Randy Wray's Blog

Working on converting this song into the AVOW format.

My chains are gone, I’ve been set free
My God, my Savior has ransomed me
And like a flood His mercy reigns
Unending love, amazing grace

Working on another lesson for this Sunday from the life of Gideon.

Looking specifically at the battle scene with the Midianites and such.

One day a farmer the next day a commander.

And you still want to hear directly from God?

We had a long but enjoyable day back yesterday, that whole “hit the ground running” idea.

During our assembly we followed the example of Paul & Barnabas in Acts 14 and told the church about all God had done through us during our time in Mexico.

We ate lunch (Mexican Food!) with some dear friends and talked further about the work.

Our Praise Band set up, rehearsed for a couple of hours and enjoyed a good crowd for a time of praise and hotdogs.  Still a good sign that so many people will come and stay for 2 hours plus for our Sunday Night Celebrations.

Today, it’s back in the office and thinning out the inbox.

The tenth house we built belongs to the Velez family.

As the owner of house # 9 (who worked alongside her husband to complete all the electrical work) said, “we’ve given one more family hope, stability and a security that cannot be measured.”

We met Julio on our first trip.  He served as translator for many in our group and continues this work for other groups who travel to Baja.  The Ensenada church was excited that his family would receive a house this year.

A group of gringos stopped by the job site and I overheard Julio tell them that what we had given his family was a great start.

Julio and the church in that colonia will pick up from here and install sheetrock, windows, doors and outside stucco.

When asked why the house was not “fully” completed Julio replied “this is how we do it (referring to our house building philosophy) and this is how it should be.”

Our strategy is to help without “0ver-helping”.  We strive to teach people how to build and encourage them to take pride in ownership.  We place them on a path of personal stability and growth.

We’ve done more harm than good if they rely upon us for everything.

So we give them a house 85% built and they finish it with those around them in their church community and the discipline of giving and serving others carries on.

We traveled a couple of hours Monday morning (further south) to reach the job site around 10:00 and began to work immediately.

With 1 and 1/2 days of work in the books we are way ahead of schedule.

Our progress is not hard to believe – we have a great work crew.  What is hard to believe is that we have not yet eaten a fish taco!

We are back in Mexico building a house for the Velez family.

We’ve been having a run of good fishing luck lately.

The last three outings have yielded a good number of fish and some big fish.

The fish in these pictures are 4lb’s, 6lb’s and 9′lbs.

The great thing about our outing this morning is that the boy went with us.

It’s a lot of fun to be on the water and have such success.  It’s even better to share it with your children.

His musing of the morning was wether or not fishing was an olympic sport.

Count me in, it’s for my country!

We have a large back yard (our total lot size is 1/2 of an acre) so I was thrilled when a generous church family gave us a riding lawnmower as a house warming gift.

The mower was purchased pre-assembled as a floor model from a major home improvement store.

I’ve used the mower for about 2 years and noticed something not quite right on one of the sides of the cutting deck.

You also need to know that in the 2 years time I’ve also hosed the thing down a couple of times and cleared grass and leaves from the housing the covers the belts that drive the blades.

This weekend I decided to clean it again and was working the hose in the housing clearing out leaves and debris.  I reached my hand up in there to clear some blockage and found this . . .

I’ve heard stories of stuff being left inside people after surgeries so I guess this is the mechanical version of those stories.

Funeral services for Marvin Blair were held yesterday.

Marvin and his family were part of the fabric of the Central Church.

An honest, hard-working man that left behind a great legacy of faith.

In every generation of believers there are a handful of men and women who, though not perfect, distinguish themselves in their walk of faith.

Marvin was such a man.

Marvin was quoted as saying something like (and this is my paraphrase) “don’t be afraid of something just because it’s different or trying something new.  You just might discover you’re good at something else.”

From the tributes and the testimony of changed lives you knew this man was something special.

Marvin served the purpose of God in his own generation and in the course of his life, he made a difference.

I blame Brad.

He’s been nagging me to tweet or twitter.

Finally decided to give it a try.

Look out CNN!