Phoebe

http://www.wfaa.com/news/health/Great-Granddaughter-of-Zig-Zigler-fights-brain-canceer-140778233.html

http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/phoebefair/journal

Please join us in praying for this beautiful little girl. The first link I included is a news story done about Phoebe and the second link is the journal her family updates daily regarding her health and the road that the entire family is traveling right now.

 This young family lived on the farm in Waco where Becky lived. We met them when we all went down there for tent meetings. They have been a missionary family to Mexico. We are praying for God to heal this sweet little girl. Jesus is the same yesterday, today and forever!! Please pray for the family who needs His grace every minute to carry them through. They are trusting in Jesus to heal & trusting Him for strength & grace to stand. They need to be able to get back out on the mission field, healed & restored.  I find myself crying so often when I read the journal updates because I can't imagine what they are going through but I know Jesus is able!!! 

 Becky had commented that we should maybe stop & pray for Phoebe on our way to move down here to Texas and in my heart I wanted to do that. I didn't say anything to Tom about it and neither did Becky. When we were in Arkansas, Tom told me that Phoebe had been on his heart very strong that morning & the Lord told him to stop & pray for her! Oh, He is so good! So, we stopped at the Dallas Children's Hospital & saw her & prayed for her. We could not touch her because she is in her chemo treatment and has no immune system right now. The picture above is one I took of her with my phone while we were there. She was sleeping when we got there but woke up as we were praying. As you can see, she is very groggy but she has the cutest belly giggle!!  
             
I just wanted to share that because the Fair family has been on my heart so much and I know Becky is crying out for her healing also and is heartbroken over the whole thing. Please pray!


Well, on the Texas front...we are anticipating our 2nd kids church meeting this afternoon at 5. I expect to see more kids today. A couple of boys from down the street finally made their way over yesterday & they are coming. I have a feeling our place will be loaded with kids daily in the future! Funny thing is, so far it's been boys...big switch for Noah who has been surrounded by girls for so long!! 

We heard from a couple who were here Sunday for our service and they were so excited. The husband is unable to attend church most of the time due to work. He played the keyboard & sang for us in worship and the Holy Spirit touched both of them and they said that they were filled again & refreshed & headed out to minister that afternoon. 

Tom has been preaching about the work of the Holy Spirit in our daily life and keeping our faith exclusively in Jesus Christ & Him crucified, which allows the Holy Spirit to work. Sunday, the Spirit of God was touching many after this message. They were weeping as the grace of God washed over them! 

We love you all & are so grateful for your prayers!

 

This is the Calera Chapel which sits about 5 miles outside of Balmorhea. It was originally built sometime in the late 1800s I believe and was an adobe structure. It has been plastered over in efforts to preserve and restore it. It is open all of the time to the public. It is so neat and I think it's the most beautiful chapel I've ever seen! I've been strongly encouraging my girls to have their weddings in it! It won't hold many people but how neat it would be! The view of the mountains around it definitely helps!

Well, we've been here 2 weeks now! We have pretty much settled into the house. In case you didn't know, we are living in the house that is a 5 step or 20 ft. walk from the house, depending on which door you go out. It is a one bedroom and the kids have taken that over. It is cozy in here but at least we have a decent place to live! We spend a good amount of time in the church now. It's a good place to be when the house gets a little tight! We made an office space and the church has a laptop and has just purchased a printer/copier.  Our brothers & sisters here at Believers in Christ have been amazing! We have felt so welcome and they have  made sure we have whatever we might need for the church. We started putting together pages in English & Spanish for the worship music because the brother who had been coming down from Pecos to do the worship was going to be leaving to evangelize...well...funny thing is, he & his wife have been here every Sunday and today he brought a friend of his who played the keyboard (normally we only have guitars). Oh, we had a great time in the Lord today! We had the windows & door open. I saw people driving by & stopping to listen. They sang me & Tom a song for our anniversary(27th). Today was a good day! More worship after the preaching and the Holy Spirit ministered to people.  There is excitement in the air in this church again! 

