Power Ministry

We begin after breakfast as we do each day with the group declaring Christ’s word from Acts 1:8 “You will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, all of Judea and Sumaria, and to the ends of the earth.” The songs of praise this morning brings quickly into focus the power and blessings of Jesus that sustain us always but will be so important as we begin to prepare our hearts and minds for the work of the long day ahead.
The devotional spoke to the matter of aging based on the scripture of Titus 2:2.  While noting with humor that the term ‘aging’ may be closely followed in a Biblical index by the word ‘agony’ the serious message was the special instruction for men to be temperate and worthy of respect. The teaching goes on to exhort older men to encourage younger men to the same self control. The continuing process of aging and growth in Christ requires constant awareness on our part. It requires perseverance which is important to not only our personal spiritual growth but also to the relationships we have with our wives, children and others.
The work continued on each project that was begun on Friday. And for some the trip to Acuna would be conducting a ‘Joy Tour’. This tour took a team of men along with the local pastors into the small settlements and neighborhoods where the local churches are working to reach those who may not have access to a physical church. In each locale the vans arrive blowing their horns to announce their arrival.    It may start dogs howling but also draws out the children.  Parents and grandparents come along with the children.  The team engages the kids with a group activity where they all gather around a colorful parachute to lift it high with their arms on the count of “uno-dos-tres”. With giggles and squeals it billows high with the sunny breeze as they rush forward underneath then back to begin again.  Music from a portable sound system fills the air and some of the Power Ministry members join local ministry youth leaders to don silly costume animal heads and lead the kids in line dancing with lots of arm motions and body wiggling.  After the fun play the children gathered around while prayers were lifted up to Jesus Christ by the pastors for them.  The adults were also asked for special prayer needs and once again hands were placed on shoulders and many voices in both Spanish and English joined in prayer to Jesus and the Lord for His blessing to meet those needs. Each time after worship and praise and prayer gifts of clothing, blankets, and treats were shared with those who had come. As people departed the words of “Dios de bendiga” (God bless you) were shared by everyone with hugs and grateful hearts for the love of Christ. The Joy Tour is certainly aptly named.
The construction projects were advanced greatly this day.  And while the Week 1 Power Ministry comes to an end in Acuna we are confident that they will be completed in the coming weeks.
A late lunch was followed by a very motivating testimony by Faith Mission International’s founder about how God’s calling and fulfillment of His purposes were demonstrated in the establishment of the Mission.
The Power Ministry team then began the long trip to Laredo, TX and then to McAllen, TX where we were to stay for the night.  After a great dinner in Laredo we gathered quickly to unload several pallets of rice, beans , Bibles and boxes of tracts from a tractor trailer into two smaller trailers that would distribute them in the Nuevo Laredo area of Mexico through other ministry partners.
Our day has ended well after midnight and everyone is looking forward to a welcome night of rest. God has certainly been good today with lives touched, great work accomplished and safe travel completed. Thank you Lord for your wonderful blessing and grace this day and forever!

The day started early at 7:00 am following a good breakfast with a time of praise through singing. What a wonderful way to start the morning with a crowded room of men’s voices led by acoustic guitars acknowledging God’s holiness and saving grace. Perseverance and its power for our lives as written in James 1:2-3 was the message in the morning’s devotional to help prepare us for the day’s projects of service and create the proper perspective for our hearts and minds in all our work during the week. In addition, we were encouraged that the inevitable stress and fatigue that might weaken our witness both during the week but also at other times in our lives can be countered with the full armor of God as Scripture describes in Ephesians 6:11. Our time of devotion was concluded with prayer asking for God’s blessing on our families and loved ones at home, the projects of the day, and to bless those we will meet as well.
After the time of devotion special recognition was given to those celebrating their third trip with Power Ministry. Particularly special was the recognition of Vance Luke who, besides celebrating his 10th trip, has also recently celebrated his 100th birthday. Everyone was genuinely thankful for his faithful witness, and his remarkable devotion to the Lord’s work, and we’re talking his physical work that keeps pace with everyone on the trip.
Today is our first day traveling across the U.S. border into Acuna, Mexico. We learn that the crossing will be most successful if we remember that it requires us to Pay, Pray and Praise. Each van must pay to cross, then pray that the border guards will pass us through without incident, and after passing through the gates and security forces praise God for safe passage. What a wonderful reminder of God’s presence, protection and providence in the most basic activity of the day.
Work teams were divided both for morning and afternoon sessions between construction of a new church, classrooms for two other churches, construction of a house for a family, work at Faith Mission, a Joy Tour, and the all important task of food preparations for the entire Trip contingent. Rain threatened all morning but held off until after lunch and even then didn’t keep the momentum of work teams from moving forward. Lunch was served in a local church that was established in a building that once served as a popular community dance hall. Both at lunch and dinner we were blessed to be joined by the families and friends of local pastors who have been closely connected with Power Ministry over the years.
As the day draws to a close the praise musicians are preparing and practicing for tomorrow morning, the Prayer Team has gathered and others are continuing with fellowship or making contact with family members back home. And for those that can, sleep will once again be welcome as we prepare through rest for Day 3.

