A Day Of Unwinding

Thursday 1-12-12 was a day of unwinding for us. A day of not baging Gospel braclets or tracting. It was a day of checking out the wild life in the Hillborough County Park. I'm not going to write a lot about this day, I'm going to let the pictures do the talking. As the saying goes a picture is better than a thousand words. We took almost 900 Pictures that day. I'm just going to show you a few of my favorite ones. OK from here on the pictures are going to do the talking.

We walked on this long boardwalk. This place is beautiful, it was great to see a little of God's amazing handy work. I don't know what kind of spider that was, but it was pretty big. I love the gator that looked like it was wearing a hat made of leaves. After spending the day at this park we had to get bad to the church, because I drive one of the buses (a very large van) to pick up the what they call the backlot kids. I didn't say we took the whole day off, just some of it. As we walked this large boardwak some of these creatures were so close to us that we could almost touch them. Needless to say none of us tried to touch the alligators.

The Final Countdown – 11 Months to Go!

Tick tock, tick tock, the clock is winding down. Every day the chaos and confusion of our world is replayed inside our homes on the nightly news and in the newspapers we read. People are still caught up chasing the elusive American dream and fretting about the cares of this world. All the while the clock keeps ticking away. Second after second our lives are fast approaching eternity and many reading this may spend that eternity in everlasting hellfire. This year we have a new distraction besides the threat of total calamity on December, 21, as some want you to believe based on the Mayan calender. This year is an election year. The masses are now glued to their television sets watching the weekly debates between the talking heads who will promise the world and only deliver more angst, worry and war. The puzzling thing is how people still have faith in the electoral system and continue to place their hopes in men and women running for political office to solve their problems. I will forgo the political commentary in favor of what our Lord has to say:

It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
-Psalm 118:8

Why do people still put confidence in man and his flawed systems? Why do people waste their precious time worrying and fretting about who is going to win the next election? The simple answer is a lack of faith and trust in the Lord. Our Lord was perfectly clear, put your trust in Him. Every day that passes by is one day closer to the return of our Lord. We are approaching the end times but is it this year? Is it this decade? We do not know. What is for sure is that everyone is going to have their own final countdown and their soul launched into eternity. Will that eternity be spent in Heaven or Hell? The choice is yours. Place your trust in Jesus Christ and be assured of an eternity in Heaven or place your trust in the talking heads who are only going to continue to press the cares of this dying world upon your shoulders and lead you to Hell.

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.
Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and
ye shall find rest unto your souls.
For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.
-Matthew 11:28-30

The time to choose is now while there is still some time left on the clock. Eternity is just a few moments away. Ask Jesus Christ into your heart as your Lord and Savior. Allow him to make your burdens light and to give your soul rest. Forget about man's fallen and flawed systems and the talking heads who can only deliver more heartache and chaos. The time to act is now, accept Christ today.

One Of My Greatest Gifts

On January 16th 1987 25 years ago today a baby boy was born to a beautiful woman named Cindy. This was the second baby I seen born. In my eyes at that time he was one of the 2 most beautiful babys ever born on this planet. This baby grew into an amazing young boy, yes he was wild but that wildness was not a rebellious wild. This amazing young boy grew into an even more amazing young man, a man I could not be more proud of, a man I love more than life itself. If you have not guessed by now this 25 year old young man is my son, who I love very much, and I want to use this post to say Bernie I love you and I hope this birthday is a great one, I miss you and I hope to see you soon. Happy Birthday I love you.

Dad

Getting Ready For The Big Events

The first week or so we didn't do a lot of tracting. We did some, but for the most part we were getting settled in and preparing the Gospel bracelet packets for the upcoming parades. This is very very time consuming. We are blessed that the bracelets themselves were already made. Ron said he had 40,000 bracelets sent down here from Rochester. What we need to do is put a bracelet, a card that tells the story of the colors of the bracelet and a tract into a baggie. This is a picture of the different things we need to put together.

What we start with is the three different piles and we turn them into the packets below.

Below are a few pictures of the work being done to put these packets together.

The two you see in most of the pictures is Ron's grandsons Keith and Gary. I have to admit they did the largest share of putting these packets together. It seemed like every time I walked into the large hall, or some other room I'd see one or both of them working on these packets. The amount of total hours gone into putting these packets together so far is far more than we can count. Between us all so far we have to be well over 60 hours of just putting these packets together, and we are just getting started.



Florida Missions Trip The Bus Ride To Tampa

The train ride ended at Orlando the last part of our trip was on a bus. After getting of the train in Orlando, we had to load our bags onto the bus. The bus took us from Orlando to Tampa. The bus ride was pretty nice. We got off in Tampa, and the weather was great.

Here's Ron taking off his coat at the Tampa bus station as we are waiting for the Pastor to come and pick us up. The temperature here is definitely much warmer then where we left. 

 

This is Pastor Theron Chewning whos church we are staying at in Temple Terrace just outside of Tampa..

After the Pastor picked us up at the Tampa bus station, he said "I know you must be hungry after that long ride, I have to take you to a place I know you will love." Here's Ron and the Pastor at ABC Pizza, we're waiting for the pizza to come out. You know what the pastor was right we did love that place the pizza was out of this world. 

Here's a picture of the pizza he ordered, and I have to tell you it was one of the best pizzas I have ever had. And believe me I have had many, many, many different pizzas in my life. This one just blew me away, it was so good.

After eatting that fantastic pizza we headed over to the church. This is the front of the church, it's called Fowler Aveune Baptist Church.

