January 31st!!!!!!!

Hi :)

"I will rejoice and be glad in your steadfast love, because you have seen my affliction; you have known the distress of my soul, and you have not delievered me ito the hand of the enemy; you have set my feet in a broad place".

That is a promise. WE know that our Lord will always, always keep His word.

"I believe that I shall look upon the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living! Wait for the Lord; be strong, and let your heart take courage; wait for the Lord!"

I know that times are hard. I know that everyone is struggling. There is so much wickedness and evil in this world. However if we look we will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. Looking at the faces of the children in my Sunday School classes on Sunday was more than enough to convince me. Our Lord is good. His love towards us is good, His mercy upon us is GOOD.

"Blessed be the Lord, for he has wondorously shown his steadfast love to me, when I was in a beseiged city". When I read this the other day I think I laughed out loud. We arethe beseiged city. We are all holed up, trying to stay alive. The world, or our flesh, is trying to break down the doors, or put holes in our walls. They have flaming darts, ladders , even dinamite. But our Lord has joined us inside the city, through the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit bars our gates, fixes our broken down walls, and feeds us ammunition. For those of you who have seen Lord of the Rings, the Last battle came to mind. Our Lord is with us, fighting by our side. Helping us fight our very own flesh that is attacking our spirit. But you know what the diference is??? We already know the end of the story. Our God is victorious. He has already won the war. He has conquered the grave. He has shut sin up forever. So rest assured. The topic with my students the last several weeks has been this, "If we trust in God, He will take care of us". We've discoverd the struggle of Shadrac, Meshac, and Obed-nego. We've tried to imagine the walls of water that the Israelites saw while passing through the Red Sea. And yesterday we accompanied Daniel into the Lions' Den.After learning about Daniel we made lions. On one side they had happy faces and on the other side angry faces. Lots of fun.

The last several sundays we have had several new children coming in the Mornings. One of the them in hiding behind this lion! It is such a blessing to have them. They live across the street from where we hold the Sunday morning service. For years their parents and grandparents have been very hateful towards us and their cristian neighbors. We are praying that the Lord is softening their hearts. I know that the children are really enjoying their time with us on Sundays.

This last Sunday we got stuck after the morning service. The bus wouldn't start! So after about 3 horus of trying to figure it out Jerry came to our rescue. He towed the bus to the mechanics then took us home. We were home in time to eat, change, and get ready for the evening study! Hopefully the bus will be fixed by tomorrow!

Next Sunday is communion Sunday so everyone will be gathering at the Rancho! Hopefully we won't have anymore car trouble.

Carla will be taking over her Tuesday ladies study again starting this week. She's been on maternity leave. I'll go back to being chauffeur.

The fish have been doing well. We've been harvesting bunches of lettuce and bellpeppers. The rest of the plants seem to be doing well. However we have been battling with aphids quite a bit.

Dan has decided to sell our Suburban. He says it's about to head downhill real fast. So pray that the Lord will provide another 7 or 9 seater that we can take through the riverbed roads and won't guzzle as much gas as the big 15 passenger vans.

Please continue to pray for the congregation. The church here is struggling with discouragement just as much as everywhere else. More than ever we need the fellowship of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

I love you all. Please know that the prayer warriors of Rancho Maranatha keep all of you in our daily prayers. Stay strong in our Lord!

Chelsea Rae

Stand Firm

"And Moses said to the people, 'Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord, which He will work for you today. For all the Egyptians whom you see today, you shall never see again. The Lord will fight for you, and you have only to be silent". Ex 14

Exodus chapter 14 is about the Israelites crossing the Red Sea on dry land. This past Sunday I taught this lesson to both my Sunday morning class and my Sunday evening class. We were continuing the theme of God's protection and care. I wanted the kids to understand that if they follow Jesus there is nothing to fear. So as I'm reading the chapter to them this verse just hits me.

1. Fear not- That's pretty hard. My first reaction is generally to fear.
2. Stand firm- What's our first reacion when we're scared? To run from whatever we're afraid of right?!?! So then if we're afraid we cannot stand firm. We have to be fearless to stand.
3. See the salvation. If w are not stand firm, or in one place, we will not be able to see the rescue. If we are running with our backs turned we will miss out on the miracles.

And then to top it all off the Lord is going to fight for us! We dont have to do it! We don't have to fret, perspire, moan and groan, or freak out over it! The Lord is willing and waiting to fight our battles for us.
So that lead to a pretty obvious question for myself. "What the heck am I worried about?!?!"

What are we worried about? If the creator of the universe has counted the hairs of our heads do you not think He's got everything under control?!?!?!
So yes the deepest and yet simplest revelations come to us at times when we're simplying things for a 7 year old.

Everything here is good. Life is busy. The studies are all doing well. Rochelle and her twins left us on Thursday. Dan and Ana drove them to Tucson. Then they drove back on Saturday. They were both exhausted.

The aquaponics project is doing very well :) :) We've been getting all of our lettuce and soem of our bell peppers from down there. Within the next week we will begin enlarging the green house. It's going out another 2 meters or so on each side.

Hopefully I will have pics to put up next time. God bless everyone! Thankyou for all of your prayers and your support :)

Sunday

Hello Everyone! It's Sunday again. Pastor Dan commented the other day that a week here consists of about 3 days. I would have to agree with him. Time is just flying by. I can hardly believe that I've been back a month already. I feel like everytime I turn around it's Sunday morning again. How exciting because that means that Jesus is coming back soon! And really soon if a week now consists of 3 days!