We met a lady, in her 50s I suppose, who lives on the next block. She suffered a stroke and is physically disabled and cannot speak words.  She goes to the Catholic church when someone picks her up. We invited her and she hobbled down the street for prayer/Bible study Thursday night and came to the meeting this morning. How awesome! She is very open to being prayed for. Oh, how we'd love to see God heal her! One of the ladies testified on Thursday night that she's gotten back in the Word again and 'havin' coffee with Jesus' in the mornings now. She's excited! The Lord is giving her better understanding of scripture, particularly ones shared on Sunday mornings.

We are getting to know a family who live about a mile out of town who have a ranch. A man lives there with his mother and has a plumbing business and they own property outside & in town. They have a double wide trailer, just outside of town & just a short walk from us, that they would like us to rent. He is re-doing the bathrooms & other things so it's not ready yet. We checked it out & it needs a good cleaning but it's a good size for us. Tom is going to be working for them for awhile doing cleanup on their properties so that will bring in some income. We also met 2 teachers from the school here in Balmorhea while out at the ranch.  I was told to go apply to sub. It's so much different here in Texas than Illinois. Way more laid back & not heavily regulated. You don't need a degree so...I will check that out & Tom's interested in doing that too. It will be a good way to get to know all the kids & get them into youth group & minister to them.  We have to be careful to not get too busy with working outside of the church. We have to remember why the Lord sent us down here & always be available to Him first & foremost. He has promised to provide! And he has in a few different ways just since we've arrived. We keep getting cucumbers & tomatoes from a neighbor, grown locally at the hydroponics place at Ft. Davis. We have a fresh egg supplier also!  Before we arrived here, Tom had received a call from Kat, the evangelist who has been leading worship. Kat said that the Lord told him to buy Tom a new pair of boots. Tom had, just days before that, been thinking that he needed a new pair because his were damaged in the toe part! Kat told a friend of his about it and that friend  insisted on buying them for Tom, who he doesn't even know! THEN when Kat shared the testimony at church, another brother stated that the Lord told him to buy Tom a pair of boots also. Well, we figured since Tom had just gotten the first pair that it was over...No...that man picked Tom up & took  him to Pecos & bought him another new pair of boots...very nice ones! Wow! 

The Lord is great & worthy to be praised!!

Love to you all!!

How we got here

It all began a couple of years ago on a Saturday morning drive...Well, it really all began 10 years ago when two people had decided to give up on their marriage and faced hurting, not only each other more, but four children also...two still in diapers. That couple was us. We had a mess. Drugs & alcohol had finally won. At least that's what it seemed. Then we somehow found the courage to walk into a small, newly established church called Living Hope. That's where Tom heard about God's incredible, forgiving love for him...and I finally surrendered to Jesus after knowing the truth for several years but letting my pride & stubbornness keep me bound. The Bible is true. 2 Cor. 5:17 says "If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation...old things have passed away, all things become NEW"!! Life has not been the same since! We have not looked back...only to tell of what great things God has done for us! These last ten years have been amazing! It has not all been easy...there has been great cost along the way for trying to live for Christ. The growing process has hurt at times...but He is faithful and His grace is sufficient! He is worth it! I believe the Lord will have us share some of that growing process with you throughout this blogging process. We don't mind sharing our failures and shortcomings because that just gives us opportunity to glorify Him! There is a small scripture in the beginning of 1 Corinthians that is pretty easily passed over but grabbed my attention one day. 1 Cor. 1:6  says "even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you..." I got out my Greek word study book and  when I got done studying those words, here's what I came up with...'You are proof of the Grace of God'!! Wow! The testimony of Christ, ultimately His death, burial & resurrection, is confirmed in us when we place our faith in Him and what He did for us on the Cross! I am living, breathing, walking, talking proof of God's grace which was poured out for me on the Cross...because the old Robin is dead & buried and the new Robin is alive to God in Christ Jesus! And I am sitting here at a desk in a little church in the West Texas desert because of that fact! 

