Power back in the States

We have officially finished our construction projects for the 2012 year of the Power missions, and we have accomplished so much through God. Reynosa, saw our men create with just 12 hours of work a nearly finished Senior Center. We performed outreach to the community to the Border Mission in Texas, we Worked on a dining hall expansion and electrical wiring in a children's home, but most importantly we got to share the love of our God with our brothers and sisters in Christ. God was gracious enough to keep the rain away while we worked and ministered to the Reynosa people. The lives touched will have an eternal impact.
Check out the photos flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerministry .
Praise God!

Some Time in Twiggs's Corner

The leader on the Project, Larry Johnson asked me: "Do you Drywall"? To which I replied. "I Dry clothes...I Dry Dishes!" He assured me that I could do this" So I began hammering nails into the drywall to secure it to the beams and frame of this new house. I couldn't help but think of two things: First, how one day in the future after paint and decorations, and furniture, someone in this family would be laughing, reading, or sleeping in this room, in this home, in which I was nailing up drywall to make it possible; Second, How one day, over 2000 years ago the same type nails were used to hang Jesus Christ to a Beam... The Beam of the cross in which he was the drywall, in which we could comfortably laugh, read and sleep because he gave his life and saved us to make that possible.

"Twiggs"
With Christian Love, from Crossroads Christian Church- Corona CA

How's your Hearing?

Hello again my power junkie friends and welcome to another night of Spiritual renewal, brought to you by another day of spiritual grace. Today on our prayer day, we attended one service in the States presided by pastor Bill, and then to Reynosa to hear a second. While language differences made conscious understanding of the word by word translation impossible (especially for a 100% non Spanish speaker, I was amazed to feel God's presence. It was an exhilarating service filled with music, dancing, and the friendliest people I could hope to meet. I wouldn't want to give the impression that this day of rest meant sleeping and telling jokes, because after the second service we went off to throw a party where people from the community came to celebrate the love of our God.
So while I have you, I would like to ask you...Is understanding, or rather the desire to understand what God wants from our lives becoming a barrier which blocks the way for more meaning in your life? I noticed that while I couldn't understand the language of the person speaking at times, I did understand the word of God when spoken. And to me, that means truth, I can understand the Truth, frankly that is big.
It also means I need to begin to reevaluate some of the choices I make in terms of my walk with Christ. Perhaps it is time to stop attempting to "understand" what God Wants in our lives, but time to start to OBEY.
Tomorrow we have many great activities planned, but I don't want to spoil it for you, as always check out our photos on flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerministry .

Keep us in your prayers and God Bless.

Faith Mission

Good Evening Y'all... That's Tex'n for all of you, and before we get too deep into the wonderful things God has been working into the lives of people living in the Mexican, and Texas region let me ask those who may know; why is there such a preponderance of apostrophes in Texas vernacular. It is this humble blogger's hope that the reason is they have such nice things to say, that God has given a vocabulary where one could string 5 or more words into the space of one word....As in Y'all'haven'yo'sef'good'evnin', it kinda rolls off the tongue.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerministry Go there and check out all the photos from today. But for those who are enraptured by my prose let me tell you of the beauty and the Glory of our Lord and Savior (amen). We finished a roof for a family, electrified missionary duplexes, added siding and extended a restroom area to the same missionary duplex. In the dormitories at Faith Mission (not to be confused with Faith Mission International) we finished up the front porch, as well as loaded God only knows how many lbs. of beans and rice (each bag has enough servings for 504 people) I am probably missing so much, but when God is working through someone it takes them over, and leaves them asking for nothing but to be worthy enough to be working for such a kind and gracious master.
Huge shout-out to the family and friends who are praying for us and supporting this true work of our Lord. We miss you all.
Tomorrow is Sunday, and I am so ready to get my worship on, my personal favorite time of day, and tomorrow, I will be swimming in it, oh oh oh, and did I mention a party tomorrow? Carnival in Mexico with the ninos...(sorry I don't know how to do the squiggle line) How awesome is our God to give us these moments in life? Family, when we return we shall have those moments to share as well.
Till next time God Bless, Keep Praying, and Y'all'get'yo'sef'sum'beauty'res'cause'tommorrow'y'all'gonna'be'lookin'evn'betta'than'taday!

Prayer/Praise Requests:

Today we ask everyone to lift up our brother Steve Huddleston and we ask Father God to help him primarily with his walk with God, but also for guidance and direction in his business affairs.

Tonight we ask everyone to keep Mike Day's family in your hearts as he has been called Home leaving them behind.

We also pray for Barrie Day's medical difficulties, and subsequent difficulties in finding ways to pay for these difficulties.

We pray for Robert, Adam's dad, he recently suffered a heart attack, but is presently doing well thanks to our King.

