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.