Ok, so back to how we got here...a couple of years ago the Lord began to test our obedience in small ways, all the while doing a work in our hearts to prepare us for the big step. He spoke to Tom, while he was hauling corn from Watseka to Lafayette, Indiana and told him to go to a little town called Oxford. I was going through some medical issues at the time so we didn't go right away but a  few months later we finally went for a drive to that town, not knowing what we were doing.  Long story short, we met a lady and her 2 children at a church and developed a relationship with them. A beautiful family! She had a large tent that she was interested in selling. Her &  her husband used to hold tent revival meetings throughout the South. Living Hope bought the tent & then a trailer to haul it in. Incidently, our church set up that tent next to her church in Oxford this last summer and held a meeting. Shortly after buying the tent, a group of us from Living Hope loaded up in 2 vehicles & pulled that trailer down to Mexico & set it up in a little village. We held a couple of meetings under it there. This was our first mission trip together as a family as we all went. Tom & I were learning through all of this to keep our hearts open to whatever the Lord might want to do in whatever situation, no matter what it looked like to us initially. We also met Pepe and his beautiful wife, Maria on that trip! A mariachi singer who now sings for Jesus. Fast forward a few months which brings us to 2011. This last year has been a full one! The tent was set up for meetings in a few different locations in the Watseka area. Meetings out at Watchekee trailer park will always be special to me  because I have met some people who are very dear to me! I thank God for the many people He has brought into my life & my heart. Through these new friends I was beginning to sense a special work in my heart being done. My heart was changing almost without me even realizing it! Only the Holy Spirit can do that! Pepe, who lives in Texas, came up & we held meetings in the park in Onarga. Tom also flew out & ministered with Pepe in Texas & Mexico. It was during Pepe's stay with us last summer that we learned about a small church in Texas who had no pastor and were looking for someone to come & lead them. It stirred our hearts. We looked at ourselves and said "How in the world would WE be able to do that?". A group of us loaded up that tent again & held meetings in Waco, Tx this past fall also. That's where the Lord really began to speak to us about His provision for us as we step out by faith.  Tom went to India again and his faith was built so much by seeing God work miracles in the people. Jesus is the same yesterday, today & forever!
We knew we had a decision to make upon his return from India. We either settle back into life & work or we decide to trust Him and answer His call. So, with the bank account pretty much empty but an excitement in our hearts to serve Him...here we are!  There was such a work in our hearts & lives throughout all of this that I can't share it all now. I will share it at some point because it will hopefully encourage and/or challenge someone to surrender to the work of the Holy Spirit in their own heart...for what purpose you might ask? To fulfill the great commission...Jesus did not go to the Cross so that we could live for ourselves...go to church once, or maybe twice a week because it's just what we do...get fat on the Word and wait on blessings...does that sound harsh? It might, but when the Cross did it's work in us and the Gospel came alive in our hearts, we were done with living for ourselves...living to please the world. This is an ongoing process. There are so many believers who are serving the Lord in conditions that I can't even imagine.  I know that He will require even more of us than we have already given up through our clenched fists. But He is worthy!! He is good!! He is not willing that anyone should perish, but that all should come to repentance (2 Peter 3:9). That's why we're here... 
We are stepping out by faith and trusting Him as best we can. We are leading a small church called the Believers in Christ Church. We have since learned that there are 3 churches in this small town and no pastor living here! Only one of the churches has a pastor who travels 40 miles on Sundays but is not available for the people the rest of the time. There is a need for a preacher of the Gospel here!! It will take time for us to establish a relationship with the people of the town. We have been told that most people have quit going to church here. Lack of a pastor or preacher of the Word has been blamed. We have been warmly welcomed by everyone we've met so far. We are settling in and love it here. 
We have been very BLESSED to have a family in Living Hope Church who have lovingly supported us and who pray for us daily. We cannot thank you all enough!!  You are a big part of our being here! 
And thanks to the internet, you can join us on our adventure!