VBS - Simply Amazing

A few months ago, I received a phone call from Gary O'Brien from the Madison church. I had never heard of Gary. In the beginning because of technical difficulties and schedules, we had a hard time actually getting in touch with each other or talking on the phone. (you all know how that goes sometimes!) Once we finally talked, I found out that he was the interim youth minister and he was wanting to organize a group of young people to come down and help us out.

Sometimes you don't know how these things are going to work out. And the first time you talk to someone on the phone, you don't know what God has in store. But, that was one phone call I thank God we received. Gary and his wife Melissa O'Brien are such an amazing couple. They love God and want to serve Him. This spirit of service to the Lord permiated the entire group of young people that came down with them. There is a saying that I learned from our brother Luis Rosas that transalated into English is "You threw the house out of the window!" Basically this means that "you went all out, you surpassed all expectations, you are amazing!" I mean think about getting a house out of a window?! Anyway that is the only way I can describe the work, the attitude, and the spirit of this group that came from Madison to help us out.

Also, God has a way of encouraging you when you most need it. Many of you know the toubles we have faced this last year here at Hialeah. Besides all of that, the financial situation is bleak. So, we had decided that this year we would not have a VBS. We justified this by saying the church members could use a break, and besides we don't have the money to do it. Then, God steps in and knocks on our heads and says... " you of little faith!" This Madison group came in and offered to do a VBS, no cost to us. They would do all of the work and so much more. Well, they not only delivered, but they did it with so much love and understanding. The O'Briens said, "you are our missionaries and we need to be supporting you." They showed that they meant this by working tiredlessly to make everything happen.

The young people helped us prepare the building for an upcoming fire marshall inspection. They helped us restore a basketball court in back of the building that had been overtaken by years of neglect. They helped us redesign our "Teen Room" to be able to encourage our young people. They helped us with every detail concerning VBS including dramas, classroom prep, building decorations, and going into the community to invite families and young people.

The VBS was a huge success! We had children and teens from the community that had never stepped foot into our building come out. We had a lady who said "I have seen this building for 30 years and I always wanted to come by, I am so glad that you had this, I want to keep coming to this church!" This lady's name is Marlein. She brought her children the last two nights of VBS. We then had several other conversations over the phone, where she stated her excitement about having found a group she felt comfortable with. Sadly, she has not been back. Please pray for Marlein, her children, and all the other lives touched for the Lord during this VBS. Pray with us that the enemy or the worries of this world, don't choke out the seed that was planted in these hearts.

God is good. We had no intentions on having a VBS. God had different plans. Better plans. Plans that restored our spirits and fire! Thank you Lord.

Welcome Gary!

I am playing a little bit of catch up here. This is a story that I should have posted several weeks ago.

One of the greatest blessings coming out of all of our recent struggles has been a spirit of "let's get busy working!" As a result, we have developed a new ministry called "Ministerio HAS" which stands for "HAS Ministry" The HAS stands for hermanos al servicio or in English, brothers in service. That is exactly what has been happening. It is a group of mostly young adults that are helping out with evangelism, visitation, and they get together and socialize as well. One of the young ladies that has been involved in the group is Linda Morales. She has grown up in the church. She has not had the easiest life. Like all of us she has had her ups and her downs, but through it all she has remained faithful. Recently she invited a young man to church, that she had gone to high school with. Gary is his name. Gary is 25 years old. He moved to the United States from Nicaragua when he was 2 years old. Gary has been coming off and on for the last 2 months. The first week of July we were scheduled to have a Bible study on Wednesday night. What I did not know was that on Monday and Tuesday night the guys from Ministerio HAS had been studying the Bible with Gary. On Wednesday night, we talked a lot about respecting God's word, and being obedient to it. We had agreed that we would get back together to study some more the next week Wednesday. However, the next day Thursday, Gary called me up. I answered the phone, and Gary said to me, "Luis, I know what I have to do, I need to be baptized." I was so happy. He went on to tell me that he couldn't stop thinking about it since we had studied the night before. Gary was asking me if we could do it the following Sunday. Of course I said, but why not tonight? He nearly jumped through the phone! That night in front of the young adults that had studied the Word with him, Gary was baptized into Jesus!
We thank God for Gary, and all of the brothers and sisters that are working very hard for Jesus. Not only do we need their help, but it is also very encouraging to all of us. Please pray for Gary and Ministerio HAS. Thank you for your support.

