Tonight the Pesina family home collapsed after what was either high winds or a tornado swept through. The whole family was inside the home, except San Juanita and Marisela who were on the van with Shane. Most of you know their children who come to church with us on Wednesdays and Sundays. The family lived on the top floor of an old bldg in the southside of St. Joseph. There is nothing on the bottom floor. They have 9 children including the new baby that was born 4 months ago. While sitting in their home tonight the whole house collapsed and caved in sending them through the floor. The teenage boy was sent to the hospital by ambulance from an injury caused by an appliance hitting him during the collapse. The rest of the family is now being cared for by the Red Cross.

Tonight as I was holding 2 yr old, Miguel Pesina, in my arms just behind their recently demolished home. He was shivering and had no shoes on, so I wrapped him up in my jacket. I asked him if he was scared and he just shook his head yes. Then he looked at me and said “my house broke”. I said “I know buddy.” Then he said it again, “my house broke”. A few of the kids were sitting there confused in the van beside me and tears welled up in my eyes. I have grown to deeply love Ricky, San Juanita, Marisela and their siblings over this last year that they have been coming to church with us! Ricky and Aaron (my son) have gotten to be good friends and so Ricky asked me if Aaron was ok. I thought to myself how blessed I was that we still have our home. Then I thought how kind of him to be concerned about my son after his house had just been destroyed! Man I love that kid. Every Thursday I see him at Hosea (his school) and he runs into my arms for a great big hug. I can’t imagine what was going through their minds as the walls and floor of their home crashed to the ground. Please pray for them!

Tomorrow, Aaron and I’s ministry is to drive them around to by clothes, groceries, and to get their car out of impound. They have to start from scratch. Please pray for this family. God has spared their lives miraculously only 1 out of the 11 were injured and none were killed. I don’t know how long the Red Cross will be able to help them? But eventually they will need a place to live in the south end close to their job. The mom and dad both work at Triumph Foods. Please pray we can be the hands and feet of Christ during this difficult time. Maybe God can use this situation to get the parents to church as well! Until then, please pray for the new baby, Maria and Fermand (the parents), and San Juanita, Marisela, Fermand Jr.,Ricky, Juan Carlos, Jose, Sergio, and Miguel. What if it were your home and your children????

Over the weekend I took 5 girls to a Christian Women’s Conference at Ottawa University. The conference was put on by Dr. Brenda Robinson and the Southern Gospel quartet New Desire. It was an absolutely wonderful time as their teaching, preaching, and singing blessed are hearts in a very big way. These people radiate with the love of Jesus! At the women’s conference we laughed, learned, and even cried as Brenda shared her powerful testimony of what God has done in her life.

Besides the morning women’s conference, we also spent that evening with them at their concert and the next morning as they sang and preached in my parent’s church. Brother Dan, of New Desire, delivered a powerful message full of bold truth bringing several to respond at the end of the service. I was so grateful to hear him preach the Word so boldly. By the end of the weekend we had fallen in love with this group and became some of their biggest fans. They even gave two of the girls free cds and we have been worshiping the Lord to them.

We might have even picked up some of their SWEET Georgian accent! I will do whatever I can to get these people to my local church next year when they are back in the area. They are not only talented singers, but they are the REAL DEAL when it comes to ministers of the Gospel. They are not afraid to speak the TRUTH with a little “southern attitude” even! I’ll say it again, the girls and I were very blessed to spend the weekend with them! They left us inspired to follow Jesus even more!!!!

Oh how subtle are the twists and turns that divert people from the TRUTH that the Lord Jesus Christ is the “WAY”the “TRUTH and the “LIFE”!!! We must PRAY and we must continue to stand on the TRUTH of God’s Word at all times! Oprah “God Bless Her” is sadly mistaken and deceiving all to many into New Age BOLOGNA!!!

One nation, under God, with Liberty and Justice for all.

A Lesson That Should Be Taught In All Schools

Back in September of 2005, on the first day of school, Martha Cothren, a social studies school teacher at Robinson High School in Little Rock, did something not to be forgotten.

On the first day of school, with the permission
of the school superintendent, the principal and the building
supervisor, she removed all of the desks out of her classroom.

When the first period kids entered the room they discovered that there
were no desks. Looking around, confused, they asked, ‘Ms. Cothren,
where’re our desks?’ She replied, ‘You can’t have a desk until you
tell me what you have done to earn the right to sit at a desk.’ They
thought, ‘Well, maybe it’s our grades.’ ‘No,’ she said. Maybe it’s
our behavior.’ She told them, ‘No, it’s not even your behavior. And
so, they came and went, the first period, second period, third
period. Still no desks in the classroom.

By early afternoon television news crews had started gathering in Ms. Cothren’s classroom to report about this crazy teacher who had taken all the desks out of her room.

The final period of the day came and as the puzzled students found seats on the floor of the deskless classroom.
Martha Cothren said, ‘Throughout the day no one has been able to tell me just what he/she has done to earn the right to sit at the desks that are ordinarily found in this classroom. Now I am going to tell you.’

At this point, Martha Cothren went over to the door of her
classroom and opened it. Twenty-seven (27) U.S. Veterans, all in
uniforms, walked into that classroom, each one carrying a school
desk. The Vets began placing the school desks in rows, and then they
would walk over and stand alongside the wall. By the time the last
soldier had set the final desk in place those kids started to
understand, perhaps for the first time in their lives, just how the
right to sit at those desks had been earned.

