My Life Of, "Boy, I Meant To Do Better At That"!

Have you ever wondered what would happen if you actually accomplished all those lists you make, the good intentions of finally throwing out that potato salad from the 4th of July Picnic or taking on that job of getting your life"organized? I look at the last entry of this blog and keep trying to justify my not posting all that has happened and just can't find any. So with all my little lists crumpled up and thrown into the trash and setting that job of organizing in the back of my "To Do" folder, I have determined to just get done what I can. Oh, and yes, I did finally throw that potato salad out. I didn't know potatoes could turn that color!!

The month of June was spent in revivals, camp meetings and Mission conferences here in the states. We traveled many a mile with the hand of God wrapped around us. God keeps on amazing us in how HE supplies our needs. God even gives us special blessings we don't even ask for! We had a friend call us up and ask us how many miles we had on our 2000 Excursion. Well, we thought it was a strange question but told him that at that time it had a little over 300,000 miles on it. He then told us he wanted to buy us a newer Excursion. You could have blown us down with a feather!!! After some searching and "surfing" our friend found a 2003 Excursion for us up in Wisconsin!

We drove from North Carolina after we closed a revival and drove straight through to the dealership in Wisconsin, did the paperwork, wrote a check and drove both trucks down to northern Indian to start another revival. This wouldn't be a big thing except the GPS took us right down Chicago during the worst time of day and I WAS DRIVING THE NEW TRUCK!!!!! Praise the Lord we got to the church without one problem just my frazzled nerves and lack of sleep. God is so good in his care for us. I don't know why he supplied this truck for us, but I've learned through my many years as a Christian that God doesn't make mistakes and there is always a purpose for what HE does. Sometimes he makes us wait before he reveals the whys and sometimes he just tells us "Cause I said so"!!!!

The Church building in Honduras.

In July we were honored to take a crew of 9 men from the Trinity Baptist Temple Church in Saginaw, Texas with us to Honduras to build a church and a Community Pavilion (picnic shelter). It was hot, dirty, weary work for all of us. Well, not so much for me... I mean I did work, but not like these guys! It seemed like they moved a mountain of dirt one shovel (and I use that term very loosley) and some of the poorest wheel barrows we have ever seen. But the willingness of this crew to do any type of job, the intensity of work and humbleness of wanting to help the neighborhood children was so moving. I watched as on of the men took off his shoes and gave them to a man who had no shoes. On the last day of the trip these wonderful men gave away their work shoes, gloves, work clothes to the neighborhood men who had pitched in help us work on the church. One of our bricklayers even left ALL of his tools with a 78 year old man who has been laying bricks almost all his life.

Christian and Jesse with one of the girls.

The Mountain school where we feed about 80 kids.

We still need about $3000.00 to finish out the roof, windows and doors and the wood for the pulpit and pews. We took one day to take the men out to the feeding center up in the mountains and we had a blast with the kids. While there we watched these men huddled together talking. When we asked what was going on they said they were trying to figure out a way to build playground equipment out of what might be available in Honduras. They are already drawing up plans for a return trip to help us help make the lives of these children just a little better. We cannot thank these men for the sacrifice they gave in coming with us to work like they did, but I know GOD CAN and WILL reward them.     One of the men had brought a huge bag of little bead bracelets that his little daughters had hand made for all the children.  They had even gotten the Children's Church involved in doing something for someone else. Most of these children came to school without food, with out pencils or paper. They sat at tables with chairs with no backs and some were even missing  a leg and a  piece of wood holding it up.  The teachers are working with the barest of supplies and they are only paid a pittance as a salary.

Our focus isn't on these children having a place to play, or a place to go to school, or to have paper and pencils, but to hear the Gospel message that Jesus Christ loves them and gave his life for them so they can have eternal life through HIM.

The best part of this summer has been that we had a little time to go see our wonderful grand children. I am always so excited about seeing them whenever I get a chance. I got to spend my birthday with them this year and we had a blast. The kids each bought me a present using their very own money they had received by doing chores and even wrapped them all by their selves! From Jacob I got a Red Fire Fighters helmet, Lydia bought me a great big package os sidewalk chalk and Lily Jean bought me a baby doll! We had cake with more candles I cared to count and the candles were surrounded by toy fire engines!!! Thanks Brad!! I was so moved by the thought my precious grand children put into getting me a present. Okay, so they took them for themselves as soon as I unwrapped them but I didn't care one bit!!!
I think Grandparents enjoy their grandkids because we can revert back to our own childhood without everyone wanting to rush us off to the Nursing Home!! We "swam" in the kiddy pool, drew pictures of ourselves on the sidewalk, ate ice cream and popsicles, played ball and just had a great time of being a kid. Sometimes we get so busy with making a living that we forget to live! I found out how much fun playing hide and seek was again! That excitement of hiding and then running after each other, falling into a heap of love and laughter brought back that little girl who had gotten lost inside of me. I even discovered that I can still do a cartwheel and walk the next day without too much pain!
I love being a grandmother and all the wonderful things that come with it. I keep praying that I can be the kind of Nanny that will not only be fun but that will be able to be a witness of God's love, grace and salvation.
Well, I really didn't mean to recap the whole summer so I'll leave the rest of the excitement for the next blog which I plan on doing in a few days. Really, I really do mean it this time! So I will leave you with the ramblings that have fallen out of my head and hope that you enjoy them and come back to hear about all the other wonderful things I did on my summer vacation!!!!!

