Newsflash!

 It's done!  Praise the Lord!  God put on the heart of a Christian here in Mexico to help this ministry with a building.  While he already invested in a small plot of land for us, he believed that the church needed more land, so he asked us to keep looking for the owners of the property on either side of us, or find two plots together somewhere.  We did find a plot that the owner was willing to trade with us, and allow us to purchase the neighboring plot from him as well.  Then his parents, who owned the plot on the other side, found out that we were looking for more land, and offered to sell us their plot too.  When Bro. Jaimez called his friend who was helping us, and asked him if he wanted to go ahead with this opportunity, he said, "That's so exciting!  This morning I was praying about your land, and God gave me this verse. Isa 54:2-3(2)  'Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;(3)  For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.'  Do it!"  So the church owns three plots together, and is ready to plan a building that will be big enough for our growing church.   This is wonderful to watch, and I feel privileged just to be a part. God is faithful!

Joy in the presence of the angels!

This morning I dragged myself out of bed and plunked down on the couch, opened my Bible, and started rubbing the sleepyheads out of my eyes so I could read. I do not like mornings. As far as I'm concerned the only thing good about them is the fact that no one else is up, so I can have some solitude with the Lord before the rush of the day begins. As I peered at the first chapter of Colossians I realized that I was not alone. I heard a pair of little feet slapping down the stairs. My youngest daughter appeared, looking just as sleepy as I was.

Great. There went my devoes. I thought. I said, "Hi, sweetie, come sit with me." Maybe I can get some reading in this way. She snuggled up, and I commenced reading out loud, so she wouldn't feel the need to squirm or talk to me. I got to this part:

Colossians 1:12-13 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: (13) Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

And I began to think, she has no idea what this means. I read the next verse;

Colossians 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Then the Holy Spirit prompted me to ask, "Do you know what redemption means?"

"Uuuuuh, no."

Again, the Lord pushed me to explain this word to her. There is a wonderful story about a little boy who made himself a sail boat, that he loved, and when he went to the river to play with it, the wind blew it away. He saw it go in to the rapids, where there was a big fall, and he thought it was lost to him forever. Then one day he saw his sail boat in a store window. Not only had it survived the falls, someone had found it! When he asked the store owner for it, he found out that it was still lost to him, because in order to get it, he would have to pay the full price for it. He loved his boat so much that he brought money to pay for it, and redeem it.

I told her this story, and explained, that was what Jesus did for us. He made us, and He loves us. But our sin will take us to Hell, and we will be lost to Him, so He paid for us to be redeemed back to Himself, to take away our sin, and the price he paid wasn't money, it was His own blood. That's why it says, "In whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins." All we have to do is repent of our sins and receive His gift of eternal life!

"I want to do that! Right now!"

Thank God for this! Isn't it wonderful to see His Spirit working in the lives of our children? Elisabeth had made a profession of faith, but I sensed she didn't understand everything she had done, and last week, the Lord put a burden on my heart to pray for her, that God would make clear to her if she was saved. My prayer was answered a couple days ago when she told me frankly that she was not saved and going to hell, because she was a sinner and couldn't stop sinning. At that time, she didn't accept Christ. Sometimes it takes time for the Holy Spirit to work each part of the gospel through our hearts. I didn't push it. This time, I could see the lights come on. No, she didn't want to wait another minute, Jesus had paid for her sin, and she wanted to receive eternal life right now! I told her to tell Jesus! She did, very simply and frankly, ask Jesus to forgive her, and take away her sin so she could live in Heaven with Him. Then she jumped up, eager to tell everyone, "How do you say 'I got saved' in Spanish?"

I don't think I'll ever complain about having my personal devotions interrupted!

Furlough adventure

Someone gave us a van to help us finish up furlough. It's a blessing, and I'd love to have pictures of it, except it is in Oregon; more on that later. We were trying to figure out the best way to get the van to California, and Ryan decided to tow our blue van with the new one, after consulting with a hauling company as to the best way to do this. We had a meeting in Oregon on Sunday, another meeting on Wednesday, and then a long drive on Thursday down to Northern Cali where my parents are. We prayed before we went that Lord would protect us, and show us if anything is not safe.

Things started happening on Sunday. We drove out of Vancouver, Washington early in the morning, took it slow towing the van, and drove for two hours on the freeway, going 55-60 miles per hour. Right before the exit we needed to take, the back wheels started to slide around. Ryan stopped and checked the tow bar, thinking that if anything was wrong, that would be it. But it was fine, so he got back in and we drove slowly to the off ramp. Right after we took the off ramp we felt a huge bump, then SCRAAPE. Ryan pulled over. Our left rear wheel was lying on the road next to our van, and long white mark on the asphalt showed where it had come off.

Ryan called the pastor, and he came out with a mechanic from the church. No serious damage was done; only loose lug nuts. However, when the mechanic took a look under the tires, he saw that the brakes were all bad! Here we are, planning to tow another van up and down mountain ranges with bad brakes!

Coincidentally, the mechanic happened to have a van exactly like ours that he happened to be using for spare parts. He replaced the brakes for us, and we got back on our way. I'm so thankful for the way God protected us.

On Thursday, Ryan was more than skeptical about our towing arrangement, and he was not happy with the way it was moving at all. We made it down to Medford, Oregon, and stopped there. Our van is waiting in a church parking lot. Ryan is going to get it next week.

Neither of these vans are going to be able to be imported to Mexico City. When we go, we will have to buy a vehicle there, because of new laws that have been made. We are praying about this, and we don't know how God is going to supply this need, but we do know He will provide. How can we doubt when He's taken such good care of us every step of the way?

Rejoice with me!

The Lord never ceases to amaze me. He did a wonderful work, one that I could never do in the past month.

We went to a church service on May 20th, the day a precious little boy by the name of Josiah Herring, age 5, was born into eternity to be with his "Best Friend". This church had been praying for Josiah, and his death was announced in the service, along with requests to pray for his family. My two young girls, Elisabeth and Rebecca, were sobered by this. We had shared the gospel with them, but they both didn't really think it was important to deal with it right away. When they asked me again how old he was, my husband and I took a moment to talk about death. We told them that, just like everyone has a day to be born, they also have a day to die. God knows this day, and we do not. It's important to be ready for eternity! Both of them were under conviction.

About three weeks passed. Then one morning while I was fixing Rebecca's hair, Elisabeth announced, out of the blue, "I'm ready to die now!" Well, those are words that make a mommy take notice! I asked her what on earth she was talking about. She repeated herself, in a matter of fact way, with a big smile on her face. When I asked her why, she said, "I'll go to Jesus!"

"How do you know that?"

"Cause Jesus took my sin away!"

"How do you know He did?"

"Cause I asked Him to!"

"Why did you want Him to take your sin away?"

"Cause it was going to take me to Hell, and I don't want to go there!"

She was so happy and content, and I had not seen her like that in a long time. I continued asking questions, and learned that the night before, June 9, She got out of bed, knelt down and asked Jesus to take away her sin and save her. She told Him thank you for dying for her, and for saving her. Then she went back to bed and slept.

I was, and still am amazed by this work the Holy Spirit did on my daughter, while I did not even know about it. This is not the end of the story though! A few days ago, my second daughter, Rebecca, came storming into our room about two hours after I had sent her and her sisters to bed. She was gasping and sobbing broken heartedly. She choked out, "I want to accept Jesus as my Saviour!" Again, we started asking questions to make sure she knew what she was doing, but that was just foolishness on our part. She knew exactly what she was doing, and this senseless delay was upsetting her even more. She cried, "I'm gonna die and go ta Hell! I wanna get saved!"

What can you say to that? We said, "Go ahead then!"

I watched my daughter drop to her knees and cry out, "Oh God! I'm so so sorry for all my sins! I've done so many bad things! Please, please forgive me!"

That was it! When she raised up her head, a smile started to shine. Ryan asked her, "Did He do it?" She said loudly, "Yessss!"

Rebecca and Elisabeth are two different little girls today! They have peace with God, and it shows. Do you have peace with God? Do you know what will happen to your soul when you die? God is not willing for you to perish!(2 Peter 3:9) Are you willing to repent of your sins and accept His gift of eternal life? If you are, then He is ready to save you! "For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin, that we might be made the righteousness of God in him." II Cor. 5:21--John 3:16 says it better than I ever could, "For God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life."

My heart goes out to the Herring family, I can't imagine what they've been through, and even though they don't know me, I've been holding them up in prayer. I'm so thankful for the life of their son. One day, I'm going to see him in Heaven, and I'm going to give him a hug and tell him "Thank you for your testimony!, here are two precious souls that were brought to Jesus!"

I just found this in archives, and I had to share it!

