I'm Back! (Part VII)

CONGRATULATIONS!

Krystalynn Moreno turns 15!

On Saturday, June 9th one of our teen girls in our church had her 15th birthday celebration called a quinceanera.  Our church's rondalla played for the special music and my husband gave the devotion.

She was presented with several gifts including a Bible and a purity ring.

 

God bless you Krystalynn as you enter the highlight of your teen years!  May you always walk close to God and keep Him #1 in your life!  I love you and pray for you!

 CHRISTMAS,

 365 DAYS OF THE YEAR!

On Monday, June 11th we had our bi-monthly missionary circle meeting.  The theme was "Christmas, 365 days of the year!"

The devotion I brought to the ladies, as well as to myself, was more of an encouragement. 

We get so busy with our daily duties of the home, church attendance as well as activities at the church, work, the schedules of our children including school, homework & sports that things become

the same old thing!  The meals are the same, we don't plan much family time and things become so boring! 

When we think of Christmas we think of giving.  Why can't we do that everyday of the year? The greatest gift we can give is ourselves.  Here are just a few ideas I shared with the ladies that we could do with our families.

• Have a game night.  Play table games, badminton, ping pong etc.
• Have a movie night.  Either watch a good DVD or pull out all the baby videos of your children.(We always got a good laugh watching those!)
• Have snack/chat night.  Have a buffet of snacks: chips/dip, nachos, homemade ice cream sundaes or banana splits, fingerfoods etc. and just sit around and talk.  Talk about how the day went for everyone, plan the next family night and so on.
• Theme dinners:  mexican, chinese or italian and have everyone dress up for it.

These are just a few things that you can do with your family that is out of the ordinary.

We walk through this world one time!  We only have one chance in raising our children and being the wife to our husbands.  Why not make it the best we can. 

Christmas is a happy time!  Why not be that way daily.  We create memories at Christmas!  Why not do that 365 days out of the year!  Christmas 365 days a year!

(Sorry I didn't get many pictures this time.) 

TEEN BANQUET

On Tuesday, June 12th our church held its 2nd awards banquet.  It is a program that encourages our teens to read their Bibles, go soul winning, perfect church attendance as well as memorize scripture and many other things.  They are presented with certificates and trophys and other fine prizes.  Here are just a few of the teens that were awarded awards.  Bro. Daniel runs this program for our teens. 

Bro. & Mrs. Daniel with some of the teens that received awards

This year's 1st, 2nd & 3rd place winners.

Pastor Mike Wells from Parkside Baptist Church was our guest speaker this year.

Left to right:  Mrs. Daniel, myself, Mrs. Wells, Pastor Wells, my husband & Bro. Daniel

MR & MRS. DAVID HERNANDEZ

On Saturday, June 16th one of our young ladies of our church, Elsa Torres got married.  It was a very pretty outdoors wedding in a nearby resort.

We are very happy for her and for her future with David.  I know they will make a good team in serving the Lord together in Oregon where she now lives.  She was a great help in our church while here.  She helped in our weekly jr. church and anywhere else she was needed. 

We will definitely miss her! 

We love you Elsa and we are proud of you! 

COMMONWEALTH BAPTIST COLLEGE

We hosted Commonwealth Baptist College tour group "Voices of Melody" on May 17th in our church.  They always do a great job!   They bring a good number of specials and present the college to any possible future students. 

So far we have had 2 graduates and this fall we will have a total of 9 students.  6 returning and 3 new students.  Praise the Lord for good Christian colleges!

"CHOICE UNIVERSITY"

TEEN CONVENTION

LONGVIEW, TX

June 18th - 21st

One of the summer highlights for our teenagers is going to Teen Convention in Longview, TX.  We left at 9:00 a.m. Monday morning, June 18th.  With 2 vans loaded with luggage, junk food, pillows, junk food, teenagers and more junk food they were ready to go.  It is only a 2 1/2 hour drive but there is a lunch stop on the way there.  They never get tired of eating!  We arrived in Longview to register and check in our hotel.  From then on they are ours!!!!!  No tv, cell phones or ipods to distract them.  :)

This year's theme was "Choice University".  The teens were encouraged to serve the Lord full-time or in full-time Christian Laity.  Many of them made decisions and got encouraged to keep on serving the Lord and to make changes in their lifes. 

