S Texas Spring

This past week has been wonderful weather – not hot and always a cool breeze. Sunny and warm – not like the huge snowstorms happening in the Northern part of our country. Record amounts of snow and still snowing. I really do not miss that at all. The growing season here in S Texas seems backwards to me - the opposite of what it was in either WI or AR. Harvesting of onions, broccoli, cilantro, cabbage, etc. is happening now.  Some fields are already planted with summer crops.

It always amazes me how awesome God works – a person just cannot out due Him. This past week we received a huge amount of clothing which I planned on sorting through plus the food the Winter Texans have left (yes – there are a few of them left here yet). We than received a call from another chaplain who knew of a ministry that God ended -those who took food to Mexico were cautioned by God to not continue with this dangerous travel in Mexico. The missionaries had beans, and animal crackers left and did not know what to do with them. We went to pick this all up – lots of beans, over 80# of animal crackers and some awesome crocheted hats and scarves for children. As it rained on Tuesday (a wonderful all day soft rain) Fred and I figured we would sort clothed and pack animal crackers. Needless to say, we worked all day on it!!! Some of the beans (they were already packaged – yes, thank you Lord!) animal crackers, and canned goods went to the new colonia area that Ida has tried to serve. So along with what we had already donated, this all was a great help. This particular colonia area has mostly older folks in it – so anything we can provide is helpful. Any of the leftover produce from our regular distribution also goes to them. We probably cannot provide for them always, but with the help of others, we can help them out – in their case a chance to have the few extras that they cannot afford. After the rain was finished for the day, even the birds were singing with joy and we could almost hear the flowers, trees, and grass sighing with pleasure.

Thing are very quiet here in the Valley now – with the Winter Texans mostly gone the roads are less crowded, the stores are easy to get into, shop, and get out quickly. We do love our winter guests, but it makes life a bit more complicated when they are here.

I am having a terrible time trying to connect to the internet with my phone. Everything was wonderful – quick connectivity, able to search and access web sites easily, then all of a sudden, I keep getting the message that “this page cannot be found”? What is that all about. So, I will have to go to the T Mobile store to see if they can figure it out. It was not a gradual thing – just boom and all sorts of trouble. So, if I do not get this blog published on time – well this is my excuse!!

This is the second week of the new church schedule – not sure if I really like it or not – we go to Sunday School but have to leave early in order to get to the church service on time.  Guess they are trying out the new schedule until the end of May to see if it works and how folks are accepting it. It is usually 12 noon before we are finished with Sunday services. The reasoning for the change in schedule is to allow families who want to attend the contemporary service to be able to get their kids ready and to church on time – although it really does not seem as if there are any new families at the service yet.

The message remains the same though – hearing the word of God. We continued our sermon series this morning on being courageous in our Christian life. Courageous faith is facing ourselves. Mirrors make us look like we were intended to look. You may think all is good and you look great, then you look in a mirror and are shocked t see what you really look like. I know I realize this when I see pictures of myself. Really now – do I honestly look like that?? We don’t like mirrors because they reflect back our true appearances. That’s self-reflection. Are you ever alone in a quiet place to reflect where you are with God? Perhaps the answer may be frightening – you see shame, guilt, pain, any number of things. These are the times when life confronts us with self- doubt. Is our faith strong enough to see us through? We cry out to God to rescue us. Sometimes when God reaches out to help us, we are afraid. The worse we are or seem to be the better God looks to us. Our insecurities highlight God’s security. Being courageous is to have fears and to go ahead and do it anyway.  Having a courageous faith is to face ourselves with a challenge of faith.