¡Pura Vida!

Israel's and Jose Maneul's Thoughts from the U.S. trip

Israel says:

  Something that I can truly say is that I give thanks to God because He let me meet people like Dave, who doesn’t need to speak so much the word of God, but live transmitting the life of God in their lives. I have never experienced someone who was such a blessing to me on a mission trip and I see that the plans that God has are immense. One goes on a mission trip to bring something with the objective of being a blessing, but sometimes they don’t imagine how much they can be blessed by other people. My desire now is that God will bless the U.S.A. even more and bless my Papa Dave and Mama Linda even more. Also, Matthew, to see your great love for God was a great blessing for me.
  I am so grateful to Marshall for the hot dogs that he gave us because that was a big blessing. To John Benet, thank you without a doubt, what you did for us was a huge blessing.

Israel to the left and Jose Manuel to the right in this picture.

 

Jose Manuel says: First of all, I want to thank all the people who were so hospitable to us. I can contemplate how wonderful God is in each of the people who we met. The love of God has been poured out on your lives, believe it! Truly I was able to perceive that.
  This trip has marked my life forever. I learned that you all love God, because you showed it to each one of us.
  I am thankful to Jan’s parents for the love that they showed us in their home, for the attention they gave us, and because they are so humble-hearted. May God abundantly bless you.
  To the pastor of Mt. Hill church, thank you for receiving us in your church. Something I really admire about you is that you are a hard worker.
  God let me meet a really special man who loves God so much. I was able to learn from his humility and I am thankful to God for men like him. His name is John and he is from Hopewell Baptist.   
  My prayers are that God will bless the lives of each person who received us and that God will continue to use you greatly.

Refugio's Thoughts from the U.S. trip

Well, before anything, I feel it necessary to give thanks for such warm hospitality with which we were received. I am very thankful to God for the opportunity that He gave me to go and visit the United States, and I am even more grateful because He let me go and meet such people, so full of love. I love them with the love of Christ, the love that unites us as brothers to take each other by the hand and work together.

Some of the experiences in the U.S.A. that I have kept in my heart are:

*In South Carolina, our Papa Dave and Mama Linda, thank you for your love.

* In North Carolina, Andrew and Dar have been an great example of a beautiful family. Believe me when I say that I want to have such a beautiful family as yours, so full of happiness like yours.

* Thanks to all the children I carry in my heart.

* Thanks to God for letting me see the greatest miracle of all, the salvation of souls.

Thank you my brothers and sisters and I say goodbye declaring blessings over you all and may God multiply your strength, may the heavens be open to you, and may God be attentive to your prayers. I love you all.

Cesar's Thoughts on the U.S. Trip

This trip was really really good for me. I learned to die to myself from the very beginning. When we were traveling, God told me that I was passing through some hard times, and that I could leave the ministry without any condemnation. I could leave it all and live my normal happy life. I could get married and keep rapping. I could do whatever makes me happy. OR I could take up my cross and follow Him, even though there will be struggles, pain, cold times – but my happiness doesn’t compare with what God has for me. God doesn’t promise me that it will be easy, but that it’s worth it all. When I heard this sweet voice, it filled my heart with peace, but it also broke me down. I cried a lot this day, and I felt destroyed and without desire to fight. After that I acted like King David, I got up, I bathed, and I went out to the fight. What? I went out to the fight and took the decision to go with Him until the end.

When I made this decision, I saw the backing of God in my life. When I rapped, I felt like the Holy Spirit used me. God taught me to trust in Him, and only in Him. So, I am leaving my past behind me and going on with my eyes fixed on God

Carlos & Eva's thoughts on the U.S. trip

Carlos says:
Truly, this missions trip to the U.S.A. was a great blessing. God protected us, and sustained us all the time. He protected us from a near-accident on the highway near San Antonio, Texas, and afterwards He saved us from a tornado at the Mississippi River. It was an unforgettable experience, because we could see how close He was to everything happening.
Also, God helped us to fulfill our goals that we went with: evangelism, going to different schools and a university with our dramas and songs, preparing Mexican food for many many people, and thanks to God everything went well.
I am also grateful to Greg & Jan because they were our guides, our counselors, and they never left us alone. We felt their support the whole time.

Eva says:
Greetings to all and may God bless you! Above all, I want to thank the 2 families that hosted us and Jan's parents. You were all such a big blessing and thank you for your support for our trip. It was a big blessing to my life. I have always wanted to know your country because from there you came to evangelize my nation and because of that I have always felt something for your nation. Now that I know your people, I love them even more and I have a burden from God to be praying for your country. I know your nation is special to God because "Where sin abounds, grace abounds". I will be praying for your nation from now on. May God bless you and keep you. I love you all.

Isaias' Thoughts on the U.S. Trip

  For me, it was a big blessing to be there in the U.S., because God fulfilled one of my dreams. I had always desired to go there as a missionary.
  The thing that impacted me the most was that I saw the needs there, how the people really need God. When we knocked on doors to evangelize, the people opened their doors, not only to their homes, but to their hears to receive Christ as their Saviour. There were a lot of people who accepted Christ.
  Another thing is that the people are really humble even though they are rich. They don't make exceptions for people and I really liked that.
  Now I am praying and I believe that one day I will return there to work as a full-time missionary.

Alex's Thoughts on the U.S. trip

  Well, to begin with, I had the experience on this trip of visiting another country, one that is very different from my nation.
  The main lesson was that as children of God it doesn't matter where we go, there will always be people you can identify with. The common thing in the US for us was the name of Jesus.
  It was good to see people who seek after God in another lifestyle and another way of thinking, and that doesn't mean that God isn't with them.
  One can see different things and compare places, but God is the same everywhere.
  One of the perspectives that I had was that I was going with the intention of giving, but the other thought I had was "What am I going to learn?" and I believe I fulfilled my purpose in that.
  Every person, city, church, and moment I learned something, from the children up to the senior citizens, I was able to learn from them.
  One thing I learned there was that it wasn't important to the people where we came from, they opened their homes and let us be there, and they let us into the best areas they had. They gave us the chance to go into the most intimate parts of their lives, their homes, and they extended trust to us.
  I know that we shouldn't look at where we come from, what color of skin we have, our likes and dislikes, what our society gives or doesn't give - maybe we haven't realized that what is important is that we impart the heart of God, and to share that is our purpose as brothers and sisters in the Kingdom.
  My thoughts about the United States are that it is a country that seeks after God, and that is not what I had been brought up thinking. Now I can believe that about your people and your cities, because I have seen it.
  Everywhere we went it was always clean, and I admired that a lot.
  Also, there are a lot of needs there and they need more men and women who are available to take up their cross and deny themselves to meet the needs of the people there.

Gas Prices

Been seeing on the news that gas in the US is expected to reach $4.00 per gallon this summer. We often get the question of how much we pay for gas here. It was a little complicated because of the metric system and the exchange rate, but on Monday I figured it out to be $2.51 per gallon. The dollar has fallen a little bit since Monday, but you get the general gist of it.

I just HAD to post this...

Back Home & Many, Many Thank Yous

We made it home!  Sorry about not blogging while we were on our missions trip.  It turns out we were pretty much overbooked and Jan and I had almost no time to go online.  Nonetheless, in the next few days we'll be putting up various stories about our students' impressions of our great nation.   

So for now I want to thank everyone for your prayers, hospitality and support.  The trip was life changing for our students and a wonderful, though exhausting, experience for Jan and I.  Unfortunately my internet connection won't allow me to upload and post photos right now but I'll get some up as soon as I can.  Thanks again!!!