Today was a big day of travel for 79 men from around the country.  We convened in San Antonio where many men renewed old friendships with warm open arms and others quickly found that we were all drawn to a common purpose to serve and glorify God in the week ahead.  Quick introductions showed that there were 17 first timers and the group ages ranged from 18 years old to 100 years old!
Everyone was encouraged to release to the Lord the concerns, pressures and anxiety of the lives we have temporarily left so that we can receive his blessing of empowerment, strength and hope for the work and service that will present itself throughout the week.  We are all challenged to step out to meet new faces, fellowship often, worship Him totally in our coming and our going and to be an encouragement to one another.  The leadership team went through some basics about the week ahead and it is clear that great preparation has taken place so that with a little ‘flexibility’ by everyone we will all experience an amazing week!
After a welcome dinner 11 vans departed San Antonio for Del Rio, TX and the Faith Mission International center which will serve as home base for a couple of days.  The first evidence of the ‘flexibility’ needed came when unexpected highway construction caused us to detour and the need to snake the caravan back to the route we were to follow.  But the drivers and their ‘shotgun’ navigators did an awesome job and it all worked out.
As we traveled, each one in the van had the opportunity to share basic personal information since we are coming from all over.  With an openness that is uncommon in my worldly life among men the basic sharing gradually led to a more deeper sharing with one another of life’s experience and the way God has moved to bless, save, give hope and restore lives in remarkable ways.  It was, perhaps not surprising, that more than one voice would echo similar stories.  Our desire to pray for one another and the power we know it will unleash is already unfolding.
Late night preparations for tomorrow are underway.  And for those that can, sleep will be welcome as we prepare for the Day 2.

What a spectacular day of worship. We started off at Bruce Hepburn’s place in likely the poorest colony we ever visit.  Our worship team led us in several songs followed by communion.  We closed the service singing How Great Thou Art.  The experience is both difficult to describe and equally difficult to exceed.   After our worship service we drove to Alianza Church for lunch and worship with them.  Many of our guys served as ushers and greeters, accompanied by translators from church.  In speaking with one of the translators, I learned the church has a crew of about 35 young people who have trained to speak English (very well) to serve at times such as this.  They will match up an translator with a group of 4-6 persons and it is their job to assure we have a clue what is going on.  They do their jobs very well.
During the service at Alianza, we sing songs both in Spanish and English.  At one point all of the Power Ministry group is invited onto the stage.  We sing couple of more songs and share some testimonies.  We then get back out with the remainder of the congregation and listen to the sermon.  This year, one of our own, Bobby Biber preached at the church.  Bobby did a great job.  Bobby is from South Dakota.
After worship we have just a few minutes to say our good byes and then we get into the vans and begin the long trek back to San Antonio.  I am writing this blog from the van, having just finished dinner, with about an hour and a half left to get into San Antonio.
This has been a great week.  Tomorrow we meet at the hotel in San Antonio for our debriefing time.  This is a time when we all get about 3 minutes to share a meaningful moment from this week.  With all of the first year guys on the trip, debrief should be fun.  After that, we say our good byes and begin to disperse to the airports to head home.  The greatest challenge each of us will face when we get home is to keep alive the high we receive from a week like this and to continue to serve God in our home communities wherever God will allow.
And again I say, I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do next!

