Thursday, April 30, 2009

The following are pics that I have taken on my cell phone. The first couple are from a Royals-Yankees game I went to a few weeks ago. Too bad the Yankees won. It was kind of cool that night, as you can see. I'm there with a couple of friends from the Church. You can see Barbaro there. He is a Cuban guy I've mentioned before and he is wearing the tan coat. The other guy is Jose.

. This third picture is of the state Capitol in Jefferson City, Missouri. I went there this last weekend for a conference and drove around the Capitol
Here's Evan and Audrey with Grandma at the piano.
This last picture shows Evan with Angela. She is Miguel and Griselda's youngest daughter. They are one of our main families in the church. Miguel has done some visits with me and we are starting to disciple them as a couple. I ask you to pray for Miguel and his family. They have three young daughters. They also really want to serve the Lord and grow in their faith. I hope to put a picture of this family on at another time.
The following pics were taken by Jan of Evan's first Easter Egg Hunt.




The following pics were taken by Jan. The ones of Evan at the piano were taken on his 11 month birthday. It's hard to believe he's already 11 months old.





Well, I guess this is all for now. We'll be travelling over the next few days. We'll be headed to Cincinnati to see some friends there. Please pray for our trip and continue to pray for the church.

Sunday, April 19, 2009

Spring is finally here

Hello again. Spring is finally here. Well, at least I think so. It had started warming up in March and even a bit in February but it would still get cold and we even got snow at the end of March and beginning of April. I was wondering if it was ever going to stay warm. Well, it finally has been warm for a bit. I guess it could still get cold but it's been nice the last week or so. The birds are singing, the flowers are blooming and everything is finally turning green. I always enjoyed Spring in Texas but it feels a lot more powerful here. Of course, we didn't have seasons (besides rainy and dry) in Ecuador, so I guess that pronounces it a bit more as well. Well, we've had a good week and a good weekend. Evan's a bit sick now but is doing well overall. Following are a couple of pictures of him taken in our yard with the tulips. I'm glad the owner of the house planted these because we sure didn't.
The videos show Evan babbling some more. He has a new word and that is 'boogey'. He has started saying that quite a bit. He started saying it after I started saying boogityboogityboogityboo.


I want to close with a devotional thought. It's another excerpt from the book- 'The Indwelling Life of Christ' by Major Ian Thomas. I am yet to read the whole book but I am really wanting to get it now. I just found these excerpts on a website- www.rabbitroom.com . Well, I suppose this is all for now.

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You may have harnessed the energy of the flesh in an otherwise quite genuine desire to honor the Lord Jesus in your life. The flesh, which has its origin in Satan, will go along with you; to survive, it is quite prepared to engage in every form of Christian activity, even though this may seem to honor Christ.
The flesh will sing in the choir, teach Sunday school, preside at a deacons’ meeting, preach from the pulpit, organize an evangelistic crusade, go to Bible college, volunteer for the mission field, and a thousand other things, all of which may in themselves be otherwise legitimate, if only it can keep its neck out of the noose. The flesh will threaten, shout, strut, domineer, sulk, plot, creep, beg, pleased, or sob, whatever the situation may demand in the interests of its own survival. By any and all means it will seek to cause every Christian to live by his own strength instead of by the power and grace of the Lord Jesus, and to conclude that doing so is actually a good thing!
The characteristic of the spiritually immature is that they are unable to discern between good and evil (Hebrews 5:13-14), and the baby Christian, like the foolish Galatians, “having begun in the Spirit” still tries to be “made perfect by the flesh” (Galatians 3:3).
We must be particularly patient with those whose lack of understanding allows a genuine love for the Lord Jesus to be satisfied with, and sometimes to be quite enthusiastic about, Christian activities involving means and methods which are heavily contaminated by the flesh. These are more deserving of instruction than rebuke, for they are still in their spiritual babyhood.
True spiritual conviction is an activity of the Holy Spirit within the human spirit, and when the Holy Spirit begins to convict you of your immaturity, bearing witness to your conscience that the Lord Jesus Christ is being denied His rightful place in your life, the old Adam-nature within you becomes irritable and edgy. At the same time it will seek to produce the most plausible arguments in justification of its own illegitimate activities, even though these activities are only what the Bible calls “dead works” (Hebrews 6:1; 9:14) and not the “good works” which are truly the work of God.
“Good works” are those that have their origin in Jesus Christ, as Christ’s activity is released through your body because you present it to Him as a living sacrifice. You do this only by faith that expresses total dependence, as opposed to Adamic independence.
God does not honor men and women and their deeds or their books or their organizations. The Father in heaven delights to honor His Son. It is only the Life of the Lord Jesus - His activity, clothed with you and displayed through you - that ultimately will find the approval of God.

