(July 3)
You know trials and tribulations are supposed to be one of those things that keep us sharp and on our toes. We are to persevere through all. At least that is what the scripture says. With that said then why do we have such a hard time dealing with all of life’s ebb and flow. With all that said, Praise God from whom all blessings flow. As we headed out from Ft. Walton Bch. with the FBCFWB in tow we headed to meet our brother and sisters in Ponchatoula, La. I know that God is in total control of GMSM and I hope and pray that never changes. I also know that God will continue to provide and allow us to keep doing what He has laid before us. We are truck and trailer poor and will eventually have to make a move to prayerfully consider what we need to do. It has become an issue with the fact that we are down there so much and haul so much down there. With a flat tire on the church bus and a 3 hour delay on the interstate and $650.00 later, a borrowed trailer with no tail lights, no tag and no registration and a borrowed truck with no registration we will truly need Gods favor to pull this off. We did make it to Primera Bautista and all is good to this point. Tomorrow will be interesting as we begin the prep work to gather our chum.
Kenny
GMSM
(July 4)
Praise God from whom all blessings flow. What a difference a day can make. After the day before and trying to make it through all the craziness that the world can dish out we prepared to face the new day with the Lords blessings. We got up early and headed to Lowe’s to get all the building supplies for the new house our group will build. Lowe’s can always be a trip in itself especially in Laredo. At check out I was shocked at how much the cost of material has gone up. They were pretty cool and had enough sympathy to give us 15% off the total to keep it around $2100.00. As we left and headed towards the border all we could do was to pray that God would allow us to get through without any hassles. WOW! We got straight through with a green light and not even the slightest hint of a problem. It is always very cool to not have to pay duty or try and explain why we do what we do to people who could care less. Once through we dropped off all the supplies at Pastor Felipe’s house. It is always good to see one of my favorite families.
After our visit we headed back across the border for a cook out at Primera Iglesia Church provided by the great and talented Wormy. AWESOME 4th food. It would be good to say at this point that my riders for this adventure were me, Jay, Mike and Damon. A very dangerous combination for the faint of heart. I came close to dying laughing but the Lord spared me. Tomorrow we start building for this young family. The rest of the crew started prep work on tomorrow’s VBS stuff and made lunches.
Kenny
GMSM
Wow, What a day! Today we had a day of preparation for the week to come. We started the day off with a quick breakfast, and then we were off to Lowe’s. Speaking of Wow, you should have seen the look on Kenny’s face when he got the price of the building materials. Now I know what sticker shock looks like. But the Lord is in control and his patience paid off. The Lowe’s guys decided to give us 15% off and that really helped with our budget. After loading up the wood on the trailer, we were off to grab a quick bite to eat, pray and test the ever-changing border. I will first say how Great God is. I told Damon that this will test our flexibility. The boarder is sometimes crazy and you never really know when you are going to get pulled over. Carrying the amount of wood that we were carrying, we thought for sure we would be asked to pull over and probably pay duty. The duty could be $500 or maybe even more. But the Lord went ahead of us and while everyone else was getting the red light and pulling over to be checked, we got a green light and passed right on through. Truly, at least 6 straight vehicles got the red light and us, with all that lumber, we just went right through. One guy was asked to sit on a bench and they took his vehicle. I told you what a Wow day it was. We then were truly blessed by getting to visit Pastor Felipe and his wonderful family. Because the boarder went so smooth, we got a chance to have a nice long visit. Being there with Kenny, Mike and Damon was great. We really got a chance to talk and joke around, mostly joke around. Damon maybe the funniest guy alive, he had me laughing the whole day. The end of the day was just as good because we got to eat Wormy and Brads BBQ. I can’t wait for tomorrow. I know it is going to hot, but I also know that I will truly be blessed beyond what I can imagine. Tomorrow we get to start on a new home for Miriam and Emillio. Can’t Wait.
Jay
Westside Baptist
(July 5)
I often wonder why God continues to bless and use me in this ministry that He allows me to be a part of. He continues to place beautiful people in my life and in the field with me. This trip is no exception. The 1st day of VBS at pastor Felipe’s church ran smooth and from what I could tell was perfect. The 1st day on the house in Los Artista colonia was also a great success. We accomplished more on this day than any other mission trip while building a traditional framed house. God really put together a killer team between FBCFWB and Westside Baptist Church in Ponchatoula, La. The young couple, Miriam and Emilio hung around most of the day and you could see how stoked they are. This will be a new beginning for them and their new baby. My prayer is that they would seek out the true foundation on which they may make their stand (Matthew 7: 25). Praise God from whom all blessings flow.
Kenny
GMSM
This is my fourth time coming to Nuevo Laredo, Mexico and every year there are always new and great things to learn from ministering to and fellowshipping with our brothers and sisters in Christ down here. Today was the first day of this year’s mission trip and as usual we got up early to pack the bus and travel across the border to the church in the Mexican community where we put on a vacation Bible school. We arrived at the church to find very few kids there because evidently school is still in session down here and most of the kids were still in school. We went ahead and did a full vacation Bible school for the kids that were there complete with craft time, recreation time, songs and Bible stories. We then had lunch and a break while we waited for the rest of the kids to come from school. When they did we started all over again and this time had a much larger group. I was placed in charge of recreation time for this trip and today we came up with a horse racing game in which the kids raced around the yard on stick horses. It was very popular and all the kids were laughing and having a good time. It is always hard to communicate the rules of the games to the children because of the language barrier, in fact it is difficult to communicate at all but one thing that is easy is the ability to show love and caring and just spend time with them. I spent the day running around on stick horses, playing soccer with the boys and having the kids steal my hat but it was all fun and amazing just to be able to be a part of their lives and spread happiness through God’s word and fellowship.
-Caisson