Prayers Requested

I am sorry, but there will not be  a blog this week - we are in Wisconsin as Fred's brother Charles passed away. Please pray for his wife Susan, Children Jeff and Jacci, granddaughters Autumn and Summer, as well as the rest of the family as we celebrate his life tomorrow morning.

An Amazing Girl

In the latest issue of Children Haven's newsletter, an amazing girl is featured. She is none other than one of the special girls we sponsor: Paty. Paty Carolina Hemandez Rodriguez was brought to the haven in Reynosa along with her two sisters in 2005 by her mother, who could no longer take care of them. They had lived in extreme poverty, no father figure in the home, they were often hungry and alone, had no real toys, only dolls they made out of rags.  All of the girls were in poor health. Paty had suffered a stroke shortly after she was born, but somehow, her mother managed to get her to therapy, and today she is as normal as any other 17 year old! Sadly, both of her half-sisters have left the home, which deeply saddens us as well as Paty. Sonia left a few years ago to live with her real father, and Lupe left to return back home, even though her mother also encouraged her to remain at the home. Lupe now at 16 is expecting a son in a month or so and had to drop out of school. She will seek employment after the baby is born at one of the many manufacturing firms in Reynosa in order to support her son. The father of the baby is with her, but he is unemployed. The biggest change in Paty's life is that now she is a child of God and maturing in His love every day. She decided not to leave the haven as the opportunities that she has there would not be available in the outside world. Paty is very dedicated to her studies, planning on someday becoming a lawyer if that is God's will. She will be entering a special high school this fall on a scholarship that she received in order to prepare her for college. We are so very proud of her.

On Wednesday, we traveled to Reynosa with another couple for the purpose of just visiting with the kids, especially Paty and Belinda, the other girl we sponsor. As the kids are nor not in school, we were privileged to be able to eat in the Casa with the girls (they are both in the same house). We enjoyed Reynosa tacos prepared by Celine, an older Senorita who was the housemother for the day. We watched in amazement as Paty spooned a large amount of HOT green sauce on hers!

Belinda, all smiles for a change - she is usually very sober

tacos, limes, and green sauce

some of the girls who live in Casa #1

Paty has learned to play the guitar

she also sang a beautiful song for us (all in Spanish, but it was pretty)

we asked Paty how her English was - she said so-so, and then proceeded to ask us how our Spanish was - smarty pants kid

There are a few hummingbirds around - just the local ones right now. The other day an oriole decided he wanted to try the feeder - after trying and spilling stuff all over he squawked and flew off.

 

Another one of our aircraft carriers has arrived at the shipyards in Brownsville for dismantling.  The seventh USS Ranger  was one of four class Forrestal-supercarriers built for the United States Navy in the 1950s. Although all four ships of the class were completed with angled decks, Ranger had the distinction of being the first US carrier built from the beginning as an angled-deck ship. Commissioned in 1957, she served extensively in the Pacific, especially the Vietnam War, for which she earned 13 battle stars. Near the end of her career, she also served in the Indian Ocean and Persian Gulf. Hopefully we may get to see this mighty ship this year before it is totally destroyed.

 USS Ranger

The cacti are blooming again - our large one has loads of blooms but they only last one day. After taking this picture, the blooms died off and started looking ugly when I noticed that there were more blooms coming again. This is the most it has ever bloomed - one of 2 reasons I suppose - it had plenty of life giving water or maybe it has reached maturity. This is so true with our walk with the Lord - we grow and blossom when we receive plenty of the Living Water and truly blossom when we reach maturity in His Word.

 

lots of blossoms

beautiful flowers

 

 

It was another beautiful day in the Valley as we drove to church this morning after getting the Sunday paper from our favorite paper lady. Pastor Israel continued his sermon theme by relating to us the blessings of righteousness. Today's world wants to blur the truth - but the truth is Jesus Christ and the Word. When you have truth you are truly set free. We still fight a battle everyday with Satan who is very subtle in hisattacks. Sort of like a TV advertisement repeated over and over until it becomes permanent.

The Old Testament ties righteousness to behavior - following the law. The Old Testament covenant dwells on the relationship with the Lord.  Psalm 112 tells us of all the blessings we have from the Lord. The New Testament covenant is all about believing - simply faith. God is faithful in His covenant with us just as we are to be faithful in our covenant to Him. We really need to work on this as "for all have sinned and fall short of the Glory of God". Romans 3:23

 

Wake up every morning saying "This is the day the Lord has made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it".

Turn that frown into a smile - and your day will be so much better.

 

 



 

 

Simple Sunny Sunday

Today really a simple Sunday - we took a short detour this morning on the way to church to buy a Sunday paper from the neighborhood paper lady  ( she is perhaps in her late 40's). She is on the street every day and stays there until all of her papers are sold. I used to have the paper delivered on Sundays, but the cost was over $2 - I can buy a paper from our favorite lady for $1.50 (we give her $2) for which she always replies, "God bless you". After church services we began our search for a bed skirt. We have a beautiful quilt a friend made and I would like a matching bed skirt, Can you believe how difficult it is to buy a bed skirt in a store in any color except white, ivory, brown, or black?!!!  Sure, you can check online, but how can you determine the exact color? Oh for the old days of the 5 and dime when everything you needed was right there in the store and employees were readily available to help you. We will keep looking - the elusive bed skirt will show up one day soon.

so gorgeous and comfortable to sleep under

 

 

On Friday we picked up produce at Border Missions for the food and clothing ministry at Great Oaks Community Church. I was really unsure of the quantity of produce available due to the huge amount of rain the Valley has had this spring. Many of the huge fields have been plowed under as much produce had just rotted in the fields - some of the seeds never even germinated. The farmers could not even get into the fields to save some of the produce. We were amazed at the amount of produce available when we arrived in Hildago at Border Missions- many tomatoes, bell peppers, Mexican squash, bananas, cabbage, lettuce, cucumbers, and loads of limes. What a blessing.

 normally these fields are full of veggies

 miles of empty fields

 both sides of the roads are barren

as far as the eye can see - nothing





 

 

 

I have noticed on my evening walk that the level of the lake has gone down some - even the water birds seem to be returning. We saw 6 whistler ducks when there were only 2 last week. Some of the great white egrets were also visible on the other side of the lake. We miss the birds on the lake and hope they all will return soon.

