2013 Power Ministry Trip Week 2 Day 5: Giving to the Children

Hey Ya'll, its me, Larry again with todays post. What a great day we had today as we all got some much needed sleep and didn't have to be ready until 9 AM and trust me on this, that was a blessing!! After everyone woke up and loaded the vans we headed down to Alienza Christiana Church in Reynosa, or as we call it on Power, our church away from home.  Before our church service, we were treated to another devotion from Doug Husen on Genesis 12 and Abraham trusting God and demonstrating it by going out on just faith. Thats pretty much what we try to do in Power as once we arrive, we really don't have much information on our projects, but when they read out our names and send us to the work sites, we head that way trusting the decisions they've made and looking forward to doing Gods work. Most of the time, everything is set up just as we hoped and everything we need is waiting on us. Of course theres a few times it doesn't go exactly as planned, but I think thats just God saying "I gave you a brain, make good choices and use it" and wanting to see how we do on our own. Its kinda like taking the training wheels off a bike, You know what you should do, but theres still some questions as to "what now?" I'm pretty sure God gets a laugh out of some of the choices we make and thinks to himself "I taught you better than that". Either way as long as you have faith and follow through with Gods plan, its gonna be OK.

After devotion we all went to the church service and were treated to outstanding music and some serious soul raising prayers from the Mexican people. What a wonderful feeling to walk back into the dome church and feel the love of God from all the people at the service. At one point they called the entire Power team up on the stage and we enjoyed some more songs and thank goodness there were many more people singing out in the crowd to cary the songs we were trying to sing to them. We may do great work for the Mexican people, but we aren't a church choir by any means!! Three of our Power members were chosen to speak to the 2,000 plus church members at the service and our first speaker was Craig Guinn (the member I talked about yesterday in the blog) and what a story he had for not only the people in the church, but for the rest of the power team. He talked about being a professional firefighter and being in a building when the floor gave way and falling to the story below and suffering burns over his entire body. Suffering in pain and feeling as if this was the end. He told how he said a prayer and prepared to meet God and at that moment, all the pain went away and he felt like he was laying in his bed at home, in peace. He talked about how that experience was not what he had planned for his life but apparently it was what God had planned and how his recovery and whole life has exceeded what the doctors thought would happen from then on. I can tell ya, there wasn't a dry eye in the church, including the Power team, when he finished with his story. The team member standing next to me made the comment "thats gonna be a tough story to follow for whoever is next" and I agreed completely as I was the next scheduled speaker for the service. Personally I was hoping they would end the service with one of the most inspiring life stories I had ever heard, but apparently, that wasn't God's plan as I slowly made my way to the podium. I did manage to deliver my message on how we may come down here and build for them, but the prayers they give us far outweighs anything we could possible give them. To be honest, my mind and heart were still trying to process everything that Craig had talked about. Following me was Doug Husen (another person who always has a strong message to deliver, how did I get roped into speaking between these two guys?) and Doug's message was short, sweet and to the point as he prayed for the church to continue growing and doing Gods work out in the Reynosa community.

After the service, we headed out to Refugio orphanage to host what has to be the greatest festival of all times as we are honored by almost 300 children from the orphanage and the surrounding neighborhood as we ran all sets of games and activities throughout the afternoon. No matter how tired we might have been before, seeing the joy on their faces and looking into their eyes just re-engerized your soul with something I can't even start to describe in this blog. It was truly a moment that will live in our hearts forever.

Todays Power theme is "we make a living by what we make, we make a life by what we give", I'd like to tell ya that we gave those kids one heck of a festival and it was all about us giving but that would be backwards..by the smiles and looks of joy those kids gave us today, they made our life by what we were able to receive.

Thanks again for the continued support and prayers, were on the downside of the trip now and looking forward to getting back home and seeing everyone back home.