Tommy lifts up his friends and family currently experiencing medical difficulties, and asks God for a speedy and painless recovery

And always we Praise God for giving us the opportunity to serve Him this week and for teaching others of the loving sacrifice He made so that we may be with Him always.
Praise God!

Group 2 Day 3 Selected pictures

Here are selected pictures from our awesome-glorious day in Acuna, Mexico January 27, 2012. To view the full Flickr photo pages, click here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/powerministry

Top to Bottom:

POWER guys pass out T-shirts, caps, gospel tracts, and testimonies at a neighborhood built for factory workers in Acuna, Mexico.

POWER guys pass out T-shirts, toiletries and testimonies to inmates at a jail.

POWER group poses with Christian and Yazmine Viegas in front of their new home.

POWER Group dedicates the Youth Center to God by a prayer and the POWER shout.

Pat Schmeling interprets for Christian and Yazmine Viegas' thank you plaque presentation at the new youth center. (note the new big screen TV presented by POWER to Pastor Geraldo for the youth center)

Prayer/Praise

God Has set us apart again tonight to lift up our fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. Thank you all for your prayerful support. I believe that God is listening, and His spirit is felt in what we do.

Tonight Fred lifts up Liz to God and asks Him to help her with her vision, macular degeneration, and we pray surgery, if necessary, ultimately results in healing.

We all pray for Ken for a safe trip home tomorrow. As he consoles his Associate pastor during his moment of grief over the loss of his wife. Our hearts and prayers go out to you.

Pat prays for the new relationships among the men here that God can sustain them and use them as a way of bringing us all closer to Him.

Rick asks God to help with his confusion and to Speak guidance into his heart so that he understands clearly and without conflict the actions he should take.

Robert asks God to be with the Moss family and Billy during his difficult medical issues.

Praise Reports.

Way to go God for giving us the strength to finish the Acuna projects.
for the inspiring reception from the inmates,
for the touching testimony's of our brothers in Christ.
and for all the souls who have made the choice to accept Christ in their hearts.

All Praise to God.

Thank you Family and friends for your thoughts and prayers. It is being felt and God is giving us His strength thanks to you.

--In Christ love

Signs of a rookie POWER Webguy

Picture of Joey, just after submitting the blog for tonight. He'll catch on! You sleep when you get home.

POWER Group 2 Prayer Requests

What an amazing time of prayer tonight… January 26, 2012

Gathered together were 14 men: Perry, Doug, Rick, Fred, Scott, Pat, Paul, Ken, Twiggs, Jay, Robert, Ben, Bill, and Mark

We had much to praise God for and the following requests.

Doug: Wants his mom, Joni to give her life completely to Christ and be saved.

Twiggs: To grow in intimacy with his wife in the same way he has grown with Christ.

Jay: Praising God for his wife and desiring to continue to build an even deeper relationship with her.

Rick: Discerning what God has to reveal. The completion of the Wham!

Perry: May God make a maximum impact upon me son Evan during this trip.

Robert: Asking God to help his mom, Nila with her health.

Bill, Praying that Stephanie overcomes the pneumonia and her health is restored.

Ben: Praying for a close friend Eva, that she would return 100% to God again.

Fred, Wants God to show him what is next for his future.

Pat, Praying for his daughter Elisha to know the Lord personally and be saved.

Mark, Wants Bill Hargus his neighbor to recover from heart-burn. Praying no damage occurred. He needs nutritional wisdom. Lol

Thank you wives, friends, and family.

Please continue to pray for unity, power, miracles, effective evangelism, and safety.

Praise God

Sometimes I have doubts, I wonder how much of my life is directed by either God or myself. Seeing the lives of children who live less than a mile away from our border, and at times, a rather cynical view of "random" car checks that lead me to believe, perhaps life is not as random and I am not is as control as I had hoped. I am beginning to realize that only God has that total control in our lives.

This morning, prior to our divine driven excursion, each man heard a devotion and an explanation of an experiment I had seen Dr. Stephen Covey do in some Leadership class I have taken....

So what are your "big rocks". As a Christian I would argue there can only be one, and that would be building and nurturing our relationship with God through His son Jesus Christ. But in the "big rock" analogy I realized That while some things may need to be sacrificed, it is possible I would outgrow some of the thing that I once was, There still is room.

See my fear is that if I REEEEAAAALY put God first, I wouldn't be able to do anything else (WWWWRRRROOOOOO OOOOOONNNNNNGGGG) The truth is I wold be able to enjoy more of God's gifts when I am on the same track as him.