 

This morning Pastor Israel continued his series regarding the armor of Christ according to Ephesians by trying to define righteousness - being just, doing what is right (you cannot define a word by using the word itself), mora,l good , blameless, even upright. Being righteous is the absolute character of God. It is ironic that many of Chaplain Bill's sermons last year was based on many of these very verses. In Ephesians, Paul reminds us to be strong in the Lord and in His powers. "For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rules, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms." Ephesians 10:12.  Temptation comes not only from the world but also from within.  In the Old Testament, it was pretty simple to appear righteous - follow the law, keep God's commands and everything is ok. But the standard was raised in the New Testament, as Jesus died for our sins and righteousness goes beyond keeping God's commands. Being righteous is not the heart of the problem, but the problem of the heart. How righteous is your heart: do you keep the law through faith? Faith in the resurrection, faith in the knowledge that Jesus wants a relationship with us, and all we have to do is believe in Him and we will be saved. Following the law of God is obedience to Him  and because we believe we strive to do what is right according to His law.

 

Continue to pray this week for those who are in physical need of prayer - the needs are many. If you cannot think of anyone who needs your prayers, pray anyway - God knows who they are.

 

 

 

Alamo - Here We Are

We left Arkansas early last Monday on our way to visit Chaplain Roy and Paula Gee in Joshua, Texas. It was a cool morning and a beautiful day for a drive. We did run into lots of rain, but nothing too terrible. Evidence of all the flooding all the way along our route was very evident though.

Roy and Paula also have twin great-grandchildren, theirs being a boy and a girl - Mac and Mallie. They, too, are miracle babies and such a blessing to parents, grandparents, and of course, great grandparents. We blessed with seeing the twins while we were with the Gees - thank you so much for Michelle (grandma) and Bailey (Mom) for bringing them over!!!

Mallie and Mac celebrating their first July 4th

Tuesday we drove with the Gees to Fort Worth to visit the "big city". Lots of skyscrapers, as well as beautiful historic old buildings. We wandered down to the stockyards just in time to see a cattle drive down the main thoroughfare (not a real one but fun to watch anyway). The old stockyards are all shops to entice the tourists, although there are a few stores with items for the real cowboys!

 here come the cattle

 now those are really long horns

a caballero or vaquero

 

 they look pretty docile - but.......

 lots of outriders to make sure the cattle don't bolt

no, they ate not going to the petting zoo - just up the ramp to the stockyards, waiting for their next trip down the street

 lots of barbeque places

 not sure about barbequed shrimp

Fred and Roy checking out the shops while Paula and I browse in other ones

 which one shall I chose - cheapest one was over $800

spurs anyone

wonder if Paula wished she married a cowboy???

 this little gal was a bit shy even though it was only a statue

 a distinguished gentleman sitting outside the Cattleman's Club - shown often in the "Dallas" series

After all this Western culture, what would the best place to eat be??? Joe T Garcia's, of course. The outside is very deceiving as it is very normal  and ordinary looking.

looks pretty similar to every Mexican restaurant you see - perhaps even a bit more uninviting

 surprise - this is the patio area - a virtual oasis in the bustle of a busy city

 beautiful fountains - we were lucky to be sitting at the table nearby when I took this picture

 a peaceful setting

 more breathtaking scenery - this restaurant seats 1000 (yes, 1000) people when it is really busy on Friday and Saturday nights. Glad we were there on a quiet day.

 some of the many exotic flowers

 

 Paula's hand compared to this huge leaf

We then decided to visit the botanical gardens, which were beautiful, but not in their full glory as preparations were being made for the big holiday week-end.

 

 normally the dark areas are filled with roses

 Roy now has wings

 and so do we

a quiet refreshing spot - it was very hot that day

 

We left Joshua and the hospitality of the Gees on Wednesday morning with the plans of being in Alamo in about 9 hours. As we traveled along, we noticed a detour on the highway - we were being re-routed along side roads as there was a huge accident and the highway was closed on both ends. After an hour of creeping along on tiny back roads, fighting for position with semis, we were back on our way. As we arrived in the Valley, again the signs of flooding were everywhere. Our lake has been overflowing to the point of the streets being flooded - at least it water did not rise above the curbs.

there is usually a steep bank down to the lake

 trees standing in the lake

usually this tree is on the bank of the lake

lots of rain did this

 we do not have the water birds we usually have - perhaps the lake is too deep as they are lake bottom feeders - sure hope they come back

 

 

As we attended church this morning, we listened as Pastor Holaday spoke of strengths in weaknesses. Paul had a thorn in his side and asked the Lord to remove it 3 times, but the Lord did not do so. Why?? Because of this weakness, Paul's ministry had strength, as others were sent in his place due to this thorn.  Paul wrote his letters rather than actually visiting the churches he wrote to because of the thorn. This was God's plan for Paul's message to be more effective. God's weakness is stronger than any human strength.

 

As we have celebrated the independence of our great country, remember that God and country are no longer linked. We are bound to obey the laws of the country, but are bound by faith to obey the laws of God, Let us be lovers, not haters!!

 

May God always bless the USA!!!