Hand Dipped Ice Cream

Last Saturday we picked up from the port of Fort Lauderdale Jim and Charlotte Mabery. We asked them if they wanted to have something to eat and Jim said he wanted hand dipped ice cream. I did not know what that was, but when he told me we went looking for a place that had it at 10 in the morning. Thank God we found it and Jim had what he wished for. I think our Lord gave him the desires of his heart. We were listening carefully as they told us all about their experience in the cruise, and then as he often did Jim told us a poem. It was about a magnificent sailboat that a crowd was watching as it sailed until it got lost in the horizon. Some were sad because they could not see it anymore, but others were happy thinking that one day they would see it again. He told us that we as christians should not be sad when one departs, because we know we will see each other again someday.

I wish we could say that we were not sad when we heard the news about Jim. Just the morning before he had called us to tell us that there were two baptisms in the spanish group. He encouraged us to keep the good work and keep preaching the gospel of good news. He was actively being a christian until he was called up by Christ. We are grateful to our Lord that we had the priviledge of getting to know a true soldier for the cause of Christ. And we know he got his hand dipped ice cream like he very much desired it, but more than that we know the Lord gave him his biggest wish to see Him face to face. To be with him forever in eternity.

See you later Jim Mabery. A true example to follow the way he followed Christ.

We pray for all his family to be like that crowd that was happy watching as the sailboat disapeared in the horizon, knowing that on the other side is much prettier and that one day they too will see him again.

We love you very much.

Carlos and Maribel Preciado
Proverbs 17:17

Nacimiento de Jesus

Estamos impresionados del fenomeno que ocurre en estas fechas aqui en el Sur de la Florida. Muchas personas llenan los Centros Comerciales, buscando ofertas, comprando y comprando...pero, y... Jesus? No se trata de El esta celebracion? Bueno, no se, pero la gente no tiene tiempo de estudiar la Biblia... pues esta "ocupada". Amigos y hermanos aprovechemos este tiempo que la publicidad habla de Jesus, y hablemos de Jesus, compartamos de El. En un mundo lleno de prisas...detengamonos a reflexionar sobre aquel que NACIO para MORIR en una cruz por nosotros. Tambien moriremos... y adonde iremos..."separados de mi, nada podeis hacer" dice Cristo.
Bendiciones
Carlos y Maribel Preciado

Upgrades

This last few days we have seen all we can take in apartments. As is one sign says. Completely remodeled with all the upgrades says another one. It got us thinking about our lives. The Lord takes us as is, or rather as we are. But He wants us to be like Christ with all the upgrades.

We have been very fortunate to look at lives becoming from as is to the potential they have in Christ. This week we started Sunday with the baptism of a 19 year old from Honduras. Enoc is his name and he had been studying with Wilfredo one of the spanish members at Griffin road. We met him the first weekend we were here and studied with him just a couple of times. His heart was ready to be remodeled and changed by the Love of Christ.

Tonight another soul was rescued by God from this world. Consuelo a native of Guatemala in her 50's accepted the Lord as her Savior and was baptized. Brother Alan MaCafee had been studying with her and we studied with her also. After the study tonight she told Maribel and I "I want to be baptized".

Praise God for the as is sign. We will buy an apartment this Saturday Lord willing as is, but we already saw the potential of what it can become. Just as the Lord takes us as is, and sees the potential of what we can become in Him with all of the upgrades.

Friends And Family Visit South Florida

We are so greatful for the encouragement we recieved from Dave and Karen while they were here. We felt very loved and apreciated their visit even though it was for a few hours. It meant a lot to us that they drove almos a days work to see us.

Also last Saturday we picked up at the airport Jim and Charlotte Maybery whom we went to eat lunch with before their departure to the Caribbean. We enjoyed our visit and were encouraged by them also.

The Lord blesses us with relationships that we may feel loved by him through them. Thank all of you who take the time to call and write and pray for us. It makes us feel that we are still there with you.

We love you very much.

Carlos and Maribel Preciado
Provervs 18:24

When The Trees Fall The Lord Picks Them Up

We have had some time now to adjust. We are still looking for a house, but like one of the elders said to us we shall wait on the Lord. Honestly, sometimes we get side tracked when we start consentrating only on the physical. And even though we still do not know where we will live, we already have an idea where the next church plant will be Lord willing.
We celebrated our 8th aniversary going for a stroll by the sea at Bay side mall in Miami. We had fun looking back to how the Lord has always helped us up when we were down. Today we had breakfast with a couple from Cuba that encouraged us very much. We went over to their old house that they had just sold to help them lift up a tree that had fallen down with the hurricane. That's when we realized that the Lord always helps us when we fall. He sends people, sons and daughters, friends that help us to get up. That tree was standing up when we left, but it is held up by a pbc tube until it can get rooted again. We will always have Christ holding us until he calls us to him.
We are greatfull to our Lord for the falls we've had while we've been married and how we can clearly see how He and only He got us back up to continue standing.

