Our End Of The Year ..Dec.2011

What a great end of the year THE LORD gave us!!!!!!!
I am so amazed at His goodness and mercy toward my family....
First of all for David and I God brought a revival to our relationship and it is so exciting to see the changes He is doing in our hearts towards each other, He is showing us more of our weaknesses and how they affect our relationship and our children and what is God's way to overcome them and go on to victory, He is teaching us new ways of communicating our desires and feelings with each other and the things that matter to us as individuals and with that he is giving us the gift of wisdom and understanding in dealing with the different situations we are facing and having to deal with.
All I know the Lord opened a wide door and pour out blessings of confession, forgiveness, healing, and love for His word the Bible and for each other so we stand and sing together (O Victory In Jesus) with an overwhelming joy that only comes from heaven above.
Oh how kind is our LORD..........how sweet is the fellowship with Him in the light of His Word, so my testimony for 2011 is that MY GOD IS FAITHFUL.
There were so many events going on at church and LORD enabled us to participate in,
my favorite one was the missionary meeting with Bro. Sutek, the message he preached was wonderful and he brought to us wonderful truths out of the book of Hebrews so I decided to read it at least once a week.
The other wonderful event was the fancy home made Appreciation Italian Dinner that our Italian Pastor and his wife make every year for the church members...oh my the food was so good the decorations, the fancy tables set up with the candles and the so many kinds of home made desserts that his wife made, I could not believe my eyes I think there were at least 10 kinds of cookies, pies, and cakes that she baked from scratch, and the Italian bread, salads and home made dressings, she made 2 different red spaghetti sauces, one with meat balls and one with sausage, chicken in white Alfredo sauce, she even made mozzarella cheese and after dinner they had fun games for the family together and some for the children, we had an amazing evening.
Then on New Years Eve we had a watch night service we got to hear some of the young preachers, sang beautiful hymns, prayed in the new year and of course there was games food and fellowship, well it was too late for us to drive down home so our pastor offered for us to stay the night at the Prophet's Chamber so we were able to be in church and worship our God on the first Sunday of 2012.

Fun Filled Weekend

Saturday Iris participated in the Cowboy Christmas Gymkhana, this is what Gymkhana means " timed speed events such as barrel racing, keyhole, keg race (also known as "down and back"), flag race, and pole bending. All of these events are designed to display precise, controlled actions and tight teamwork between horse and rider at speed, although most clubs offer a variety of classes, allowing riders to compete at the speed level they are most capable of, and comfortable with.

So this event went on at the Rodeo Grounds in Apache Junction AZ, this was Iris's & Pumpkins first time, there was at least 35 participant men, women, and young people, Pumpkin, Iris's horse was very restless at first but later on she calmed down, Iris was too but I kept reassuring her to just go out there and have fun, well, she did!!!!! and she loved it!!!!! then came the time of giving out the awards, they all lined up and the announcer started and after mentioning a few names he called Iris and gave her a $60 certificate to a saddle shop, she was shocked and we were too and rejoiced for her and we figured she must done some thing right, she barely had any experience or practice with gymkhana, I did put 4 sticks in the ground for her and 2 flags and she practised in our half acre back yard, but it was very exciting to see her there, later that day David and I decided to take her out to dinner to one of our favorite family meals "Pho" Vietnamese rice soup and we had found a restaurant so we tried it the soup tasted great and it was not busy at all in fact when we finished eating there was no one in the small restaurant so we started chatting with the 26 year old Vietnamese waitress we got to have the chance to share salvation with her and tell her how much Jesus loves her and died on the cross for her so she can have a way to get to heaven, well to our surprise she was willing to pray and call on the LORD as soon as we asked her to pray with us and call on the LORD to save her, we all walked out of there rejoicing after I left her our phone #, well that was an extra blessing from GOD to let us share His name and Salvation with that dear lady, if you are a Christian and reading this post please pray for her to grow in the knowledge and love of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Love Your Enemies!!!!!!!

Jesus said in Matt.5:44

But I say unto you, Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate

you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;

Lately this verse keep coming to my mind...now I am not writing this post to preach to anyone or say, look at me I am holier than thou, the only reason I am writing it is to let others know that God's word is true and HE is faithful to work with our weaknesses and infirmities even though while in the process we feel so defeated, confused and just down right mad,

Phil 1:6 Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ:

So I started thinking to myself and asking this question,

Who are my enemies?

Well from God's word I know that the World, the Devil, & The Flesh, ARE OUR BIGGEST ENEMIES, but in the verse above Jesus is talking about people that are my enemies, so who are they??????... immediately one woman came to my mind..

Now I started thinking what make that woman an enemy?

This is one of the definition from Merriam Webster dictionary,

Date: 13th century:
1 : one that is antagonistic to another; especially : one seeking to injure, overthrow, or confound an opponent.

Wikipedia definitions:
An enemy is a person who hates or dislikes another person, or is nasty or mean to the person he is an enemy to.

Now as I was searching for the meaning of this word many many painful, sad and hurtful memories came to my mind that were done to my family and me by that woman, but by the Grace of GOD I have learned to rise above them and just let them be where GOD can reach and take care of them....AND HE HAS... ALL GLORY AND PRAISE BE TO HIM.

NOW this is why I am writing this post to let you know my reader that GOD taught me to pray for that woman, and if you are thinking right now in the back of your mind that evil person that hurt me so much and some names or situations are coming to your mind reminding you of your enemy... please just stop and ask THE LORD JESUS TO TEACH YOU TO PRAY FOR THEM right now, you might say oh but you have no idea what they have done to me..... yes you are right... I do not know, but THESE TWO THINGS I HAD TO LEARN:

1.The ENMITY, HURT, PAIN AND SUFFERING came from the WOMAN and NOT FROM JESUS.
2. What she did to my family and Friends was nothing compare to what MY sin did to JESUS.

If you are a Born Again Christian and committed to serve THE LORD dear reader, I promise you that the biggest dart from the Devil at you and your family will come through someone in church who is gladly serving the Devil, filled with hate and have no compassion, there are at least 10 brothers and sisters that were almost destroyed because of that women in one incident alone that she put us through, many of those people have no desire to enter another church ever.....all because of the deeds of that woman, BUT GLORY BE TO GOD NOW AND FOREVER, HE IS A FRIEND THAT STICKETH CLOSER THAN A BROTHER, do not give up, keep trusting HIM.

HE taught me through the whole ordeal to pray for my enemy (that woman) and ask GOD to bless her and if some day HE wants me to love her and do good to her, I do not know what it will take, but I believe that HIS GRACE is available and freely given to each one of us when we are determined to obey AND DO HIS WORD,
until then I will be praying for her as she comes to my mind, and I will go on my way singing...and praising him

Oh victory in JESUS my Savior forever.....