Our Vacation Trip

Hi everyone sorry it has been so long. Well we're on our way out, and
even though I love snow, I hope it stops in time to let us get
through. As of now I40 is closed. We're gonna see how far we can get,
and maybe it will open when we get to Grants. I will be posting Videos
of our trip when I can. Great!!! Talk to you all soon.

Pena Blanca is growing

Hi there. So we haven't been to Calvary Pena Blanca fellowship in a
while, and it has grown to two rooms now. We now have a children's
ministry room! All the sears are filed as well, it was about 25 people
today counting the kids. This is awesome. It is cool to see growth out
here. Praise God.

True women 08 Conference

Well we have made it tithe conference center and it is just beautiful.
They really decorated it nicely. I am excited to see what is going to
be taught at this conference. Well until later and after Piper I will
see you.

Off to Chicago

Well it's here, and my trip to Chicago and the Disiring God
Conference. I am super excited, an I know that God will teach us so
much through it. I loveyou guys, and look back for updates. Krystal

Hangin with the fellas

Hi there, sorry it's Bern a long time since the last update. It's been
kinda crazy the last couple weeks. The Discern Conference went great.
I can't think of anything going on lately. We are in our way to
Calvary Abq with our nefews Korey and Tyler. There are having Lee
Stronle as a guess speaker tonight, and we thought it would be cool to
check out. We love you all take care.

50 beautiful years

This Sunday, Ken's anut and uncle celabrated their 50th wedding
anniversary. It was good to see a lot of people there to celebrate
with them. we haven't seen a lot of Ken's family in a long time. Can
you just imagine, Lord willing, when we make it to our 50th?

Pena Blanca Campus Church

The Lord is so good to us.

This morning, I was going through my bible reading for the day, and it
happened to be Psalm 103 & 104. I love the Psalms, cause it is just
really cool to see and understand the writer's emotion and passion for
God. I don't think I have really read these verses before. In 103 he
just goes through how God should be praise for all the mercies he has
for us. I mean we know what we really deserve. R.C. Sproul says "the
glory of the gospel is this: The one from whom we need to be saved is
the one who has saved us."

Into 104 I saw how the writer shows how creation eachos the creation
story in Genesis. And what I love too is the amazment in the writtings
he has for each of the subject. I also love how they both end with
Bless the Lord, I my Soul, kinda like the ultimate thank you for what
He has done for us.

Thanx Krystal

Last weeks picnic at The Dixson Apple Orchard

Well, last satuarday we had a awesome picnic, and baptisim at the
apple orchard in Cotchitti. It was a very cool thing to be a part of
and to see God work through it. We went into it kinda like thinking
not a lot of people would be there, but boy did God fool us, cause it
was so amazing to see all the people that came to just fellowship
together. We also were gonna have a baptisim in the lake, but the
ranger told us not, because of the weather. I'm not sure if that was
the only reason, because there we other people in the water at the
time, but anyways.

Ya know it's cool cause God had another plan. We went back to the
Apple Orchard and filled up their hot tub, and praise the Lord use
that for baptisms. It was awesome to be a part of that.

Paul & Wendy's cute little baby Isaiah

Isn't he so cute. He does this funny thing with his tongue, but this
was the best I could get of it. Enjoy -/;)

Dexter got a new shirt

Yes we are some of those people that dress up there pets, and treat
them like our children. Well we don't have any real kids yet... God
willing ya know. All in His time.

Now updating mobily.... If this works

Hi all! If this first attempt worked, then you should be able to see this blog. It's Krystal here, and thanx to my little toy (Ken calls it my DS) I can blog whenever I think about it. If this works that is. Not a whole lot is going on right now, but working... And by work I mean being board at Rebath. It is cool though cause I get time to read and stuff. I'm gonna reread Christ Our Mediator again so I can give this book away. It was a great book I highly sugest it. Cool that's all for now. Talk to you soon.

This is us now. A little brighter...

A life changing trip to Mexico

Greetings!

I just got back this evening from a short term mission trip to Juarez, Mexico. A trip filled with emotion, excitement, opportunity, and encouragement. It's late, and I'm tired, but I am finding it to be a challenge to go to sleep without expressing all the thoughts that this trip has stirred up.

The reason that we went down to Juarez in the first place was to take part in the work that the Lord is already doing there. Amigo Fiel is the name of a ministry stationed in Juarez that is ministering on a daily basis to the people of the city. Much of the city of Juarez is occupied by very poor people and many orphaned children. Those at Amigo Fiel are providing for the communities tangible needs and most importantly exposing them to the life giving gospel of Jesus Christ.

Krystal and I were extremely blessed and humbled to be a part of what the Lord is doing in Mexico. I met a man named Santos who works with the ministry of Amigo Fiel full time... God's grace was all over this guy! It was so encouraging to hear from him of what God has been impressing upon him lately. He shared with me about how he has come to a life changing realization regarding the simplicity of the gospel message, and how God can use him to communicate it to others. On Saturday afternoon we took part in an outreach at one of the parks in the city. There we were able to observe Santos in action sharing the simple message of the gospel as God drew people in our midst to commit their lives to following Jesus.