Rosas Family Farewell

This last Sunday we said goodbye to the Rosas family. The Rosas have been a part of our mission team for the last 7 years. They came into our mission team during the difficult time when we lost our dear brother in Christ Carl James. They entered into our family when we needed to catch our breath. Isn't it amazing how God sends us help when we need it the most? Well he didn't just send us help, he sent us friends, family, loyal comrades, hard workers... I can't say enough about the Luis and Jessica Rosas. We were first introduced to the Luis Rosas many years ago. Well, we didn't actually meet Luis, but his parents came to Miami as part of a singing group from Baxter Institute where they were studying in the 80's. Then many years went by. One of the young peope in our youth group Mark Herrera had dreamt of getting a Christian education. As I look back in time I see that God truly works in mysterious ways. We encouraged Mark to go to Harding. The church was instrumental in encouraging him to follow his dream. Well, when Mark was a junior or senior (I can't remember) he helped lead a campaign of Spanish students from Harding to Miami. Luis and Jessica Rosas were helping to lead this campaign. Luis and Jessica fell in love with our members. Mark tells us that on their way back to Harding, they talked about how God had touched them, and maybe He was leading them to work with us in Miami. The rest as they say is history.

Now God is directing them to work somewhere else. Luis and Jessica are in the process of deciding on one of several offers to work in Texas. Both of their families live in Texas, and we knew it was just a matter of time. God has used Luis and Jessica in a mighty way among us. Their impact will be felt for a very long time here, and many souls have been won for Christ through their efforts. As a brother and friend, I will miss Luis terribly. We got along incredibly. There was a special bond between us. The Rosas family revolutionized our family ministry. Luis also studied and got his Masters in Family Counseling. As you can imagine a large part of his ministry was in counseling. I could go on for a very long time telling you all of all the wonderful things they did. I know that their crown of life will be filled with many jewel's! This Sunday we had a lunch in their honor. Then we had a special presentation, where we showed some video, a power point presentation, and special guests expressed their appreciation for all that they have done. It was beautiful. The members secretly filmed goodbye's and Rachel put together a beautiful book with gorgeous pictures for them to take with them. The church also presented them with a plaque.

Please keep them in your prayers. Whichever work they join will be blessed for having them. Please keep us in your prayers as well. Now, we find ourselves with a lot more on our already full plates. Besides the sadness of saying goodbye, we also find ourselves, nervous and overwhelmed. However, we are reminded of God's promises. God will not give us more than what we can handle. We pray for wisdom and more workers. We appreciate all that you do for us.

New Beginnings!

