Found

Hooray- found my church Bible this morning - I had given it to the ushers with the song books last week  and it as put away on a shelf of seldom used songbooks. Some  kind gentleman came this morning after church while Fred was talking to Pastor Jim's wife and Fred saw it in his hand. He did not tell me until after we left the church and I saw my Bible lying on the dash. I so missed not having it - it was not very expensive, but contained notes and lots of notations and underlinigs of Scripture. Now I do not feel so lost.

tYesterday we went into a new colonia area where the folks there were very poor - more so than the one we normally serve every Friday. 30 families were expected, but only about 20-25 showed up - which was OK as they perhaps will tell others and we will have more families to serve the next time. It was a tiring day, as there were not as nearly as many workers, so we did a lot of physical setting up, serving, and cleaning up It was all well worth the effort as we saw the looks of gratitude on every one's faces. God is so good as He provids, we are just the vessels which pour out His blessings on others.

The beautiful young lady's where we had the distribution - she looks so young. We think she has 4 children and no spouse in sight.

three of her children

getting ready for folks - notice the "yard"- dirt

listening to the Christian music

reading from Scripture for the adults - in the background Ida having a Christian based children's craft session

eating a luncheon of hot dogs, (served with mayo and catsup if desired), chips, cupcakes, and a drink

again, shopping colonia style - also handing out large bottles of water - all of these clothes were gone

handing out blankets - the type you get in hospital - not fluffy colorful ones but they certainly will ward off the cold or perhaps act as curtains. Although, I noticed the windows are often all bordered up due to breakage, or maybe perhaps insulation. It is very depressing.

lots of blankets - the kids are carrying the 2 gifts each child received.


We had a an open house on our home yesterday, which worked out perfectly as we were going to be gone all day anyway.We did list it with the real estate for more coverage. There were 2 coiples and  a single lady who came to see it - all said it was very nice but so far no offers yet. We just put this in God's hands and are letting Him decide when it is time for us to return to NW Arkansas. 

Another great sermon this morning with Pastor Jim Maxson  .   His topic was "Code Yellow" which had me confused for a bit. "President Bush signed Homeland Security Presidential Directive 3, (after 911) creating the Homeland Security Advisory System (HSAS). The advisory system will be the foundation for building a comprehensive and effective communications structure for the dissemination of information regarding the risk of terrorist attacks to all levels of government and the American people." This means of communication is 5 levels - red, blue, yellow, orange, and red. The yellow is a sign of significnt risk. The Bible also allows for an alert system for us in our Christian walk. A 7 step waring system appears in Hebrews. Drifting is one of them. When we think of drift, we think of drifting in a boat, ether on purpose on because of other reasons. Supposedly we all grow smarter every day, but we still continue to drift in our daily lives. The USA was founded on the Holy Scriptures, but today has drifted far from those principals. This is mainly because of a lack of devotion . Even large denominations have drifted because of a lack of devotion to God. Have we lost the burning force and the passion to reach our nation? Our Christianity can grow cold as we, too, become content in our comfortable life.  Churches drift after they first start, are new and on fire for the Lord, and continue to grow. . Thy become complacent and tend to become lukewarm in their present state. We as believers can also drift. When we met Jesus for the first time we could not wait to tell others and try to show them the happiness and peace that follow accepting Jesus as Savior. But then our heart can grow from hot to lukewarm to sometimes cold. The definition of drifting is having no direction or course. Have we lost our course in our Christianity? The threat to us is deadly because drifting can be dangerous. It means going with the flow, following the crowd. A man cannot be bought who is  already sold. Are you sold to God? God uses 3 things to get our attention - tragedy, death, and His Word. Our deliverance from drifting is that we must pay more attention,- hear the message and pay attention to it's meaning in spite of the storm. Will your anchor hold or will your anchor hold on to you? What color is your alert today?

Wanderings

Another week of crazy weather here in S Texas - although I see it has been that way everywhere. This morning was cold when we left for church, but the sun is shinong and it has warmed up some. Folks are out walking and riding bikes, visiting neighbors and just enjoying this day of rest. Our neighbor is relaxing by building blue bird houses - lots of them for the himself and the family to take back to Wisconsin for everyone. Fred is supervising and taking notes, as he is itching to build some himself.

