Everyone Needs a Lift Once in a While

One of our young adults lost his job because his car broke down. The church is giving him some funds to get it fixed. We want our members employed! Besides, it was a good testimony to his unchurched mother and sister when we visited him in his home. Some more folks came today as a result of visitation. We are encouraged and are happy to be an encouragement to our people.

What to do with 30 lbs of Ripe Bananas?

We had a lot of bananas ripen at once and had to do something with them all.

Tina made:

Banana cream Pie
Banana Bread
Banana Cake
Bananas with Peanut Butter and Honey on toast
Frozen, Chocolate Covered, Walnut sprinkled Banana popsicles!

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At church we had a few more last Sunday as the result of visitation. We are encouraged to see more come and those who do attend mature in the fruits of the Spirit.

Safe For Now.

I hear the youth group made it safely back home. The work they did down here is important. Maybe more now than ever.

Do you think we have lots of time left for Missions and Evangelism? After reading the news story below, I think maybe not.
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"Would You Volunteer To Be Implanted With A Microchip?

Mark Krieger logs on to his computer using a tiny microchip implanted between his thumb and forefinger. "I just swipe my hand across the reader and it puts my credentials in," Krieger said. It's called radio frequency identification or RFID, the same technology used to pay tolls and make credit card purchases.

The computer programmer voluntarily inserted the device to make life easier. "It's always with me, always in my hands, and I'll never lose it," Krieger said.

A chip, the size of a grain of rice, is implanted beneath the skin and encoded with a unique identifying number scanned, the readable chip allows access to information on everything from products to people.

New Jersey police officer and diabetic Bill Koretsky had a chip embedded in his arm for health reasons. When he crashed during a high-speed chase, doctors accessed his medical history within minutes. "I couldn't answer all their questions fully, but they had all the information there in front of them,"

Koretsky said. Verichip Corporation introduced the first human-implantable microchip and nearly 100 hospitals nationwide now use the technology. But experts warn using RFID to exchange personal and financial data could compromise security. To prevent that, lawmakers need to set standards to keep this latest technology from chipping away at our privacy.

Michelle Franzen, NBC News, New York. KXAN
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Maybe it is time to make reaching our world a higher priority!

Steve Prelgovisk
OverlookedFields.com

Getting it all done.

Psalms 119. 60 I made haste, and delayed not to keep thy commandments.

How do we get it all done on the mission field? Church planting, Bible College, family, keeping supporters informed, summer camps and personal goals like learning the guitar all demand lots of time. Here are some things that help me manage time and all these important things.

1. Schedule a fixed time every day for study: I try to do most of my study between 9:30-11:30 AM. In this time period I study: *The Bible in Spanish. I have my personal devotions and then study a chapter or two in the Spanish bible. *Greek. I select a verse in the Greek New Testament to translate and try to do 1 verse a day. *Sermons and Bible Study: During my study, I have open a document called “Sermon Ideas” and I write in there any inspirations I receive while studying the scripture.

2. Whenever I think of something that needs doing, instead of jumping up to do it, I write it on a list of things to do outside of my study time.

3. I use a PIM or Personal Information Manager. It is FREE and easy to use. You can download it here: http://www.essentialpim.com/ I placed a copy of the icon in the computers start folder, so the PIM opens up when I turn on the computer.

4. “Never touch a piece of paper twice”That means, whenever I pick up a piece of paper it must be acted on, disposed of or properly filed right then. That way I wont have to keep sorting through the same papers over and over again in the future. I also means that I pay my bills ahead of time, as they come in. This also saves from late charges from bills forgotten or letters put aside to mail later and then overlooked.

5. Delegate: In Bible College I assign one student to be my assistant for each class and also have each student give oral reports. This has the students spend some time teaching each other under my guidance. The reports are handed in also. And occasionally, some have served as new ideas for lessons I teach back at the church. I have the church members all do something. One man has the job to open and close the church. Another may get paper supplies and cleaning products. We take turns cleaning the church. I have another man lead singing and a teenager takes the offering. We have a different church member read the Bible passage and I choose someone to read the verses I reference during the service. This way everyone is getting trained and it gives me some added time and energy for other important things.

6. Mine wasted minutes.Those minutes waiting in lines at the store, for doctors, at red lights or even in the bathroom can be put to good use. I have an ancient Palm Pilot that has bibles in 3 languages and a Greek vocabulary program. So while waiting in line, I can do Spanish or Greek bible studies. It also has a nice chess program just for fun. In the car I keep a tonettte, or recorder above the sun visor. When I stop for a light, I take this down and play a song. It helps my music and my attitude. Sometimes I am even sorry the light turn green when I am playing one of my favorites! We keep the Readers Digests and light reading material in the bathroom, like all the material you get in the mail you aren’t sure if you should keep or not. Not exactly an elegant reading area, but a good way to use otherwise lost minutes.