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

This morning as we were getting ready for church, Rachel said, "Today is going to be a great day!" She must be a prophet, because we did have a great day. The Lord's day is always a great day, but today was amazing. We had a packed house. The singing was great. There was a buzz in the air. I preached on "Spiritual Maturity" We read Hebrews 5:11-14. We challenged the listeners to "grow up spiritually, and get into the Word!" Well God did amazing work! We had around six people respond to the invitation asking for prayers and to rededicate their life to Christ. We had one lady, Ofelia, give her life over to Jesus in baptism. Ofelia has been visiting us for about a month now. The Flores family has been studying with her. This morning I asked brother Jose Flores if he would like to perform the baptism, he excitedly accepted. I wasn't aware that this was his first time. He did an amazing job, said everything correctly, and did everything just right. There was one little funny part...Ofelia (who turns out was a little nervous of the immersion part) asked him "please do it fast" but she kept holding on to the wall with her arm! Brother Jose, told her "I will do it fast, but you have to let go of the wall." As for the rest of us in the audience, we weren't sure what was going on, from our angle it just looked like brother Jose was trying to drown her! Well, it was beautiful none the less. There was a party going on in Heaven and in Hialeah. As icing on the cake, then we had several families place membership at Hialeah: Ireno Nunes which has been a Christian for about 58 years, baptized in Cuba, Oseas (I can't remember his last name) also Cuban was baptised into Christ in Oklahoma, Joel and his wife Maria, who moved to Hialeah from South Miami, have been Christians for a couple of years, and lastly Amiel Perez Jr and his wife, that just arrived from Cuba about 2 months ago. Please keep our new sister in Christ and these new members at Hialeah in your prayers. We feel really encouraged by everything that happened today. Rachel and I feel so excited about what God is doing here. I pray that God continues to use all of us here in this mission work to bring more souls to His Kingdom.

Many of us take it for granted that we live with such freedom. However many of your fellow brother and sisters in Christ don't enjoy these same privileges. Mario Castillo is a brother that has been a faithful Christian for over ten years. He has been in and out of immigration courts all of these years working on his legal status. He and his family always tried to follow the law and do everything the right way. Several years ago I had to go before a judge on his behalf to share the kind of man he is. Both of his daughters have been born in this country and are US citizens, his wife Emma, also got her residency around five years ago. However, because he was in a special ops unit in his country of Guatemala, during a time a very bad government had control, he was never given his residency. We have continued to pray for him and his situation. Two weeks ago he came forward at church praising God because finally the government gave him his legal resident status. Well, this Friday, immigration stormed the factory/warehouse where he works, many people were detained, and your brother in Christ, Mario was also detained for deportation. After being handcuffed for over a half an hour, the officers finally decided to pay attention to him as he explained that he was a legal resident, but just hadn't received his card yet. We ate lunch together today after services. He was laughing and joking about the entire situation. But, can you imagine being handcuffed, after being through all that he's been through? If they had came to his work 2 weeks ago, we would have never seen him again. Emma, says she is so proud of him, because he was a true example, he never lost his temper, and he sang church songs while he was being detained. God looked out for this brother and his family. He never let's us down. Brother Mario really appreciates his residency!

God bless you all.

Let's get this started!

Hello Friends and Family,

We pray that you find yourselves doing well. The Estrada family is doing great. Today, I had a conversation with a brother and one of my best friends Carlos Isaziga. He told me a quote which I believe is a great place to start. Carlos told me "Luis...Yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, but today is a gift, that's why they call it the present." Carlos, was actually quoting the turtle in "Kung Fu Panda." Well, wherever it's from, I believe as Christians this attitude will certainly help us out in our daily walk with Christ.

The last six months have been really trying for our ministry, church, and family. Rachel, told me the other day that she felt as if we were in an episode of "ER." There were fires to put out all around us with very little relief in site. Some of you know what I'm talking about and others don't. I don't want to get into it at this time. If you are interested please give me a call. Otherwise, I will take Carlos' advice. The past is in the past. And as God's word tells us, we must learn from the past.

Probably the only part of the quote that is questionable is the part of the future. As christians, we are certain of our future. The battle is done, the victory is won. We know where we are going.

I just received a phone call from Efrain Valverde asking me to cover him this evening in Bible class. He is not feeling well tonight. For those of you that don't know, Efrain has had a relapse with the cancer. Please keep him in your prayers.

I have added a photograph. This is a sample of what we are doing at Hialeah. Every Sunday we pass these out with the bulletin. We are trying to encourage our members to read their Bible's more. Rachel has taken many beautiful pictures like this one. She has been really blessed by God with this talent. She is a vital part of our ministry. Please keep us in your prayers.