Thursday, June 26, 2014
Wed. - Taped a TV Show Today
Today we taped a TV program with Rev. Jim McGinnis. Interesting program about Buffalo, Extreme Makeover, Breakout and the goodness of God. More info to come here.
Tuesday, June 24, 2014
Monday, June 23, 2014
Started New Painting Project Today
I am now involved in painting a deck and some windows for a friend of mine's house that I painted before in other years. Time for a fresh coat of deck stain and white paint on the windows. Should only take a couple two three days to complete. Here's the deck I will show an "after" few soon. Here's the before. My two construction friends Joe and John are in the photo taking apart and removing a wooden planter. Once they accomplish that I go to work and they are off on to another project.
The Deck - Before Photo
Sunday, June 22, 2014
Sunday in Buffalo
Worshipped God this morning with my church family at my home church
The Tabernacle in Orchard Park, NY
Saturday, June 21, 2014
Sabado in Buffalo
It's Saturday here in Buffalo and I am reminded of our Saturday's back in Juarez. There it is called Sabado and also Segunda Dia - which translates into Seconds Day. A name for a day when second hand sales are taking place all over the local streets as folks go out for a day of bargain hunting, looking for second hand items to purchase. One man's junk is another man's treasure as the saying goes. Good way to spend an hour or two. It's all over by 2 o4 3 o'clock so get out there early and do some people mingling and bargain hunting. Happens every Saturday in Juarez, all year long.
Meanwhile back here in Buffalo. I am taking a break at my favorite donut shop before getting back on my bike to peddle around for a while. Praying and figuring things out today.
Meanwhile back here in Buffalo. I am taking a break at my favorite donut shop before getting back on my bike to peddle around for a while. Praying and figuring things out today.
Friday, June 20, 2014
It's Friday
Today we are getting ready to tape another episode of Lighthouse Presents, a cable TV program I started 23 years ago here in Buffalo, NY that is still on the air each week. http://lighthousemedia.wordpress.com When I am not doing missions work in Juarez, Mexico I continue to be producer and director of Lighthouse Presents.
Our guest host for this program is Pastor Don Schiemant and our special guest this week will be Gary Dunham, head usher at my home church, TheTabernacle in Orchard Park, NY. http://thetab.org
I'm looking forward to a great interview and testimony that brother Gary will be giving that will go out into our community here in Buffalo and lift up the name Jesus Christ so that all men might be drawn to Him as the Scripture says. In Jesus name. Amen
Our guest host for this program is Pastor Don Schiemant and our special guest this week will be Gary Dunham, head usher at my home church, TheTabernacle in Orchard Park, NY. http://thetab.org
Gary Dunham relaxing at the Small Boat Harbor in Buffalo, NY
June 18, 2014
Small Boat Harbor on the Banks of Lake Erie, Buffalo, NY
I'm looking forward to a great interview and testimony that brother Gary will be giving that will go out into our community here in Buffalo and lift up the name Jesus Christ so that all men might be drawn to Him as the Scripture says. In Jesus name. Amen
Thursday, June 19, 2014
Thoughts on Thursday
Well my first thought is that tomorrow I will be producing a TV program for Cable TV here in Buffalo, NY. So far I have a host but I still don't have a guest.
I am praying about finding someone, a Christian with a testimony, willing to share it with our viewing audience. The whole point of having a testimony is being able to share it with someone to bless them with encouragement. Show them what God did for you and remind them that if He can do something like that for you then He can also do something like that for the viewer. That's the plan. Praying that God will provide us with a guest for the program that we will tape tomorrow.
On a sadder note. I looked at my tomato plants in my back yard this morning as I do each morning to see how they are coming along. For several weeks now I was pleased to see how they were growing with all the rain we have been getting here lately. But this morning I am a little concerned as they look like they are actually not doing so good. They may be dying in fact. Perhaps they got too much water lately. Don't know. We will have to keep watching them and see. Would be a bummer if they did die so soon after being planted and looking as though they were thriving. We need a plant miracle Lord.
Praying for revival of dying tomato plants.
