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.
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| each button in this bowl represents a death of a veteran through suicide for a year. |
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| Criss and Jeff Hastings of CRM and Warrior 180 |
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| 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.
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