On Thursday, the last day of the teen convention they had a graduation service where they received a diploma in Full-Time Christian Ministry or Full-Time Christian Laity.

We had a great time and look forward to returning next year.   

Last minute instructions.

Ready to go! 

3 more teens will be picked up on the way.

Longview Baptist Temple's teen choir

Pastor Bob Gray II

Bro. Alvin Martinez from Santa Clara, CA

provided many of the specials.  He did a tremendous job and we were very blessed by his voice.

Evangelist Allen Domelle

(I didn't get a very good picture)

Pastor Danny Ortiz

Dr. Bob Gray Sr.

Texas Baptist College singing group

Andres was sitting on the front row and his last words before this service was "I hope Bro. Bob doesn't choose me for a demonstration!"  LOL! 

Be careful what you say........ :)

I love it!!!  Teens saying Amen!

 Singing competition

 Break time!

Whenever someone did something "dumb" they got to wear the dunce hat!

 Competitions

Receiving their diplomas

The line went all the way up to the balcony.

Our group! :)

They all received diplomas but some forgot theirs for the picture.

A special thank you to our church members who prayed for our teens as they were at teen convention and to LBT who did a great job on this year's teen convention!

OUR MISSIONARY JARED ZAPATA

Last month when my husband was in Guatemala, he asked our son-n-law also our church's missionary, Jared to preach for him.  He did very good!  He preached on the "I am" sent me.  Whenever we get down or discouraged doing God's work just remember who sent you!  It was very encouraging. 

Jared, Elyssa and Gabriella are doing fine in their deputation!  They are about half way in their support.  They work very hard trying to get to as many churches as possible to present their work that they want to start in the Philippins.  Please pray for them as they continue to travel.  As of this writing they are in Arizona.

 

OUR 8TH ANNIVERSARY

It is so hard to believe that we have just celebrated 8 years here at Iglesia Bautista Fundamental!  When we came to this church 8 years ago our children were 10, 12, 14 & 16 yrs. old.  In just a few months, our then 10 year old, will be a freshman in college!

Our church held a celebration in the evening.  They had us come to the platform and our head deacon, Bro. Rios said a little bit of history of our coming to this church.  They gave my husband a certificate to purchase 3 (very needed) suits.  Our children's choir sang that night and as they went to the platform they put a rose in a vase that was given to me.  They also gave us a love offering. 

Nothing would be complete without a meal after church and a "tres leches" cake! 

God has placed us in a very loving and caring church.  We love each and every one of them dearly and look forward to more years together!

Spending time with friends from Puerto Rico

Five Guys Burgers

While on vacation, Jose Miguel and Elsita Rivera came to spend a few days with us.  We enjoyed so much getting to see them again.  I may have mentioned this in a past blog posts but Elsita was one of our teen girls in our church in Puerto Rico. 

We had a good time catching up and spending some time with them.  We were able to get in a cookout, some shopping and met Gabriella!  :)

Update on Danny!

After our son Danny's college graduation, he came home for about 3 weeks before he began the next stage of his life.  He was accepted to do an internship at the Frederick Baptist Church in Frederick, MD pastored by Pastor John Seay.  For the past 4 weeks Danny has been in Maryland with 4 other young men, students of Commonwealth Baptist College.  They have really enjoyed themselves.  They all have jobs that they do in the church like preaching, working in different ministries and they just finished helping in their VBS. 

Not only does Danny enjoy working in the ministry there but he is also enjoying being with his girlfriend.  How convenient, Pastor Seay is Sarah's dad!  :) 

After Danny finishes his internship he will be taking the position of Assistant Pastor.  He is thoroughly excited and so are we. We feel that Danny is doing God's will for his life.