With an even bigger smile, he said, “No way! They’re fer my guinea pigs at home.”

I laughed and then confessed, “Well that’s what my parsley’s for too!”  You can’t judge a book by it’s cover. Never in all my life would I have assumed that man had guinea pigs. He was probably thinking the same thing about me.

Steve

“But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7)

Peanut and Butter

Posing for the blog picture (out of their cage).

“I have to admit I find it condescending of you to pray for the waitresses salvation. Did you ask her if she was a Christian? If she is a Christian, she already has salvation so for you to pray for it sounds like you believe you have a ‘better line’ to God than she does.” a blog reader

Quite a few years ago an interstate bridge collapsed near St. Petersburg, Florida. Many cars drove over the top and down into the bay, killing those on board. If only someone would have been able to warn those drivers earlier. But what if the person willing to warn those driving toward the bridge had thought, “They might be insulted if I try to stop them, because maybe they are already aware that the bridge is out and are just going up there to look at the damage.” I’m confident everyone of those people who lost their lives that day would have been grateful if someone had cared enough to try to intervene. Which is worse, quick physical death or eternity in hell?

It is my experience that someone who is truly saved appreciates others who are concerned about their soul. Others who are lost and then become saved are grateful to those who cared and did something to help them avoid eternity in hell.

I expect if we had asked our waitress if she was a Christian, some might criticize us for that. You can’t make everyone happy. We have found that every time we ask a waiter or waitress how we can pray for them that they are grateful we love them enough to actually pray. You might try it. It’s a blessing for all involved.

Steve

We always enjoy seeing different things as we drive. Yesterday, we saw a field that was being burned. We also saw many fields being harvested. What a beautiful reminder that we are to pray that the Lord will send out workers to harvest!

“Therefore said he unto them, The harvest truly is great, but the labourers are few: pray ye therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he would send forth labourers into his harvest.” (Luke 10:2)

Daddy is such a good driver to drive on such narrow two lane roads!

Burning field.

Anna

“Driving home, we thanked God for keeping us safe from a close-call accident. Then a few miles before getting back to the house, we stopped at a gas station where we ended up meeting a young couple in their twenties, whose car had broken down. My husband went over to see what he could do to help but was unable to get them going because it was overheated.

As he was coming back toward me, I felt the Holy Spirit directing me to give the woman one of several Scripture cards that someone gave to us before our trip. I was quickly thumbing through them to find which one to give and just prayed to God to have me hand her the right one. My husband brought it over to her.

Suddenly she just came running back to our car saying things like, “You have no idea what this means to me. God has been calling me and giving me signs to come to him, but I’m just never ready. I don’t want to stop doing the things I know I should not do (dr*gs and adu***ry), and I’ve gone to five churches trying to get myself to God, but I never do it. I feel like I’m not worthy because I’ve done so many bad things, and I don’t want to keep letting Him down and being a hypocrite.”

Did I have lots to tell her about me! I shared with her how I felt the same way when I learned that Jesus loved me, and I said I thought there was no way He’d ever want to forgive me for all I had done. I told her about my dr*g addictions and the abo**ions I had had and that I was not worthy of His love, but THAT HE LOVED ME ANYWAY! He changed my life, in spite of all the poor choices I had made. I encouraged her through my tears NOT to WAIT to let Him into her heart. I explained that it is because of our sin that He had to die on that cross, but that that was not the end. Yes, He died to be that sacrifice so that we could one day be in the presence of God when we go to heaven, but first we must let him in to cleanse us.

I explained that the road was not going to be easy for her but that God would fill her with His Holy Spirit to give her strength to change her life. I said there’s no way people can fight “sin” without the Spirit. We simply do not have the power to do it on our own. That’s why we NEED GOD IN OUR LIVES! It’s like treading water your whole life and God’s reaching out to you to save you from drowning, but you just keep on treading. Eventually you will tire out and drown.

God kept pressing it on my heart to keep her in her place of pain because He was doing work in her heart. I kept praying as I spoke with her for God to soften her heart so that she’d let Him come in. I’ve never spoken to anyone before like I spoke to this woman. God gave me all the words to say, and I had all the bad life experiences to be compassionate to her because I myself had been in her shoes . . . I had made the same mistakes that she had made but now was living proof that THERE IS A BETTER WAY.

