ECUADOR, part 2

Here are some more pictures from my trip to Ecuador,

Waterfall coming out of the mountain

         Walking around Salinas, notice how steep the streets are? The next picture..I just liked the paint job.

Notice the traditional dress, a lot of people dress traditional and some more modern.

Anyone hungry? Notice the GRILLED WHOLE GUINEA PIG on the menu?

Yes this is for real, no I was not that hungry.

 More pictures of the country, beautiful!

 Standing on the equator, one foot in the Northern Hemisphere and one foot in the Southern Hemisphere

Until next time, stay true to the Gospel.

ECUADOR

Well I'm back from my trip to Ecuador, and I wanted to post a few pictures.

Mt. Cotopaxi, an inactive volcano, one of many.

A look at the land

 Hauling milk to town

 Farming anywhere they can, even and mostly on the sides of mountains.

Sigchos, in the high mountains

Some of the people of Ecuador

 Market day, notice the beef in the background, just tell em what you want.

Busses run on all of their roads, they run fast, and accidents happen!

This one blocked our road for over 3 hours.

Driving above the clouds

The places on my heart, El Chaupi & Aloasi

Ecuador, a wonderful and beautiful place, a place to share Christ.

"GO AND TELL"

As I am getting ready to go on another mission trip, I have to think back to the others that I have had the privilege to go on. The first being to Belize in 2006, this was my first mission trip out of the United States, a very exciting place.

Last year I was able to go to Namibia, Africa on my second mission trip out of the USA, we went to Outapi, Namibia, a far cry from Belize, from the coast to the desert.

Now I am getting to go to Ecuador, I will let you know how it goes.
If I am able to find a computer I might even post from Ecuador.
Until then, Later, Randy

MAY 11, 1970

Dr. Pepper plant

May 11, 1970 will be a day that will live in my memory forever. I was just a kid living in Lubbock Texas, it was a day like many other in my short 10 years, but as evening came so did the changes. We noticed the sky, the color of it was unlike any that I had ever seen before, for that matter, I'm not sure that I have seen any like it since. It was the strangest color and look, and the air felt different, everyone could just feel that something wasn't quite right. In those days the early warning system wasn't much so we heard that a tornado had hit Lubbock, some say that several tornado's hit Lubbock. Homes were destroyed, lives were lost, everything changed that day.

Triple Decker under, over pass,
lowest level under water

People were trying to get out of the path of impending doom, so they drove their cars into underpasses, then the rain came so fast and the power went off that those in the lowest points could not get out and drowned.

Parts of the city lost power, some water, some parts of downtown were completely wiped out.

Motel

We had some friends that we went to church with who farmed, they showed up at our house and had lost everything, home, equipment, everything except their lives, they were in a storm cellar. I still remember the look in their eyes when we opened our door and they told my mom, "It's gone, it's all gone."

May 11, 1970, some things you just can't forget!

Great Plains Life Building, 1970

 The biggest of the tornado's hit the Great Plains Life building, 50 stories high, when it was built it was said to be tornado proof. The tordado hit it head on, and it stood, it twisted, but it stood, and still stands today.

We have already seen many tornado's this year, 190 in one storm alone. When you live through one, you never forget it. We need to pray for those who have gone through them this year, those who are being flooded, and those of us here in Texas who suffer from no rain and wildfires.

Lubbock Church

EXCUSES

“When you start to make excuses for your walk with God, soon, any excuse will do.

But when you really get serious about your walk with God, when He becomes the most important person in your life, you no longer make excuses, you just produce fruit!”

Randy Wilson

PERSONAL TESTIMONY

So, at church I have challenged everyone to write their personal testimony out, it's not as easy as you may think. Before I went to Belize in 2007 I had to write out my personal testimony, only it had to be a certain length, because it was published in pamphlets that we used and handed out. I remember how I struggled with mine, there were a lot of details that I wanted to go into but didn't have the space, also I had to have all of the information about myself so that people in another country could understand who I was and where I was from. But it also had to be simple so that it would not confuse anyone. I added some scriptures on salvation so that if someone found on of the pamphlets they could find Christ through what I wrote.

Tommy Duffield started this by challenging the youth to write theirs, I took his idea a step further and challenged the whole church. Many people at Carey Baptist have stepped up to the challenge. Could you?

Here is my personal testimony....

Hello, my name is Randy Wilson; I am from Childress, Texas in the USA. You have most likely never heard of Childress Texas before and just so you know it is a long way from any large city that you might have heard of.

I am happy to be a guest in your beautiful country. We have come here to tell about Jesus, God’s only Son.

Before I trusted in Jesus I lived life as any other kid my age. My family always went to church; my mother took us to church and made sure that we were there. I wasn’t a bad person, I never did anything that would be considered bad, I was basically a good kid.

When I was a young teenager I went to church camp, church camp is a week long and young people go with their church and learn about Jesus. They will have music for the youth and speakers that know how to talk to them. I had been feeling that something just wasn’t right, and while I was at this youth camp and the preacher was speaking, I realized that I was lost and going to Hell. I knew that Hell was a lake of fire and I also knew that I didn’t want to go there. I knew that sin was anything displeasing to God, and I also knew that I had sin in my heart. I realized that night that just because my mother was going to heaven, that didn’t mean I was. Romans 3:23 says “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” I knew that night that I had fallen short.

Romans 6:23 says “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” I knew that I wanted that free gift that gives eternal life. Through the prompting of the Holy Spirit I went forward that night and asked Jesus into my heart. I asked Him to forgive me for all of the wrong that I had done. Romans 10:9 says “That if you confess with your mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.”

Being a Christian and living for Jesus means more to me than anything in life, it means more to me than life itself.

I would like to ask you to accept this free gift today.

Well, what do you think? Let me hear from you.

MIXING RELIGIONS

What is your first reaction when you think about mixing religions? What would you say if I said there are some who are mixing Christianity and Islam? They are calling it Chrislam!
According to a recent blog post from The Last Crusade, Memorial Drive Presbyterian Church in Houston, along with other congregations in Atlanta, Seattle, and Detroit, preached sermons and held Sunday school lessons on the founder of Islam, Mohammad, whom Muslims consider a prophet. Qurans were also placed in the pews next to Bibles.

Proponents of the movement, which has been dubbed "Chrislam," claim that Christians cannot love their neighbors without having a relationship with them.

A question, why is America running to embrace the very religion that attacked us on 9/11? With all of the violence in Egypt being caused by Muslims, and if these people take over we will lose an ally, if the wrong people (Hezbollah) are in control of Egypt, Israel will be in ever more danger. So why are so many Americans embracing it? The simple answer is that Christians have not shown Christ the way we should!

So should we mix Christianity and Islam? Chrislam?
Jesus said in Matthew 6:24, "No one can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." (ESV)

We cannot serve Jesus and Mohammad, we cannot place them on the same level, Jesus is Lord!!! The Bible and the Quran on the same level, the Holy Bible is God's Holy Word!!! We cannot mix Christianity with any other religion, Christianity stands on its own, to mix it takes away from what we stand on. Paul faced the same thing in his day with people who were trying to say that you needed Jesus plus.... in order to really be saved. But Jesus said "IT IS FINISHED!!!" Nough said.

Join us this Sunday as we begin to take a look at the book of Galatians. See you at 10:45am.