Head's Up

Just a quick heads up for next Sunday as we will probably  en route for our annual trek North. We will spend a few days with Chaplain Roy and Paula Gee, then on to AR for our doctor appointments and other meetings, appointments, etc. After a few weeks there we will head up t WI for more family visits then our granddaughter's wedding in September. Planning on being gone 2 months but could be sooner. So blog may be a Day or two late this week an then hopefully backon schedule.

Lots of changes here in the park - a fence is being erected around the lake - for liability reasons I suppose . It will be sort of a chain link fence so that the view of the lake will not be disrupted. The manager is planning more activities based around the lake so I suppose that is the reason for more caution. Also, a park nearby is either closing or has some sort of situation, as quite a few folks are moving over here in the fall. Also repair work will be done on the roads. Lots to do before the Winter Teans return.

Work in the colonias continues - we are going to help build another room onto a house for a family (Caring Hearts Ministry friends are doing the construction) with a need for another room. The father of the household is doing the preliminary work which is far different than the way we have been accustomed to building. We cannot criticize this, as this is the way they do it - hopefully we will be able to get the job done, as their daughter is other interpreter. Perhaps they will take pictures as the work progresses. Chaplain Jim Maxson is going to take over for us while we are gone, so the folks will continue to have their Friday distribution. We are also trying to coordinate for a Tuesday distribution at another colonia in place of the one on Wednesday. This will not take place until we return, giving Ida plenty of time to round up volunteers and have everything in place. We really cannot do this with just the 3 of us alone so continue to pray for some folks to step forward and help - someone to help unload, someone to take charge of filling the boxes, and helpers to fill the boxes for individual families.

We will be able to make a trip to Reynosa this Friday to see the progress on the wall that the flooding had taken down. A church group from PA that has been coming for years helped to rebuild the wall as well as working on other touch up projects. I do believe there are 3 groups at the refuge right now, so we will  make a quick trip to encourage them all as well as visit with Pati whom we have sponsored for years. She is still in school, but as Mexican schools only run  1/2 days, she will be there for us to visit with.. She is in her second yer of college studying to be a lawyer - the schools in Mexico have condensed classes so she will be able to get her degree in 3 years. She will be a Mexican Lawyer, which is actually a step down from a notary - sort of different than our country.

In this world we have a choice to do wrong or right. To sin or not to sin. Actually committing the son or even thinking about it is the same. If we think bad thoughts about our neighbor, we have he ability to act on those thoughts by gossiping about them or not to. If we want to punch someone out, but do not act on it, that is our conscience or the Holy Spirit in our hearts telling us not to do it. We as adults, know right from wrong. When those non-Christian thoughts enter our mind, we have to put them aside and not dwell on them by remembering that we, indeed, are Christians, and need to act as such. Sin is the absence of perfection, although none of us are perfect. But we need to strive for perfection as best we can. There is so much hatred and anger in the world today, especially in our own country. We need to remember what our country was founded on - good Christian values and love and compassion for your brothers and sisters. Sin is hate not love, hot not cold, certainly not self indulgence. Doing something we are not supposed to do somehow gives us empowerment - the feeling of being on top, the feeling of getting even, the feeling that results in pompous behavior. The laws, both moral, worldly, and religious emphasize sin - they are there to remind us not to sin. Sin is real - people are corrupt, the world is out of control. Let us all try to do our part by abstaining from sin, and perhaps by our actions we can change a small part of the world.