random photos

Today has become an interesting one... The mission group from Ohio came down last Saturday. Their plans were to stay a week and leave today ( Friday ).  But on the way down, the radiator in the bus they were driving decided to die two hours before arriving here in El Paso. Of course on one of the hottest days of the week! So some of the people that are working here, went to go rescue them. During the Ohio groups stay, a couple of the guys worked on the bus. We found out that it needs a new radiator, and the one that fits this bus needs to be custom made. OH BOY! One of the team leaders was able to contact the factory and have the two radiators for the bus sent here, and they would plan to work on it as soon as it arrived here on Thursday.

The plan sounded very good, but if one radiator gets sent here and the other to Louisiana, it doesn't work very well.

Instead of having the one radiator from Louisiana sent here, it's shorter time frame to have the company make a new one and send it overnight.

Plan B: part #2 is due to arrive at noon, and hope that the shop in town will work on Saturday or wait until Monday-Tuesday.

In the meantime, the Ohio group has been very helpful on getting the place clean for the next group to arrive tomorrow, we aren't sure when the Ohio group will be able to go home. No-one is worried about it, everything is in God's hands and the fellowship with others is sheer joy!

 

During the week in Mexico, we passed out tracts and John/Romans books and invited the neighboring Mexicans to come to the children's program that the Americanos were having. With such a good amount of people helping, we got done a little earlier than usual. Someone brought a soccer ball with and had a great game of soccer with the children that arrived early.

 

Something even more wonderful than all of the things we have done, was to see around 425 people give their life to the Lord this week! AMEN!

Last nights meeting went so amazing! The church that helped us out, turned out to be a relatively good number. Mr. Jarvis (director) instructed each American that came on the mission field to line up. We numbered of, from 1 to 6, then divided into six groups. A Mexican church member was assigned to each group and we headed off to invite the neighborhood to come to our meeting in an hour.

The community homes are SO close together, the pictures can't explain it well enough to show how crammed all the hundreds of houses are. Not to mention the small space!

  I grabbed a stack of John/Roman booklets, and stuck a tract in each one. Ruth, Justin, and I, were to follow Carmen from the Baptist church in Mexico. We only could say a 'pequeno' of Spanish and the same with Carmen for English. When she introduced herself to us, we had a trouble trying to explain Ruth's name. Justin's was easy, and the Spanish name that is closest to Joy, it Josefina ( !I have adored and LOVED that name since I was young, so you can't imagine my excitement when I found this out!! ). But Ruth's name is very difficult since the R is rolled and there is no TH. HMMMMMM.

We did our best to explain, but Carmen seemed confused. We continued on the rough sidewalk, when it dawned on me that she had her Spanish bible. OF COURSE! I could show her the book of Ruth! It is awesome to communicate with people, have them understand, and not say a word :)

 

 Anyways, about the meeting.   We had walked into the neighborhood with time to spend before we started. Some of the Mexican ladies brought face painting supplies to give the people something to do if they came early.  I wasn't planning on having anything on painted on me, but when I saw the enthusiasm in Carmen's determined, joyful expression, I couldn't turn the Mexican people down.

The Meeting started with Brother Hector speaking an asking the children questions about this and that. Then the Americano group sang a song in Spanish with Ruth on her mandolin, Justin on his guitar, and me on the violin.

It went ok, considering that the pronunciation was different from the usual "Lord I lift Your name on high".

Another person from the Ohio group, whose name is Anne, played a song with me, I on the violin, Anne of the flute.

Brother Hector asked the kids what language we  should play in. Chinese? Spanish? French? NO! The children wanted INGLES!!!!! OK, we will... :)

 Day by day was our chosen song before going on to the puppets. This is what brings all the children, PUPPETS!

We are working on making the performance better, but the children still like it very much!
When the puppet show was finished, Ruth and I were invited to play something else, this song was not preplanned, just on the spot! I was quiet nervous, but I relied on the Lord to use these hands as He has always done, to make the music. Before playing the song, I really wanted to make the children laugh, so I screeched notes that certainly not make a 'joyful noise!' . Finally, Hector said to the children, "I can fix it". So I handed it over to him, he then raised it up, HIGH in the air to bang it down hard on the ground ( all in joking manner of course ), I made a terrified response to rescue my treasured item ( I knew he would never do it for real, but it was sure fun to be in the action! ). Well, all of a sudden my violin worked pretty good, so we played, 'I'll fly away". This song fit the moment, as many were familiar to it.

