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!

Merry Christmas Albuquerque Youth Detention Center!

Tonight was totally awesome! Krystal and I had the opportunity to go down to Albuquerque and hang out at a Christmas party for about 20 girls who are incarcerated in Albuquerque's YDDC. I led us all in a time of worship and music, which was received by the girls as a blessing. Then a group of flamenco dancers entertained for a little while... then I was asked to share from the scriptures! This was an answer to a prayer I had prayed earlier, that the Lord would give me an opportunity to communicate the gospel! I taught them from Isaiah 53 of the fact that Jesus did not come only to be born, but to take upon Himself God's wrath toward our sins. God was so graceful in allowing me to be used to articulate His wonderful good news to these girls... my hope is that Jesus would be glorified through their salvation in light of hearing this good news. Then another divine appointment came when I met a brother named Joe and was able to encourage him in his ministry... God is awesome! All praise, honor, and glory, to Him alone!

The following is something that I wrote this Christmas Season that shares the connection between the birth of Jesus, His death upon the cross, and His Resurrection. To look at any of these things alone is to see a very incomplete story.



The Purpose of His Coming
The Christmas story is truly beautiful. However, when we
view the coming of Christ apart from His death on the
cross, the story doesn't really make much sense. To
be referred to as a "Savior" one must possess the ability
to "save", not just merely "be born".
Jesus not only claimed that He had the ability to save, He
said He was the only one who could save. "I am the
Way, the Truth, and the Life, no one comes to the
Father but through Me" (John 14:6)
Jesus' saving power was shown forth when He suffered
on the cross for the sins of all who would believe in Him
and find forgiveness. He then rose again the third day
after His death verifying that His claims were true. The
bible presents the troubling fact in the very words of
Christ that very few will actually trust in Him and be saved
from the coming judgement of God upon sin.
But that most, in seeking to avoid the difficulty of the
Christian life will travel the wide road which Jesus says,
will lead to destruction. Most people at this time of
year will take part in the celebration of the coming of
this wonderful Savior. Yet, the tragedy, is that so few are
truly affected by the purpose of His coming. May the
purpose of His coming be your reason for
rejoicing this season. Because just as the Christmas
story does not make much sense without the cross,
a person rejoicing in the coming of the Savior
without trusting in Him for their own salvation, doesn't
seem to make much sense either.

This last week

This last week has been really cool... the Lord has been growing me in some exciting areas. The thing that has resonated the most though is the encouragement of seeing God's word being worked out in my life and in the lives of others. I've had a few opportunities this week to counsel with people from the scriptures, and God's word never ceases to amaze me as He offers true hope to His children even in the midst of the most difficult times. Romans 8:28 says that God works all things together for good to those who love Him and are the called according to His purpose.
It's awesome that for those in Christ hope is NEVER lost, there is not anything that can overtake us, because God is for us. He will cause even the suffering that we go through to transform us more and more into the likeness of Jesus.

Even the difficulty in our lives as Christians that we go through daily is actually something that we should be encouraged through...Jesus said in Matthew chapter 7 that narrow and difficult is the way which leads to life and few find it....So, when we experience increased difficulty in our lives as we seek to live for Christ, we can hear Jesus saying to us "Your on the right path...keep going, your one of the few." Knowing that we're on the right path, we are called to keep our eyes focused on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith...as we do this we will be able to keep perspective no matter what the situation. Seeing all of this being fleshed out in peoples lives has been a great encouragement this week. To God be the Glory!

An inspirational visit...

Today Woody, Issac, and I went out to visit a sister in Christ named Barbara...she is on her death bed, and though we went to minister to her, things turned out to be quite the contrary. She ended up ministering to us, her faith in Christ was so strong... the faith God has wrought in her is nothing short of invincible, nothing could diminish it, she is truly living out in her last days the principle found in Philippians 1:21 that for the christian, "to live is Christ, and to die is GAIN."

As I played worship songs and we praised the Lord together, I thought of the fact that at the time when I first began playing music I was doing it solely for myself, for personal gain and glory...and amazingly the gift of music that God has given me got used today for something much much greater...it got used for God's glory in drawing his lovely saint Barbara up into worship of the one whom she will soon meet face to face, and remain with forever, Jesus Christ Himself. This was truly an inspirational visit...Praise be to God!

1 Peter 4:10 As each one has received a gift, minister it to one another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.

- Ken

We're bloggers now!

Hey all,

Krystal and I are ridiculously bad at keeping in contact with people that we love, so I thought this would be a cool way for people to know what's going on with us. Hopefully, we can be faithful to update it often.

We're currently living in Santa Fe New Mexico, I am training to be a pastor and working as a Music leader at Calvary Santa Fe (http://www.calvarysantafe.org/) and Krystal is working for a place called "Film to Video"...Life has been mostly good and sometimes rough, but God is always good and He is doing some great things in and through our lives... May all praise, honor, and glory be to Christ!

God bless - Ken