Happy Birthday, Abigail (and Sarah)

Abigail turned 16 on April 7th! (Sarah turned 24 on the 9th!) Sarah had her own party with family and friends there in Ohio and here in Magdalena we celebrated for Abigail. Thank you to all those who faithfully remember our children's birthdays. It is always special to them to be remembered by those they have met through the years. Now if our oldest is 24 and one of the last two at home is now 16 - How old am I? That is just a rhetorical question, you do not need to answer. Just remember to pray for us.

Go Fly A Kite

A street vendor came by the other day with kites for sale. Anna chose a pink one and Abigail chose a black bird. A few days latter we had a few free minutes in the afternoon and headed up by the cemetery to keep away from the many low hanging high power electric lines in town to try out the kites. It was quite a blustery day as you can tell - Anna's kite took off and stayed up most of the time (we let out about 200 yards of string), Abigail's kite was unbalanced and was much more difficult to fly. It eventually snapped the main crossbow. I cut a new one out of a desert bush put it still proved difficult to fly. Remember to keep us held up in prayer no matter what type of weather blows!

Felicidades (Congratulations) to Freddy and Enereida

It was our honor and privilege to be part of Freddy's and Enereida's wedding this past Friday. Freddy and Enereida are part of the work of the ministry in Hermosillo. They have both dedicated themselves to serve the Lord and the Lord has brought them together. They have a wonderful testimony for the Lord and their wedding in turn was a tremendous testimony of how God works in lives dedicated to Him and just how wonderful and beautiful Godly love is. Our congratulations to them. They plan to continue in the work in Hermosillo and will be a tremendous asset to Pastor Perez and their church.

Instituto Biblica de Sonora Building Update

This past weekend we traveled through Hermosillo and stopped by to say "Hi" to Pastor Perez and to make a few arrangements for some other things. We were on our way to Navojoa for a Mission's Conference and Anniversary Service but more about that later this week.

Highway Problems

This past week we were scheduled to help out in Hermosillo with the Iglesia Bautista Sahuaro - but more about that below. What was suppose to me a 2 1/2 hour trip turned into 14!

Exactly half way to Hermosillo our GMC van broke down. I don't want to say "again" because it has been such a good vehicle but it is getting tired. I was able to get help to come from Magdalena to come pick up the family and I waited with the van while Ezra came home with the family, picked up the truck and some tools and returned to help me out.

That so far is just the start of a normal day in the life of The Harris Family. While waiting on the side of the road I spent some time with the Lord, read a good book, wandered the desert exploring and witnessed a roll over accident almost right in front of where the van was parked! As I ran to the scene my prayer was to God for His help to be a help to the mutilated that I was sure to find. As it turned out Lourdes and Erika and their dog Max were severely shook up but physically okay. The 2004 Nissan Xterra was not. It had rolled over twice and flipped once.

After helping them through the ordeal and waiting with them for their family to come up from San Carlos (about three hours away) I was able to continue on with the task at hand. By that time Ezra had arrived and we tow strapped the van back to Magdalena, 94 kilometers back.

Once back to Magdalena we reloaded from the van to the truck and set out a second time for Hermosillo this time arriving without incident some

Hermosillo Project

The intention of the trip was to go to Hermosillo to help out with the Iglesia Bautista Sahuaro in a building project. They are in the process of building a three story building to house their Bible Institute. About three years ago they begun and have a portion of the first floor started. Pastor Perez's hope was to add to the first floor and continue with a portion of the second floor.

They have two U.S. groups down to help them with the construction and that is where I come in. It seems that what engineering plans they did have on the building are no longer available, so a construction supervisor was needed and to avoid a tower of Babel a translator was needed.

With that intention we spent Monday and Tuesday there in Hermosillo, returned Wednesday to be here for our services and then returned to Hermosillo early Thursday and spent Friday as well. Saturday morning we returned home to Magdalena and spent the day on visitation and are here for our Sunday services. Tomorrow (Monday the 8th) we will return to Hermosillo as God provides to close out the time with the second U.S. group now there helping in the work.

That Hurdle Number

I distinctly remember while starting the church in Bullhead City we would often reach hurdle numbers: numbers that we just could not hurdle for some time. Currently ours is thirteen.

Yesterday for example we again had, you guessed it, thirteen. Now if our main family had been in attendance we would have cleared our hurdle but the husband was in Patagonia, Arizona looking for employment. Actually I am quite encouraged by it all!

First of all because it shows some faithfulness of vision. We have Sunday morning regulars, Sunday night regulars and Wednesday night regulars. Now if they will allow God to move them to be regulars for every service. Second it shows a frequency of visitors. The first Sunday of this year we had two first time visitors while yesterday we again had two more first time visitors.

Those Hopeful Numbers:

Each week we have many promises. Yesterday we had several promises, one from a man from the Dominican Republic to visit although he did not show up. We were surprised by a visitor from France that one of our families brought (although we did not count the poodle). Miquel Garcia is a professional baseball player for the Membrillillos, Magdalena's team. He is our contact from the Dominican Republic and like every other contact God gives us we cherish your prayers with us for his salvation.

Anyway, one by one we realize that each one must be won by one and that the battle is won one by one. Please continue to be one of those that fervently pray for the work here in Magdalena.

Not Ashamed!

One of our services

Marcos (one of our working contacts)

Anniversary service in Hermosillo with preachers and wives

CHRISTmas service in Santa Rita