What a glorious day.  We had crews working projects at Sende De Vida, Big Heart Orphanage and a prison ministry for the first part of the day.  I was fortunate enough to get to go to Sende De Vida.  That is my favorite place we go to each year.  The story of that place is amazing to me and Hector, the missionary there, is even more amazing.  To have that kind of vision and faith is phenomenal.  I think that I am a strong Christian, but I don’t think I am worthy to tie the shoes of Hector.  Just in brief for those who do not know the story of Sende De Vida:  this is a sanctuary that was built on a dump (literally).  Several years ago Hector saw a need to minister to people who came into Reynosa in hopes to go to the United States, but for one reason or another, they were not allowed to continue, so they were stuck in Reynosa.  For all practical purposes, these people were being thrown away.  The US didn’t want them and they couldn’t go back home, so they had nowhere to go.  Hector, through faith and partnerships with groups like Power Ministry, has built a compound for those people to stay for as long as they need to.  And it is a beautiful place, built on a dump.  Did I mention I love this place.

After the projects and lunch at Alianza Church, we hosted a festival for the church and surrounding area.  The festival consists of food, carnival games, carnival rides, pony rides and overall, just a fun time with lots of prizes for the kids to win.  And every kid that came to the bean bag toss game that I staffed was a winner.  It’s amazing that they all won.  What a coincidence.  The smiles on those kids faces is hard to describe. But the smile it put on my heart will be there for a very long time.  This is what ministry is all about.  Lives are touched at events like this.  We don’t speak the same language, but we communicate just fine.  And we have a lot of fun doing it.  God is truly and indescribably magnificent.

Tomorrow we will worship first at Bruce Hepburn’s’ place and then have lunch at Alianza before worshiping with them in the early afternoon.  After that we begin the long drive back to San Antonio.  Another day where we won’t get to the hotel until midnight or later.  Stay tuned for one more entry tomorrow night.  I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do next!

Today was a full day at the Magdiel Bible College in Matamoros MX.  What a great day playing games with the students, worshiping and eating lunch with them.  And we were able to squeeze in a short soccer game at the end.  Truly this was a fun day. The students get very excited when they see us arrive and start cheering and clapping.  It’s really kind of fun.   I was thinking back to when I first visited the school 6 years ago and at that time there were less than 40 students in attendance.  Today they have more than 100 young people training to go out in various communities all over the world to spread the good news about Jesus Christ.  It is really hard not to be in awe at this place and the commitment of these young people.  That said, we need to keep all of them in our prayers.  I met 2 young ladies today that need individual prayers.  Amy is a second year student and she has lupus disease.  Please pray for her.  Sarah (one friend said her name was Sarah and another said it was not) is a first year student who just had surgery.  I have no clue what the surgery was for but it was obvious she was very uncomfortable physically.  I wanted so much to tell her about the power of prayer and how when I was there 1 year ago I had cancer, but the men from Power Ministry, and the church at Alianza Reynosa MX prayed for me and I no longer have cancer.  But by the time I found an interpreter to help me tell her about all of that, she had gone back to her room to rest so I missed out on that.  I did get the opportunity to pray with her prior to her leaving so I guess I will leave it in God’s hands now.  He is sufficient.
Tomorrow we do our praise time at Border Mission and then work on projects in Reynosa MX.  We have a dormitory to build at Sende De Vida, work around Big Heart Orphanage, Prison Tour all in the morning and a festival to put on at Alianza Church in the afternoon.  It will be full day and yes, I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do next.
Until tomorrow, God Bless you all and have a great evening.

And yet another great day.  You will likely hear that every day. I will be sure to let you know if that is not the case.  Today also started with worship.  Pretty glorious to sing praises to God with 64 other men.  And after worship, to the projects as today is our last day to work on the projects in Acuna.  We finished the roof projects on Sister Blanca’s house and mostly finished the roof on the church.  We got a lot done on the church for Pastor Jose and he has some local people who will assist him to complete that.  All in all, it has been a good day.  This is the most construction projects I have worked on since joining Power Ministry six years ago.  After a late lunch we hit the road to McAllen with a stop in Laredo for dinner.  This is about a 5-6 hour drive so we expect to get into the hotel around midnight.  Did I mention that I am typing this excerpt while riding in the van from Laredo to McAllen?
During worship this morning, pastor Bobby shared with us that his son Joshua is in need of prayer.  Please, everyone reading this take a minute to pray for Joshua and the Biber family.  I am miracle today due to the prayers of many people, so I know firsthand how powerful prayer is.  It was on this trip a year ago that the Alianza church prayed for me that God would cure me of cancer.  I shared with pastor Mario at dinner tonight that God has done just that and thanked him and his church for those prayers.  God is truly amazing and I can’t begin to describe just how awesome He is.  And as many of you have heard me say in the past, and will likely hear me say again, I can hardly wait to see what God is going to do next!
Tomorrow we go to the Magdiel Bible School in Matamoras.  It is always fun to share with the students and to see how they are progressing.  Until tomorrow night, have a great Friday and God Bless you all.