* This just in: We have a guest for tomorrow's TV taping. He will be brother Gary Dunham, head usher at my home church The Tabernacle in Orchard, Park, NY someone I have known for over twenty years and someone who was a railroad train engineer for 30 years. Should be an interesting conversation/interview that he will have with our host; Pastor Don Schiemant: Director of The Healing Rooms of Buffalo-Niagara.
I am praying about finding someone, a Christian with a testimony, willing to share it with our viewing audience. The whole point of having a testimony is being able to share it with someone to bless them with encouragement. Show them what God did for you and remind them that if He can do something like that for you then He can also do something like that for the viewer. That's the plan. Praying that God will provide us with a guest for the program that we will tape tomorrow.
On a sadder note. I looked at my tomato plants in my back yard this morning as I do each morning to see how they are coming along. For several weeks now I was pleased to see how they were growing with all the rain we have been getting here lately. But this morning I am a little concerned as they look like they are actually not doing so good. They may be dying in fact. Perhaps they got too much water lately. Don't know. We will have to keep watching them and see. Would be a bummer if they did die so soon after being planted and looking as though they were thriving. We need a plant miracle Lord.
Praying for revival of dying tomato plants.
* This just in: We have a guest for tomorrow's TV taping. He will be brother Gary Dunham, head usher at my home church The Tabernacle in Orchard, Park, NY someone I have known for over twenty years and someone who was a railroad train engineer for 30 years. Should be an interesting conversation/interview that he will have with our host; Pastor Don Schiemant: Director of The Healing Rooms of Buffalo-Niagara.
Wednesday, June 18, 2014
MIddle of The Week
Today I taught the 2nd half of a two day AARP Driver Safety course to 23 seniors. The three hour session went well and everyone seemed to enjoy our time together over the subject of safer driving.
Couldn't help wondering how many of the seniors in my class had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Hoping a few of them did but you are never sure and unfortunately we were not gathered there to talk about God and our relationship with Him rather we were there to learn how to be safer drivers and to have car insurance reduced, two temporary things with little or no eternal value.
Our time together was good though and perhaps someone will benefit by what was taught. That's always the hope.
Each day of your lives counts for something. Our goal is to make the most of each day that God gives us.
Even though I am not on the mission field God has directed me to I still feel the borden and call of the missionary. I read something today that was written by the great Christian thinker/writer Oswald Chambers. Here's what he had to say on what it means to be a missionary. I would have to agree with his eloquent explanation. See if you do as well;
What is a missionary? Oswald Chambers knew;
Jesus said to them again, ’. . . As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ —John 20:21
"A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .” (Matthew 28:19).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment."
Couldn't help wondering how many of the seniors in my class had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Hoping a few of them did but you are never sure and unfortunately we were not gathered there to talk about God and our relationship with Him rather we were there to learn how to be safer drivers and to have car insurance reduced, two temporary things with little or no eternal value.
Our time together was good though and perhaps someone will benefit by what was taught. That's always the hope.
Each day of your lives counts for something. Our goal is to make the most of each day that God gives us.
Even though I am not on the mission field God has directed me to I still feel the borden and call of the missionary. I read something today that was written by the great Christian thinker/writer Oswald Chambers. Here's what he had to say on what it means to be a missionary. I would have to agree with his eloquent explanation. See if you do as well;
What is a missionary? Oswald Chambers knew;
Jesus said to them again, ’. . . As the Father has sent Me, I also send you’ —John 20:21
"A missionary is someone sent by Jesus Christ just as He was sent by God. The great controlling factor is not the needs of people, but the command of Jesus. The source of our inspiration in our service for God is behind us, not ahead of us. The tendency today is to put the inspiration out in front— to sweep everything together in front of us and make it conform to our definition of success. But in the New Testament the inspiration is put behind us, and is the Lord Jesus Himself. The goal is to be true to Him— to carry out His plans.
Personal attachment to the Lord Jesus and to His perspective is the one thing that must not be overlooked. In missionary work the great danger is that God’s call will be replaced by the needs of the people, to the point that human sympathy for those needs will absolutely overwhelm the meaning of being sent by Jesus. The needs are so enormous, and the conditions so difficult, that every power of the mind falters and fails. We tend to forget that the one great reason underneath all missionary work is not primarily the elevation of the people, their education, nor their needs, but is first and foremost the command of Jesus Christ— “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations . . .” (Matthew 28:19).