Tuesday we took our turn at the Expo in McAllen. Sort of a home show like they used to have in the small town in Wisconsin where my folks had a cafe. My mother made hundreds of rosettes for the event. Our job was to carefully shake powdered sugar over them and very carefully pack them in a huge box ( and try to sneak  a few for ourselves). . The home show was held at the armory where all the local businesses promoted their area of expertise and gave away gifts. I still have a letter opener and a clothespin basket from those events although I was a young kid at the time.This expo was for the Valley where everyone promoted their parks as well as various vendors hawking their wares. There was an oyster pick where you could pick an oyster, a pearl was then removed, and you could have it placed in a setting, for price of course. There were games of chance where you could spin a wheel and win a small gift - of course, you had to sign up and then someone would call you and try to sell you something. We were there representing Christian Resort Ministries, promoting our chaplains for RV Parks. It was fun to talk to folks, find out where they were from, and just chat. The booth next to us was Warrior 180 - a foundation of one of our chaplains who do suicide prevention training and minister to veterans with PTSD and other situations. They had lots of give  a ways including Bibles, inspirational books, Christian coloring books, books for kids, and even a soldier's Bible. We had gone out for breakfast to eat the Sunday before that and our waiter was a young man named Adam. I usually ask our waiter if we can pray for something as we pray over our food. He asked that we pray as he was going in the service soon. At the Expo, Warrior 180 had a soldier's Bible, which I promptly asked for. Today we presented it to Adam who was truly grateful. We wish this young man well in his new career. I was amazed as the folks came through the Expo with their "goody bags"( sometimes 3  or 4 of them) stuffed with free stuff. Our booth, as well a others, offered candy. Some folks came by and tried to sneak handfuls of chocolate, thinking we did not see Thom. Others just boldly reached in and swiped a big handful. We were tempted to place a sign that read "Please take 1", but thought better of it. It was tiring but a good sense of tiring.

each button in this bowl represents a death of a veteran through suicide for a year.

Criss and Jeff Hastings of CRM and Warrior 180

Our booth with Grace Tracy and Fred in the background. The screen displays each of our chaplains and their assignment

Yesterday I was invited tospeak to a group of women at another park. I used to be nervous to do this, even with our God' Worthy Women retreat, but was totally relaxed and really enjoyed telling them about some women of the Bible who not to be like. IT was a fun project, as I did some research to make sure I had all my fact straight and could clearly present reasons these ladies were not so perfect! The ladies seemed to enjoy it a lot. I also presented a short program of Caring Hearts Ministry as this particular park donates grreatly to the ministry.

This morning we had a couple who sing gospel music at church - this couple is from Canada and entertains here in the Vally during the winter. They were great to listen to and sing long with. Jim presented a sermon on who Jesus really is - I usually take notes during the sermon, which I did, but I think I left them and my Bible in church. So I will try to give you a brief summary of his message titled "Who is Jesus" taken from Colossians 1:1-8. Jesus is the Son in the image of the invisible God. God is not visible, but Jesus was  human in form. Jesus was the firstborn of all creation. Not born but actually of God and the Trinity. In Him all things were created. He is the head of the church. Not the church as a building, but the church  as we believers.. We strive to do All things of Him and for Him as we plod this earthly life. In Him we live and breathe.

Keeping Your Feet on the Ground

It was almost a difficult feat this week to keep my feet n the ground as we have had really strong winds here in S Texas - up to 50 miles per hour. I walked up to get the mail and on the way back the wind was blowing from behind me so badly that I had to almost run to keep up. My poor potted plant had blown over a few times before I hid it so the wind could not gt to it. It was fun to watch the huge water birds trying to fly - they would take off and get blown in a different direction for a bit until they caught a different wind drift to try to get where they were going. Even driving on the interstate was difficult because the wind gusts would try to blow the vehicles all over the highway. A tight grip on the wheel was needed. When the wind finally died the weather turned perfect - just the type that the Winter Texans come here to enjoy.

We spent the most of the latter part of last week trying to get caught up and stock pile beans, rice, and clothes as we have given away almost everything at our last big distribution. We received a huge clothing donation and I have packed 14 boxes already with about 7 or 8 more to go. Usually the clothes come in big plastic bags, all wound up together. I sort them into different categories and box them accordingly. Fred will be packing beans and rice tomorrow with the help of our great friend, Linda Smith. She is from a different park, but faithfully comes here to help. Tuesday Fred will take all the boxes to the colonias, as there is a small distribution for some ladies who help sew quilts and other articles. I cannot go along as I have speaking engagement at Ranchero Village as well as a short time to promote Caring Hearts Ministry. Ranchero Village has gone above and beyond in helping the ministry, so this is a bit of a thank you, as well a sa chance for the ladies to fellowship together. I am going to talk to the ladies about 10 women of the Bible that they do not want to be like. We hear so much of the wonderful ladies in the Bible who were so faithful God, but there are a few who really missed the mark of being righteous. It was an interesting topic and fun to research and work on. The ladies I am going to discuss are Eve, Lot's wife, Job's wife, Moses' wife, Rachel, Delilah, Penninah, Michal, Jezebel, and Herodias. Check out their stories and see if you can determine where they went wrong.

