Gimenez Family Life

Thursday, March 24, 2016

Picture Update...

Here are a few pics of what's been happening at VSIBC!

Elisabeth graduated!

On March 19th, Elisabeth received her diploma and we had her graduation at the church. It was a great ceremony and we are so proud of her! You can find more pics and details on my wife's blog at www.adayinthelifeofamissionarywife.blogspot.com

It's been 1 year since the very first service at VSIBC! We had our 1-year anniversary on March 20th with 92 in services!

Dr. Bill Rice III was also in our services. He attended Elisabeth's graduation service on Saturday and then came for our 1-Year Anniversary service on Sunday morning.

We set up tables and chairs in the shade and enjoyed great fellowship and food after the services.

We had a bounce house for the kids that was a huge hit!

We had a children's choir sing for the Big Day and they did a great job!

Friday, March 4, 2016

Updates and Possible Cure!

Here are a few updates from High Springs, FL!

Our "Friends & Family Day" was a huge success! We had 80 in attendance with 1 man saved! Praise the Lord!

We have started a men's Bible study on Monday and now have 4 men at the weekly Bible study. It has been a great time of Bible study, snacks and ping pong.

We had Dr. Bill Rice III with us last Wednesday night and we had 34 in attendance for our mid-week service. The church gave a $400 love offering that night towards paying for deaf children to go to the Bill Rice Ranch's Deaf Camp this summer, free of charge! VSIBC has such a giving heart and a love for the Lord.

Our 1-Year Anniversary is on March 20th...Wow! How time flies!

Update on Kami's latest doctor appointment & results from more testing:

Kami has now also been diagnosed with Tularemia, a bacterial infection of which the doctor says she has all of the classic symptoms and which showed positive in her blood test. Her doctor believes that this is the real culprit to Kami's health problems and is also the reason that the Lyme disease has not been successfully treated thus far. Amazingly, of all the antibiotics she has been on, none of them work against the tularemia bacteria. So, Kami is starting a new antibiotic regimen in the morning which could have some pretty nasty side affects.

Also, after some genetic testing, Kami was found to have a mutated MTHFR gene, which we are told is often found mutated when people cannot heal from Lyme symptoms, etc. This gene is the one that processes Folic Acid and Complex B vitamins which in turn supports the Immune system to do its job.

In short, when mutated, folic acid and Vitamin B is turned into ammonia and causes symptoms to worsen and the body to physically 'go down'. Instead of vitamins helping her, we now know that vitamins were having a reverse affect due to this mutated gene. The answer to this is simple, she must take 'methylated' forms of both Folic Acid and Vitamin B6 & B12.

We are hoping that these new findings and treatments will work. Please remember Kami in your prayers.

Together serving Him,
Bro. Patrick Gimenez

Tuesday, January 5, 2016

Quarterly Update...

Time...where does it go? It has been a whirlwind of events and activities here at VSIBC and that doesn't even include our family functions as well!

2016 is now in full swing and we are preparing for big things ahead!

We kicked off our 1st Sunday of 2016 by unveiling this year's theme at VSIBC:

Our focus and goal is to highlight our personal responsibility of reaching others with the Gospel of Christ. We have several things in the works for this year:

* Soul winning classes.

* The start-up of visitation times.

* Learning Bible Memory Verses that will help us in soul-winning.

* A concentrated effort in passing out Gospel Tracts.

* Special Big Days this year that will help us in getting more folks to church.

One of our Big Days is fast approaching!!!

We have a goal of having 70 in attendance and the church will be working and praying hard for this big day!

Some other Note -Worthy News:

* We have been averaging 45 in our Sunday morning services for the past couple of months and our Sunday night crowd has been growing as well!

* We have 2 missionaries scheduled to be with us in the next couple of months and our folks are getting excited about Missions!

* We have several preachers scheduled to be with us in the next few months as well:

Dr. Scott Caudill, Dr. Bill Rice, Bro. Dave Summerdorf, and Dr. Don Strange to name a few.

* We are already planning our 1-year Anniversary celebration on Sunday, March 20th!

(Can you believe that it has almost been 1 year ago that VSIBC was started!)

* In February, I have the great privilege of speaking at the Florida Baptist College in Tampa, FL. I am looking forward to this great opportunity!

Please be in prayer with us as we know that Satan hates our focus for 2016...so please pray with us and for us during this year!!!

Wednesday, November 18, 2015

Ugghhhh! It's been a while since my last post!

With everything going on in the Church Plant, remembering to put a post on here has been challenging indeed. Here are a few updates since our last post from so long ago:

We had our first baptism service in the Santa Fe River

This is Silas...

This is Callie...

This one is hard to see because we had to go so far out in the river to get deep enough. This is James, a young man who has a wonderful wife and son who have been attending the church since our opening day!

We had a great turn-out to see the baptism and everyone loved it being done at the river.

I threw this one in there for fun! Got some deer meat in the freezer!

We had a Homeschool outing at the High Springs Fire Department

This is Elisabeth and Bro. Alderman who is a firefighter. He and his wife have attended our services since the opening day. They are a wonderful family and love the Lord.

Side Notes:

- A couple of weeks ago, we voted to take on our 6th missionary family...the Payton family to Nicaragua.

- This coming Sunday is our "Revival of Thanksgiving" with Dr. Fred Kindhart. He will be preaching for us in all of the Sunday services and we are having a Thanksgiving Dinner as a church during the PM service. So far, we have over 50 people lined up to attend the dinner!

- We had two more families to join the church about 1 month ago.

These are exciting times here at Victory Springs Baptist Church!!! God is good, all the time!!!

Family Tips For The Taking:

"I CHANGE NOT".....That is what the LORD tells us in Malachi 3:6. As a child of God, I am able to fully depend upon my Heavenly Father to never change. He is stable, reliable, and always keeps His word and standards! This makes it possible to serve, obey, and have confidence in my God. I am able to succeed and live a true Christian life, not because I am great, but because I have a God who never changes and I know what He expects and how to succeed.

It would be hard to be a Christian if we served a god who changes his mind and flip flops on his laws and expectations. We would never have full confidence in our God nor fully trust Him because we would never know what to expect or what is right/wrong from day to day.

Thus, our children would have the same difficulties if we as parents are not consistent. One of the worst things that we can do, is to flip-flop on our convictions and standards before our children.

Let me explain....we have a rule in our family that we will never watch a movie or read a book with any curse word, no matter how "small" the curse word may be. If at any time, we continue to watch a movie or to read a book that has a curse word, we have just destroyed the "trust" and "standard" that we have set up for our children. Our children will then question in their hearts, all of our other standards, convictions, rules, and beliefs. They will never see them as "Biblical", but rather as "optional". This sets up a double standard or double mind in our home and there will be no consistency. Why does our younger generation struggle with Biblical standards and righteousness today?....Why is it that our younger generation is so unstable today?.....because we have failed to set a Biblical standard that does not change and that they can follow and believe in. Thus they become double minded. The Bible says, "A double minded man is unstable in all his ways."

Parents, it is of the utmost importance that we be consistent and Biblical in all things. Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might!!!

Prayer Requests & Praises:

Prayer Requests:
1) Please continue to be in prayer for Kami as we continue down the adventurous and trying health issues that Kami is dealing with. The doctors are still searching for answers.

2) Please be in prayer for Victory Springs Ind. Baptist Church. We are praying for one more 'solid' family to join that would be able to jump right in and faithfully help us in the ministries of the church.

Praises!!!

1) Praise the Lord for what God has been doing thus far at VSIBC! We still have a long way to go before the church is self-standing but to be where we are after 15 months is exciting!