All our churches praise the Lord for His care and protection of us during this active hurricane season. 

From One Side of Our Church to the Other! 

We are grateful the hurricane missed us and we did not have to cancel our Church services Sunday! 

Even Missionaries have Picnics! 

My wife Tina having fun showing our mission field to a new friend. 

Caribbean Surprise!

We hoped to show Leann the Caribbean Sea before she returned to Bible College but it is a long drive, so we were not sure we could make it happen. But we found a way! I teach a New Testament Greek night school class Monday nights in a church on the Caribbean coast. The pastor invited our family to make use of a missionary apartment in his Christian school whenever I was teaching. We did! Monday, Tina, Leann and the twins dropped me off at my Greek class early and went exploring. The next day we all went for a drive along the coast, had a picnic and enjoyed the marvels of God's creation. It is nice to have a break! We hope Leann and some of you will come to love and enjoy the mission field of Puerto Rico.

Last Sunday (sniff, sniff) for Leann :(

Would you take in an unknown college student to live in your house for three months? Well, we did and we would do it again (for Leann, anyway!). We will miss her smiles, her musical talents, her help around the house and church, and her filling in as a big sister for our twins, Sarah and Kristin. We hope she comes back! Thanks Leann, and May God Bless You and Yours!

They're Back!

Tulio (playing piano) came back and brought his sister to help us! He preaches, leads music and aids us in door to door visitation Saturdays. Tulio spent the summer visiting family and helping a church in San Mateo, California. His sister (far left), Dajhana, is a sweet girl who is studying Christian Ed. at our Puerto Rico Baptist College. Irving (guy on left), from Barcelona, Spain, is studying to be a youth counselor. He is teaching the High School and College age Sunday School class and helps out in our Youth Group Friday nights. They are all very bright, talented and great young people. We are happy to have them help us in the work of church planting up here in the mountains of Puerto Rico. My wife, Tina, (center) and Leann (far right) and the rest all sang a great special Sunday morning.

Four College Kids, Two kids, us and NO WASHING MACHINE!

The transmission went out on our washing machine this week. Tina ran up and down the hill to the neighbors house trying to get the clothes and bedding washed before I brought our college helpers home Friday afternoon. Saturday, we went shopping and came across a Whirlpool washer at a good price and tried to buy it. But the person in the store didn't know how to sell it, as she was just filling in while the owner was away. Well, she called the owner, and the owner said "Give it to them today and the Pastor can come by Monday and pay us then!" Amen! They came and delivered it to our house, set it up AND took away our old machine. It will cost us $349 (ouch), but it is nice to have the local merchants trust us and give us such great service. Having a good testimony pays off in many unexpected ways! 

Full House, Happy House!

We usually have two students from the college (Tulio from Peru and Irving from Barcelona, Spain) stay in our home weekends and help around the church. They both came back and are with us again, but Tulio's sister Dajhana enrolled this year at our Bible college and is now helping also in the church. Our Summer intern, Leann DeWeese, is still here, so we have four college students passing the weekend with us! It is a crowd, but a happy crowd! It is a lot of fun to have quality young people in our home and our church!

Forgotten Seed bears Fruit!

The student in the center top of the photo is Eric. Eric wrote me an e-mail about two years ago when he was an Iowa high school student to find out what it was like to be a missionary. We corresponded for a while and I encouraged him to consider preparing himself for missionary service at Puerto Rico Baptist College. I didn't hear from him for a year after that. To be frank, I had forgotten about our e-mail conversations until something happened to remind me. Eric came and enrolled in our Bible College! Thank God for email, but a lot more for teens who chose to prepare for the mission field!

One of my Students...a Bible College Professor!

We have trained pastors and missionaries who left us to go and start works, but this is one of our first college students that became a college professor. Even better, he came back to help us! Amen!

Leo graduated last year and spent the summer doing missionary work among the tribal people of the Peruvian jungles. I believe his mission team baptized about 14 tribal members in a jungle river. Well, Leo came back to Puerto Rico and has agreed to teach at our Bible College!