Today each Man here, put God first. We all experienced His love and compassion, His joy, and his desire to be in our lives. Joy tours got to see the experience of one of our own binging a lost soul back to start their relationship with Jesus. Others worked construction in ways perhaps unfamiliar to them before. and Others served their brothers by preparing delicious meals. However as one becomes closer to Christ, We cannot start as an empty vessle, but as one who is filled with our Father's love.

God Bless You All,
Stay posted for Bics!
Power IT

Power Trip 2012 Week 2 Day 1

The Power of Prayer starts Mission Trip right!



The Power Ministry team arrived tonight at the beginning outpost: Faith Mission in Del Rio, Texas after a great day of travel by plane, bus and van.

We will be serving the people of Cuidad Acuna tomorrow. Before logistics were discussed and before devotional booklets were distributed, Doug Wible sent the 65 member team into small groups to pray and set our hearts upon God.



The rooms of Faith Mission were filled with prayers for marriages, encouragement, physical healing of ourselves and loved ones and for effectiveness in ministry for the glory of Jesus Christ.



All of this to remember that God works mightily through men who are dependent upon God!



Its quiet now as men rest for tomorrow’s ministry.



Doug Husen

Power Trip 2012 Week 1 Day 7

Pictures Provided by Chris Chop, Micah Davenport & Daniel Balboa

Power Trip 2012 Week 1 Day 6

Pictures Provided by Chris Chop, Micah Davenport & Daniel Balboa

Power Trip 2012 Week 1 Day 5

Pictures Provided by Chris Cho & Daniel Balboa

Breaking Out in Spontaneous Song and Prayer

I finished my last bite of lunch at Magdiel Bible School in Matamoros, and heard music and singing coming from outside.  Stepping out to see what was up, I saw a large circle of students and POWER men singing the same Christian songs in two languages. It just started spontaneously, and it was amazing.

I pulled out my phone to post this, when I heard, "It's three o'clock!" shouted in the courtyard. Three in the afternoon is where POWER stops whatever we're doing to pray.

The song stopped and prayer started -- just as spontaneously and just as musical. And just as amazing. Pray for the students of Magdiel.

Power Trip 2012 Week 1 Day 4

While last night it approached midnight as most POWER team members called it a night. This morning, they needed to be packed, with their bag on the luggage van -- ready to depart the Red Roof Inn in Laredo by 7:00 AM.

They were on the road to El Cenizo, for a quick breakfast at David Burkett's Faith Mission by 7:30. Today was the mid point of week one.

Worship and devotions kicked the morning off as Bobby Biber talked about fellowship, and truly being engaged with one another and with God.

By 9 AM, crews were working on projects around or near the complex: roofing, framing, a porch, a pantry. Work continued through the day, ending with dinner and a departure for Brownsville, TX (the very last stretch of border between Texas And Mexico).

Be sure to view the slide show, above, for a great look at the day's activity.Tomorrow, it's off to Magdiel Bible School, and a day with the students...

Text by David McKnight
Pictures Provided by Chris Cho & Daniel Balboa

Cory at Faith Missions Ministry.

Power Trip 2012 Week 1 Day 3

Third day of the trip, it's Wednesday, and the group spent the day in Acuna.

If you caught today's earlier mobile post, for those of us on the JOY (Jesus - Others -You) Tour and puppet team, the morning started with a smooth border crossing, followed by a police stop (scroll down to read more on that).

All four vans then continued to a small elementary school, where Pat from Faith Mission introduced the group to the principal, teachers and students.

As the puppet team set up for their show, the rest of the group visited a classroom, where the children sang them a song in English. They then visited a younger class of students -- who sang them Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (in Spanish). And the POWER men sang the same song back to the students in English (to wild applause of course).

Music is important in education, so the kids were definitely ready when the puppets took center stage. Lots of music, lots of cheering and lots of fun.

There's nothing quite like watching a group of men known for their ability to build homes and churches -- taking on their alter egos in the form of these fantastic puppets.

Pat then rounded up the JOY team, while the puppeteers continued to wow the kids. Two vans took off to the store to pick up fresh tortillas (and soccer balls). The vans were already loaded with clothes, blankets, beanies, caps and gloves (along with bibles and candy). With a few more provisions they headed to a community that was in need.

They gave testimony, and handed out their two van loads of clothes and goodies to the large group of both adults and children gathered. What a testament to the power of JOY!

Lunch at Mission 1 was followed by visits to the various project sites. To get more done; of course. The youth center got its roof on, and practically looked like a finished building before crews pulled out. This building will be finished once week two arrives next week.

Then on to dinner, and three more hours on the road as the group launched for Laredo. And of course. A lot more tomorrow!

Written by David McKnight
Pictures provided by Chis Cho & Daniel Balboa

Wed Night And We are Headed Out.

Today went great. We will be posting more later tonight after we make our way to Laredo, TX.

