Our Sunday Morning.....

 

Sunday Morning Bible Study has started off to a great start.  We knew that the work here on St. Barths was going to be slow, especially as we are still working on our French passport situation to be finished.  Here is a little insight to our Sunday morning activities:

(Kami's Bus Route-High day of 5 if you include Silas in the back!)

(We normally start off with some singing and this past Sunday was our first Sunday with our piano!  We also have had a special or two from our family.  This coming Sunday, Brenna is going to play a special on her violin.  Then we have our Bible study time.)

(Kami prepares a meal for everyone after our Bible Study.  The spaghetti was amazing!)

(We enjoy a meal together and also enjoy the fellowship and stories.)

(As for right now, our kitchen table is a bit small so the kids usually sit in the living room and enjoy their meal)

(After the service and meal, Joshua performed his juggling tricks for everyone and we even did a little Gospel magic show for everyone.  Then Kami takes everyone home in the afternoon.) 

(This past Sunday Night, we had guest preacher Dr. David Gibbs to preach to us!  Ok, it was a DVD but he did a great job and his message was directed right at our family!  As for right now, we are having a Sunday evening and Wednesday night service with just our family.  We will eventually start services on Sun PM and Wed PM later on as people get saved and begin to grow.)

The three ladies who have been coming love the Sunday morning Bible study time and one even said it is the highlight of her week that she looks forward to.  We praise the Lord for this and trust that many people will get saved and God will establish a true church that preaches the truth here on St. Barthelemy.

Sunday Bible Study Sets New Attendance Record!

Ok.......we did set a new attendance record for this past Sunday......3

We have been praying for 3 people to attend our Sunday morning Bible study and we finally had 3 ladies attend this past Sunday.  We had a great service as we finished our study on "What is the Bible" and started our new lesson "Who is Jesus Christ".  We praise the Lord for 3 and we are now praying for 5!

The Fourth-Watch Miracle!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

My Pastor (Don Strange) has told me that God sometimes answers our prayers and gives us the greatest miracles in the Fourth Watch.  He told me these words in regards to certain big decisions and circumstances that we were praying about.  Basically, he was telling me not to give up, it wasn't until the fourth watch that Jesus came walking on the water and Peter stepped out of the boat to walk with Him!

Well, the Lady in France that has been working on my paperwork that we so desperately needed, starts her month-long vacation 1 hour from now!  She has been waiting for some U.S. legislation to be sent to her, however, when she finally received it, it was all in English and needed to be in French.  She spent her day off yesterday personally translating the entire legislation document for us and spent the last hour before her vacation personally seeing that my French Birth Certificate is approved, stamped and put in the mail!  Talk about the fourth watch!  You don't cut in any closer than that!  However, with God, it was always right on time!  

I just simply want to say, "God is GREAT; and greatly to be PRAISED!"

Next step after we receive the French Birth Certificate:    Register my marriage to Kami in France, Register all of our children with France, and apply for all of us to get French passports!  We should be able to do all of this at once at the French Consulate in Miami!!!!

Update on our situation:

We sent out an urgent prayer request yesterday.  Basically, if we do not receive our completed paperwork from France by July 26th, we will have to leave the island of St. Barthelemy and cannot come back until next year (6 months later).  Without the paperwork from France, we cannot get our French passports and without French passports, we cannot stay here permanently.  The Gendarme (territorial police) told us that if we do not leave before our 3 months are over, they could put us in jail and then deport us and forbid us to come back for another 3 years.   

Well, after much prayer from so many people and prayer/fasting on our part, we received word from the Prefecture (they deal with immigration/VISA issues) that we can leave St. Barthelemy before our 3 months is over, have our passports stamped on the Dutch side of St. Maarten and then return and stay another 3 months.  The Prefecture on St. Martin (the French side) that we dealt with is supposed to hold a higher position than the Gendarme.  She said if we have any trouble to just call her and she will help us out.  We also had my aunt ask her lawyer about what the Prefecture told us and her lawyer said to trust what the Prefecture says, she knows her "stuff" about immigration laws. 

So, we received our answer to our prayer!  We are going to stay for another 3 months and hopefully, our paperwork and french passports will be completed by October 26th and we can stay permanently.  If we do not have our paperwork and passports by October 26th, then we have no choice nor other options but must leave for 6 months.  So we praise the Lord for this present victory by working on our behalf to let us stay here and trust that all of the paperwork will be in by October!

A Great Victory For An 87 Year-Old Man......

This past Friday, Josh and I went to visit an 87 year-old man named Edmund.  Each week we try to visit him and bring him a meal that Kami has prepared.  He normally gets out of bed and we all sit in his living room and spend an hour or so just talking and fellowshipping.   He is very lonely and loves the visits that we make with him. 

(Edmund-this picture was taken back in 2006)

However, on Friday, he was not able to get out of bed to visit with us.  So Josh and I just sat on his bed as he struggled to breathe.  He asked about our family and how things are going?  Then we began to talk about the Lord.  He was in so much pain that he stated that he wanted God to just take him.  He wanted to die.  That's when I told him that he needed to be ready for the Lord to take him.   He then said to me, "But I pray every day that God will show me what to do."  This opened a great door for Josh and I to tell him again about the Lord.  I told him, "I am the answer to that prayer, for God had sent me to St. Barthelemy to tell everyone how to receive eternal life and become a Christian." 

We then talked about the Lord and about how to put his faith in Jesus Christ and become a Christian.   Finally, he looked at me with tears in his eyes and said, "I want to trust Jesus Christ and ask Him to save me."  As we prayed together, he simply ask Christ to be his Saviour and asked Christ for "La vie eternelle" (eternal life).  Afterwards, he looked at me with a smile and said that he was now a Christian, he had put his faith in Christ alone.

Praise God for an 87 year-old man turned away years of tradition, years of false beliefs, and put his faith in Jesus Christ! 

Happy Birthday Brenna!

We haven't downloaded our pictures from Brenna's birthday yet, but we will get some posted later.  Brenna turned 12 on Wednesday!  Brenna, you are a very special young lady and I am so glad that I am your dad.  Happy 12th Birthday!!!!


As a side note:  We still do not have phone/internet service at our house.  We were told that if we are "lucky" we may have this service before the end of summer!  We also still have no word on our paperwork from France.  Please keep this in your prayers as well!

Happy Birthday!...Happy Anniversary!!!....still no word....and a prayer request...

Happy Birthday to Joshua!  This past Monday was Josh's birthday.  He turned 15 and asked his momma to make him a chocolate pie for his birthday.  He wanted two pies made, one for him and the other for the rest of the family to share!  So he had his own pie and enjoyed it thoroughly!  He received some snorkel gear and we have enjoyed snorkeling and playing in the ocean.  We love you Josh!

Happy Anniversary to my sweetheart Kami!  Yesterday, July 2, marked 17 years of having the most wonderful wife in the world!  I am so thankful that God brought us together.  God used our relationship to bring me to Him.   It has been a wonderful 17 years and we look forward to many years to come!

We still have no word about our paperwork from France.  Please keep praying that Madame Prouteau (the lady in France working on our paperwork) will receive a copy of the legislation from the government of the Virgin Islands that she is needing so that she can finalize our paperwork.  Our prayer is that she will receive this before she leaves on her summer vacation for a month starting July 18th! 

 

 My mother was taken to the emergency room last night with all of the symptoms of a heart attack.  We still have to word of the results of any tests that were done.  Hopefully I will find out more this afternoon after our Sunday service here.  Please pray for her and for the doctors to have wisdom in locating the problem.