Conclusion: So it all adds up to getting a lot done. But getting a lot done is a lot easier if you can find more time somewhere and have more energy for the task when the time is found. By being orderly, organized and willing to delegate, and by God's good grace, we are getting some important stuff done down here in Puerto Rico.

Work, Worship and a Little Bit of Fun.

Our church people are amazed over how much work these teenagers did in just one week. We didn't keep them at the grindstone every second though! I wanted them to enjoy our island and see the field, so we had a few outings crammed in there between the work and worship times.

I published a little photo album of the trip you can see by clicking here:

http://www.kodakgallery.com/Slideshow.jsp?mode=fromshare&Uc=j89cq5l.3oi3cfhd&Uy=-pxuz7b&Ux=0

We hope they come back!

They Worked

The Southside Baptist Youth Group really worked hard. They painted, repaired, cleaned, sanded, rewired and re-did tons of stuff around the church.

Food Adventure. Car Adventure.

We treated our visiting group to a traditional Puerto Rican dinner yesterday. Tina and I took them to a church members house who lives out further in the country and has a nice collection of fruit trees, chickens and a lot of good stories to tell. We had TOSTONES. Tostones are thick slices of the green plantain, a giant straight kind of banana used in a lot of local dishes. It is fried, flattened, fried again and finally served hot and salted. It is the Puerto Rican version of French fries and eaten everywhere.

Unfortunately, our car transmission went out on the way over and we had to get the car towed home. Today we went and got another used car, a 2002 Honda Odyssey mini-van. We are having a lot of fun with the group and are grateful for all the work they are getting done at the church. But the car payments, about $250 a month on a Fifteen thousand dollar loan, are a new burden for us. We give thanks for the positive attitude of the group and their leadership. Please pray with us that we may have the faithful transportation we need to accomplish the work we came here to do.

They have arrived!

The Southside Baptist Youth Group (Alias "Enoch Walking Group") has come to help. It was a long trip, but they made it. For the next week we will have the 12 of them and the 4 of us working together to improve the church building and missionary work here in Puerto Rico.

Time Saving Idea for Busy Christian Servants

I downloaded the Beta version of Internet Explorer 7 a few weeks ago and have found one feature of great use for getting the day off to a great start. It is a tabbed browsing feature that allows you to select multiple web sites as your HOMEPAGE and displays them all in order with their tabs visible just under the toolbar.

Now when I connect to the Internet these pages all open up at the same time:

1. Our Daily Bread (http://www.rbc.org/odb/odb.shtml)
2. Bible Gateway (http://www.biblegateway.com/)
3. Word of Truth Radio (http://www.wordoftruthradio.com/main.html)
4. My E-Mail site
5. CBS News (http://www.cbsnews.com/)

So now, only a minute after connecting, I am ready for my daily devotions, bible reading, listening to great instrumental Christian music, corresponding with my friends and finding out what is going on in the world. All this without any typing or browsing. I am finding that this speedier sanctified daily start is great conditioning for a more spiritual mind and heart.

Getting mad in a nice way

I like listening to the radio when working around the house. One show that I like is a news trivia show on National Public Radio called, "Wait, wait, don't tell me" But a while ago I heard a segment where the comedian MC made some jokes about God being cruel, then later blasted just one political party and followed up with ridiculing Evangelical Christians. Instead of just turning off the program, I wrote this letter:

Dear Wait Wait,

I have really enjoyed your show, but was saddened when I heard your most recent segment which included a joke about God, slams against Christians and a number of jokes, almost exclusively against just one political party. I can take it when both political parties are mocked, or if atheists get the same treatment you give Christians!

If you want to bite the hand that funds you, fine. But come one, making fun of God? That is just over the line for me. I regretfully will no longer be a listener to your otherwise fine program.

Feeling Bad for Losing a Good Thing,

Steve Prelgovisk

I was tempted to take an angry tone when I wrote them. Then I thought, "If I sound like I am a disappointed fan, it may be a more effective protest than if I just get hostile." I am glad now that I made my point in a more gentle way, because they wrote me a very nice personal letter and instead of getting defensive, they were apologetic.

Getting mad in a nice way, I made my point and maybe made a difference.

New Web Site

I am building a new web page. I liked the blog so much that I didn't think I needed a web page anymore. But first time visitors to a blog sometimes have the feeling they have entered into the middle of a conversation in progress. I felt the need of a Web page as a starting place and an orientation zone. Please visit and make comments.