Mexico Revival

In the fall of 2007 I traveled to the state of Tamaulipas, Mexico with my friends Mike Easton and Tony Murrell.  From October 15 through 20, we held nightly revival meetings in three locations. Mike held meetings in Rio Bravo, mine were in Valle Hermoso, and Tony’s series was in Reynosa. The meetings were coordinated by Nic Garza with help from Pastor Trevino and Pastor Martinez of the East Gulf Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists in Mexico.

I had a wonderful time and met so many great people.  I was truly humbled by the people I met.  In Valle Hermoso the people treated me like royalty and everyone wanted to feed me.  Every night the church was packed even though the temperatures were in the 90's and there was no air conditioning.  I have wanted to return to the area, but there are safety issues.  Someday I hope to return.

Here are some photos that we took on our trip.


LOOKING OVER THE REYNOSA MEETING SITE




TONY VISITING IN NUEVO PROGRESSO




REYNOSA MEETINGS




TONY MIKE AND NIC




RICHIE DELIVERING A FOOD BASKET




VALLE HERMOSO SABBATH SCHOOL




TONY SPEAKING




BAPTISM AT VALLE HERMOSO




NIC AND RICHIE HELP PREPARE FOOD BASKETS




RIO BRAVO MEETINGS




MIKE GIVING OUT FOOD BASKETS




MEETING CONFERENCE PRESIDENT PEREZ




PASTOR MARTINEZ




CHILDRENS MEETINGS IN RIO BRAVO




ISABELL WITH HER NEW BIBLE




TONY VISITING WITH KIDS




MIKE MAKING NEW FRIENDS




BAPTISM AT VALLE HERMOSO




RICHIE AND A FELLOW BODYMAN




YOUTH AT THE VALLE HERMOSO SDA CHURCH




RICHIE PRESENTING YAHAIRA A NEW BIBLE




RICHIE AND NIC PRAYING WITH BAPTISMAL CANDIDATES



RICHIE MIKE AND TONY AT THE VALLE HERMOSO SDA CHURCH




RICHIE FINDS A CAR JUST HIS SIZE




TONY INSPECTS THE FACILITIES




MIKE AND FRIENDS




NUEVO PROGRESSO SABBATH SCHOOL




NUEVO PROGRESSO SDA CHURCH




NIC AND RICHIE EATING BREAKFAST




VALLE HERMOSO MEETINGS




TONY SPEAKING




POWER BREAKFAST




PASTOR TREVINO




RICHIE GIVING AWAY A CD

The ABC Wednesday Meme is a fun way to see some great blogs.

Little Missouri Picnic

Yesterday was a beautiful spring day. We decided to take a picnic and go to Little Missouri Falls. It is quite a long drive over rough gravel roads to get to the Falls.  Although the road was in very bad condition it was a beautiful drive.  This past week there has been a lot of rain. Along the road we came across this small man made dam that we had never noticed before.



At the parking area for the falls there is a very nice picnic area along the banks of the Little Missouri River.  My parents and my sister and her daughters went with us.  We had a very nice picnic even though the wind was blowing briskly.








The Little Missouri River plunges through a cleavage creating a spectacular waterfall during periods of high water. Then it tumbles over a series of natural rock dams 2 to 4 feet high, intermixed with relatively quiet pools. then it continues as a cascade for several hundred more yards.  From the picnic area there is a foot bridge across the river that takes you to a half mile, out-and-back trail with a few steep grades. The trail climbs a series of steep steps to the edge of the cliffs overlooking the river. From here you have a great view of the area above the falls.









There were no dogwoods in bloom yet, but there were some redbuds and wildflowers.







We had a lovely afternoon, a great picnic, and it was good to get to spend time with family.

Relayers Make Certain Funding Available For Research

For the past the past 7 years I have been a volunteer for the American Cancer Society and very involved in my local Relay For Life here in Polk County, Arkansas.  The following article appeared in the Southwest Times Record newspaper.  It explains better than I ever could the reasons that I feel so strongly about the importance of Relay For Life.