After getting our bags unloaded we was shown the church and where we would be staying. This is a picture of Ron and the Pastor's wife Elaine. Everyone hear is great, and really glad to see us down here. Well now that we are here future posts will be of events and places we will be going to, to pass out tracts and witness, speading the Good News.

Florida Missions Trip The Train Ride Continues.

The train ride continues, and we have been moved 3 times at different stops to a different part of the train. The bad thing about it is everytime we start getting settled in we are asked to grab our bags and move. The only part of this train that has Wifi for me to work online is the snack car and the business car next to it. The first car we were in was 2 cars from the business car so I was able to get the internet there, just a little weeker than the snack car. The first time we were asked to move it was 2 more cars back so the signal was weeker still but I was still able to get online. The next time we was asked to move it was one more car back, now the signal was very week, but I was still able to get online, but it felt like I was using dialup internet.

I was up in the snack car online working on a Bible study I'm doing, and there was a car full of people. Well 10 people is a pretty full food car because the tables take up so much room. Well away they were all talking about the problems in America, people out of work, the prices of everything being so high, and about the hard times they all seemed to think was ahead. I just kept working on my computer, listening to the things being said, smiling at some of the comments being made and every now and then letting out a little laugh at a comment, so they knew I was there, but for the most part being silent. Listening the whole time to what each one was saying as to know where each one stood on the different issues they were talking about, waiting for the place to come into the talks.

After being in there about 20 minutes or so, someone said something about the mistake Nixion made taking America off the gold standard. And how that was one of the biggest reasons for our trillions of dallors in debt. I saw my opening and came in saying "when a country allows a private bank to print their money and charge the country interest to do so, it can only lead to one place, a bankrup country, and that going off the gold standard and the point we did, really didn't matter much at that time. The country was going deeper and deeper into debt being on the gold standard or not. That is why article one of the constitution made it very clear that only Congress shall have the right to coin money, because all our early forefathers knew that allowing a private bank to print our money would allow the bank printing our money to steal the wealt of the country without the people even knowing it was happening."

Well after making that statement the questions started coming, and they were really listening to my answers and wanted to know more and more. Well anyone that knows me knows that it doesn't take me to long to bring my 66 caliber (the Bible) into the conversation. I started pointing out how the Bible told us thousands of years ago that the things happening in the world tdoay would come about. Before long I was wittnessing to a car full of people and they were all listening, in fact I got a couple of email addresses out of it. Well I was in that car for a little over 3 hours, talking about American history, the Constitution, the law and how what we are told is the law really isn't, how our God given rights are are not the same as what they call Constitutioal rights, and why they want you to talk about Consititutionl rights so you wouldn't knw about your God given rights, and of course how the Bible pulls everything together, and makes it all make sense. Praise God that He kept my mouth closed until the right time.

Well during that time that I was in that car I came back to find out that we were once again moved back yet one more car. Everyone going to Orlando just kept getting moved back when new people came onboard. Well during the time I was witnessing to people in the snack car, Ron was back at our car meeting some people also, I met them the next morning.  A pastor and his wife, that wants to start getting  tracts form the Little Red Book. Also he was talking to this other lady looking for a church, coming to find out she lives right around the corner from the church we will be staying at. I mean she can walk there in less than 5 minutes that's how close she lives to it. She even knows where it is. She said she was going to be there Sunday, I pray she comes.

Well here are a few pictures from the second day of the trip.

Here we are at a 20 minute stop at Jacksonville. That 20 minutes seemed to go really fast.

 

Here is a couple pictures of Jacksonville's skyline, doesn't that bridge look a lot like our bridge in Rochester.

Here is a picture of the Pastor and his wife we met on the train.

This is a picture of the woman we met on the train that lives next to the church we hope to see her Sunday.

After getting off the train in Orlando we had to catch a bus to Tampa. I'll be telling the rest of the trip in my next post.



Florida Missions Trip Begins.

We left today at 4:15 AM To catch the train to Tampa FL at 5:30. Got there about an hour early so that we had more than enough time, to sign in and get ready for the train. At 5:20 AM they announced that the train was going to be late because of a break in the rail outside of Buffalo. At 6:30 they announced that the train still hasn't left Buffalo because the break in the rail still hasn't been fixed. At 7:00 they announced that the train was going to be leaving Buffalo shortly, that the rail was fixed enough to be able to what they called walking the train past the now split in the rail, fixed a little from being a break. About 8:15 AM the train pulls into Rochester. We got underway about 8:30, 3 hours late.

We was suppose to have a 3 hour layover in New York City, but because the train was 3 hours last in Rochester we had to hurry to make the next train at Penn Station. Only to find out that the train at Penn Station was late also. But not late enough for us to go anyplace in New York as we were hoping to be able to do before we left to catch the train in Rochester. So we wasn't able to go anywhere in New York as we hoped we just had to wait in Penn Station for our late train to get there. Here are a few pictures of us at Penn Station and a couple of pictures at our 10 minute break at Philadelphia.

The 97 Silver Meteor was the train we were waiting for.

The first picture was taken from inside the train through the window of the city skyline as we pased by on the way to the station. The second was taken at the boarding dock where we stepped of the train for a couple minute break. Well it's back on the train, and back on our way. Will be doing more updates as we go. I miss everyone already, just knowing it's going to be a few months before I see anyone. But I am really looking forward to doing some mission work for the Lord. I do hope I get some comments from some of you so I can hear from you through these updates while I am gone. I want to sign off with a special I love you to my son Bernie and my beautiful daughter Sara. And yes her name fits her, she is the greatest princess a father can have. Remember write me some comments so I can hear from you while I'm gone.