A Day of First

The First Fellowship - We had our first fellowship after church last night. The menu was nachos and fellowship. God has given us a new family but they had never been to the same services as our other family until yesterday morning. I solicited a commitment from both parties to be there for the evening service and then announced our planned fellowship. I preached on the importance of fellowship both with the Person of God and the People of God.

The First Hurdle Passed - We were finally able to jump the old hurdle of 13, we had 14! That is actually bigger news than it seems in that I have succeeded in running off one dyed-in-the-wool charismatic and Ezra is now living in Ohio. The fellowship was the big plan, surpassing 13 was icing on the cake!

The First Visitors Invited by Our People - We have had visitors all along but last night we had a family come from the efforts of our new family. That is exciting, it speaks of growth not just in numbers but in spiritual life. I know that our other families have invited others that have not come but with success will come excitement and more success.

The First Shouting Message - After the service Peggy informed me that I had "yelled" in my message. Actually I even pounded my fist on my makeshift pulpit. I do not attempt to change who I am other than bringing all things under Christ but it is much more difficult to preach with the same freedom I can enjoy in English while stumbling in Spanish. The ability to get excited in the message shows a growth in my Spanish ability. One of our men commented last night after the service that he enjoyed preaching that "had unction of the Holy Spirit".

Visitors From Near and Far

This past week we were honored to have the Washburn family visit us from Lubbock, Texas. We had never met this family before but through our mutual friendship with the Nelson Dorr family they were able to arrange a visit with us for a week here in Magdalena. Please pray with us for Brother and Sister Washburn as they seek the Lord's will in their life about the possibility of coming to Mexico as missionaries!

We were also blessed in the work to have several new visitors these past two weeks. Ventura Garcia is in one of these pictures with myself, Brother Washburn and our faithful man Juan Orosco. Another young couple have also been attending with zeal and interest these past few weeks, Leonicio and Martha Pino. Please pray for an invitation I also have to meet with a man named Pablo at his house. We are excited about the men that God is allowing us to meet and influence.

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