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Hello Everyone! Many things have changed in our lives since the last letter. Instead of being home as we had planned to be, we are still on the Texas/Mexico border, but we are living in Matamoros, Mexico currently. For the sake of time, in short we are here because we feel the necessity to regroup and refocus on what the goal and the call is. It has been something we have been striving to do for months, but have been unable to accomplish with the pressures and stresses of the ministry back at home. For those of you who are in fulltime ministry and even those of you who are not, we all know how easy it is to be distracted by the things around us. To be so caught up with others (whether it be your children, family, work, ect. ) that you lose sight of the BIGGER picture. Jesus, the King of all Kings. The one who desires to "be" our lives, not just part of it. Unfortunately, that is where we have found ourselves. We have spent so much time trying to fix everyone that knocked on our door. Forgetting that we can do nothing apart from Jesus. He is the healer of sickness, brokenness and suffering. So we have had to repent to our church for letting them see "us" instead of Jesus. We also want to ask your forgiveness. Because we have not been transparent before you. We have tried to handle things on our own, forgetting that we "need" the body of Christ. Let's call us the "hands" to our people in Mexico...but you all have been the "arms and feet" that have helped us get here. So if things are to go well and normal, the body has to work together. Being so far away from all of you, we have often times taken things into our own hands. Thinking that since we are the ones here that we knew best. We learned the hard way, we need all of you. We need not only your prayer support, we need your fellowship and your input. Since we have been here in Matamoros, we have had some amazing times with fellow believers. Not having to be the ones to give, but being able to receive and simply enjoy being in the presence of the Lord. Being apart of a body is not something we should try to do, we must. In February we will be taking a trip to Missouri to be with family for a short time as Michelle's parents finalize their divorce. Please pray for Mark and Debbie both as this has been a difficult time for everyone. Please pray that the Lord would turn this ugly painful situation into something beautiful that will bring ALL glory to Him. I know for many of you this news is suprising. Thank you to all who have prayed for Michelle's parents for years, please do not stop. We will try to keep you all better posted while we are here. We do have plans to return and thankfully the Lord has provided someone to be there in our absence. We call home weekly and Aaron has made a trip back since we have been here. He is planning to make another trip soon. Please continue praying for everyone back home! We love you all and look forward to hearing from you. If you have any words of wisdom or anything questions about anything we have written. Please feel free to email us at boazandruthasone@hotmail.com We thank you for your love and support. Aaron and Michelle PS: Our latest visitor has gone back. Tom left right after Christmas and is in Georgia working and preparing to be married in June! | | |
| Greetings to All once again! Today finds us in the states again. As I said last time, we were on our way up to visit with Michelle's parents, take care of papers, find a motor, give the blue van away and somewhere in there maybe catch a little nap or something...well it's a nice thought at least! So far things have been interesting. The trip up was quite an adventure as always. First off, imagine the blue beast pulling the little green van for 22 and 1/2 hours! Then add an engine malfunction (or two) at a busy stop light, pushing both vans with our own muscle (aren't cars suppose to carry us?) border detainment, using the bathroom in a jail cell (something I NEVER want to do again!), a drilled hole in the roof of our van (for the safety of all Americans) and mingling with the border patrol (not really at our own free will) for over 2 hours. All that with only 3 hours of sleep...are you feeling sorry for us yet? LOL! O.K. -- so it was a hard day, but even in the trials the Lord was of course good to keep us and protect us! We arrived in Laredeo a couple hours before Michelle's parents and had a nice (but too short) visit with them. The boys searched for a motor the second day, found one and after a day and a half of work, found out the inside was full of sand. The car had been damaged in the hurricane last year. A bit discouraging...but today they have gone to pull and install a different (used) one. Tonight Raffa, Tina and their children are passing through and staying the night with us. Something we are excited about. It has been months since we got to fellowship with them. They will be spending the holidays in the states. So please pray for their time here, that it would be profitable and bring glory to the Lord. If everything goes well, we should be heading toward Brownsville, Texas with in the next couple of days to drop off the van and pick up Gene and Jonathan and finally to head back home. We miss our gang! Well, if you all have questions, or comments drop us a note at our email address! boazandruthasone@hotmail.com Many blessings, Aaron and Michelle | | |
| Where to begin?? Have you ever been in a race or competition? Did you wish the rest of the opponents would just give up so you could win? Were you out of breath and wishing for some water or better yet some oxygen? Or were you hoping for a neck and neck finish? …with you on top of course! J Or perhaps you’re one of the many who have no hopes of ever even finishing the race. It seems so often in life we are running and running. Sometimes we are running to get ahead, other times we are running to get away. But have you ever considered how much the “runner” misses along the way? We have all heard the saying, “stop and smell the roses.” But on the path of life there is much more to take in, than just roses. “But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; they shall walk, and not faint.” Isaiah 40:31 So are we walking or running? The word says we will do both. The key to winning is not who runs the longest or the farthest. ….Obedience is the key to winning the prize- Jesus. The above is a Scripture that probably most of you know. It is a trademark verse. Its on bumper stickers, bookmarkers, Bible covers… If you have been around the Christian scene at all, you have heard or read it. But how many of us get it? How many of us have hidden its truths in our hearts? How many have applied it to our lives? WAIT?? Who likes to do that?? NO ONE that I know! How about when you are in line at the grocery store, are you usually humming with glee and hoping the checker will take just a little longer to ring up the person in front of you? Or how about at the stop light, have you ever thought, “Man I wish the light would last 5 more minutes, I love the smell of car exhaust!” Husbands, have you ever wished your wife, would spend an extra hour in the bathroom? After all you can always go outside?!? J Women, have you ever wished your Mary Kay order would get lost in shipping? I think not, none of us like to wait. In fact when push comes to shove, we can be down right ugly when we get stuck in a hold pattern. But the Word says those who “WAIT” upon the Lord. That is what tells me that obedience is what wins the prize. If we are waiting on Jesus, then we shouldn’t get ahead of Him, when He makes a pit stop, so do we. If we wait for Him, we can walk with Him and Run when He Runs. And if we WAIT He promises to give us the strength we need to keep up with Him. What did all that have to do with the update?? Well, we have been doing a lot of running, but instead of feeling renewed, we have felt run down and tired. Wishing we could hit pause in the race for a little bit. Any of you like that? What causes our weariness is our lack of waiting on Jesus. It is so easy to get ahead of Him and mess His plan up. Often here we see a need and if we can meet it with what we have, we do. What He wants is for us to wait on Him to supply the answer to the problem, instead of just fixing it the best we know how. What we have found here is that when we give out of what we have, though it is good to give, often times we receive the glory and not the Father. Or perhaps He would desire to use another person or a whole other method. We are NOT suggesting you should stop helping others, but what we are seeing is the necessity to be filled with MORE of Jesus that you have extra to go around. That it be the abundance of Him that comes out of you, not what you think is best. ALL the people in the world have the same exact need…it isn’t us! Praise the Lord for that! What they need is Jesus, He is the answer to every problem, no matter how big or how small it might seem. Well, weeks have past since we wrote the above entry. Internet trips have been knocked down to…Zero! Sorry for that. So if you have emailed us, don’t be offended if there has been no response. We will be making the “trek” to the states next week and ask that you stand with us as we make the journey to Texas. There is much to be done and little time to do it all. This will be the final journey for the BIG blue beast! Sniffle, sniffle. L L It will no longer be serving the Lawson family, but will continue to be used as a blessing (at least we hope!). At the direction of the Lord it will be donated to Adventures In Missions/Mexico. They are based on a border town so it will not be hard for them to cross every 6 months as it is for us. We are ever thankful to the Lord for that Van and to the Beard’s for giving it to us. It served us well and it will be hard to say goodbye to our first “home, sweet home.“ Also we will be meeting Michelle’s parents for a couple days, putting a new (well actually used) motor in the Lumina as it once again broke…only this time REALLY, REALLY GOOD! L Then Lord willing we will legalize it and sell it in Mexico so we can afford to finish paying for the little 1985 white Volkswagen rabbit we just got! A Mexican car that will allow us to stay in Mexico for longer then just 6 months at a time. I can honestly say, all the vehicles we have been blessed to own are all so very unique and special. J The Lord really does have a sense of humor! At the end of our time in Texas, Aaron’s dad and our friend Jonathan Bigelow will be meeting us at the border to come back with us for a two week visit. Something we are looking forward to! In news here in the ranch: Many of you may have heard or if you have come here have met the Guerra. She owns the local pub (if you will) that is just 1 house up from us. The place where many of the town drunks make there daily abode. From practically the day we got here she has been a main focus of our prayers…Long story short---though thankfully we have generally had a good standing with her, recently we have had a HUGE open door with her. Also there have been some series of events that have occurred in her life that have helped her to recognize her need for the Lord and His great Love for her. Praise the Lord, she walked through the church doors last Sunday and has come to the house for prayer several times! Our God is a God of victories! AMEN!!! ---With the number of youth growing in the church, especially young ladies…We started asking the Lord how to love and teach them. A BIG leap of faith for Michelle (like jumping off the top of Mount Everest big!) has been having a Bible study for them on Monday afternoons. As Spanish is still a lot of work for her tongue…but praise the Lord, He will be glorified through yielded vessels! ---We have been waiting for the rain to stop here so we can begin building in Tofolla (the town we are planning to build a church in). We have as a church collected almost $200.00, which will be a good start for the first project…the bathroom. Hopefully in the coming months the Lord will make a way to get that project underway! ---Plans for the school are coming along, so far we are still not certain who the students will be, but there are a few candidates. We shall see what the Lord will do. Please continue to pray for staff and also the extra rooms we are trying tot get built upstairs for housing purposes. We are almost to the point we need the stage (which has been our spare bedroom and storage room for a LONG time) back as the number of people in the church grow and space is limited. ---With school on the horizon we are desperately asking the Lord to work a miracle for us and make a way for us to have communication in our house. There are NO available phone lines and no hope of getting one for a few years. Internet is not yet possible here without a phone line. The only option we have been able to find is a satellite dish, but this would be a very expensive answer. We know nothing is too big for our God, so we are looking to Him to provide an answer or perhaps just give us peace with what we have. We want what He wants! So please stand with us as we seek His will. This update is turning into another novel…hope it wasn’t too boring. We love you all and are ever grateful for your prayers, love and support. May you be found faithful in the eyes of the Lord and be His friend as you walk and sometimes run down the path He has laid out for you. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might (not your own). Let’s strive to lift up the King of Kings and let His goodness be known to all those we come in touch with. Look for more updates while we are in the states as internet will most likely be more available there. Serving Jesus, Aaron, Michelle and Tom | | |
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