Open Hearts

This week was a blessed week. We began two Bible studies with two different couples. Roque and Guillermina are new christians and Roque's sister is not yet. We are studying with them on Wednesdays nights just before the service. Also Luis and Rocio who have been attending for about five months, but are not yet christians. We study with them every Friday from 6 to 8 p.m.. Next time they will have their neighbor Ana in the study. We pray that the word of the Lord brings forth fruit soon.

We also met many people this last week. Patricia is a hair dresser from Colombia. She moved to Florida last year after living in New York City for 24 years. She says she likes it here but could live without the Hurricanes. She wants to come to Church and is open to study the word in the near future.

A very good friend Pablo Escuza came this last Sunday to Church. He lives about 45 minutes away. He is a devoted Catholic. We pray we can continue looking at the word with him. We feel very happy that he attended the service.

Last Saturday we had a lunch to thank some of the brothers and sisters who supported us this year. The whole team was ther to help us serve and it was a great time of fellowship. We thank God for the hearts of service that these brothers and sisters have.

We wish evryone a happy thanksgiving! and May the Lord keep showing you His Love.

"Arboles Caidos"

Queria compartir algo impresionante de la llegada a la Florida, toda la ciudad de Broward y Miami, estaba llena de arboles caidos, por las calles se veian solo destrozos...los arboles mas fuertes arrancados de raiz! Increible! Para decir la verdad, nuestra llegada, con ese ESCENARIO no fue muy alentadora, senti un poco de tristeza y pense: "no se si este sea el mejor momento para haber llegado". Ese mismo Domingo el hermano Allan Mc Afee predico acerca de Ezequiel, y la vision de los HUESOS que al escuchar la palabra de Dios, se volvieron cuerpos... y pense que Dios nos estaba dando una leccion; en medio de esos "arboles caidos" esta la esperanza, la gente esta buscando respuestas, y aunque la ciudad no se vea BONITA, la belleza esta alli, esta ciudad con la palabra de Dios puede renacer y lucir mejor, es la palabra la que transforma las vidas, las apariencias cambian... Dios es quien actua, nosotros somos los instrumentos. Seguimos orando por corazones dispuestos, y cada dia conocemos a alguien que quiere saber del amor de Dios! GLoria a El, por que de EL, por El y para El son todas las cosas!! Bendiciones, Carlos y Maribel Preciado

We Were Blind, But Now We See

This first week has been full of emotions. There is no doubt that we are back to reality. For the past ten months we were secluded in Abilene, and Hot Springs Village were the fear of the Lord is present in many hearts. Now that we are back we notice even more the need to reach out to the community in South Broward.

This week we met Ana, a Cuban Mother of two that arrived to the U.S. a month ago. We also met a Peruvian ladie in a supermarket that came here for a better life, and soon found out that what that means is to work 70 hours a week in orther to make payments. We met Carlos a Cuban that works at UPS while we were lost or so we thought. We were turning at a light and here we see a man pushing his beat up car from one light across to a gas station. He ran out of gas and being late friday was without money and nowhere to cash his check.

We ran into an old friend in Taco Bell and invited him to Sunday Service to which he accepted gladly to much of my surprise. Ruben is his name and he is Dominican. I wrote an e-mail to a friend from Ecuador this week telling him of my return and inviting him to come next Sunday to hear me preach. Pablo is his name a devoted catholic that accepted the invitation. We met an American teenager Ryan, he is a junior in High scholl and invited him to a youth devotional Tuesday and he accepted to go.

We can see the people ready for good news. Ready for a change. Searching for something to filled them up. And the only one that can do that is Christ our Savior. There is a 19 year old young man from Honduras visiting the Church. His name is Enoc. He has been coming for three months and today talking to him after the sermon said that he was thinking about getting baptized.

Praise the Lord for this week. We had a spiritual retreat with the core group Allan an Margarett McAfee, Joe and Eileen Garcia, Andy and Belinda Garcia, Dave and Mirti Murray and us. It was a time of prayer, singing and planning for next year. We came closer to each other and enjoyed the time with our Lord.

We are still waiting for the aproval from the mortgage broker. But we know that our Lord will take care of that and He will put us where He wants us to be.

Next week we are visiting with some of the visitors and new converts and we hope to begin some Bible studies.

We love our Lord. We love what He is letting us see. The fields are white and He is sharing like always His love, Mercy, Grace and Joy with His children.

We miss our brothers and sisters from Texas and Arkansas.

We love our family. We love the Lord.