Leo and I have worked together in the computer lab and he has also been a great help as my assistant in our Historical books class and in many other ways. He is a native of San Salvador, but his parents moved to California when he was young and started a computer repair business there. He is a great guy, speaks English fluently, fixes computers but most of all, has a heart for the Lord's work.

New Students!

We had about 125 people come to our college commencement service and really packed out our cafeteria. Here are most of our students, smiling big because I am standing on a piano stool and telling them to say "Cheese Whiz," which makes them smile big if said with a thick Spanish accent. They are a great group and we are hoping to see God work greatly in them and through them in the years to come.

And of course, Refreshments!

This is the favorite part for some! My wife Tina and Leann, our summer intern, came and enjoyed the sermon and the time of fellowship at our commencement. 

Unlikely Blessing

This mini-market is right in front of our church and, though not attractive, comes in handy for getting emergency items during the week. Whenever someone new comes to work with me, I use it as an excuse to witness to the owner. I take them to his store and say "This is my new helper. If you see him entering the church, it's OK, he is not robbing the church, so don't call the police. We have to keep an eye out for each other you know. By the way, you are invited! Come and visit us Sunday!" He smiles and says "Thanks! It's good to know what's going on, because, well, you never know!"

Well, so far he has not come, but we must have made some impact on him. His wife walked one of their kids to our church for a week to attend our Vacation Bible School! Please pray that we may have a good testimony with this store owner and his family.

Happy Birthday! We celebrated Leann's 20th birthday today, combined with another members (Miguel Fontanes) in an after church BBQ at our house.  

Bargain Blessing. We bought a piano for the church at a good price. A friend of mine is a missionary to the military and is leaving Puerto Rico to serve in Japan. He sold us a piano they paid $1700 for a few years ago for the price of $500. We are happy to help them out a bit and also happy to finally have a real piano in the church. Here is Leann showing off what it can do! 

New Kids!

We are visiting in the homes of these children who came to our Vacation Bible School. We invite you to pray with us for them and their families, that they may know Jesus Christ as their Savior and Lord. We want to see them all in church too!

Pied Piper..umm..Guitarist?

"Pastor Steve! Where are you going with that guitar? Can I come?" asked fifth grader Jorge.

He was in a basketball uniform and was playing in the park as I walked to church carrying my guitar and hymnbook. He came to our VBS the week before and had been an outstanding young person in all the activities of that week.

"Ask your mother, but sure, come along!" I answered

Jorge popped into our Wednesday night bible study and prayer time, listened well and even prayed with us! He came because of good VBS memories and wanting to maybe learn the guitar. But whatever the reason, we were happy to have a fifth grader pray with us during our Wednesday night worship time.

I started giving free music lessons Wednesday night before prayer meeting. I give them to anybody who will promise to use their talents in the church within six months of the start date. So far I am teaching two men, one about 24 and the other in his early 30's. Jorge will make three if he joins our group. I teach on Wednesday to encourage them to stay for prayer meeting. So far it's working!

VBS: "Faith comes by hearing..."

Bible lessons, memory verses, missionary stories, object lessons and gospel puppet plays made last week a great week for our towns children to hear and respond to good news of the gospel!

VBS: Food!

Mmmmm......Cup Cakes!

VBS: Fruit!

I preached, Paula, a missionary helper, taught, Tina, Leann, the Twins and church members worked hard all week long. But the fruit of decision's made for eternity made it labor and time well spent.

Vacation Bible School Underway!

Lots of practice, rehearsals, crafts, Bible memory, object lessons, bible stories, cookies, Kool-Aid and hard work, but well worth it! Thanks to some good helpers like Leann DeWeese, Tina, Sarah and Kristin,

we are having a great VBS!

Happy to Have Help

The gas shortage and truckers strike left us without some helpers, but we drafted a grandma and got a few people onboard who didn't know they were going to be in a VBS until today! Surprise! It turned out to be a good surprise for us, to have such good helpers on such short notice!