Tropical Storm Alex Hits during Worship

Our praise team used the song, "Rain Down" yesterday for music. It could not have been more appropriate. It started raining about the time we reached church and started raining hard about the time we started unloading and then harder when we started services. About 30 of us weathered the storm at Lighthouse Church. Praise the Lord, it was awesome worshiping in a tropical storm. Nothing like it. Terry preached on humility yesterday and that along with the weather reminded us that everything we have comes from God, not us, but God. We had a roof over our heads and a dry place to worship. God is good all the time, all the time God is good.

Had water in the kitchen and living room floors when we returned home yesterday but nothing else was affected by the weather. We even had Internet all day. Good day for reading a book.

Terry's meetings with the head Religious of Affairs have gone great and he is turning in his paper work soon. Translation into Spanish is happening now:-)God has smiled upon LC and the process we are taking to get our Civil Association (like a non-profit in the US). This will give us a lot more freedom to grow our church with integrity.

Thanks again for the prayers and support. We love serving the Lord here in Mexico and thank God everyday for people who support us. We could not be here without you.
God bless,

Father's Day, June 20th

Lighthouse Church honored it's father's Sunday with a special card and key chain. Although many of our father's are in different parts of the world we still appreciate this special day to recognize how blessed we are because of them.

The Praise Team gets better every week. Thank you Daniel and Andrea for such hard work. We love seeing your efforts pay off in service to God through your time and talents. With time and practice we may have Hillsongs of the Mayan Riveria:-) We had 30 something at church this weekend with a visiting couple from Indiana. Renee and I were ready for kids this week but only 2 nursery age children made it. We will be ready next week!

Continue to pray for a Nursery worker. --Terry's meeting with the head of Religious Affairs on Monday, went great and we continue to get our paper work together in order to become more effective in our community.

Sunday, June 13th

Church was a busy time yesterday at Lighthouse. Children's ministry was much bigger than I expected. We had 6 children, 4 nursery age and 2 Little Lights. We are now in 2 private rooms away from the Adult worship area. We thought this would be great but 3 of our nursery age didn't think it was that great and cried most of the morning. Renee and I took turns trying to mend the brokenhearted. We recruited 2 more adults (which could also speak Spanish), and this helped the tears somewhat. We are praying for a local person who would be the nursery coordinator, and dividing the Nursery area into babies and toddlers. Moving the Little Lights (4 year olds - 6th grade) down stairs to the restaurant entrance. These changes will allow me to teach the children with little or no interruptions. I love adjusting to growth and we move ahead.

Praise Worship for Lighthouse Church was wonderful. We had 36 in attendance with one new family from the local area. Praise team improves every week and new members seem to join us each week. Daniel and Andrea are doing an awesome job leading and growing our worship team. Terry preached the second teaching in his series "What's Love Got To Do With It?" Many next steps were made to think more of others and to do something kind this week.

Had another Mission Team commit to coming this Summer. Coryell Community Church from Texas will join us in August. Their project will be rebuilding a wall that was destroyed during the 2009 hurricane for a widow in our church. Our local project with the Victory Outreach Men's Rehab Center continues as we prepare to assist them in building a tower for their water tank.

Terry and I meet later today with a former head of Religious Affairs in Playa Del Carmen on knowing how to get our religious status started. Please keep us in your prayers as we try to become a registered religious organization here in Mexico.

Great time in States!

Well, I'm home and rested, unpacked, and caught up on most of my emails. I was gone almost a month! Terry returned June 1st and was here in Mexico while I remained in Texas for another week.

I wanted to recap our trip for those of you who are keeping track. We left for Alaska on Sunday, May 9th. We arrived on Tuesday, May 11th. We had planned on attending Caleb's graduation from Dimond High, but he was short a half a credit and must complete that before he receives his diploma. We hope that will happen this summer. Caleb you keep up the good work and it will pay off!

We spent the rest of our time with Johanna and the kids (when they were not working). Saw many friends and were able to do a little business that needed to be done while we were there. Had a wonderful time on Sunday, May 16th with Rabbit Creek Church and were excited to help them celebrate the churches 25th anniversary. It was quite a blessing to see how God is blessing in our precious church in Alaska and enjoyed renewing friendships and even starting new ones.

Arrived in Montana on Tuesday, May 18th where we spent a week with our kids, Dan, Jenifer, Carly, Courtney and Collin just attending school events and helping out in the garden. Terry was able to go with Collin's class to a fishing pond where Collin caught the most fish and showed Papa how they do it in Montana. The girls thrilled us with their acting talents when their class presented "Romeo and Juliet". We were blessed to have Ken and Rosie Neupert come down and see us from Canada. Both Alaska and Montana were colder than normal and we finally had to break down and buy jackets; who would have thought it?

Headed to Texas on Tuesday, May 25th. It was much warmer when we got off the plane and we welcomed the warmth! Spent a couple days with our son and his family in Addison. Spent a couple days with my parents in Denison. Had a great time attending church with Terry and Sally and watching the kids do some swimming in their new pool! Terry, Terry Jr. and Sally left on Tuesday, June 1st. Terry returned to Mexico and Terry Jr. and Sally won a trip with his company to Turks and Cacos. Sally's mother, Marsha and I remained behind to keep Addy and Nolen and have some quality time with the grandkids. We had a good time and the kids did awesome. They were very easy to care for and the memories made were priceless.

I returned home Tuesday, June 8th. Although it was an awesome trip, the old saying "there's no place like home" once again proves to be true. We loved seeing all our family and friends and were once again reminded of the blessing God has given us through both. I will bring our blog up to date this next week on our work here in Mexico. Thank you for your prayers for our work while we were gone and a special "thank you" to Bill and Renee Johnson and Dallas and Becca Bivins who filled in many of our responsibilities while we were gone.

Slide show of vacation: