My First Fly Fishing Trip

My friend Scott and I just returned from my first fly fishing trip. He has been fly fishing since the 80's and is a pro at this. Our trip took us to an area of Arizona that I have never been before. The town of Chino Valley and we fished in the Verde River about 20 miles north of Chino Valley. It was a trip to go fishing but also to spend sometime in fellowship with God. For me it was a sacrifice and suffering to do this because I am afraid of heights and we had to go down this ridge to get down to the river. Well we got down to the bottom of the ridge but not before each of us falling down and with minor scratches. Once we walked to the river it was beautiful, peaceful and with a wonderful smell of wild mint. The sound of the water as it flows and the signing of the frogs were the only things that were making noise in area. I was surprised by the beauty of this part of the river, and I never imaged it was going to be this beautiful.

As soon as we got there we started to fish. I looked at the way he did things and I started myself. It was not pretty but as the minutes turn into hours I got better. I was glad that my rod was the Volkswagen while Scott had a Cadillac in his hands, because that rod I had took some punishment from me and the environment. The hours we spend there to me were like a fraction of a minute. As I got good (well so so) at fly fishing my mind clear from all the business of my life and my focus were on fishing and learning. My mind also started to think about the time my father and I fished together, and I thanked God for those time. It got so quiet at time that I had to yelled to my friend to see if he was still around the area. Well you are probably asking did you guys catch some fish? and the answers is "No" but we had a great time in this trip. We fished, we ate, we played card (another first for me to pay gin), watched "the bucket list" and stopped at Cabela's too. As we were in our way back I was thinking why did we did this trip until the end? We had all this time and we could have done it at least once a year. Scott has been a great teacher of my spiritual walk, of the finner things in life and of telling me the truth in every situation. I thank God that He has put the kind man in my life like Scott to help me on my walk. I will miss Scott terribly, but I only can say to him "ALBANIA".

Well coming down to the river was half the sacrifice and suffering the other half was going up "Oh Boy" but we made it. My friend Scott is about to understand what it is to sacrifice and suffer as he will participate with Christ in His ministry. He will understand what Peter said in 1 Peter 4:12-19. Scott will be like Peter he will stop fishing for fish and start fishing for men. My questions to all of us are how much are we willing to suffer for Christ and how is our fishing for men?One more thing " HAPPY BIRTHDAY, DAD. I LOVE YOU AND MISS A LOT!!!!!

The year is 2009; a year that I will never forget

The year is 2009 a year that I will never forget. 2009 the year was been very difficult well it has been full of trials. The last time I wrote in this blog was New years eve to wish you all a happy one. Well not soon after my trials started and I stopped writing in this blog. My whole world change and my writing desire when south. I took all in and did not want to let go. Even do I am still have a lot in I do want to get back to the things I love. I some how while studying for a meeting I open my blog for the first time this year. I will be writing on it not daily but frequently. I will be writing about all the trials that happen in the begging of the year and also about my daily life with these wonderful 4 ladies.

Happy New Year

We hope your holidays were good and that this New year is full happiness to all of you. May God bless you in this 2009.

Merry Christmas

FELIZ NAVIDAD

DE PARTE DE NOSOTROS PARA USTEDES

(MERRY CHRISTMAS)

(OUR WISHES FROM US TO YOU)

Great Christmas Eve

Today I am writing late because I wanted to tell you about this Christmas Eve dinner with my Parents.
Yesterday Morning one of my cousins from Guadalajara came to see my Dad. My Dad suffer a heart attack a week before Thanksgiving so my Dad's families has been coming to visit him.
We had Ham and twice bake potatoes and salad. It was good now we are getting ready to go to service at our Church (Stone Ridge).
As I looked around a see my Dad surrounded by all of us, looking joyful I can say that is best gift for me. I hope this Christmas is full of gifts for all of you but look around as you visit or are with family and think how bless you are for having them. The love that I feel for my Dad is indescribable. I thank God that He gave me this Dad. There are two things in this life we can not control or be part of and they are: our names and our parents. I can tell you if I had a choice to select my parents I pick the same parents I have now.
Well today is Christmas Eve is not about the party is about the birth of our Lord so remember Him tonight as you share dinners, hugs, smiles with all Your Love ones.

A Church Under a Tree

God promise His people a land flowing with milk and honey. To me the United States has been that. We have lots of things; more things that we will ever need or used.We are too rich in many material things and sometimes these things make us poor in the things that matter.Today I want to tell you a story of a place that is rich and poor at the same time and a Pastor serving in this place.

I have know Pastor Jose (or hose B since I am hose A) Esparza for the last seven years. I have seen how God has work in his heart. When we first met he was a leader in a church in Yuma and was going to the seminary. This past September he quit his job to be a full time Pastor in a mission point he started in Mexico. He started this "Church Under a Tree" about 40 minutes from Yuma as you can see in the picture below.

This past Saturday our Church Youth Group traveled to this church. They moved from the tree to a lot where they will do the building for their church. For now this building will help with the winter cold weather.

Our youth played kick ball with all the kids there. It was awesome to see them play and have a good time together; language was not a problem. I always say if you put ten kids from different nations together in less that 10 minutes they are playing together and language is not a problem. My question always is why can adults do the same? After the game all come into the building to worship and it was good to see them worshiping in English and Spanish at the same time. I can only imagine the joy for our God as He understands all the languages, Wow! As I was taking picture I looked at the drummer and saw how resourceful he was. The night before the sticks broke so they left them at a different place so he walked to a tree and made a pair.

Our Youth every year take Christmas presents to kids. For most of these kids this gift will be the only one they will receive this Christmas. This year our Youth wanted the kids of this church to be the one to receive all these presents. There were more than 80 kids of all different ages. It was great to see their faces full of joy as they got their gifts.

Before the gift ceremony Pastor Jose have a message especially for the kids in which he told them about the bigger gift. The gift of salvation that God has for them and ask them who wanted to receive it and most of them got up and pray to receive God's Gift. Along with them was Jose's Daughter Stephanie praying for them. She is in charge of the kids ministry. I wonder how many time she has pray for them to do make this decision.

Well it was an awesome day for all. The afternoon end it in a very Latino fashion. Christ told us when two or more are talking about me I will be there with you. For us Latinos we take it to an other level. When two and more Latinos are present and are talking about Christ He is present and so its the FOOD, and yes all of us were given a bowl of POZOLE. It was so good!! The ladies from the church made it.

In the beginning of this story I wrote about this place that is spiritually rich and material poor. This place is like a lot of place I have seen in the Dominican Republic on fire for our Lord. On this Christmas as we make our gift list or buy our own big gift; I want to ask you this question: have you ask God for His gift? He is waiting for you with open arms just as you are with baggage and all. Make this Christmas the best ever invite God into your life, and receive the greatest gift; God's Salvation.

The Beginning

Being a ESL (English as a second language) person I ask myself why do I want to start writing in English of all languages, so this is the story on how all this started to form in my heart.
My wife this past august after 15 years closed her child care business to seek her dream. Her dream is to be a Nurse, so she enrolled back in our local college this past semester. I help her with her English class (100) . While helping her, and by giving her some ideas she told me that I should write.
This past October I took a trip with my Pastor to the Dominican Republic and while on the trip he invited me to start a Goggle mail; then he told me about his daughter Beth Blog. Her blog was the first one I saw. Then I saw her "one minute writer" blog and I wrote there a couple of times until her blog became very popular. Then Pastor Sam started to write his own blog, and now I know where Beth gets her talents.
An another very good friend of mine Pastor Jason told me that he also had a blog, so I started to follow it.
After all this; the idea started to form in my heart and after much thinking and praying here I am. Today is "The Beginning " and I hope you make comments because I can learn more from you.
I will like to thank all of you who help me start this journey. First to God for allowing me to be here at this time and at this place for His service. To my wife which I am very proud of her for not giving up her dream. To Pastor Sam for allowing me to see how deep is his love for Christ. To Beth for taking me out of my comfort zone with her 60 minute Blog, and finally to you Chinola for allowing us to be part of your family.
I'm Grateful!!!!