Good Associates & Good Activities

Time has flown by in some type of hyper speed since our last update. Here is a review of just the last week.

On Monday our home church's associate pastor, Rick Sallee, and his wife Lydia arrived to spend the week with us. Sister Sallee had come with our home church to visit when we first came to Magdalena to start this work but this was Brother Sallee's first visit with us. They were here to be an encouragement to our family and they fully accomplished their goal!

On Tuesday we introduced them to normal "catch-up" missionary life and we all tried to recuperate from travels. Wednesday Brother Sallee was able to preach for our mid-week service. I translated. On Thursday we made a trip down to Hermosillo and on out to Miguel Aleman to visit the works there. We spent the night in Hermosillo and attended the anniversary service at Temple Bautista de Sahuaro. We stayed with "Grandma" Perez and enjoyed the time of fellowship with her. On Thursday we returned to Magdalena in time to host a teen activity here at the house. Every teen in our work was accounted for and we had a great time. On Friday and Saturday we visited around town and were able to be out soul-winning. On Sunday Brother Sallee was again able to preach the Word, I translated. We enjoyed a fellowship after our morning service and then returned for our evening service.

I believe we introduced them to the best of every type of Mexican meal that we enjoy here. There are some places that we did not have time to visit but that way the Sallee's can have something to look forward to on a return. I think we were also able to find the best donuts in Mexico, at least in Sonora.

Monday ended our visit with the Sallee family as we traveled out to Arizona with them to fly back to Ohio out of Phoenix. They actually did not arrive back in Ohio till Tuesday morning. Thank you Brother and Sister Sallee for your sacrifice to be with us.

Sunday Fellowship

Any Given Sunday

Any Given Saturday

Teen Activity

The Sallee Family, The Harris Family and "Grandma" Perez

Happy Birthday, Pastor & Mrs. Harris

Happy birthday, Pastor and Peggy. I was without a computer for awhile, so I apologize for the belated wishes to Pastor Harris . Happy birthday to Peggy (Oct 28th). May God continue to bless you and work in your life and your ministry.

Hot Dog Sunday

We do not necessarily try to promote special things for the sake of big days but now and then we do have special activities for our people to enjoy and to help them invite friends and family. This past activity was a church dinner on the grounds Sonoran Hot Dog style. If your not familiar with the Sonoran Hot Dog you need to come on down and we'll treat you to one!

We had our people sign up to bring most of the condiments and the church supplied the wiener and the bread. Our people really enjoyed the time of fellowship. All in all it is another part of growing our people and the work. We are currently averaging 27 in our Sunday services.



ANNA'S BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday Anna! Anna celebrated her eleventh birthday today. Mom said that she had to wait till after lunch and most of her school work before opening her presents. That was hard but the time finally came and she enjoyed the surprise of her gifts. This evening she will get to have a special birthday supper before church - she chose steak. Saturday she has a birthday party planned with the girls her age from church.

Happy Birthday Anna - we love you and thank God for blessing our life with you.

Fargo Trip = A FAR way to GO:

Ezra and Abigail are now in classes at Master's Baptist College in Fargo, North Dakota. Peggy, Anna and I left Magdalena, Mexico on Thursday morning August 23rd to travel towards Fargo to meet up with Ezra and Abigail who were traveling to Fargo from Ohio. We were driving Abigail's 1988 Ranger which although Abigail and I had spent a lot of time fixing up for her use was still to us an unproven vehicle to set off on a two thousand mile trip. I was a bit nervous in that we did not have extra time for any breakdowns. We were due to be in Fargo by Sunday morning.

Well, all went well and we arrived on Saturday just a little past noon. Ezra and Abigail were waiting for us and hoping that we had not yet had lunch. A young man, Curt, who was working at the church graciously invited us to lunch (the whole tribe) on his tab. And the blessings just continue the whole time we were in North Dakota.

