Merry Christmas "2007 The year of the singing tooth brush"

We had a great Christmas. We had a great turnout to our Christmas Eve candlelight service, it was in the mid 80's. It's still hard to get into the Christmas spirit as you sweat over a candle. We missed not having Brandon with us on Christmas this year but we are proud of him and Amy and we plan to go up to Dallas on the 31th.

Darla and Brittany got singing tooth brushes in their stockings this year. That was a big hit. The tooth brush plays music when you brush. Darla's plays Ricky Martin's "Living the vida loca" and Brittany's plays a Kelly Clarkson song.

We had Church members from the Spanish side of our church and our neighbors over for Christmas Dinner today. We had turkey, ham, and more food than we could eat. Our neighbor literally took a wheelbarrow of leftovers home.

Christmas dinner in our new house in Paamul.
I was not joking about the wheelbarrow of leftovers.

Great Day!

Highlights from 2007

It’s really hard for me to believe that there are only 4 days until Christmas. Our family has gone through a lot of changes this year but that is the norm for mission life. As I look back over 2007 the highlights would be, Brandon and Amy’s wedding, the starting of the new Spanish speaking church in Paamul, and building our new mission home.

Brandon and Amy were married last Feb. They are now living in Dallas Brandon is working as an accountant with Grant Thornton and Amy is teaching school. They have just bought their first home in the Dallas area.

This is Ruben and the praise team in Spanish..... We launch this new church in April 2007...We launch the Spanish speaking church in Paamul. We have seen God changing lives through our worship services in Paamul and our small group. We believe God is going to use this group to make a big impact in 08….

We started building our house in August of this year and we hope to move in Monday.

Our kitchen

Our bedroom

Glass block in the bathroom

Upstairs room in the small house

Brittany is home for Christmas

Our daughter Brittany came in today for Christmas.... We are hoping to move into our new place while she is here.

7 more days until Christmas

Our daughter Brittany is coming in tomorrow to spend Christmas with us here in Mexico. We are planning to all to North Carolina on the 26th and then to Dallas to is our Son Brandon on the 30th. Only a few things to do before we are ready for this. We hope to start moving into our house on Wed. We are still not going to have water until Jan. but we need to go on and move in.

We are working on the gas, electricity and plumbing today.... We need your prayers that all this will come together today.

When you think of Christmas we think of Peace, or a silent night but the first Christmas was really not a silent night.

I like that new Randy Travis Song "LABOR OF LOVE"

It was not a silent night, there was blood on the ground
You could hear a woman cry in the alleyway that night on the streets of David's town
And the stable was not clean and the cobblestones were cold
And little Mary full of grace with tears upon her face had no mother's hand to hold
It was a labor of pain, it was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark with every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
Noble Joseph by her side, No midwives to be found on the streets of David's town in the middle of the night
So he held her and he prayed, shafts of moonlight on his face
But the baby in her womb, he was the maker of the moon
He was the Author of the Faith that could make the mountains move
It was a labor of pain, it was a cold sky above
But for the girl on the ground in the dark with every beat of her beautiful heart
It was a labor of love
For little Mary full of grace, with tears on her face
It was a labor of love
It was not a silent night, on the streets of David's town

We got our kitchen sink installed at our new mission house only one minor problem no water yet.... When I was with the IMB they had a rule that you could not build your own home now I am beginning to understand why they made that rule... We are saving a lot of money by building this house ourselves and it's going to be really nice but there have been a lot of headaches a along the way. Speaking of headaches Darla seems to be doing great. She goes back to the doctor in Cancun on Monday... Thanks for your prayers for her...

I have been a Christian for 37 years and I still don't understand prayer but I do know this, the bible teaches that we are to pray believing. It also says we have not because we ask not and when we ask we ask a miss. Prayer helps me to remember that God is God and we are not...

I have begun to pray about everything, big and small. Trying to pray prayers with a pure heart in faith believing. I thing we ask a miss when we pray a selfish prayers or we pray without a pure heart.

The workers at the house site are not believers but they want us to pray for them. They are seeing God anwser our prayers and they are asking more and more questions.

13 Days until Christmas

It really hard to believe that we are less than two weeks away from Christmas. With all the time we have spent in the hospital this past month some how we missed the lead up to the Christmas season. It's hard to get in the mood to put up the tree when it's 88 degrees and you are sweating.

I don't know about you but I do not want to miss Christmas.
When it comes to Christmas the researchers tell us that people go through Christmas in one of three ways.

Four out of ten are going to go through Christmas thinking about the past. You wish for another place in time... You will always be thinking about the good old days then you evaluate and you dwell there on Christmas past.

Five out of ten of you are futurists. You’re always kind of one step ahead of Christmas. We’ve got to go to the store, we’ve got to get the wrapping paper, we have to go the mall, we have to go to that party. You’re just kind of thinking one step ahead. You’re not really in the moment. You’re thinking of the next thing that you need to do.

Then researchers tell us that only one in ten of us will actually be able to hit the pause button and leave the past and not be so concerned about the future but actually get out of those two places to come into the moment and to catch a moment. It’s not that we eliminate preparation or we eliminate memories. It’s just that this Christmas affords us some opportunities and some moments and if we’re not careful we’ll miss them.

Mission Dog "Buddy" helps decorate the tree

Mission Dog "Buddy" helps decorate the tree. We had a good day of worship in Paamul today....

We need your prayers as we go into this busy season of the year....

Small Groups are becoming family

Tonight at Dr. Danny's small group we celebrated the birthdays of Cris and Donna...

We had a lot of fun, great food and fellowship. This group is really becoming a family.

Another great Day

First, my dad came home from the hospital today. He is still in need of your prayers but he is doing well.



The mission house construction is going well but it's Mexico and things are always slower than what you hope....

Back in Mexico

Long day of travel but I am back safely in Paamul. My dad is still in hospital in North Carolina, please continue to pray for his recovery. Pray also for our Sunday services.