When looking back on the lives of men and women of God, the tendency is to say, “What wonderfully keen and intelligent wisdom they had, and how perfectly they understood all that God wanted!” But the keen and intelligent mind behind them was the mind of God, not human wisdom at all. We give credit to human wisdom when we should give credit to the divine guidance of God being exhibited through childlike people who were “foolish” enough to trust God’s wisdom and His supernatural equipment."
Tuesday, June 17, 2014
Tuesday - June 17, 2014
I'll be back later and tell you how this day went. So far so good. I'm at Tim Horton's here in
Buffalo, NY and I just
Buffalo, NY and I just
finished a buttered and toasted cinnamon raisin bagel. It was good.
This afternoon I will be teaching an AARP Driver Safety course at a local Senior Center. This will help a dozen or so senior drivers get their car insurance reduced for the next 3 years and hopefully they will pick something up in this class to help make them a safer driver.
Beyond all that and always on my mind is how to get back to Juarez to continue what has been started.
A missionary lives by faith. We have plans, we have dreams, we have visions. We know what we would like to do but we need others in the body of Christ to help us make those dreams and plans come true.
Sante Fe St. Border Crossing into Juarez from El Paso, TX
Photo taken from the Juarez side, traffic heading into USA
But for the most part, we trust in God to put all the pieces of the puzzle together for us. We let him know that we are ready, willing and able and then we ask Him to lead the way and to provide for us and somehow, someway He does.
Today I am continuing to contemplate how to get my new passport which is needed and required because my old one is expiring in August. Can't cross the border without one. And guess what, there is a cost to that.
And I am also contemplating traveling to a Bible School conference in San Bernadino, CA. in early October and being there for 4 days which will require a one way airline ticket and a motel room for that length of time stay there and then after the conference, travel expenses for either a plane or a bus back to Juarez from there.
I am looking forward to meeting the president and founder of the ministry that provides the curriculum for the schools I am facilitating in Mexico and also looking forward to seeing world renowned evangelist Reinhard Bonke who will be the keynote speaker at this annual gathering of missionary's like me. And guess what? There is a cost for all this too.
A missionary can only go and do as much as his finances will allow him to. No finances. No support. No action. That is why goer's depend on senders, to help them go. It's a team effort. It's a God thing. It takes faith.
Lord, I'm asking for more faith today. I believe. Help my unbelief. Help me overcome the enemy's voice that is always there saying; " it will never happen." We know the difference between your voice and his Lord. You say it will.
My God is able. In Jesus Name. Amen.
Monday, June 16, 2014
Six Months Later
Hard for me to believe but it looks as though it has been six months since I posted last here on my Border Crossings Blog. Looks like I will have to remedy the situation and bring us up to speed and become current once again.
I am as of this writing back in my home town of Buffalo, NY after having completed my latest mission to Juarez which lasted from the middle of September, 2013 to May 20th, 2014 when the wheels of the Delta Airliner that brought me back to Buffalo from El Paso, Tx via Atlanta, Ga touched down on the runway at Buffalo - Niagara Falls Airport. After 8 months in Juarez, Mexico I am home again.
Touchdown Buffalo, NY May 20, 2014
Our latest location where we ran a new Trimester 1 school after we
completed Trimester 1 with our very first group of students. This is
the location that will be our home base school
when I return in the Fall of 2014
Across the road from our school, which is actually a church pastored by a husband and wife team
that live in this home. That is their church van parked in front.
Here is what our classroom looked like and there is one of our students named Lizeth
who completed
Trimester 1 and is now facilitating a Trimester 1 class
to brand new students. We are making disciples who will disciple others.
And here is another one of our students who just so happens to be Lizeth's
sister named Lucero who also completed Trimester 1 and was also given
the opportunity to facilitate a Trimester 1 Class.
Here are some of our new Trimester 1 students who have since
completed their studies and are now ready to begin
Trimester 2 Studies in the Fall, 2014 when I return.
And here are Benjamin and his wife Elizabeth, Director and Pastora
of Arbol de Vida Eterna Iglesia, the church here in the top photo
who have given us the opportunity to present our
Bible School at this location.
We are looking forward to working with them and their church members
as we continue studies at Instituto Biblico Juarez in the Fall of 2014
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