So let's see, what did I do this last week??? I can hardly remember..... Well the group from Nebraska was here until Thursday. They were such a huge blessing. They waterproofed all of our roofs!!!!!!

All of the ladies biblestudies this week were a blessing :)

Wednesday we went to San Antonio and Huazahuari. I'm happy to say that Dona Antonia came again this week. She's the lady who always spoke badly of christians and then got saved several weeks ago while hitching a ride with Dan and Rogelio. The Lord definately has a sense of humor. There are actually several more people who have showed an interest in coming to the biblestudy in San Antonio. It would be a miracle if they started coming. Dan has been going there weekly for around 8 years without seeing hardly any fruit.

Thursday we went to the lake to get more tilapia. We brought back around 260 and have only lost 5 at this point. That is a serious success. We are planning on enlarging the green house and adding another pond over the next several weeks.

Friday we laid a patio in front of Roshon's house. All I can say is that mixing cement is alot of work. As soon as we were done there we hopped in the car to go to Las Minitas. Dan brought a speaker so the whole entire village heard the worship and message :)

Yesterday I spent the day with two young ladies that came to spend the weekend with us. Maria, 13, and Ignes, 13, from Navojoa. They are very sweet girls, both that come from dysfunctional families. My desire is to reach out to them and encourage them in the Lord. They helped me make some chocolate chip cookies, we cleaned, went for a long walk, and played lots of cards. The Lord totally ordained the devotional for Saturday morning. Josie chose to share about our self-image. How we need to not compare ourselves to others but place our value in Jesus. I was so happy that these young ladies got to hear it.

Below is Jesse and I. Then nextdoor my sunday morning sunday school room. The airflow and lighting is great ;)

Here's a verse for ya'll. The Lord brought it to me yesterday. I really need to hear it!

"For this very purpose I have raised you up, that I might show my power in you, and that My name mighty be proclaimed in all the earth". Romans 9:17

That is our purpose and our mission. To glorify God. He wants to show His power and love through our lives. SO DON'T WORRY. God's purpose is for Him to be glorified. If that's your purpose as well then everything is taken care of :)

Ok, God bless ya'll! You're in my thoughts and prayers always!

Chelsea Rae

lots of pics :)

Hello All. Here are a bunch of pics.

Below is my dear friend Jo! Love you Jo.

And a flowering banana tree for those of you who live somwhere that banana trees don't grow ;)
Next is little Jesse. Jesse is 1 1/2 and arrived with his parents from Nebraska the beginning of the week. The whole group from Nebraska has been doing a ton of work here on the Ranch. They have been such a blessing!!!! Thankyou guys!

Also below is a bunch of pictures of kids opening boxes put together by a wonderful church stateside. The boxes contained not only toys but toiletries and school supplies. The kids were absolutely ecstatic :)

Here's a new pic of the fish project. It's going well. This last week Dan has been working on getting the water heater working so that our fish dont' freeze before we have them filleted :)

Here's another picture of Jesse. I couldn't resist. He's just too adorable.

Hello, Hello

"Faith is not a sense, nor sight, nor reason, but simply taking God at His word".

-Christmas Evans

"For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable". Romans 11

"You will never learn faith in comfortable surroundings. God gives us His promises in a quiet hour, seals our covenants with great and gracious words, then steps back, waiting to see how much we believe. He, then allows the tempter to come and the ensuing test seems to contradict all that He has spoken. That is when faith wins its crown. This is the time to look up through the storm, and among the trembling, frightened sailors declare, "I have faith in God that it will happen just as He told me".

These quotes put into words much better than I ever could what the Lord has been doing with me in the last several weeks. It has been tough. I have learned yet again that I do not run fast enough to my Father's arms in times of trouble and doubt.

The craziness of Christmas, the wedding, and New Year is now over with. Most of our visitors have gone home. I am looking forward to settling down in to some sort of schedule once again. I have to admit that I am a creature of habit and like having consistency in my days. I think we all do to some extent or another. Chaos just simply is not restful.

Yesterday the group from Nebraksa arrived. We are very excited to have them here. They will be working of fixing up Roshon's old house. Hopefully they will be able to weather proof it and bug proof it :) We all know that living here it's pretty much impossible to keep the bugs out, hahahahah. However we should be able to keep the water out.

This morning is the ladies' study in Osobampo. It will be my first week back because they canceled during Christmas vacation. I am very excited. Roshon has been teaching this study as well as the one in Mocuzari tomorrow because Carla is still on maternity leave.

This afternoon I'll be heading in to town with Jo and the ladies from the group to buy the things for the despensa. We will be handing them out in Navojoa, Alamos, Mocuzari, Tesia, and Huatabampo throughout the week. The Lord has been faithful is raising support for this program :) :)

Later this week we will be going to Dona Florencia's house to take food and to share the word. Florencia came up to me on Sunday for prayer. She simply wanted to pray for the salvation of her family. I will do my best to take pics when we go.

Happy New Year to everyone. I pray that perhaps Jesus will come for us in the year of 2011. If not I suppose we'll just have to continue th race, never giving up, never letting go of the promise of His returning.

Love you all!