Carlos and Maribel Preciado

The Trip Back

We finally made it to Broward county Saturday night. We first stopped for the night at one of our best friends place Leoncio and Amy Dominguez in Brentwood TN. The next day we drove to Johnson City, TN. where my alma matter is E.T.S.U.. We left to continue our trip and stopped for the night at Clemson. Maribel's aunt is a Spanish teacher there. We traveled to Tampa the next day, where we spent the night with Maribel's relatives and the next day we stopped briefly to have lunch with some brothers in Christ from Naples.

That night we arrived at Joe and Eileen Garcia, where they and the MacAfee's, the Murray's and the Garcias' too, had a welcoming pizza party for us. We prayed together and agreed to meet the 12th for a spiritual retreat at Andy and Belinda Garcia's house. We will plan the calendar for the year and have some bonding time.

Sunday was our first worship service at Griffin road. We had 44 in attendance, and 29 for Sunday school. We praise God and brother MacAfee had a welcoming prayer for us. That evening the church got together at Andy and Belinda's house where they hosted a welcoming party for us. We sang songs and prayed thanking our God for the blessing of being here to start working together with this group of brothers and sisters that love the Lord.

We were also blessed with the news of another baptism from one friend that we invited to Church and had been attending for this whole year at Hialeah.

Praise God for what He is doing here in South Florida.

We love the Lord and we love His Church and the ones to come;

Carlos and Maribell

Please pray for us as we search for a place to live permanently.

Despertar y Despedida

Esta mañana fue nuestro ultimo amanecer en Hot Springs, me desperte temprano, y observe el lago tan precioso que Dios nos ha permitido disfrutar en estos dos meses aqui en "La Montaña". Cada día Dios nos dibuja un paisaje diferente, solo por que nos ama. Estamos tan agradecidos de como nos ha traido todo este año. Del mar(Florida) al desierto (Abilene), del desierto a la Montaña (Arkansas) y ahora vamos de regreso. Quisimos mirar y mirar el paisaje para guardarlo en nuestros corazones y en los momentos que nos sintamos sin aliento, recordar esos colores, ese dibujo de Dios y sonreir... El paisaje cambia pero el amor de Dios no, ese es para siempre... I Pedro 1:24-25 24 "Porque: Toda carne es como hierba, Y toda la gloria del hombre como flor de la hierba. La hierba se seca, y la flor se cae; Mas la palabra del Señor permanece para siempre."

Dejamos la VILLA, y vamos hacia la GRAN CIUDAD. Esperamos encontrar los corazones en los que Dios ha estado trabajando para compartir su amor!

Bendiciones

Carlos y Maribel Preciado

Precious Time

It was a great time Sunday night at our home. Jimmy Mitchel and about 35 members of the youthgroup came over for a devotional time, celebration of b-days and goodbye's. We are greatfull that our Lord let us have this time at the Village. It reminds us that our time on this earth is short, and we must utilize it to the max. This is not our permanent home.

We had a great visit from our kids Manuel and Alvaro whom helped us with the newly started spanish service. Manuel lead singing and Alvaro prayed. They too enjoyed their short but active time at the Village. Thank you to all that recieved them and showed them around with so much love.

We will miss everybody at the Village.

A Beautiful Stay

With mixed feelings we say goodbye to our family in Christ at the Village Church Of Christ. They are a true example of unity and love in Christ, and we have been blessed to have spent two months with them.
Our good Lord has tought us many things in our time in the Village. The first being that we needed to know someone in the Village to be able to get in there, just as we need to know Christ to get into heaven.
This time we spent here we have seen many changes around the area. The trees have changed from green to various colors such as red, orange, lime, yellow. And we are like those trees in our christian walk. We need to change and be different from the world. In the mornings at the condo where we were staying there is a lake that is covered with fog. But half would be clear and reflect all God's creation. We thought how we as christians should reflect Christ's face as well.
One day I had an opportunity to work with a brother and a friend laying stone in a garden. After five or six hours I was ready to quit, thirsty, tired, and I looked over and saw our car. This car had been given to us this year as a gift and I looked at the sky and said Lord thank you I owe you, a few minutes later I had to take out form the ground three four by four slabs. I used a pick and I had to bring them down hill. As I was carrying them down I looked up at the sky again and I said, "Lord I'm sorry I don't owe you for my car I owe you for my life, for you carried your own cross and you did it for me."
And there are lots of many other things that our Lord tought us during our time in the village. Do not turn off your light, because you need light to see. The light of Jesus will guide you as He did us during our time at this paradise the Village.
We love you Village Church of Christ. We will miss you and the new hispanic work that the Lord has blessed us with. We will pray for you as we know you will for us.
Your servants and the servants of the Lord, Carlos and Maribel Preciado
Mathew 25:34-36