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!

Books to Read in 2010

I have developed a list of books for me to read for my own growth both spiritually and as a pastor. Thanks to Bro Kent and Sis Tracie Smith, Sis Jessica Marquez, and Sis Vicki Simoneaux for the input they all gave me as I was making this list. Here it is:

1--Living and Leading in the Ministry by Mark Jordan

2--Healed in the Name of Jesus by Joy Haney

3--Reflections of the Man in the Mirror by Rufus Parker

4--Grace Full Leadership by John C. Bowling

5--Columbia--the Rest of the Story by Sidney Purdue

6--21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership by John Maxwell

7--11 Inovations in the Local Church--How Today's Leaders Can Learn, Discern and Move into the Future

8--Spiritual Warfare in Missions by Ed Stetzer

9--The Comeback Churches by Ed Stetzer

10--So Long, Insecurity by Beth Moore

11-Who Moved My Cheese by Spencer Johnson

12--Fresh Wind, Fresh Fire by Cymbala

13--Year of Privilege, Year of Blessing by Barbara Willoughby

14--Lost and Found, The Younger Unchurched by Ed Stetzer

I do not plan to read these in any special order.....the order may depend on how quickly the orders arrive or I buy the books! At least one is on backorder already and one is to be published in June. So, now I have to get busy and read!

What Happened?

Well, I have just not added to my blog for a long time. It is time to get with it and make a goal for this year: to blog at least once a week. Now, will I be able to really attain this goal??????

Nueva Vida Christmas Service and Dinner

How exciting to gather as a church family and guests to honor and celebrate Jesus! That is exactly what we did at Nueva Vida this morning. We sang, we prayed, we read scripture all to worship Jesus. A testimony pointed out that we had a vision for a new building this year of 2009. Now our dream is a reality! And, the next step is a dream, a vision to grow deeper in our individual and cooperate walk with our King. The children sang Christmas songs honoring Jesus and also read scripture passages. After the message and our closing songs and prayer, we gave candy bags and stuffed animals to the children and 2010 scripture calendars to each family. Oh, I can't forget that we all had to sing "Feliz Navidad", wishing each other a Merry Christmas. Then came our dinner and lots of fellowship around the good food.I am so thankful to all of those who worked so hard to decorate the church, prepare the program and the food and make everything go so smoothly. We had another first today also---we now have a drummer as one of our musicians. Thank you, Bro. Ricky, for joining us in making a joyful noise to the Lord. But I have saved the best news for last. We had record attendance today....73 people filled our sanctuary! I cannot begin to explain how exciting this is for me considering that 16 years ago, the church was advised to close since it did not have a reasonable possibility for growth. But, with the help of the Lord and lots of work, Nueva Vida is growing. Praise the Lord for His Goodness! And, Merry Christmas to everyone!

Our New Sanctuary is in Use

How exciting it was to come back to our church yesterday and find the new sanctuary ready for our service. Of course, we have only plywood floors which are noisy and there is no interior decorating finished yet. We need to add the drums to the platform also....and then the platform will be full!!! The church family worked so hard to make everything look just great and to get the work done while I was gone. This time, it was not such a big surprise as I knew we had someone working on changing the doors, putting up the sheetrock and painting. I didn't know that the ceiling fans/lights and the chandelier would be up and the pews already moved. I thought we would wait to use the building for the first time on Dec. 20th for our Christmas program and dinner....but since everything was ready, no one could wait. Now it will be ready for our Ladies Christmas Fellowship too. It seems like a dream that we could actually do all of this with very little to pay off! God has been really good to us and we are most thankful!!!!

October and November in Illinois

What a trip I had to Illinois this time! It would take so long to write all the things that happened so I am just going to make a list!

Van trouble in Little Rock, Arkansas

A ride in an Arkansas State Trooper's vehicle, lights flashing

A ride in a three steps up cab of a tow truck

A long stay in a motel in Little Rock

Sunday dinner at Stockholm Inn, a family favorite Swedish restaurant

Shopping and Chinese and girl talk with my sister Jan

Shopping and walking at Sinnissippi Park and eating out at Taco Bell and Beef-A-Roo with my brother David

Sunday dinner at my sister's....really good food and fellowship

A trip to Batavia to see my Aunt Shirley (and the cast on her foot!)

Trips to the Apple Orchard with David

Ice Cream at Culvers with John and Shirley Davis

Bible study and goodies at Al and Gladys Damrose's

A weekend trip to Iowa to visit my brother Jon, his wife Gwen, Allen & Anne and Allison. Lots of good visiting and good food. Trips around town. Attending their church on Sunday. Oh, yes, Oscar the cat and Lucy the granddog were there too.

Opie had to go to jail for four nights (the kennel) but was greatly spoiled the rest of the time!!

A visit with Gaylord and Peggy (my cousin and family)!

Baking and cooking at Mom's! I love doing it!!

Long talks around the kitchen table!!!

It was a great time........and now we are looking forward to next year!!!!