Surprises in heaven

My daughter Kris has poetry day. I love it. Check it out at enanoslivo.blogspot.com. Here's a poem that I also loved that my dear friends the Rhodes sent me. Isn't it great?


I was shocked, confused, bewildered
As I entered Heaven's door,
Not by the beauty of it all,
Nor the lights or its decor.

But it was the folks in Heaven
Who made me sputter and gasp--
The thieves, the liars, the sinners,
The alcoholics and the trash.

There stood the kid from seventh grade
Who swiped my lunch money twice.
Next to him was my old neighbor
Who never said anything nice.

Herb, who I always thought
Was rotting away in hell,
Was sitting pretty on cloud nine,
Looking incredibly well.

I nudged Jesus, 'What's the deal?
I would love to hear Your take.
How'd all these sinners get up here?
God must've made a mistake.'

And why's everyone so quiet,
So somber - give me a clue.
''Hush, child,' He said, 'they're all in shock.
No one thought they'd be seeing you."

Remember....Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a mechanic.Every saint has a PAST... Every sinner has a FUTURE...by trusting in Christ Jesus' death as payment for our sin.

The Liberty Bell and Hawk Mountain

We visited Philadelphia one day and I had the grand privilege of seeing the Liberty Bell for the first time. It was an enjoyable time getting to know more of our history, visiting Independence Hall and several other historical sites. We also walked through Reading Market too - Wow! What an amazing place! Next time you visit Philadelphia, don't miss that market!

There's Victoria, Clara, Quincy, Ada and Calvin checking out the Liberty Bell.

Hawk Mountain was a fun field trip. There they go, up the mountain! Some of us (not including me!) went up the HARD part, climbing up the rocks - I took the easy way up with the rest of the gang.

Heading back down the mountain.

A young lady who is special to Jeffery joined us for this adventure. Here's Ellie with Jeffery, both age 15.

Bandanna quilts

Cool quilt, huh? We've been busy, Raquel, Toria and me! Making bandanna quilts! This is the end result of Toria's and it looks cool on her bed!

Here's Victoria, busily tieing her quilt, the last step in a job well done!

I'm proud of Victoria - she worked hard, learned a lot and now has a FUN QUILT!

Now it's time to work on Raquel's quilt. We're almost done!

There it is, wrapped around a happy camper!

Hanging around the Allem house - and church

Guys, I think we're rich! (Clara, Quincy and Calvin)

Clara working hard at school - and I think that's Calvin in the background, also working hard.

How many bones in your body? Any guesses? These guys can tell you! Looks like a fun project!

Home Ec class?? Here's Toria busily sewing her new bandanna quilt! What fun! She does a GREAT job sewing!

Raquel's making a bandanna quilt as well! We'll take a picture when they're done to show you!

Kim and Quincy

Jeffery age 15

Kim with Quincy, Clara and Ada

Jeff preaching from Hosea on the love of God and how He is pursuing us constantly, not because we deserve it, but because HE LOVES US.

Austin joined the worship team this morning with his bass guitar.

Hello from Glenmoore, PA

You might be asking Why Glenmoore, PA?? Well, that's where half of my grandkids live! All nine of them! I've been here with Jeff and Kim and their crew: Jeffery, Jesse, Austin, Raquel, Victoria, Calvin, Clara, Quincy and Ada, since last Thursday. It's been a wild ride! We're having a good time. I did get pretty sick Sunday night, Monday and Tuesday with very sore throat, achy muscles, feeling lousy, just no fever. Today I feel much better but have that awful cough. So, tonight the family headed for church and I stayed here to cough by myself rather than spreading it around. Hopefully no one else will come down with whatever it is I had. Later I'll upload some snapshots I've been taking around the house, I promise! Just give me another day to snap pictures!

Gold Mine

I found a gold mine in our neighborhood the other day! Why didn't I know about this before??? I really don't know! It's a nispero tree! Yum! I picked a few - they were a bit sour, cause they weren't quite ripe. But in about 5 days after I leave (go figure!) for the States, this tree will be full to overflowing with these delicious little yellow - GOLD - fruits! I won't describe what they taste like except to say they taste like NISPEROS! Delicious!

CAMINA Conference

This past weekend I participated in a CAMINA conference - Children's Ministry here in Mexico with CAM. In Spanish it is Comité de Apoyo al Ministerio Infantil Nacional! Above you see Carlos giving one of the workshops - he did an excellent job, not just in the workshop, but in his duties to make the conference a success.

It was a FABULOUS conference! There were over 50 workshops in the three days on subjects such as: Nursery Ministry, Ministry to Children with Special Problems, Puppets, Creativity in Memorization, How to Recruit Volunteers for Children's Ministry, Clown Ministry, How to Dramatize a Lesson, several music classes, leadership training of young people, and I could go on! They were all so excellent and helpful. The 14 from San Juan del Rio came home excited and ready to give even more than 100% to the ministry God has called them to!

Browsing

View from behind the table. On Saturday I was so exhausted from helping, I skipped one of the workshops and took a little nap! I haven't been that tired in a looooong time!

Timo Blycker taught us some of his 35 new songs, and of course they all have hand motions!

Several groups of people went up front and "taught" us the hand motions to Timo's songs. They sure had fun at it!

Dr. Ron Blue brought us beautiful messages from the book of Matthew.

There was lots of fun and games at the conference too. Here you see the folks dancing and singing the "Pollo" (Chicken) song. I don't know the exact words, but the gist is that the pollo flaps his left wing, then his right wing, then his left foot, then his right foot - and generally makes a fool of himself! But, who cares??



Friend Wyatt Sutton came all the way from Honduras to bless us with his incredible talent in music. Wow! It was great to see him after many, many years and renew acquaintance! Thanks, Yonna, for lending him to us for a few days!



Dr. Ron Blue from Dallas Seminary was our keynote speaker and truly blessed our hearts, not just with his messages, but with his enthusiasm for life and his love for the Lord! Here he is enjoying lunch with Rich and Sara Musgrave. Thanks, Libby, for sharing him with us for these few days! We truly were blessed!





Jornada Espiritual (Spiritual Journey) bookstore set up our "store" at the conference and certainly did a brisk business! It kept three of us incredibly busy and at the end of each day, we were ready to DROP into bed! Ivonne did well, selling a lot of materials, for which we all praise the Lord!



ObreroFiel was kept very busy as well. Here Yadhira Santos happily shares what the ObreroFiel web page offers. She and her mom were kept very busy and came home with very little left over! Praise the Lord!