Easter Egg Hunt/Church Picnic

Here are a few pictures from the Easter Egg Hunt and picnic that we had last Saturday. The easter egg hunt is a little bit different here on the Mexican border. They don't used hard boiled eggs like we do. They take a raw egg and somehow remove the yolk and the white. Then they have found some way of refilling it with confetti. The kids run around and find the hidden eggs. Then when all the eggs have been found, they run around and crack them open on each other's heads.

It would be safe to assume that the little guys derived great pleasure from cracking their eggs open on the pastors head! I had a head full of confetti by the time I made it home that evening! :)

Preacher on a hot tin roof

I believe I can fly! :)

We have been trying to catch up on some repair work around the church lately. One of the things that badly needed some attention was the steeple. We had planned to scrape, prime, and paint it, but had a hard time figuring out how to access it. The roof is very steep, and made of metal.

At last Lee Martinez, (a deacon in the church who also has a road sign construction business, offered to let us use his crane) I don't know when it happened, but somewhere in the last several years I have gained a fear of heights! The winds have been crazy down here with gusts of up to 40 and 50 miles per/hour.

We had planned to ride the bucket up, climb out, and strap ourselves to the steeple by some rope. However, as you can see by the pictures, due to the height and the wind, I never did make it out of the bucket! I just used my long arms to paint from there.

Thanks to Greg Yacobian for being a little more adventurous and climbing out of the bucket where he could reach the low spots. :)

Mission trip to Coyutla

A few weeks ago I made a trip into deep Mexico to visit some of our churches in the mountains near the village of Coyutla in the state of Vera Cruz. It was quite an experience as I decided to take the bus down instead of fly. I left Reynosa at 9:30 p.m. and 13 hours later I arrived. (My knees were not thrilled!)

We have three churches in those mountains, and it was a unique visit. My spanish has gotten very good, but many there speak the indiginous dialect of Totanaco. (I did learn several phrases by the time I left. Tlen Natalanin.)

In these pictures you can see how mountainous the region is. As some of you know, I've been exercising a lot and I know run between 4 and 7 miles every day. However, a brisk walk up a hill in the colonias nearly wore me out!

The people are extremely poor. Nearly all of the houses are made of sticks and branches and all the floors are dirt. Here is a picture of a baby in his homemade crib/swing. Another picture shows 2 of the women baking in their kitchen. Note the homemade stove they bake bread in. The last picture of the river is a long range view, but it shows the local women washing their clothes in the river.

All in all it was a great trip and I made some very great friends. Many thanks to the group from Missouri that were their to help in the purchase of property for a new church.

Winter Texan Day

Every winter we receive an influx of some 300 - 500,000 winter texans to the Rio Grande Valley. (For some reason they don't seem to miss the ice and snow, go figure.)

This last year we enjoyed the company of some 40 of these "tejanos invernales". We really enjoy the company and the different flavor they bring to the services. Here are a few pictures from a dinner we had in appreciation of them. The last picture is of some of our youth preparing to sing a few songs for them.

New Members!

It was another great week of services at Primera Iglesia Bautista Libre. The winter texans are here in force, which is always a nice boost for the English service. (Particularly well represented was West Plains, Mo., with 4 families present) We also had a mission group from Tennessee with us. They are working on the duplexes at our Seminary in Mexico this week.

Also of great blessing was the addition of two new families to our membership. Les and Colleen Reynolds are some of our longest standing winter texans. They finally decided to move here for good this year. They now have permanent residence just a short drive from the church.

The Yacobian family comes to us from Guadalajara, Mx. where they served as missionaries recently. They have moved to McAllen with the hope of maybe someday starting an English-speaking FWB church there. In the mean time they have thrown theirselves in to laboring with our body.

We thank the Lord for the chance to work with both families in the future.

New pews!

We have had a need for some time for some new pews. A church in Oklahoma was good enough to give us free of charge some solid oak pews in great condition. The only problem was, they were about 3 feet too long to fit in the church. So we had a work day this Saturday. A great group came and really worked hard. (I as an unskilled laborer had the job of carrying pews in and out of the church.)

I was really pleased with the group, some were winter texans, some were our own regular church members. Also, one young man, who's family has been attending since the first of the year came to help. That was really encouraging. His is one of three families that have come for the last three Sundays. Pray that they make us their church home.

I am not yet what I'm going to be

I John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God and it does not yet appear what we shall be.....
This verse has been on my mind today. As many of you know, I have been working hard to shed the pounds once again. I topped out at 300 lbs, which is a lotttttttt, even for a 6'2" man. I have started eating more sensibly (i.e. no large pepperoni pizzas and family order bread sticks for supper) and have thrown myself into exercising. I am now up to running 4 miles a day, walking another 2, along with pushups, situps, jumpropes, and other sundry exercises. Thank the good Lord I have lost a little more than 55 lbs.! Everybody that knows me can't believe the change. They compliment me all the time. I tried on some pants I use to wear today, and they slid to the ground! I have a lot to feel good about in myself. However there remains a sobering thought, I'm still fat. Everybody that knows me can see the change, they laughingly call me skinny. Yet, to a stranger, I'm just another fat guy. I still have a ways to go, and without a picture they have no way of understanding the change. I'm just wondering how much this is like our christian lives. God has completely turned my world upside down and I am not the man I used to be. I have patience that I never had, a desire to serve God that wasn't there before. Every day I can see more evidence of change. I just need a reminder from time to time that I'm not perfect yet. Those that know me can see what God has done. After 28 years of being a christian, I hope my light shines enough for a stranger to see a difference. Still, I am reminded how important it is to maintain that testimony. It does not yet appear what I will be............ He's still working on me............. I'm looking forward to the day when God carries me from this life to perfection. Until then my prayer is that I continue to strive so that every man can see what God has done, and is yet doing in me. When I fail before men, God help me to repent openly and carry on for His honor and glory.