Empty and Dry

I really should have taken my camera.....but I didn't. I went to Reynosa on errands and went by my "old house." The grass has grown wild and then dried because of lack of rain---really because no one was there to water the lawn. My precious rosebushes are drying up, no flowers left, and only dry, brown leaves. No one cares anymore. It hurts to look at a house that used to be a home. The large porch was a special place where I entertained....when the dogs and I enjoyed the late evenings.....where porch furniture and other stuff gave signs of LIFE. The dogs' kennels are empty and the cement block storage shed that I built and turned into a home for my cats is quiet and dark. Before the yard and house were filled with life and light.....but now it is dark, dry, and empty.....even dying.

It made me wonder about a life once inhabited by the God of all creation, the God of Life and Light and Power......but now empty of God because someone chose to reject Him....a life now empty, without power, without life and without light. How it must hurt God´s heart to look at the emptiness and feel the rejection.

I just feel sad.

Six Red Roses

My church surprised me with 6 beautiful red roses for my birthday and for being the mother (pastor) of the church. Six members each said a little bit about what I mean to them and then gave me the rose. It was so sweet....and so touching! I love my church family so much!!!

Mothers' Day and more!

Mothers' Day was so special at Nueva Vida. We had our service outside, under the roof at the Salazars' ranch. It was a bit hard to get a correct count as we had people moving around and some arriving late. However, I wrote down all the ones I could remember and the total was 66!!! Out of that number, 18 were first time visitors, 19 were family members who came to celebrate Mothers' Day with us and 29 were the Nueva Vida family. We did have some of our people missing because of illness, being with their family on Mothers' Day, and work. That was a pretty exciting attendance!! We had praise and worship, special music for Mothers' Day, the message, and we gave little gifts to all the Mothers present and we prayed for them especially. Following the service, we had our Mothers Day dinner with no need to wait for seating and serving. We had grilled fajitas, sausage, bread, rice, beans, drinks and cake. Everyone seems to really enjoy it. Now, we will be praying that some of our visitors will be returning to be part of our church.

Awesome News!!!!

This morning, Nueva Vida received a check for $3000 for our church addition!! It was a gift from a settlement for an injury on the job. That means that we are at least $12,000 toward our $19,000 bid for the building. With $19,000, we will have the building finished except for the platform, the carpet, wiring, and the air conditioning unit. So........we made a big leap in our savings today. Thank the Lord for that offering!!!!!!!!!!!! This is so exciting!!!!!!! We still have $7000 to work toward.....but we have gone over the halfway mark and that is so encouraging.

Lasara Ladies' Spring Fellowship

We had an awesome ladies' spring fellowship last night. I counted 24 ladies and 3 babies in attendance. We invited two other churches and some friends....so we had lots of visitors. The music was terrific! The message that Sis Marcella brought was tremendous! Three points from Matthew 28: quickly, joy, and run. We need to "move" with the message. We have JOY only in the Presence of the Lord. And we need to take our calling and "run with it". The special prayer time was awesome and God did some very special things in the lives of several of the women....especially the YOUNG women!! The food and fellowship was great too! Sis Norma, our ladies' president, did an excellent job of opening the service and a wonderful job of organizing and serving! We are already looking forward to our next fellowship service!!

Easter Sunday at Nueva Vida in Lasara

We had a glorious Easter service!! The children presented a short puppet play which was so well done. Then a group of five children sang a special Easter song which was accompanied on the keyboard by one of the Sunday School boys and our children's program director on the guitar. One of the girls read an Easter poem as well. We had awesome praise and worship, prayer, and my message was SUPER short. We really felt the Presence of God. And, the picnic lunch, the Easter egg hunt, the piñata, the cascarones, the soccer and volleyball games were great too. It is so good to celebrate with our church family.

Dad and Mom's 65th anniversary

Today is Mom and Dad's 65th wedding anniversary! That is a lot of years to have been faithful to each other and to have been nuturing the four of us, me, David, Jon, and Jan--in order of our ages!--as well as the five grandchildren. Jon and Gwen have Allen who is married to Anne and also Allison. Rick and Jan have Ben, Eric, and Melissa. Mom and Dad have been a wonderful inspiration to all of us in many ways. They have overcome difficulties and challenges. They both have a great sense of humor. And, at almost 88 and 87, they are still going strong....involved at church, taking care of their own home and lawn, and Dad even does intarsia. It is so special to wish them a great anniversary and more to come!