Macintosh Blues

So I finally took everyone in the world's advice and bought a Macintosh laptop.  The problem is that I've never known anything other than a PC environment, for 20 years exactly.  I'm having serious adaptation issues; especially with word-processing and email clients.  The mouse/track pad is also more than somewhat aggravating.  I even bought a Micro$oft Office for Mac package to help in the weaning process, but it hasn't been much consolation.  The good things about this Mac is that it doesn't lock up, doesn't bog down, and does what I want when I want.  I can clutter the desktop, clean it up, open as many frivolous programs as I want and it doesn't even blink.  The internet is super fast and doesn't hassle me as I fly in and around several different sites at once.

On a sad note, our support didn't come in as I thought it would this month.  4 supporting churches didn't send anything, and 1 sent less than normal.  When we only have 15 supporting churches, it impacted our income dramatically.

I have several decisions to make regarding a couple meetings.  Also, I need wisdom about where to book meetings next, and for when.  Only God knows what we should do and we've been praying He would let us know what exactly that is.

Perhaps we'll go to a campmeeting starting tomorrow--it would be good to get pumped up and out of the "office" for the weekend.  Perhaps it will be beneficial in planning what avenue to take next.  I was so hoping/praying that our support would indicate which direction we need to take, and perhaps this is the answer--to keep booking and planning meetings, and using the opportunity tomorrow to make some good contacts.

Spiritual B-day

I've been saved for exactly 17 years today.  So much has happened that it confuses me to even try to think about it.  Everything from 3 years of being ostracized by my family to joining the army, being in the army for 4 years and then Bible college.  Meeting Erika, getting married, having a miscarriage, having a baby (Ashley) to starting a whirl-wind tour of the US on deputation.  Seeing souls saved and living for God both in Mexico and the US, meeting unbelievable people, and basking in God's glory at every turn.  It's been a great trip and I can't imagine what God has in store for the next 17 years.

Today was a good day.  I booked one meeting and made several good contacts to follow up on.  I was "unpeaceful" about where to go to church tonight, so I prayerfully narrowed it down to 3 and finally made the decision after supper.  It turned out to be great--we attended a great church close-by, and it was exactly what God intended for us.  The pastor was out of town, and the missions director of the church invited me to show our DVD and to preach.  Everything was so obviously in God's control.  We had a great time and were in awe and wonder at how God puts things together.  They gave us a handsome love offering and a couple in the church gave us an awesome love-gift.  We were just going to visit and see if we could get a meeting some other time, and we already had the meeting!

What a wonderful way to celebrate my spiritual birthday!  God has truly looked out for me and He really blessed me unusually well today.

R&R!

So it's been a couple weeks since I've posted an update.  Since the last blog update, the biggest news is that we've survived the Madison Baptist Church Vacation Bible School and Missions Conference 2010!  It was a great week with many souls saved and several decisions made for God.  I was able to share a testimony for the church on Monday night of the conference, and Tuesday I sang "Mexico Needs The Lord" to the tune of "People Need The Lord."  Friday night for the VBS graduation, I preached a 20 minute Gospel message.

The Lord blessed us by having us to stay with the Alan Snyder family from church.  We moved out of the Beard home on Saturday of the conference, and stayed with the Snyder's all week long.  We learned a lot from them about raising children and we're thankful we had the opportunity to be there.  We also started a new plan with Ashley--only nursing her at night before bed, and then I would take her for the entire night so she wouldn't wake Erika up.  It worked very well, and we are continuing to discipline her to sleep through the night.  Along with that, we are keeping her on a strict nap schedule during the day, which is somehow making her sleep better at night.  Praise The Lord for wisdom in raising her.

Also throughout the week, we were able to book 10 meetings.  Alan and I made a deal that I would pray for his business and he would pray for our meetings and support.  God has been so good to us.  Some of the meetings were put right in front of us in such a way that only God could have done put them together.

We moved out of the Snyder house on Sunday afternoon, since we had a meeting near their house on Sunday morning.  We had a meeting a few hours away on Sunday night, so just went straight there from the Snyder's, and went to the Beard's late Sunday night.

Today has been a rest and recovery day.  We slept in, then I got busy on the phone until about 5:00.  I was able to book 2 more meetings!

We still have more white on the calendar and need a bunch more meetings.  We are praying that we will be able to book some while we are at a couple different camp meetings starting this Saturday and next Wednesday.

I've also nearly completed planning for our trip to Washington state.  I desperately need at least 3 more meetings to make the trip almost breaking even.

The rest of the week will be spent on the phone, even though I'm at a point where I need to decide where to try to book meetings next.  Prayerfully I'll know by tomorrow after I finish making some follow-up calls.