I also observed some striking differences in the people of Juarez as I saw their willingness to engage in conversation and show patience as I and others with me would fumble over Spanish words trying to converse. It seems that here in the states we are so consumed with our ever so busy lives that we don't have time to bother with such things. This was quite an eye opener for me to show patience and grace to others.

I was somewhat surprised as I saw the majority of the people being extremely poor in comparison to Americans, yet they exhibited more contentment and openness to the message of Jesus Christ than we do. As Americans we can attain many things, houses, cars, big screen tv's, etc. with a certain level of ease due to that fact that jobs with decent wages are not as hard to come by here. Yet, though we have more stuff...we seem to have even less contentment and we are often less open.

Jesus said "Blessed are you poor, for yours is the kingdom of God." (Luke 6:20)
It seems that the poor are more likely to understand their need for God, perhaps because they don't have many possessions that they can foolishly think themselves to be fulfilled by. On the other hand we who are rich (yes, we are rich compared to most of the world), tend to convince ourselves just the opposite, that the more stuff we get, the more fulfilled we'll be...but, that's not true. As hope in anything other than God will only prove to be fleeting and vain.



I am encouraged after the experience I had on this trip to share with all who I love an encouragement to slow down so that we might examine our lives. Are we distracted from what is most important? Are we in the faith? Are we following Jesus?

The message of Jesus Christ is that we are all sinners who have rebelled against God, and we are on our way to hell, unless our hope is in Christ alone. That Jesus lived a perfect life in our place then died a criminal's death upon the cross because of our sins, and then He then rose again the third day proving all He had said was true. If you are not living for Jesus, God would have you know that you are special and that His desire for you is that you turn to Him and give Him your life, for He loves you. Those who receive this message will love God in return and be given the promise of being with Him in heaven forever when this life is over. If you do know Jesus, then I pray that this would serve as an encouragement to you to proclaim this gospel at every opportunity.

This trip was truly life changing for me... and by God's grace I know that my sharing about it with others can prove life changing for them as well. God Bless and thanks for allowing me the privilege of sharing with you!

Sincerely,
Your friend, family member, neighbor, or brother in the Lord,
Ken

Bummer...

I woke up this morning and from bed just started flipping through the channels and ended up landing on the program "Jesus is Lord" with Kenneth Copeland...

This guys just gives me the creeps man... and I hate what he's doing in distorting and twisting the word of God. Together with his guest host today, he began using Galatians 6:7-8 ("Do not be deceived, God is not mocked; for whatever a man sows, that he will also reap. For he who sows to his flesh will of the flesh reap corruption, but he who sows of the Spirit will of the Spirit reap everlasting life.") to teach that people who have cancer essentially have "brought it on themselves"...that the truth of the matter is, we don't "catch" anything, we don't just get sick, we bring it on ourselves.

What he taught from this passage has NOTHING to do with what it is actually saying!Now I know that unhealthy lifestyles can create greater risks of certain sickness, but is the little 5 year old boy who has leukemia said to have "brought it upon himself"... that's absolutely disgusting! That perspective which is unfounded in scripture does nothing to impart hope to the child, but only benefits the so called "faith healer" if he is unable to heal someone. Because now if Mr. Copeland finds it impossible to heal someone who is sick, well "they brought it on themselves" right? Then he'll be able to cling even tighter to his hopelessly unbiblical perspective that, "Well... they just didn't have enough faith for a healing."

What this scripture is truly saying in its context is, let us not be deceived... a true believer in Christ is going to live a Christian life! God's desire here is that we would NOT Be DECEIVED! Even if someone "says" that they are a Christian... but they continually practice sin, they need to know that assurance of their salvation is in question...Yet, if they turn from their sins and trust in Christ alone, they will will have evidences in their lives of true faith, in other words they will "sow to the Spirit" and reap everlasting life.

Let us examine ourselves... that we might not be deceived. And let us read our bibles so we won't be deceived by Kenneth Copeland and the many other false teachers there are out there.

My Brother...

I had dinner tonight at Tortilla Flats (which I definitely recommend) with my brother Bob... It was really great! I really think our relationship now is the best it's ever been...and all the credit goes to Christ, as He is the one who has wrought the change in our hearts to desire and produce it. Bob is receptive toward and encouraged by God's word, and that is a great evidence of God's grace in his life...

I couldn't be more thankful for the work the Lord is doing in my brothers life... it's an answer to prayer. God is good!

Yesterday was sweet!

Hello there people visiting our blog, hope you enjoy your stay!

Well, yesterday was certainly awesome... I've been really sick this past week and yesterday was my first day back at the church in about a week. I'd really missed it! I wasn't able to lead the worship music, but Krystal played the bass still (she did a great job, and she looked beautiful up there.) We were totally blessed by Asher and Sally coming up and Asher leading the music. It had been a while since I was able to just sit with the congregation and sing out to the Lord with everyone like that.

God gave some awesome opportunities to minister to different folks after the service... I just can't get over the greatness of God's grace in using me to minister to others. From church we went to the Salvador Perez pool where we had a baptism. I had the privilege of baptizing quite a few people along side my brothers Paul, Woody, and Issac... I'm just totally stoked with where God has me in my life, and thankful (however not thankful enough) for His continued and unending faithfulness!

It was a good day.... God Bless!