Youth Camp 2010 in the Philippines

      What an amazing time we had at our second Annual Youth Camp in Cebu, Philippines. Last year we had 256 kids attend our first camp and this year we were blessed with 304 campers! There were 80 more campers registered to come but backed out at the last moment.

      God has been so good to allow us the opportunity to host this camp at no charge. So many young people in the Philippines would love to go to camp but cannot because of the cost. For camp in the Philippines it cost about $7 to $10 to attend camp, then there is the cost of a bus, jeepney,or ferry to get to camp and that is about $3 to $5. Camp over there is very different from camp in the US. Each church brings their own food and each groups prepares for their church group only. Therefore you have a total cost of about $20.00 to attend camp. This sounds really cheap unless you take in consideration the fact that most families make less than $100 a month.
      Through the generous love gifts given by a bunch of dear Christian people we have been able to host this camp. For just $20.00 you can host a teen for camp and see God work in and through them. It was a thrill to see the Holy Spirit move in every single service. The alter was filled after every sermon and the Spirit was so sweet all week long.  Summer camp isa  time of wonderful memories for us all. I met my sweetheart at a Youth Camp in Weatherford, Texas when I was 15 years old. My best friendships were established at camp and our son surrendered to preach at a Youth Camp in Indiana as a teen. So I am very excited to be a part of the Youth Camps in the Philippines.
     It was a hot, humid week but no one seemed to care! The lighting was terrible (Harrell had to read his Bible by a flashlight), the sound equipment was poor (one of the microphones wire kept falling off as the preachers were holding it and one of the speakers blew out). Our "sound man" kept a soldering gun on hand at all times!!! The toilets kept breaking and there were only 4 working toilets between 304 campers! The showers were either garden hoses, a pail of water or a spigot, but each and everyone of the campers were thrilled to be there and every single person there was extremely clean. We in the US take so much for granted, but if we had to go back to the basics of life I really believe it would also draw us to a closer relation with Jesus Christ.

      The Lord blessed every preacher with just the right message and we saw a moving in all the kids hearts by Wednesday morning. After one mornings session of preaching, the kids were hollering to the preachers, "Don't Stop!"  I can't say I understood all of the words these preachers said, but I sure understood what the Spirit had to say!!!

Our Camp Director, Renie Jun, set up a talent contest and called it "Baptist Got Talent". It was a great success and the kids really got into the spirit of it. He also set up an "Amazing Race" contest for the campers. Our funnest and most looked forward to game is the Pole Climb. We place a prize of about $20.00 on the top of a 30 foot bamboo pole and then have each group take turns at trying to climb to the top for it. Oh, did I mention that the pole was greased also!! It was so much fun watching these young guys trying their best to get to the top. It got really exciting when the preachers decided they wanted to take a turn!  They didn't make it to the top but you have to applaud them for even trying!! It took about 3 tries before one group finally got a spry, little fellow pushed to the top and  
 he literally leaped to the top of the pole!

It was so great to see these young men learning to work together and helping each other.  Even though we had all kinds of games and competitions the main focus all week was on the Word of the Lord. 

    By the last night of camp the kids were asking to extend the camp a little longer, they didn't want it to end.  Harrell preached the closing message about David facing Goliath and the 5 stones he chose. The thought was that there were 5 stones chosen but only 1 was used. Even though the stones were not used they were ready and willing to do the job. The whole service was focused on being surrendering to be used by God. It was amazing to see just about every single person there come to the alter. Only a handful of kids stayed in their seats.  Then the invitation was given to those who would stand up and say they were going to surrender to go to Bible College and 20 young people stood and gave their hearts and lives to God's service.

    Can you believe that to go to the  Bible Baptist College in Cebu City, Philippines for 3 years costs about $1200. That's for books, room and board, food... everything!!! In some colleges here in the states you would spend almost that much just for the books! 

    After seeing this need we have stepped out by faith to offer a Brian Noble Scholarship that will be presented to one young man and one young lady each year. If God provides more money we will offer it to more young people. So pray that God will allow us to raise the money for this and for future scholarships to send these worthy young servants to the Bible Baptist College in the coming years.  Pray with us that GOD will bless in the lives of those who surrendered to Him that they will stay strong in their decisions to serve the Lord.

    

SPRING HAS SPRUNG!

I hope everyone out there is enjoying the spring time flower and beauty as much as I am! I have revealed in the smallest things, like a sprout of a Hosta plant pushing its head up out of the dirt to seeing in unwrap its leaves out to catch the gentle kiss of the rain. I love Daffodils and each year my sweet husband brings me a handful to welcome spring. This year he found some growing along side fence behind a church we were at and brought them to me in an old Dixie cup! They were the most beautiful things I had ever seen.

