The Dedication of our new Sanctuary

The Dedication of our new Sanctuary finally arrived! We had wonderful weather. There were 76 people celebrathing with us! Our own church musicians, Ropin' the Faith, played so well....just as always! Bro. Alberto Salazar gave a welcome and a few comments about the history of the church. I have been the pastor for 17 years of ups and downs but this is actually the 20th anniversary of the church. We will celebrate that in September as we usually have a "Reunion" Sunday around Labor Day! Pastor Lucio Gutierrez ministered a good word to us and prayed for more growth in the church. And, Bro. David Salazar prayed the prayer of dedication. Bro David is the youngest son of the founding members of the church. Then we enjoyed visiting together and having cake and punch! It was a great day of celebration! (Now I am looking forward to the day when we have 100 people in a service!) Thank you so much to all of you who worked and helped to make this a great day of celebration....those who donated, encouraged, worked, planned......everyone deserves a big thank you!!!

A Little Nervous!

The special day is almost here!! .....Just today and tomorrow and then we will be dedicating our new sanctuary. The church is cleaned and everyone has their contributions! ....I just worry a bit as I wait for everything to come together for the BIG day! My dream is for an attendance of 125.....I think that is kind of BIG but surely we will have more than the all time high of 73, but then it is a Saturday afternoon and I wonder if some people will just forget. Or if they will have other things to do and just not come....... I do so want everyone to get in on the blessing and share our joy!!!!

Valentine Basket Sale

Today we finished our sale of Valentine Baskets....a big fund-raiser for the church. After a week of making cookies and candy as well as preparing all the materials for the baskets and wrapping, we put the baskets together at church. Besides being a good money maker to give our treasury a boost, we had a great time working together. I so enjoy working with the ladies in our church!!!

Needed to be part of the church family.......

I am still thinking about my Sunday sermon. I wasn't talking about salvation, but rather about being a part of a church family. Of course, a salvation experience is the first and most important requisite for being part of the Church. But what do we want when we look at our church membership?

First of all, the nonChristian world has requisites for being part of their groups. They are looking for the beautiful, the young, the rich and the intelligent. So... go figure.....I would NOT qualify nor would most of us.

The church family looks for something quite different. We want believers who are faithful to God and to the church. We need people who are obedient to God and to the teaching of the Bible. And, we need those who are willing to work for the growth of the church. How wonderful it is that we also have those who really want to praise and worship God.

All of us can qualify as part of a church family if we are faithful, obedient, willing and full of praise!!! I like that!!!!!!

Reading Update

At the beginning of January, I decided on an ambitious list of reading for improvement in my ministry. I have been reading. First, I read Mark Jordan's book, Living and Leading in the Ministry. It was an excellent beginning because it contains lots of teaching that will improve our ministry..with adjustments to the way we do things and how we handle situations. I highly recommend it, especially to new pastors.

Next, I read Joy Haney's book, Be Healed in Jesus Name. It is scripture packed and practical for all those who are seeking healing....through medicine and through divine healing.

Now, I am reading Ed Stetzer's book,Lost and Found, dealing with the 20 to 29 year olds who are not in church. So far, I have learned interesting facts about how this age group thinks and believes. While it is statistical, it is enjoyable reading. I have it underlined and starred already so I can go back and put some of the findings to use in our church.

And, there are still 11 more books on my list........

Nueva Vida gets new pews!

Nueva Vida is definitely an exciting church!! This week, we found pews for sale online, checked them out, decided they would be appropriate for our church, got a loan to cover them, and two couples and another man took off for Baytown to buy the pews and bring them back. They rented a huge U Haul truck...loaded it up (and that was lots and lots of work), drove the U Haul back to Lasara....and yesterday the guys unloaded the pews into our church sanctuary. Now, we have lots of pews and adequate seating for those who attend. We are so happy and God has blessed us GREATLY!

To make things just a bit more exciting, today, we started our new schedule which includes Sunday School for adults. For a first time with the new schedule, things went very smoothly and we had a great service. God was among us to meet needs and to bless us!

Serving God is SO AWESOME!!!!...especially at Nueva Vida!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you to all those who worked so hard so that we could have these pews today!! I love my church! I really have the greatest congregation!!!!

Expectant......

Well, today is Kiarah's due date. Kiarah is Opie's sister who lives in Veracruz, Mexico......and she is having babies! Hopefully, there will be two or three so that Opie and I can have a baby to love and train! We are so excited as we wait. Will it be a girl or a boy???? We have secret names picked out for either.....just in case....... More news will follow, I'm sure!