But the greatest of these is LOVE

And now I will show you the most excellent way.

This week God brought me to the passage in 1st Corinthians where Paul write the church of Corinth about love. This is a very familiar passage to most of you, in fact, in many marriage ceremonies this passage is often referred. As I read through it again I thought about how well it is also applied to our daily lives. Whether we are faced with conflict, whether we are entering into a relationship such as marriage, or wether we are simply passing a stranger on the street this passage can be applied. It is the greatest calling to all Christians. To love. 

The Bible says that love is the greatest gift that God gives us and we are to love one another accordingly. In Corinthians 13 it also list different gifts that God gives us such as tongues, prophesy and faith that can move mountains but without love we are nothing. Christ is love and without Christ all our best efforts are in vein. So how do we love as Christ loves? We need to be patient, kind, love does not envy, it does not boast and it is not proud. It is not rude nor is it self seeking. Love is not easily angered and it keeps no record of wrong doings. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices in truth. Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes and always perseveres. LOVE NEVER FAILS. 

We talked about this as a team. What will it be like to receive our first abandoned child into our home? How do we love that child. Well, the answer is pretty clear. I know God is going to stretch each one of us in this team as we care for kids and I am so excited that God is calling each one on our team to a very high calling and that is to love as Christ loves and to love the abandoned and orphaned. I am proud of the group that God has put together to care for the kids. Each person on our team is unique but the one thing they all have in common is that each one of them is great! I love our team and I know that God is going to do amazing things with these young ladies whether it be with us or somewhere else along the road. I am just so thankful that God allowed them to be a part of our lives right now. 

This is a huge responsibility and one that we don’t take lightly. These are Gods greatest assets coming through our door. Please, if you remember us, please pray for love. Please pray God gives us that gift, to Love as Christ. We know that children will come and some will go and already we are afraid of the pain that will bring. We know that in every circumstance it is best for each child to be reunited with their families or placed in a family that can love and care for them in a family setting. Pray that we love whole heartedly without holding anything back and pray that we would not be self seeking in any way. Our desire as a team is to live as Christ while we care and aid for these children.

I am excited to introduce you to little Evan. He is 2 months old and has just arrived to our shelter. He is our first child. Today, September 26 marks the beginning. I have to wonder what the future holds for this ministry and I get so excited dreaming about the possibilities but today I need to focus on God and everything he has done to get us to today. God is so Good and His plan is great.

Pray for little Evan. DIF (social services) dropped him of because his parents are both unable to care for him. I am still waiting for all the details. I don't know how long he will be with us but we are trusting in The Lord and will love him for as long as God allows. I rejoice in his life and its my prayer that he will feel the unending Love that Christ offers. We do not even know him and already we are beginning to attached. Thanks to all our family, friends and supporters for helping us get to this point.

The Social worker from DIF handing Evan over to me. 

 Cole and Mason are excited

 Patty and Melissa welcoming Evan.

 Patty has been the most excited out of all of us. This afternoon when the water pump for the fridge started Patty bolted outside in anticipation thinking it was the car dropping of Even. We will see how excited she is tomorrow morning:) 

 Cole is proud of this little guy too. He is always ready to help out. He makes us all very proud of him.

 And Leah is wondering what is going on. Why is this little dude here? Already she is helping out to bringing him his soother and sticking it in his eye.

I wish I had pictures with Clarissa to but the truth is she is not here. She had plans with her girl friends tonight. DIF was supposed to drop off Evan this morning and he only arrived at 6 this evening. So when she left we were actually thinking he would only come tomorrow. She will have a surprise when she gets home:)

Good night folks. Blessings:)

Brian

We have arrived home

Good Evening

We have arrived in San Carlos and the dust is starting to settle. We arrived last Tuesday, September 17th after a long but good drive down to Mexico. We praise The Lord for a safe trip with few head aches, other then Mr Tom Tom taking us on a few detours. I am convinced that my GPS is messed up but my dear wife seems to believe that the problem could actually be me. I am not sure, at times I do think I am loosing it so maybe this is just another sign of things to come.