While we were playing, the guys behind us got the chalk easel up and ready to go. Chalk talks are so neat, they have a ministry all to themselves!

This night, seemed even more special. During the chalk talk, clouds built up, threatening to bring rain, but God held it back! In fact, right at the time of showing the black light of choosing which way we need to chose. The well worn wide road? Or the thin narrow path? Rachel was just about to put the backlight on to show glorious Heaven and destructive Hell at the end of each path, when a brilliant sunbeam came out of the sky, shining upward right in the middle of the picture!   Only God could be the planner of that!
So many people gave their heart to the Lord that night. Something in the air was so Holy, the presence of God was there.

How could I not come? How could I not see that the people were hungry for the Word of God, that even a motorcyclist had to stop and see the peace of his decision to give God his life.

How could I live a life and never grasp the opportunity to do something eternal?

   Go into all the world and tell the good news.

Last nights meeting

 

Week #2

Nothing is impossible with God!

Ruth is one of my dear friends, and she is gathering Gods word to pass out to the neighborhood in the location of the meeting we had.

The picture right below is one of the houses we knocked at to invite the household to the evangelism meeting. These pictures is of one of the meetings that we had during the afternoon service, each meeting is ended with a chalk talk- which is a message all to itself!

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Hola!
Oh! I'm having such a wonderful time here! The people that I am working with are ready to serve God, and we have found muchos things to talk about.

The mission trips into Mexico have gone very well also! We had 2 meetings yesterday, Wednesday. Our day started at 9am with all of us trooping into the bus that is used to bring the groups over the border. Every week we work with a church for the three days that we go of that week, and each meeting is around the area the church is located, at separate parks.

By the time the bus arrived to our destination, it was an hour before the meeting was planned to start. John/Romans and tracts were passed out to every individual in our group that did not stay behind to set up the speakers, puppet stage, chalk easel, and tents. We assembled into groups of at least 3 and at least one gentleman. Agreed on a street to go down, and knocked at each gate to invite the people to a childrens program that was a held by the Americanos and all were invited to attend! When we got back, and praying hard in our hearts for people to come!

Oh the joy that is shared when people start coming and a program is successful!!
I need to go now, but will tell more later!

And sadly, here is one of the homes in the poorer part of town. The people that live in this area will most likely stay here all their life- in a house made of cardboard or anything they can get there hands on.

day #1

WOW. Our group went into Mexico this evening and ministered to the people there.

The trip started at 3:30 and when we got to the border, the bus had to stay for over an hour while being searched and looked up in their  record history.  By then, we were wondering if the border patrol would let us in. Mr. Jarvis told the group that we needed to pray until they let us in. The noise in the bus came to a sudden stillness while everyone sought the Lord in prayer. I had no fear or worry, there is no mistakes with God!   After five or ten minutes, the gates were let open and we continued on our way.

Juarez, Mexico, was our destination. Bearing Precious seed ( BPS ) had made contact with a church near the area, so when we got to the public park, some of the Mexican church members were waiting for us. We split into 5 groups and went door to door, inviting the community to bring the children to a program that we were having.

The program started at 7:30ish, with a speaker and singing, puppets, and finally a chalk-art.

I helped out with the singing (I only know the tune and read the words in Spanish) worked in the puppet stage ( FUN! ) and then when it was time to watch the chalk-art, I sat down right in the midst of the group of children who came. OH! The pleasure it was to be with children!! Never mind that I didn't speak a bit of their language except "Hola". It just made them come closer to hear me talk funny :)  By the time it was time to go, I had a swarm of children ranging ages 4-8 gathered around me. Through gestures and basic words, I explained that I didn't speak Spanish, but Jesus Christ LOVES you! And showed them John 3:16. At least 4 little girls had to give me a hug before we left, and I said "Adios", they said, "bye!".

Please pray that the word of God did not go void and that His seeds fell on good soil. Of the children and their parents.

Tomorrow is another AWESOME day the Lord has made and I get to serve in MEXICO!

Tomrrow we go into Mexico...

This is what the city of El Paso looks like from the mountain. Imagine the picture with the lights each representing a lost soul-except to get the depth of the picture-times the size by ten times.

                    If God calls you- wouldn't you go?