Internet Service

Guest written by our friend Mason Abbott

My husband and I realized the other day that we could call www.DirectStarTV.com and also get our internet service through them. It’s incredibly affordable, and it’s one fewer bill to worry about. Given how busy and stressful our lives are these days, one fewer bill is a huge relief. I don’t know when it happened exactly, but our lives have gotten incredibly hectic lately. It feels like we run from one obligation to the next, with little to no time to relax in between. With our new bundle of television and internet, we streamline the time we spend paying bills. Plus, we get to enjoy a ton of awesome television channels and home internet for an incredibly affordable price. We loved making the phone call to our old internet provider to tell them we were canceling our service, and it took us only a couple of minutes to get our service switched over. It was so painless; I definitely recommend it. You’ll be amazed how much having one fewer bill to pay can relax you. Give them a call today to make the change!

Celebrating Christmas

We had our church Christmas party last December 17th which started around 10:30AM. We started the program by singing Christmas songs. Then some kids sang a special song The Little Drummer Boy in front. Two mothers did a duet "Christmas In Our Hearts" and then 4 moms rendered a couple of Christmas songs. I also sang Whispering Hope though my voice was not great. It was all for Jesus because we were celebrating His birth. Pastor George gave his Christmas message about the birth of Jesus Christ.

Then we ate our lunch that was prepared by uncle Rudy who was in-charge of the cooking of our lunch. We had chicken adobo, bottle gourd squash, rice, bananas and orange juice for all of us. The expenses were from our church fund but the rice was courtesy of uncle Rudy.

After lunch, we had the parlor games played outside which were joined by the kids and adults. I was the one in-charge of the parlor games too. I let the the kids play first the "Fanning the Fish" and then the adults. That was a fun game and both the kids and adults enjoyed it. Then the kids played the all time favorite "Trip To Jerusalem" followed by "The Hot Item" Then we went inside and the kids had the Memory Verse contest. There were 5 kids who competed and the 8 year old Melissa won 1st prize. She was able to recite 30 verses. The 2nd prize went to 10 year old Dominica who was able to recite 15 Memory verses followed by Aiza who won 3rd prize who recited 14 verses, then Joebelle and Freddie won consolation prizes. I gave them cash prizes each, P70, 50, 40 and 20 respectively. Next, I awarded the prizes of the winners of the parlor games.

Then I distributed the gifts to each of the kids who were present and they were all 31 of them. Next hubby and I gave away the bag of groceries to the mothers who were from our church fund. We prepared a total of 13 bag of groceries for each families in our church. I've seen how happy those families were upon receiving their bag of groceries. I know it help them out because most of them come from poor families.

Went To Traders' Village

Hubby and I went to Traders’ Village a couple of times. The first time we went there was seven years ago with my step-daughter and her family. We were supposed to go to the State Fair in Dallas but then we decided to go to Traders’ Village instead. I bought some nice stuffs there like curtains and weights for my work-out. The second time we went there was 3 years ago and I bought some stuffs like 3 sets of curtains with different styles and colors. The reason I love going there is that there were trade show displays worth seeing and the price there is a lot cheaper than in the malls or stores. In fact, that place was so crowded and most merchants there are Mexicans. Our grandson call that place Little Mexico, LOL!

We roamed around the place and I’ve seen some shirts, graphics and banners hanging in a decorative truss in some of the market stalls there. I bought some t-shirts with Texas prints in it and sent it to my siblings in my homeland. They were cheap. I bought 3 shirts for 10 bucks. Not bad at all.

I’ve also seen some logo floor mats on sale there and I thought it would be nice for our church to have that as an entry mat with a logo or message printed on them. They come in larger sizes too and it can be used as cheap printed flooring.

The exhibit booths were full of displays of the stuffs that those merchants sell. We went from one booth to another and we feasted our eyes looking at the merchants’ displays. We ended up buying a few stuffs that we didn't plan to buy but we did not spend beyond our budget. It’s nice to splurge once in a while but then hubby and I spend our money wisely. We only buy the things that we need.

Pray Boldly

Telephone calls used to be routed by operators, manually connecting circuits at a switchboard--plugging and unplugging wires all day long to keep conversations going. Today, think how many millions of calls are handled by computerized routers every second of the day. Better yet, imagine how many countless prayer "calls" God receives every moment from all over the world.

It would be easy to be dissuaded from praying by thinking of our individual prayer requests getting lost amidst the millions God hears. Yet we are exhorted to "let [our] requests be made known to God" (Philippians 4:6), and to do so boldly (Hebrews 4:16). King David did (countless times in Psalms), and so did the apostle Paul--the same request three different times! (2 Corinthians 12:7-8) They didn't feel bad or guilty for continually asking God for help, nor should we. In fact, not to pray is to portray God as less than He is--a generous Father (Luke 11:11-13).

If you are in a stressful place today, stop now and tell God. Because ultimately He is the answer to our prayers, meeting with Him is the beginning of your answer.

Anxiety and prayer are more opposed to each other than fire and water.

Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need. Hebrew 4:16 KJV