The weather was so beautiful this morning as were drove to Mission Bell, (actually our friends drove, we just rode along). Even the birds were singing with joy on the Lord's day. This morning we sang a lot of the old hymns - those that we have heard for years but still love. Pastor Jim spoke to us us attitude and altitude. Sometimes we as humans are so complacent in our lives that we forget that we can soar Ike eagles. We heard quite a few statistics about eagles, - thy can spot a rabbit form 2 miles away, they can survey an area of 5miles square miles, and when they spot their prey, they fold in their wings and can fly up to 200 miles per hour. No wonder the rodents don't even see them coning. It is no wonder we chose this magnificent bird to be the symbol of our country. Changing from the chicken yard to the winds of the earth is not easy. We need to know who we are before we can understand who we are supposed to be. If we are to experience this life to the fullest, we need to understand 3 things. We are created in the image of God, we are spiritual beings, and created to have a relationship with God. We are not like the other animals of creation who exist but are not able to understand who God is and what He has done for us. On order to grow, we need to take in physical and spiritual nourishment. What kind of relationship would you have in your marriage if you gave your spouse the same type of relationship that you have with God? We can depend on God so much more than we can depend on ourselves. The quality of our day depends on our attitude, and that attitude depends on our altitude of it. Are you just a chicken or are you an eagle? We can change the negative to a positive through diagnosis and remedy. Start the day with a positive attitude. examine yourself and eliminate negative attitudes. The Christian life is never easy, but it becomes easier if we think positively. Minimize the negative and maximize the positive. Today is indeed a gift from God. Do you wake up and say, Good morning Lord", or do you say "Good Lord, it's morning"? If God is for us, who can be against us. Switch from a can't to a can attitude. We are AmerICANs!!We can soar like eagles through Jesus. If we wait upon the Lord, we will soar. It doesn't matter when we get to heaven, but the fact that we will get there. Those who wait on the Lord will restore their strength.

Chicken and Italian Sausage

We thought we would have a quiet week after the big distribution after Christmas. Now I realize what a great sense of humor God has. We feel a bit discouraged that we have had no luck so far selling our place and returning to ministries in NW Arkansas. Did we forget that God plans are certainly not ours? We received a phone call that a distributor of ours had just received 35,000# of frozen chicken, Italian sausage, chicken and dumpling soup, turkey gravy, and hoagie buns.  Yep,35,000#, a whole semi load. Would we please come and pick up as much as we could as they did not have room for it all? W called Ida, our contact in the colonias, and she started making phone calls. We then called another ministry, as he has a large, closed in trailer, who volunteered to go pick up a large amount for us as well as himself. We met him later and transferred 1000# for our use, and helped him store the rest in his freezer. By the time we got to Ida’s church, (the only area large enough to work), Ida had a crew rounded up to help package the food, as it was all loose in large boxes. Luckily there were freezers and refrigerators there for us to pack it in. Ida was making more phone calls for folks to come pickup the boxes we prepared and to also pick up some for family and neighbors who had no phones or transportation to get it. What a day – we were exhausted by 4 PM, but what wonderful type of exhaustion! We returned again the next day after picking up another 500# - more phone calls, more help, and all was safely delivered. So now we have an answer our discouragement – God still has work for us to do here in S Texas.

unloading frozen cold food

sausage bagged

yea - more help

chicken noodle soup

Italian sausage

sweet faithful Carmen offering Fred a frozen chicken breast

family size packages - my hands were cold,too

We did get to relax a bit on Saturday, do a bit of long needed shopping, and just put our feet up and maybe got in a short snooze. It was cool outside, so I just snuggled in under a quilt, drank hot coffee, did some catch up reading. But I have learned to make sure I do a lot of energy refueling – God is full of surprises.

A great message again this morning. The title “To Die For” expounds on the greatest exchange of all – to trade something undesirable for something wonderful. This is what God did for us. Jesus exchanged our worst for His best – His life. Truth makes us realize that God can bring us to Him through Salvation which is truth and faith. We were children in disgrace but Jesus brought us back to the family. Redemption is to purchase something worthless and make it valuable – Jesus did that for us. We were worthless in sin – Jesus purchased our forgiveness by His death so we could become valuable before God. He ransomed us with His life. What did God owe Satan for our lives? Satan did not make us sin – we chose to sin. Perhaps not intentionally, but we did. We became slaves to sin, not slaves to Satan. Slaves to the sin we chose to commit. Sin tends to control us. We cannot free ourselves from sin – we need to rely on God. God became our redeemer. How mush is one person worth? If you add all the minerals in our body, you will realize we are only worth a few pennies. Our sins are a debt to God. How can we pay that off? We can’t – Jesus paid it for us. His blood became our bail money, as our worth is almost zero to the world, but priceless in the eyes of God. The cross become our bridge to God - to the most wonderful thing of all. thank God for salvation-as there are only 2 places in the afterlife – Heaven and Hell. Which would you choose?