend waiting in line at the border crossing praying? How is your so called life going? How are these little babies we just built a house for going to survive in the colonia? How is it, I get so caught up in busyness that I don't take special time with my wife? How is it that after we shared the gospel with the family that helped us all week we didn't close the deal and left? I don't know why I put all these questions in here and I could ask a thousand more, but the one of the most important questions I could ask is DO YOU KNOW HIM? I mean really know Him? As Paul asked, and the power of His Resurrection?

EVERY DAY OF YOUR LIFE, ALAN

Have you ever gone to work and the work you planned on doing was already done? Well, without a group to help us build the "TWINS" house, I got to the colonia around ten this morning, thinking about just cutting some of the wood for the walls and maybe assembling the rafters and then a few people from Calvary were going to help on Thursday and Friday. Lo and behold, Carmelo and 3 other guys, from the colonia, had two walls up, the rafters all assembled, and the family next door was busy painting the wood while Elizabeth took care of the twins. God showed up! I strapped on my tool belt and before long, all four walls were up and I was saying my goodbyes, because Rick Caywood was with me and had to go pick up a load of rice and bring some back to the warehouse before he heads to El Paso with a half a load of rice and a half a load of beans tomorrow.Rick really wanted to see the colonia where God has placed us for the last four years and where most of the beans and rice he and his partners donate goes. The sign on our Ministry House reads " EVERYDAY HOLDS THE POSSIBILITY OF A MIRACLE" (Thanks Georgia) and today was one of those days. If all goes well, we might be able to dedicate the house on Saturday, but we would sure like to invite some people from our church that made this MIRACLE HOUSE happen, so we might give them the house and dedicate it next week. We stopped at least ten times driving thru the colonia to hand out bags of rice and corn that were supposed to be handed out on Saturday, but maybe God provided their miracle today as well. Last night, we had 12 missionaries come over for dinner. Two bush pilots, a flight instructor and his wife, a missions trucker, the directors of Mexico Missions Phil and Marrianne, the Balmers, part time/ full time missionaries, two missionaries on this side of the border, and us. If I'd known we were going to have a missions conference, I would have called a few more. The stories were unending and we all shared a little bit about how God moved us to where we all were and how faithful God is. All of us are humbled at how God provides for all of our ministries, so why not adopt a missionary this week and be part of what God is doing around the world? If serving Jesus on this side of heaven is so absolutely awesome, what will heaven be like?