Thank you all for praying for us. We truly felt your prayers! Our border cross was a head ache but we made it through. Mexico is a unique country. The harder a person tries to do things legitimately the harder it is to get things done. I told myself that this time I was not going to hide anything. I would claim everything properly. After paying 400.00 in taxes + 100.00 in brokerage and still had to cough up 150.00 to bribe the border guards to let me in. Its so frustrating sometimes but i shouldn't complain. We are here and we are safe.

As we turned off the highway into the town of San Carlos we heard a sigh of relief from the back seat. Mason always has some kind of a remark. As he let out his sigh, he spoke for all of us when he said, "home, sweet home." Is is so good to be back in San Carlos and to catch up with all of our friends. It is good to settle into our own home and begin our normal routine again. We are also really excited with how our team is developing. Melissa, Patty and Kendra are awesome to have here with us and it is so exciting to see relationships develop. I am so proud of the team that God has put together. Next week Agustin and his wife Lupita will start working for us. That is also very exciting.

We ask for your prayers. As we have settled the question has come up among us? When are we going to receive children? My plans were to receive 1 or 2 children before Christmas but once again God seems to be moving at a slightly faster pace than I am. We are in preparation for receiving 2 boys in the next week or so. We are so excited. We know these boys and believe they would fit into our small family run shelter well. So please pray for them that God would prepare them for the transition into our care and that everything would go smooth. DIF still needs to iron out some details before they can come so please pray that it will go according to Gods plan.

A sincere thank you to all of you that are following our story and to all of you that are supporting us in prayer as well as financially. You are all equally as involved in the lives of these children as we are. I pray for all our supporters and I thank the Lord that He has taken such good care of us. Please remember us in your prayers as well. We sure need them. Please pray that God would give us unending love, compassion, grace and mercy to the children that come through our door and also pray that God would continue to provide the finances to take care of the ministry as well as us personally.

Much blessings to all of you. Thank you so much for being such an amazing support group. We love you guys a lot.

Brian

Heading Home

What a whirl wind of a summer. I am exhausted but at the same time I feel so re energized. Tomorrow morning we get in the truck and start our journey back home to San Carlos. Thanks to each and every one of you for your prayers. It has been an amazing experience.

For those of you that are not aware we have exciting news!!!! GOD HAS RESPONDED IN AMAZING WAYS TO THE ACRE CHALLENGE!!! We set out to raise up so money to purchase land in Mexico. The cost to purchase the land is 244 000.00 plus taxes and legal fees. I didm,t know how God was going to respond to this, all I knew is He gave me peace that it would be taken care of. As of yesterday, two days before we arrived, God provided 266 000.00 through the "Acre Challenge."

PRAISE HIM WITH ME!!!!

I am so excited at the journey that God is taking us on. Please don't forget us in your prayers, we need you now more than ever. I know the enemy would like nothing more than to de rail this thing.

We will keep you posted on everything going on once we arrive in Mexico.

Blessings,

Brian

Another BIG Response to the Acre Challenge!

Hello Everyone

The summer has come and gone. It is hard to believe that in one week we will be heading back to Mexico. We are really excited to start our journey home and get to work on this new adventure. Of course leaving Canada has its challenges too. We have had an a great time visiting all our friends and family.

I wanted to let you all know that God has continued to bless the "Acre Challenge." We are currently at 41 of the 44 acres that are required to purchase the land for the orphanage. Praise God!!!! Only 3 more acres to go! I would have never expected we would be in this place 2 months ago when we arrived here. It is a miracle!

I want to say a huge thank you too all of those that have been praying for this ministry and also for those that have decided to help out financially. God has used each one of you to make the purchase of the Land a reality. Please continue to pray that God would bring forward the remaining 3 acres so that we can go home and make the purchase. I also ask that you pray for our personal support as well. We are still short of reaching our goal so pray that God would also provide for that as well:)

Today I had to privilege to speak at the Winkler Grace Church. I am so thankful for the warm welcome and the encouragement that we received there. Once again it is so cool how God is using so many from different Churches to put all the pieces together. What a great opportunity for us to unity together to further Gods Kingdom here on earth:) Please remember me in your prayers as well as I prepare my next presentation for a group of people in Paynesville MN. We are also very excited that we have the opportunity to share Gods plans in an entirely different area.

Well, lots of work to get done, thanks again to all of you that have been supporting us both prayerfully and financially. I pray that God would bless you and your families. I also hope that we will get to see a bunch of you down in Mexico real soon.

Brian