After lots of hugs and tears, she said to me that she was ready to pray and give her life to God. She said, “I don’t know what to say.” I said, “I really don’t know all of what to say either because I don’t usually do this! But let’s just work through it together.” So there we stood in the middle of a gas station, crying out to God for forgiveness and to accept this wandering soul into His everlasting kingdom. It was incredible! Never have I felt so close to God to have Him speak through me. I kept thanking her and telling her how we and others had prayed for God to somehow use us on this trip to further His kingdom and that she was a direct answer to that prayer.

You may think that is all, but you’re wrong. When we looked over to see where the men were, the two of them were kneeling on the ground praying!!!! Guess what . . . HE GAVE HIS LIFE TO THE LORD, TOO! A total separate conversation that I still haven’t heard the details about, but with the same ending results. PRAISE GOD! God took these two people, who had hit rock bottom in their lives, and had prepared their hearts. We were merely the instruments to set them on the right road. Both my husband and I were just in awe when we left them and said, “I guess that is why God sent us to Texas . . . to bring two more people to Him.”

Amen and amen!!!

“That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.  For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation,” (Romans 10:9-10).

(Please note: astricks (*) were added due to some internet filters mis-categorizing the blog because it included the words.)

The man who died was such an encouragement to me. He was the picture of a faithful servant. I never heard a complaining word, and others who knew him for many years said they never did either. Even in the later years of such physical suffering, he didn’t complain. He loved his wife of 55 years, and she felt cherished by him. He faithfully attended church every Sunday he was in our nursing home.

He worked hard all his life doing manual labor during the heat of Kansas’ summers and the cold of our winters. He didn’t make much money, but he paid off their first house’s mortgage early, and then through the years bought nicer homes and cars debt free. He knew how to be careful with his money and not waste it on frivolous things.

To top it off we were able to share Christ with all who attended. We were so blessed to be asked to help them. The children sang two songs, which were deeply appreciated. I am so grateful to the Lord for His allowing us to be a part of our nursing-home church. Again, thank you for praying.

“Give ear, O LORD, unto my prayer; and attend to the voice of my supplications” (Psalms 86:6).

Steve

I had the thought to post a few pictures as “memories” from the last six weeks as one blog post, but as I began to look through them, we have too many “unposted” pictures to go with just one blog post, so watch for a few more over the next weeks!

Seeing the hand of the Lord at work was amazing.

For week #1, here are a few things. The evening of January 2nd stands out in my mind, as we had bad news with the bus regarding some mechanical issues. Worst case was it could take two weeks to get the parts and the bus fixed, OR, maybe it wasn’t what we thought. Long story short, over that jam-packed Monday, January 4th, and lots of prayer, we were able to get a part overnighted. John installed it Tuesday morning in frigid outdoor temperatures, and he also made a temporary fix for another problem that would hold until we could stop on a free day at a Detroit Diesel shop and get a part installed. So, Tuesday afternoon, we were OFF, with Uriah running like a champ. We have found that the more problems we have prior to a trip, the more the spiritual fruit during the trip.

Dad has reminded us that never once have we missed a conference due to a bus problem. We also saw the Lord at work when an oil line blew in Oklahoma City; things looked a bit dismal that night as it was contemplated getting it fixed (and likely not going to Carlsbad Caverns). The next morning, John made several phone calls, and he decided he would fix it himself. We ended up being a stone’s throw from a place which had a part John needed to repair it.

I can’t imagine life without the Lord Jesus. Seeing Him work is thrilling: people may think that being a Christian means that everything will go well, at least from an earthly standpoint. No, it’s not that way. Yet there’s joy in following Jesus, in resting in Him through trials and challenges. Our desire is that as we share how the Lord is working, you will see the reality of Him doing the same in your life.

Here are some of the “unposted” pictures from the first week.

John checking the tire pressure before we left.

With our new furniture in the bus, we now have seatbelts. Here everyone is digging the first time for those seatbelts. After they were fished through the seat, we were fine, but it took a bit of work at the beginning! In next week's unposted pictures, I'll make sure to include one of our new seating.

Parked behind the building where they made the new oil line for us.

The Maxwell Girls

At Carlsbad...

Waiting for our cave tour that afternoon...

