Be Ye Reconciled: This Week in Pictures

I hope and pray you all are having a good weekend. I thought while I had some time I would put some pictures up of the last week here in the Dominican Republic. I guess this week's edition could be entitled Snakes, Storms and Swimming Holes. How's that for waxing poetic?

Tropical Storm Emily brushed by us without incident. Thank the Lord there was no damage done in the area that we live in.

Please continue to pray for me as I attempt to take another trip over into Haiti this coming Thursday. Lord willing, Brother Maurice and I will be looking for a home for our family to rent. I am asking for all to continue to pray for us, for this can only be done through the Lord's wisdom, grace, and mercy. The spiritual battles are real and somedays you just want to pack it all up and go home, but the Lord is gracious and faithful. The flesh does not want to be obedient to the workings of the Lord. So often I want to try and figure things out according to my own wisdom, instead of resting upon God's word and his promises.

Proverbs 3:7 Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the LORD, and depart from evil.

Galatians 5:17 For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would.

So often through the day, the Lord puts us through trials, in order that we may learn to rest upon and trust him. If there are times in our life when we are tested and tried and we yield to the flesh, we will then only seek comfort and help from the world and our own selfish nature. To many Christians to day are turning to worldly methods to deal with the problems in their lives, instead of turning to God and his word. War is not easy nor is it a good time. War is hard and so often the result is death. May we war to put our flesh on the cross each morning and draw near to the God who loves us beyond anything we can learn or comprehend.

Matthew 16:24-26 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me. For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it. For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?

1 John 4:9 In this was manifested the love of God toward us, because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world, that we might live through him.

I'm not very smart, nor do I have a college degree, but one thing I do know is that the Lord wants us to fully trust Him in all areas of our lives. It not just something a preacher says to make a good sermon, but it is our life. If we turn to our own wisdom, we will quickly make a mess of things and will not have a close relationship or walk with the Lord. My desire is to draw nigh to our great Creator, the Lord Jesus Christ, and see his hand work in our lives. The world needs to see a true Christian, not just one in word. May we all desire to love the Lord more and rest in his everlasting arms.

I hope you all enjoy the few pictures I have below.

This was the Boa Constrictor that I found in the road near Brother Darren's house. It was dead when I found it, some Haitians had killed it right before I arrived. They tied something around its head, I guess to make sure that it was dead.
I brought the snake back home to show my wonderful wife. (edit by wife: Next time, I'm hoping for a chocolate bar for a "special surprise" instead of a dead reptile.)

This snake measured around 5 1/2 feet., pretty good size for a snake down here! Snakes don't have much of a chance down here of getting big! (another edit by wife: I wish the same was true of the spiders and rats!)