Dr. Kris Gast is a board-certified radiation oncologist. She has been in practice for 21 years, the last 13 at Fort Smith Radiation Oncology in Fort Smith. Her column, Cancer Demystified, appears the first Wednesday of every month in the Times Record.

This months column was titled, "Relayers Make Certain Funding Available For Research".

I’ve heard the government has decreased funding for cancer research. What will cancer researchers do? Where will the money come from to find a cure for cancer?

Back in 1946, no funding for cancer research, federal or otherwise, was available. Mary Lasker, an American health activist and philanthropist, was the first person to address this problem and to see research funding as the best way to promote public health. The American Cancer Society Research Program was “born” because of Lasker’s fundraising.

Things we take for granted — things we assume have always been there — are present only because of the American Cancer Society. The extensive list of medical advancements made possible through the ACS is impressive.

Since 1946, the ACS has funded 46 scientists who went on to win the Nobel Prize. The pap test for cervical cancer, chemotherapy for childhood leukemia, the double helix of our genetic material, the link between smoking and cancer, the link between sex hormones and breast and prostate cancer, the idea of combining multiple chemotherapy drugs and the discovery of growth factors have all been discovered by funded researchers of the American Cancer Society.

All of these that we take for granted were funded by money raised by volunteers, and all before 1960.

Since the 1960s, the ACS has continued to be responsible for significant health tools. For example, the ACS can be thanked for the $1 million invested in the 1970s to demonstrate that the mammogram was the best tool to detect breast cancer early.

In 1974, an ACS-funded scientist discovered that the drug Tamoxifen could prevent breast cancer. By 1981, ACS-funded scientists had discovered the technique to sequence DNA, and they developed the PSA (prostate specific antigen) test for prostate screening.

What is the source for the funding of these important past and potential future medical advancements? The American Cancer Society has one staff member for every 400 volunteers. Who are these volunteers? They are you and I.



Every year around the world, volunteers raise money by participating in Relay For Life. Relay For Life is an organized, overnight community fundraising walk where teams of people camp out around a track with members of each team taking turns walking around the track to symbolize the journey cancer patients take.

In addition to raising money for continued research, Relay For Life benefits our local cancer patients by providing gas vouchers for treatment, hosting “look good feel better” programs and providing trained cancer information specialists who can answer questions 24 hours a day, every day of the year, toll-free at (800) 227-2345.

In summary, the American Cancer Society not only uses money raised to fund researchers working tirelessly to find a cure for cancer but also gives back at the local level through their programs.

The best way the community can help in this fight is to participate in their local Relay For life.

Because cancer never rest or sleeps, neither do Relayers.

Lists

When I was growing up I loved to make lists.  I kept a list of the books that I had read from the Longmont Public Library.  I kept a list of baseball players and their statistics.  Each week I would make my own Top 40 list.

Do you make lists?  What kind of lists do you make?  Today your lists may be on your computer or your phone, but I bet you make lists. Lists keep us organized.

I recently read a story written by Christian author Max Lucado.  On a plane he was seated next to an attractive young woman.  The young woman was very nervous about flying, so he took out his Bible and read some reassuring passages.  As they talked she told him that she was a believer once when she was young.  Max asked her, “Do you believe in heaven?  "Yeah."  "Do you think you’ll go there?"


She looked away for a minute and then turned and answered confidently, "Yeah. Yeah, I’ll be in heaven." How do you know?"

"How do I know I’m going to heaven?" She grew quiet as she formulated her response. "Well, I’m basically good. I smoke less than a pack a day. I exercise. I’m dependable at work and," she counted each achievement on a finger, "I made my boyfriend get tested for AIDS."

That was her list. By her way of thinking, heaven could be earned by smoking less and safe sex. Her line of logic was simple: I keep the list on earth and I get the place in heaven.

Most of us are a lot like the woman on the plane.  We feel that we are basically good.  We are decent hard working people.  We have a list that we feel qualifies us for heaven.  Your list may not include cigarettes or AIDS, but I know you have a list.  There is a purpose for the list: to prove we are good.