I went back and found this in draft-it's a glory story! I didn't want to post it at the time, because I didn't want anyone getting the impression we were in need, so I just put it in draft and waited. Now I dragged it out and dusted it off, because I love sharing how God provides!

Some time ago we took an trip to the states for a family matter, and on the way back we picked up 2,000 lbs. of beans someone had donated to the orphanage? We got a 60 lb box. Well, because of that, we will not lack beans for quite some time. We have used about 30 lbs of them so far. (Oh good heavens, it's not just us eating-I make them for potlucks too, and hand it out to some missionary friends we know who need them!) We have 30lbs left, which should last us a while.

Man does not live on beans alone though, does he? (For the curious, the digestive system gets used to it after a bit, and the emissions become less vitriolic.) Someone is giving the church tortillas for the orphanage. hundreds of them every week. They told us not to buy tortillas any more, but come and get them from the kitchen. They just recently reminded us, asking us to please help them get rid of all these tortillas. (Don't you know we try to be a blessing and help out any way we can!) They aren't those little thin tortillas we're used to, either. They are thick, with a strong corn flavor. YUM!

So now we have this nearly unlimited supply of beans and tortillas. This is basic Mexican fare. Millions of Mexicans eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Together, they form a complete protein, and provide calcium as well. I know lots of people who grew up strong and healthy on this stuff. And we got it for free. Did you know the kids love it?

Glory stories

Since my dad is sharing some of his "glory stories" over on his blog, I thought I'd share some of mine. Maybe we can start a trend. I love reading how God has provided for people. I treasure the stories of how God provided for my parents. They gave me rock solid proof of God's way with His people. When it came time for me to depend on Him, I can honestly say it was fairly easy, and not because I'm a giant in the faith. (I'm not, by the way.) It was easy because I had seen God's faithfulness over and over again. To doubt would have been ludicrous.

God has not dealt with me any differently than He dealt with my parents. We have never had an unmet need, and there have been an abundant supply of things we do not need, but He just gave it because He is good!

One of the things that frustrate us when we first begin to serve the Lord is the how unable we are to do His will. God taught us a lesson about this on our first major trip when we started on deputation. Our income wasn't coming in yet, and we had meetings to get to. Gas costs money, and we simply didn't have it. I vividly remember packing us into the car, and as we drove out, asking my husband, "Uh, Babe? How are we gonna pay for the gas to get there today?" Ryan just said, "I don't know!"

We stopped by the post office on the way out. There was a check for just enough money to pay for food and gas to get us to our destination. It was from a penny drive in a bus ministry. (A bus ministry in our churches is a bus rout to and from church for underprivileged children.) These kids had collected pennies for six months, picked a missionary, and mailed them the check for the full amount. I remember Ryan standing there with a giant grin on his face, blinking back tears as he held a letter, written by the bus kids in crayon.

How can you doubt God's provision when He does stuff like that? It is true, we cannot do His will with what we have, and with who we are. We are not supposed to do it at all though, God wants us to see that He can do it!

I just found this in my archives, and I had to share!

I went back and found this in draft-it's a glory story! I didn't want to post it at the time, because I didn't want anyone getting the impression we were in need, so I just put it in draft and waited. Now I dragged it out and dusted it off, because I love sharing how God provides!

Some time ago we took an trip to the states for a family matter, and on the way back we picked up 2,000 lbs. of beans someone had donated to the orphanage? We got a 60 lb box. Well, because of that, we will not lack beans for quite some time. We have used about 30 lbs of them so far. (Oh good heavens, it's not just us eating-I make them for potlucks too, and hand it out to some missionary friends we know who need them!) We have 30lbs left, which should last us a while.

Man does not live on beans alone though, does he? (For the curious, the digestive system gets used to it after a bit, and the emissions become less vitriolic.) Someone is giving the church tortillas for the orphanage. hundreds of them every week. They told us not to buy tortillas any more, but come and get them from the kitchen. They just recently reminded us, asking us to please help them get rid of all these tortillas. (Don't you know we try to be a blessing and help out any way we can!) They aren't those little thin tortillas we're used to, either. They are thick, with a strong corn flavor. YUM!

So now we have this nearly unlimited supply of beans and tortillas. This is basic Mexican fare. Millions of Mexicans eat this for breakfast, lunch, and dinner every day. Together, they form a complete protein, and provide calcium as well. I know lots of people who grew up strong and healthy on this stuff. And we got it for free. Did you know the kids love it?