Monday, April 13, 2009

recent pics and videos

Here are some recent pics and videos. Our Easter service went pretty well and we thank you for praying for it. These first two pics are from a recent daytrip to Atchison, Kansas. Atchison is about 30 miles south of here and is a neat little town. We rode a trolley there, went to a museum, and a little ice cream/sandwich shop. These two pics are from the trolley ride. Evan enjoyed it so much, as you can see in the 2nd pic. They had Blue Bell ice cream at the place we went to and that was really nice. Here's Evan with his Easter bunny doll that Grandma Evans gave him.
This one shows Evan looking at his Bible story book with me. Sorry that you'll have to turn your head sideways to see this one.
This one shows Evan with his bunny and also spinning around.
Here is Evan eating some cottage cheese. He has begun to feed himself and does quite well but it is also quite messy.
This last one shows Evan speaking his own little language. Here recently he has begun to babble this a lot- gogi, gogi...etc. It is quite cute.
Following is a blog post from rabbitroom.com that talks about what I wrote in the last prayer newsletter (about fully trusting in God and allowing Him to do His work). This is a lesson that I'm still learning but this following post was a good reminder in the lesson. I hope you enjoy it. I'm now intrigued to read the book where he got it.
Major Ian Thomas: When Doing Right is Wrong
POSTED BY Ron Block | 2 Comments »
(Note: This is from The Indwelling Life of Christ: All of Him in All of Me)

So long as Christians are busy doing for God what is best in their own eyes, they will never enter into His rest and the true inheritance that is theirs to enjoy now. They will only be sweating it out, and end up weary, discouraged, depressed. They will likely become deeply cynical.

They will finally want to quit, and quit they must. They must quit depending on self-effort, and instead recognize the Truth: ‘I cannot - God never said I could; but God can, and always said He would.’

True repentance says, ‘I cannot,’ and true faith adds, ‘But God, You can!’ Then you can reign in life as you let God be God, and you allow Him to show you that He is big enough for the job.

Reflect again on this truth: Righteousness is doing right in God’s eyes, and God alone is the author of righteousness. For any activity of yours or mine to produce righteousness, God Himself must be the source of it. Are you allowing Him to do this in your life?

Thursday, April 02, 2009

prayer requests, videos and pics


This 2nd picture shows Christine and Evan with our Ecuadorian friend, Teresa. This was Evan's only compatriot here in St. Joe but now she has moved back to Chicago. We had asked you to pray for her before and now want to ask you to pray for her again as she reestablishes her life in Chicago. She has family there, so that will be good for her but pray that God continues to work in her life.
Following are some recent prayer requests related to the ministry. I know I haven't been real good about updating you on that and putting up prayer requests. Things are going well overall and we're quite excited now. I'll also be putting some more videos of Evan on later this evening. Guess this is all for now.
1. Continue to pray for our special Easter service. Pray that many new people would come and that all would have an encounter with the crucified and Risen Saviour.
2. Pray especially for a couple that has come to our church, Carlos and Adela. They were bringing food to the church and visiting quite regularly for a while but haven't come too much the last few weeks. I have been able to visit them and have some contact with them. They are not Christians yet but are very open to accepting Christ. They are thinking about it and trying to make the decision. I pray that God will open their hearts to receive Him and serve Him.
3. Continue to pray for Nancy and Fidel. She has had health problems of her own but now her parents are dealing with some health issues. They both had recent operations and Nancy and Fidel went there to be with them for a while.
4. Pray for Reinaldo and Beatriz who recently lost their jobs. Beatriz also recently lost her mother back in El Salvador that she hadn't seen in over 13 years.
5. Pray for Ruth's relative who is having some health problems. She is waiting on some results for a test. Ruth is also a praise because she has begun to help me with music, so we praise and thank God for her.
6. Pray for Miguel, Griselda and their family. They are beginning some premarital counseling and they have also begun helping some in the church.
7. Also, pray for Brigida. I found out this afternoon that she has a tumor in her uterus. They don't know if it is cancerous yet or not. Please pray for a good result or God's healing on her.

You can see Evan pulling himself up in this one. It won't be too long before he'll be walking.
You can see Evan's love for music here. He didn't 'dance' in this one as much as he normally does. A lot of times when we have a camera on him, he won't do as much of as what he normally does. You can hear a part of an Andrew Peterson song (Far Country) in the background.

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

recent pics and videos

Here's some recent pictures from my cell phone. This first one is of Evan and Barbaro. Barbaro is a Cuban friend that has been going to our church. I ask you to pray for Barbaro. Here's Evan standing up in his crib. He can pull himself up now, quite easily and he also can sit up by himself as well. Here's me and Andrew Peterson. I finally got to see him in concert and got to meet him as well. If you haven't heard his music before, I strongly recommend that you check him out. I have put lyrics from his songs on here before. You can see that Evan has begun to stick his tongue out here recently. He is also babbling quite a bit. This last picture was taken a few weeks ago during a snowfall when I went sledding. I ended up completely covered in snow and it began to melt on my pants. It was quite a lot of fun but also cold.
Here's a couple of videos of Evan for your enjoyment. I hope to put on a couple more in the next day or two.