We were able to be with Fargo Baptist Church, Bible Baptist Church (Grand Forks), and New Testament Baptist Church (Larimore) before returning. Each service was a tremendous blessing to us. We shared several days with Pastor Scheving, Fargo Baptist Church and Master's Baptist College; Labor Day with Pastor Shaffer and New Testament Baptist Church and enjoyed a meal with Pastor Custer and the evening with Bible Baptist Church. These are three great churches and three tremendous pastors.

Ezra celebrated his twentieth birthday while we were there and we shared the day with him at a historical site called "Bonazaville" in West Fargo. It was a good history tour and then we all enjoyed Ezra's choice of food, a steak house!

God has given both Ezra and Abigail good employment there in Fargo. It was our joy to get to know some of the students and faculty at Master's Baptist College. All too soon it was time to head home. We decided on a tour of east Montana and Wyoming on our return trip. (Just to put this out there: Miles City, Montana has a population of 8,410 and not one Baptist church.) We arrived yesterday, Friday, so that we would be present for our soul winning Saturday time and be prepared for God's blessings on Sunday.

Thank you for your prayers and interest in God's work in and through The Harris Family.

"Choo-choo Travel Circa 1890"

Ezra and Abigail "arrive" at the West Fargo  Depot

Dad, you forgot to hitch the team.

The Sharpest Two at Master's Baptist College

First Day of Class

Step One-Step Two

Abigail and Ezra are preparing to attend Master's Baptist College this fall. Step One was to travel to Ohio with Abigail to leave her there for a short visit with family and church back there. Our home church wanted to have the opportunity to give her both a graduation and goodbye fellowship before she headed to Fargo. She was also invited to go on vacation with my older brother and his wife with some of her cousins this next week in North Carolina.

So that was Step One to get her to Fargo and it was also Step Two of my emergency dental work of a few months back. My dentist was concerned about the damage done to my jaw. The follow up visit shows that the jaw is healing and the infection is gone. It was too soon to prepare the teeth for the needed crowns so that will be Step Three someday in the future.


In between those two steps were hundreds of others! In our travels back to Ohio I was able to "show up" for a men's prayer breakfast at Mt. Zion Baptist Church, St. Clair, Missouri and then continue on to Ohio that same day. I was able to visit my parents and help out just a little with some projects for them. I was also able to help Ezra with some work on his car. All the family got together on my only free evening on a Tuesday. Wednesday I was able to preach at Anchor Baptist Church in Hillsboro, Ohio. Thursday to meet with a new missionary that our church will be sending to Colorado to start another church. It was a very full few days away from Mexico.



Pain, Patience and Persistence

For the past four years I have had some problems with a tooth. I have seen my dentist several times and he has remedied my problems but they have kept coming back. Several months ago I became chronically tired and began to feel old (I know - I mean ancient old). Finally one Saturday I did not even have the strength to do our normal Saturday soul winning and we chalked it up as food poisoning from having to eat out the day before. By the next Saturday it became obvious that I was literally dying and was in severe pain but at least I now knew the problem. Evidently I had a severe tooth and jaw infection and immediate action was needed. I have since made an emergency trip to Ohio to see my dentist and had a double root canal performed.

On this side of things, in the ministry it is all about patience and persistence. For two weeks we have had one family out of town on vacation, one family has become very inconsistent, and we have two families with extended family needs that have required their attention. We have dropped back as much as having only my family and one other in one Wednesday service. Patience and persistence is the key right now.

We also made our annual trip to Bullhead City to be with Mohave Baptist Church for their annual Fourth of July Picnic in the Hualapai Mountains. We enjoyed a rainy day in the sixties rather than our normal (yesterday was 108 with the humidity of thunderheads in the sky). Pastor Randall allowed me to preach while we were there and we enjoyed the fellowship with our former church folk. Pastor Randall also wanted to pass along the pulpit that I had made while at Mohave Baptist Church in that it was "made for me" at 6'3". I am now preaching from behind the same pulpit that I used for years - just in a different location. Thank you Pastor Randall and Mohave Baptist Church.

Thank you for your faithfulness to bring us before the Throne of God.

Izabell and "Little Auntie"

Family from Navojoa

 Anna

"Enjoying the Fourth of July in the Hualapai Mountain coolness"

Saturday Visitation