God is Working

I just wanted to share what God has been doing in my life. Mason's best friend here is Chance Hine and his mom's name is Jennifer. Her husband left back in August to work in Phoenix (9 hours away) but he comes home on the weekend once a month or so to see them. Jennifer is a christian and says that her husband is also but they have not been in church consistantly. Since Ritchie left, Jennifer has been coming to our church which for her, is a 35 to 40 minute drive. Although I hate that her family is separated, God has used this in both Jennifer and Ritchie's life to draw them closer to Him. Ritchie has started reading the bible which he hardly ever has done before. Jen is a teacher and is a very deep thinker (and I must mention...very opinionated!). Her exposure to hearing more of God's word lately is changing her and I can see it in her. What is neat about all this is when I told Jen that we were starting youth night back on Sunday nights, every other week, she asked me if it would be possible for the mothers to have a bible study while the teens are in youth!! God just handed that opportunity to me with no effort on my part whatsoever!

So I have some BIG opportunities before me! Jen has already invited several of the other moms from Bayfield (Note: Bayfield- not Vallecito) who are planning on driving up every other week to bring their teens and stay for bible study. God has led me to lead a study on how to raise our children to be men and women of God. I praise God for this opportunity and pray that He will guide me every step of the way.

The church is growing slowly and from what we have heard, the reputation of the church is being restored in this community. For those of you who may not know, the church went thru a split a year before we came to it and you know how "talk" hurts the church. Mike and the great character he has, has developed relationships in the community that has made an impact on how people view our church. I praise God for giving me a husband who "talks the talk and walks the walk" as the old saying goes. It is still tough to be in a place where nature and alcoholism is worshipped much more than our God. However, God is still here with us and is blessing!

This past weekend was very busy for us. Durango has "Snowdown" weekend every year on this weekend which is funny entertainment, games, parades, etc. to give people something to do and off set cabin fever. While most of it is for adults and is not something you want your kids a part of, they did host a 3 on 3 basketball tournament this weekend and Mason's team won the 6th grade level! On Saturday, he played 5 games and they pretty much stomped all the teams.

For Mason's birthday celebration, he invited his two closest friends to go ice skating on Sunday. Here's a pic of Mason with Chance and Zac.......

Neither of them could ice skate very well which is surprising to me, that an Alabama boy could skate circles around them! However, they can snowboard and ski! It is a blessing that Mason is close to these two guys whose parents I know pretty well. Chance belongs to Jennifer and Ritchie and Zac's dad is the pastor of the largest church in Bayfield. I pray that Mason always makes wise choices on who is friends are......"Bad company corrupts good character" 1Cor 15:33