With spring time always comes that instinct of women to begin "spring cleaning"! We had 3 days off and I asked Harrell if we could go back to our house and do a little cleaning! Well, I knew if I had told him all I wanted to accomplish he never would have agreed cause he knows I would make him work too! We hadn't been back to our house since sometime in October and only for a couple of nights then. In 2009 we spent a total of 84 days in our house! This is about four times what we usually do! The only reason we were there that long was because of Harrell having back surgery in July.

So we got back to the house and I began a mad rush at cleaning! The more I cleaned , the more I saw what needed doing, and the more I did, the more the Lord began to speak to my heart! I sat on my big fluffy chair one afternoon and thought about how my heart needed a good spring cleaning also! We as women are so busy "doing" good things for our families, friends, work or church that we end up with all this clutter and junk crowding up in our hearts. So I took time out of my busy schedule to clean and did a thorough clean up job on my old heart.

I want to brag on my dear husband, cause he vacuumed every carpet and then cleaned them till they look like new! Although there were several times I went looking for him and found him "deep in work" on the truck as he listened to Rush Limbaugh. He only hid from me a few times to get out of work. As I think back on it, he was too willing to run to the store and took an awful long time coming home....hmmmm!

Enjoy spring, but take a moment to look deep inside your heart and do a little dusting, polishing or down right srubbing for a Clean Spring Heart!!

GOD BLESSES AGAIN IN PHILIPPINES...

YOUTH CAMP IN CEBU, PHILIPPINES 

Well, Youth Camp has come and gone and we have so very much to praise the Lord for. From the moment we got to the Philippines we saw the Lord’s hand working in every step.  Some times when we start a project we are faced with helpers that don’t understand what we want or are not able to follow through on instruction. I praise the Lord that HE placed a group of young men and ladies who had everything set up and planned out so that we didn’t have to worry about a thing. That was a blessing in so many different levels since after we got there Harrell came down with a stomach virus! He was violently ill for 5 days!!!  I worried over him, but God was so good in helping him and getting us back to the states in one piece!

 

The first day of camp the “Director”, Renny Junior, who is working with Pastor Jun Ambo at the Bible Baptist Temple Church in Argao, Cebu, had their church group all set up as Leaders/Delegates.  We had 256 souls register for our very first camp and we were so thrilled when everyone began showing up!                                                                            

The first church group came with their pastor and his family on a motor scooter with a sidecar. I counted as 10 people climbed off, out and over

 the motorbike! The last one off was the pastor’s wife holding their 2-year-old daughter! She was so excited about bringing their ”kids” to camp she didn’t care that they had travels for almost an hour like that!!!! Then came the van from the local Juvenile Rehab Center where Pastor Ambo has been working with the “detainees”. It was wonderful to see 10 young men who have gotten saved through his outreach coming to their very first Christian Bible Camp. 

 

All day long kids began showing up and were thrilled at where they would sleep! Now that is a simple sentence until you see where and on what they would spend the whole week on!!! We rented 250, 2-inch plastic covered floor mats for everyone to sleep on. No sheets, no covers only a few had pillows! We had split all of the kids into 4 groups with a set of leader-councilors over them. The girls stayed in one of the larger classroom, the boys in another across the playing field. The pastors had their own room and their wives and babies stayed in another. Each one of these groups had 1 toilet between 50 kids! Okay, knock that vision of an American toilet out of your head!!! This was a 2-foot tall porcelain “bowl” (sort of like a child’s toilet) no seat, no lid and no tank for flushing! To flush, you simply dipped water from a big garbage can with a pail and poured in!!  There were no shower stalls either… to shower you either washed off in the sink, didn’t wash at all or took turns pouring water over each other in the “Comfort Room”. The boys had the convenience of a water hose and just used that to “shower” under! I know, I know, I can just hear some of you saying that there is no way that you would go to camp under those conditions!!!! These kids and young people were so thrilled with these conditions and the fact that food would be supplied 3 times a day plus a snack and they didn’t have to pay anything was beyond their belief.

       

We had services every morning and at night time with a “devotion time” after lunch where the young preacher boys got the opportunity to preach to their “groups”. Every service saw the alter filled with boys and girls giving their lives to the Lord, surrendering to His service and giving up the garbage of this old world.

 

Every afternoon there was competitions in volleyball, soccer, badminton and darts. Plus during services we had competitions in preaching, Bible verse memorization, singing, playing instruments, skits and drama. What are so funny were the pastors (which we had 27 come) wanted to participate in all of these so they started their own group!! They even won the Dart competition!! At the end of the week we had prizes of Christian t-shirts, CD’s, shoes and sandals and snacks for all the winners. I want to thank Signature Sound for donating a bunch of their “Get Away Jordan” T-shirts and for the Bethel Baptist Church in Lapel, Indiana for donating almost 90 pairs of ladies shoes and sandals. The female winners thought they had died and gone to Heaven!  Girls are the same no matter where they are located at when it comes to SHOES!!

 

So many churches and Christian friends who gave out of a heart of love and generosity to see souls saved made this Youth Camp possible. We may not know the full effect of all that happened until we get to Heaven. Thank you so much for giving, sacrificing and changing the life of a young person in the Philippines.