In Romans 3:20-22 Paul tells us, “No one can ever be made right in God’s sight by doing what his law commands. For the more we know God’s law, the clearer it becomes that we aren’t obeying it.  But now God has shown us a different way of being right in his sight—not by obeying the law but by the way promised in the Scriptures long ago.  We are made right in God’s sight when we trust in Jesus Christ to take away our sins. And we all can be saved in this same way, no matter who we are or what we have done.

Well, so much for lists. So much for being "basically good."  If no one is good, if no list is sufficient, if no achievements are adequate, how can a person be saved?  Wouldn’t you like to ask Jesus, “How can I be saved”?  Jesus was asked that very question.

We find the story in Mark 10:17.  “Now as He was going out on the road, one came running, knelt before Him, and asked Him, “Good Teacher, what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life?”

Isn’t that the question you would like to ask Jesus?   It is very interesting that Jesus gave the man a list.  In verse 19 Jesus answers, “You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery,’ ‘Do not murder,’ ‘Do not steal,’ ‘Do not bear false witness,’ ‘Do not defraud,’ ‘Honor your father and your mother.’”


It seems that Jesus is saying that to have a list is OK.  It seems like we should have a list.  When the man told Jesus that he had done all of these things, Jesus said to him, “One thing you lack: Go your way, sell whatever you have and give to the poor, and come, take up the cross, and follow Me.”  The story has a sad ending.  The man was OK with keeping his list, but he was not willing to follow Jesus.

No matter how long or complete your list, there is always one more thing you need to do.

I recently read a story of a woman who for years was married to a harsh husband. Each day he would leave her a list of chores to complete before he returned at the end of the day. Clean the yard. Stack the firewood. Wash the windows.  Sweep the floor.  Bake the bread.


If she didn’t complete the tasks, she would be greeted with his explosive anger. But even if she did complete the list, he was never satisfied; he would always find inadequacies in her work.

After several years, the husband passed away. Sometime later she remarried, this time to a man who lavished her with tenderness and adoration.

One day, while going through a box of old papers, the wife discovered one of her first husband’s lists. And as she read the list, a realization caused a tear of joy to splash on the paper.  "I’m still doing all these things, and my husband doesn’t have to tell me. I do it because I love him."

You can’t make a list long enough and complete enough to satisfy the requirements for eternal life, but Jesus hasn’t asked you to.  All he wants is you; All of you.  He wants you to be madly in love with him. Head over heels, do anything for him, in love with him.





In John 14:15 he tells us, “If you love Me, keep My commandments”. Not because that will guarantee us salvation, but because we are so much in love that we want to please Jesus. If we truly love Jesus, doing the things that will please him will not be a burden. They will be a joy.

The ABC Wednesday Meme is a fun way to see some great blogs.

A Mulberry Manor Easter

A couple of years ago, my daughter and her family moved from the hustle and bustle of Baton Rouge, Louisiana to the very small rural town of Castor, Louisiana.  Castor has a population of about 300 people, and town life centers around the Castor General Store and the Castor Cafe.

Because the area that their house is in was at one time the town of Mulberry, they have named their place Mulberry Manor.  Over the past two years they have been working hard on Mulberry Manor, doing lots of repairs and remodeling on the old farmhouse, putting in a big garden, clearing land, planting an orchard and raising chickens.

This weekend we visited Mulberry Manor for Easter.  We had a great time.  We attended the Marthaville SDA Church where I had been invited to speak.  The topic I spoke on was Who Do You Think You Are?  My son-in-law's grandparents were instrumental in starting and building the Marthaville Seventh-Day Adventist Church.

My grand daughters had a great time dyeing and decorating Easter Eggs.  Easter morning the rain held off long enough for hiding and finding the eggs out in the garden.

Even though it rained most of the weekend, it was beautiful.  Spring is much further along in North Louisiana than it is here in Western Arkansas.  The dogwoods, redbuds and wildflowers are in bloom. Mulberry Manor is a beautiful place in the spring.