Border Crossing for JOY Tour and Puppet Team

No problem crossing the border this morning -- but shortly after crossing, our van (driven by Loren Vander Schaaf) got pulled over by the local policia. Then the three other vans in front of us got pulled over, too.

That's a little nerve wracking. BUT no problem. They were just checking in with us, and took names and phone numbers -- and let us know if we needed anything, to just give them a call.

Pray for law enforcement in these border communities. Great people with a tough job.

Power Trip 2012 Week 1 Day 2

As Much As We Can
"This might be the only mission trip some of these guys ever go on," said Mark LeDuc last night -- early this morning, really -- before we hit the sack. It was about 2 AM, and the IHOP bible study group hadn't returned to their dorm beds yet. There were three or four of us in the main meeting room still. Mark was talking about why the POWER leadership team was so driven to get in as much during each week along the border.

There is very little down time during the annual POWER trips. In fact while most of the guys started the trip yesterday in Del Rio at Faith Mission, an advance team has been here since January 5. Concrete foundations don't just appear magically. Building materials have to be brought in and delivered to each site -- and not just in Acuna; all along the border where each project site is located. 382 miles between Del Rio and Brownsville, TX.

Welcome to Day 2. "It's dark outside, but there is plenty of light inside," said Doug Wible as he kicked things off with the group this morning. Assignments were announced, and the vans took off. And before you knew it, ten hours had passed, and the crews were back at Faith Mission, eating dinner.

What happened during those ten hours? A lot! 
Cases of English and Spanish language bibles were palletized for distribution to missions along the border. Damon Nevatt of East Hills described the work that was done today. POWER has distributed thousands of bibles to the border communities since starting these trips.

When asked the progress on his project, Ray Hahn of Sandals Church said, "done!" They had started a house for Christian and Yazmine Viegas. "It's coming along great. The guys all got together, and knocked it out, and we're way ahead of where we should be."

Scott Anderson of New Day Christian Fellowship talked about how far along they had gotten on building a house for Pastor Armando. Walls and siding were up. Roof and ceiling joists in place. "A lot of neighbors ended up showing up in the afternoon -- they were kind of amazed at what took place today," he said.

Cody Gibbs of Calvary Bible Church and Pat Schmelling of Faith Mission described the Youth Center being built in Acuna. Schmelling talked about the core group of Christian teens who would be ministered to through the center.

But that wasn't all: there was a visit to a large group of men in a local prison, resulting in thirty or so coming down for prayer lead by the POWER team that made the visit.

There was a JOY tour visiting local kids, passing out beanies and gloves and candy, followed by a visit to an orphanage.

"That's what happened today; the FIRST day," said Wible. "So you can see when men unite for one reason and one purpose, we send them to so many places -- and look at all the good that was done."

Written by David McKnight
Pictures provided by Chis Cho, Micah Davenport, Eric Yakura & Daniel Balboa

Power Trip 2012 Week 1 Day 1

This morning, men from ten states rolled out of bed with a single objective: make their way to San Antonio, TX. They started in Rome, GA and Riverside, CA; Oklahoma City and Maurice, IA. There were veterans and first-timers, all with a similar expectation of God working in big ways over the next week.

A couple of us, leaving with the Southern California contingent out of Long Beach, weren't sure we'd make it. Bobby Biber and David McKnight were met with "you're not on our list" from the Jet Blue counter agents. But Mark LeDuc, Power operations, came to the rescue; how could we have doubted? It's clear God is in charge, here, not Jet Blue.

Those flying into Austin met the groups that came in to San Antonio directly, climbed into nine vans, and headed for dinner (chicken fried steak), then the 2 1/2 hour drive to Faith Mission in Del Rio, TX.

10:30 PM, guys grabbed their bags off the vans, claimed beds in the bunk house, and gathered for a general meeting to talk about tomorrow. "Before we get started," Trip Director Doug Wible said, "let's put the road blocks behind us."

Men broke into prayer groups in areas where they had concerns: health, employment, marriage, family, spiritual renewal, addictions. "Take that burden, and fire a fast ball right to the wall," Doug encouraged the guys.

Power's Financial Manager Bob Krull stood up to talk about van driver responsibility. "How many of you guys," he asked, motioning around the room, "are fathers of kids at home?" A lot of hands went up. "Van drivers, you just got an idea of the value of the cargo you're carrying."

Personnel Manager Marty Read (who headed off this evening for a Kmart run and late night bible study at the local IHOP) talked about being prepared tomorrow. "You're 1700 miles from home," he said. "If you miss the van, it's a long walk."

Tuesday in Acuna is shaping up to be quite a day.

Written by David McKnight
Pictures provided by Daniel Balboa