Martha said, ‘You didn’t earn the right to sit at these desks. These heroes did it for you.  They placed the desks here for you. Now, it’s up to you to sit in them. It is your responsibility to learn, to be good students, to be good citizens. They paid the price so that you could have the freedom to get an education. Don’t ever forget it.’

This song challenged hundreds of Christian adults and students at Bible Quiz Nationals last year and the Spirit led 75 to the altar and me to tears of conviction. It must be relevant that in our weak faith, at best, we feel as if we are all alone. Many times we live like we are all alone. We must believe and trust and know that He is with us! I hope you will take the time to watch this video in its entirety as it shares the courageous story of Martin Luther King. It encourages and inspires my heart every time I see it. Jason Upton sings this amazing song leading into a powerful time of worship!!

Coffey has a great testimony and ministry and I appreciate his songs. I especially like this one!

Life house did a great job with this drama! It has actually become quite popular among local youth groups. I know of at least one youth group who is using it as an evangelistic tool to win teens to Christ. Every teen can relate to this one! If they have not been there, I guarantee they know someone who has!These are the very battles that this generation is fighting. I could tell you story after story of teens who struggle in these areas. Even many Christian teens end up in bondage of these very sins. You may think why would a “Christian” do these things? Usually it is because they are more connected to their friends, schools, music, sports, and televisions than they are to their churches or to Jesus. Not that those things are always bad. It is just that the term “Christian” doesn’t have much to do with Christ anymore in a lot of youth groups.It is also ultimately a spiritual battle between good and evil.

The Bible says…For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Ephesians 6:12

We have seen satan destroy many teenagers. Like in the video the pull of satan on their lives is so strong. Some of the students that I know who have dabbled in cutting, eating disorders, drugs, alcohol, sex; one sin just led to another to the point that they were no longer interested in anything that had to do with God. This last week, one student we have been ministering to was sent to a mental institution for threatening to shoot up his high school. In another instance, some girls we know from a local middle school were sent to the hospital after overdosing on methodone during school. Teen pregnancy is almost an accepted norm in high schools. One local high school has over 20 moms and expecting moms this year. Immoral relationships are everywhere among junior high and high school students. (Christian or non-Christian) You can’t walk through the public schools without seeing girls and boys all over each other in the hallways.

I also know of at least 5 openly gay students. One boy where’s feminine jewelry clothes and lots of makeup to school. Other students claim they are bisexual because it makes them seem wild, unique, or shocking. I have sat down at lunch time to visit with kids who were in the middle of reading books about witchcraft, vampires, and curses. One girl, a preacher’s daughter, all of the sudden started dressing gothic, dying her hair black and dressing in all black. When I ask her why she was doing that she said she was “experimenting with her identitiy”. I tried to explain to her as a Christian her identity is IN CHRIST. She has been bought with a price and is supposed to be a child of God. But she told me she “liked the way it shocked people” and “it made her heel like she had power over them”. This was a girl raised her whole life in church.

Lord help us reach these students with the Gospel and bring them the TRUTH and hope of Jesus Christ, before it is too late for them!!!

This is the book that we have chosen to study this summer for the SYO GRACE Summer Girls Bible Study 2008. It compares culturally based lies versus what the Word of God says. I did this same book in a Women’s Bible Study format 4 or 5 years ago and now it has been rewritten for “young” women. I think it will help us to sort through the world’s and Satan’s lies and ultimately find the truth from God’s Word. I am really excited to dig into this study with the girls this summer!!!

Check out a promo for the book here!

Tonight at SQ632, our outreach event for 7th through 12th graders, we watched parts of Passion of the Christ. Whenever I see this movie or the parts where Jesus is being mutilated, I am tempted to turn my eyes away at the gruesome parts. But fighting back the tears I force myself to watch it. I have to force myself to watch it so that I can remember just how incredibly awful it was for Jesus and what a huge price it was that He paid for me and for you because of our sin. That way maybe it will leave a lasting enough impression in my mind to truly be thankful and humble to the one true God, who UNDERSTANDS and has experienced the very worst pain and suffering.

After SQ632 is over there is always a chance for students to respond to God and pray with a counselor. Tonight 2 out of the 47 kids responded in prayer. I was so blessed to pray with a 7th grader named Destiny. She goes to church fairly regularly but for the first time was understanding the magnitude of the sacrifice that Jesus made and that her life was not where it should be and so she prayed for this Jesus to be her Lord. I am looking forward to building a friendship with Destiny and keeping in touch with her. I see her every Monday and Tuesday at her school when I volunteer there and then she comes to SQ632 on Monday nights. Please pray for her!

If you have forgotten how great the love of God is you might pick up a copy of the movie “Passion of the Christ” if you don’t already have it and watch it especially now with Easter coming. Then spend a little time in prayer afterwards. Watch it and REMEMBER Jesus!!! Remember the sacrifice, remember how God hates sin, remember the cost, and most importantly remember the LOVE of GOD!!!!

A quote form Peter Kuzmic…

“Hope is the ability to hear the music of the future; faith is having the courage to dance to it today.”

I like this one a lot! (Thanks Jack!)

Question to ponder…..Are we merely hoping in Jesus or do we have FAITH in Him…faith to dance today, right now, for Him???

Let’s DANCE….by faith…in obedience….because of love…..for the glory of God….through the atoning sacrifice and resurrection power of Jesus Christ!!!!!