Our spelunkers (the boys and Dad) heading down into the lower cave!

A Christopher photo.

The first "unload" on the trip! Nice warm temperatures.

The girls talking after the music concert in El Paso.

Sisters at the El Paso Conference.

A house Mom lived in when she was a little girl (at Ft. Bliss).

Another gorgeous view out the bus, this time as we drove at White Sands.

You know how things go: we even had trouble with our generator. At one point, it wouldn't start, and when it did, it was just full of white smoke! Here's one such try in Las Cruces. The problem was eventually solved.

Sarah

“O give thanks unto the Lord; for he is good: for his mercy endureth for ever” (Psalms 118:29).

Thursday when Dad and Mom were out for a walk, they noticed a retirement home. They went in to see if maybe we could play some music that evening for them.

It turned out that the administrator and another man that worked there attended the church where we sang the night before. After all the details were set up, we left, ran a few errands, and came back to set up.

It was a men’s only home, and they greatly enjoyed our music. Many of them were veterans, and Christopher used some stories from Grandad’s Army life to illustrate salvation to them. During America the Beautiful, it was so sweet to see many of the veterans singing along. America truly is the country that they poured their lives out for!

Our hearts were full, and we were very blessed that we were able to minister to those in that home.

This gentleman could have joined right in with us during music, because he was matching as well!

These two men are shaking hands to show that they are going to keep each other accountable to reading the Bible every day!

“Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.” (James 1:27)

Anna

That evening we had been invited to another church for Steve preach the message and our family to do some music. They planned a Mexican food potluck before the service, which allowed us some extra fellowship time. Many of the families at the church had been to our Tucson conference two years ago and then to this one as well. When we left that evening, we felt we had many new friends in Christ. As we pulled out to head for Phoenix, lots of the children and some of the parents gathered outside the front door to send us off. As they waited for us to leave, the children sang, Jesus Loves Me, for us.

“I thank my God upon every remembrance of you, 4 Always in every prayer of mine for you all making request with joy, 5 For your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until now.” Philippians 1:3-5

Singing

Christopher and a little friend!

John showing the onlookers his banjo.

The load out was very easy do to with all the help!

Teri

The “main” event this past week was the bus emergency (a forthcoming post on that one!). I was talking to a friend in Canada on the phone today, and she asked how we were. As I told her what had been going on, she said the Lord had prompted her to pray for us this last week. She didn’t know why, but she obeyed, and prayed often for our family! Wow! We were very touched that the Lord had moved in her heart, leading her to pray for us, when we definitely needed it.

In the midst of everything, we shared through music and testimony at our wonderful nursing home church. We were glad for Nathan to join us (and we missed Christopher who was sick!).

A view from the listeners...

The family

The five younger doing a special

The elderly loved it!

Rejoicing in our Savior!

Sarah

“Therefore seeing we have this ministry, as we have received mercy, we faint not” (2 Corinthians 4:1).

The Lord has been convicting me of that and I’m so grateful that He has. He has convicted me of my sinful attitude about it. Isn’t God so merciful? He is the One Who created our world and its weather. In Genesis 8:22 we read, “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.” The Lord was committing to Noah that He would not smite every living thing as He did in the flood again. When I read verse 22 it was a reminder that God gave us the cold and the heat. I was having a bad attitude about something that God designed.

So now as I experience our Kansas winter I’m thankful for it. If it is from my Lord, it is to be received with thanksgiving. I know that in Kansas we have four seasons, none of which are too long. Then during the winter we will have days where the temperature is in the 50’s and 60’s just like this week. In the heat of the summer, we will have refreshingly cool days come along that break up the warmer days.

Repentance is a good thing and if you ever hear me complain about the weather, a gentle admonition is in order and I will thank you. Our God is so good isn’t He?

“And thou shalt rejoice in every good thing which the LORD thy God hath given unto thee, and unto thine house, thou, and the Levite, and the stranger that is among you.” Deuteronomy 26:11

Steve

Here are the doors made ready for me to paint them.

Joseph is installing the basement stairs.

Mary taking a break from cleaning the basement.

Christopher showing us his new way of carrying in doors.

John's way is more traditional.

Honey in her "work" attire.

Anna organizing our tool area.

Jesse working at organizing in the basement. It seems like it has been an endless job.