What a spectacular day but man am I tired.  Considering the 5 hours of sleep last night and working on construction projects all day today, I am feeling it.  But the blessings today were awesome.   Today as a team, we worked on a new church building, new classrooms at another church and roof projects on two houses and a third church.  Everyone was busy doing roofing, siding, or painting.  Many guys are walking around with globs of paint on their shirts.  That’s okay.  It’s not like any of us are running short of Power shirts.  And in the event we think we are running short, the Power store is open tonight to sell us even more shirts and jackets with the Power logo on them.  Certainly we wouldn’t want to run short.
As every day, morning started off with worship.  There are 5 of us on the worship team and the music was great.  Bobby is bringing the messages this week and our theme is Faith.  After that, we start our projects.  My first project was at the house of Sister Blanca, the sister of a pastor we support here.  The roof on her house was in terrible condition so we agreed to replace it.  In doing so, we also agreed to do some painting and other things.  Those of us in my generation tend to allow the younger folks to climb on roofs so I painted with my friend Mike from Riverside.  We had a great visit painting blue siding on the house.  Seems like we paint a lot of things blue.  We had lunch at one of the other churches we were roofing and shared lunch with many of the local folks also working on the facility.
In the afternoon I was allowed to help at the new church project for Pastor Jose Morales.  Much of that building is up and we are hopeful to complete the roof tomorrow.  Much to my surprise, this church was painted blue.  I was blessed to spend the afternoon with my friend Tim from Temecula, but also blessed to works alongside Alex, a new friend also from Temecula.  This is Alex’s first Power trip.  Alex would like prayers for guidance from God.
Dinner was great and tonight we should get the opportunity for much needed rest.  Tomorrow is a travel day.  Overall, we will drive more than 1,000 miles on this trip when you combine the drive between the various cities we serve and also the border crossings.  This is in addition to the miles we travel just to get to San Antonio Tx to begin this journey.  So projects tomorrow morning and then driving tomorrow night.  The expectation is we will depart Del Rio about 3:15 PM and ultimately arrive in McAllen Tx around 11:15 PM.   Prayers for safe travels are welcome.  Certainly we pray for our family and friends back home both individually but also corporately every day.
Kids, I’m going to bed.  Sleep well and God Bless you all.
 
 
 

Wow, what a day!  64 men converged on San Antonio TX to begin Day 1 of Group 3.  There were men from 9 states and 2 countries represented in this rag-tag army set to work for God, whatever He would lead us to do.  But really, the day began prior to getting into San Antonio.  I was approached by Rick in Ontario airport.  Rick is from Indiana and was preparing to fly home.  He walked over and asked, “what is Power Ministry?”  That gave me an opportunity to both explain to him but also to think for myself, why do we do this? And then later on the plane I was sitting next to Becky who also asked what Power Ministry is all about.  Again, I had the opportunity to explain to her what we are all about… and that being to serve Jesus in whatever capacity he will allow.

Of those 64 men I referred to earlier, there were at least 10 guys for whom this was their very first Power Ministry trip.  I can still recall my first trip, and all of the jitters and curiosities and the feelings of wondering “am I going to fit in?”  “Am I going to enjoy this?”  “What am I doing here?”  But you know, ever since that first trip, I have never considered not coming back.  Certainly the world will throw many things at these guys in an attempt to discourage them and dissuade them from coming back.  We will all need to keep them in prayer all year to keep that from happening.

So why do I come back every year?  Today when we arrived in San Antonio I was greeted by Adam, a brother from Ridgecrest who I have not seen in a year.  Adam said “I have been praying for you.”  And later Alex from Reynosa Mexico walked over and gave me a huge hug and said, “I love you John.”  How could I not come back?

Now we are all in Del Rio Tx preparing for a very short night of sleep.  The van crew is buzzing getting things ready for tomorrow.  The prayer group is praying, also getting us ready for tomorrow.  And the praise team is meeting in the corner discussing how to engage the guys in worship tomorrow.  It has been a full day.  I think I’ll get to bed and get back to everybody tomorrow night.  Thank you all for your support and prayers.  God Bless you all.