KEVIN ELWORTH LIVE

This was an awesome week for us- to be honest I think it was one of the best weeks of my life! I felt used, purposeful, diligent, and prepared and in hope next week is just as good.

So here’s what we accomplished this week

Prepared and preached my first sermon in Spanish

Spent some time with my friend Renato talking about the Bible, it’s validity, and some other things about Christianity

Hung out at the orphanage on Wednesday, getting to know some other excellent missionaries who have a true heart and passion for reaching Mexicans

Thursday we spent doing research for upcoming groups we hope to have come down.

Friday we went to Aguascalientes and checked out a fabulous hospital, the one we were looking for.

And Today, we rested, hung out together, took a walk, and just relaxed- almost like it was meant to be that way!

Thank God for great days

I had a friend here helping me translate my first sermon this week. He owns and runs a cyber cafe and I usually visit him once a week or so to chat and practice my Spanish a bit. So Tuesday night I went over there and he helped me fix my mistakes and when we were done I asked him how much I could pay him, but he refused to take any money from me. I was going to return the next morning to go over the last part I had yet to write, so knowing of my love addiction to coffee, he asked me to bring him a cup. I stopped by Starbucks the next morning and in my rush for time I selected the drive thru  to grab a cup for me and a cup for him as well. I drove up to the place were you order, I ordered the coffee, a Carmel Macchiato for him and a coffee of the day for me with a bit of half and half. The voice answered back “We don’t have any half-n-half Kevin, can we use whole milk instead?” At that point I was a bit shocked. It’s one thing to be known when you walk in to your local Starbucks, but to know you through the drive thru?! I feel honored!

So it’s done, I did it, or better God did it through me. I had a lot of fun, and learned a lot of things as well.

Without boring you with all the details, I talked about Haiti and how the world has stepped up and done a lot  How that millions of dollars have been raised and sent to help this incredibly needy country. I think it’s awesome that churches have stepped up like this and have gone above and beyond- some have even gone there to help personally. The point of my talk was that as Christians we must show people what it is to truly be like Christ. Many times I think we completely miss the mark by telling people I’m praying for you. That really makes me mad. How many times did Jesus say, Hey I’m gonna pray for you paralyzed arm that God might heal it if it’s His will! NEVER. He did what He could- always. And that’s where I believe we as Christians come up short. Now don’t think that I’m not guilty of the same thing. Last year we had a couple come to our house asking for help getting to another city because his job was not paying him and she was like 13 months pregnant. I smiled and said no. Thankfully my wonderful wife made me go back and get them to give them some food, but for days later I couldn’t stop thinking what would they have done if I would have invited them into my home, sat them at my table, gave them cold water and hot food to eat, allowed them to take a warm shower and maybe even find them some clean clothes they could take, and then take them to the bus station and pay for their trip to Monterrey- but I didn’t.

So set it up- when God puts it on your heart to help, just do it!

Thanks for your prayers, I look forward to preaching in Spanish again.

Tonight is the culmination of a dream that started over ten years ago for me. To be able to finally preach to a people without a translator. I used to come to Mexico every summer in my teen years and would visit Mike Starling outside of Saltillo, Mexico and every summer I would come armed with a sermon to preach, but through a translator. I loved it, but I hated it too. If you’ve ever done it before you know what I mean, you don’t have the freedom to move around and say spur of the moment thoughts. Not today! I get to do it all myself.

I can’t wait to see what God does with it, maybe something, maybe nothing, but it will be done by His power and with everything I have. I pray that this is the victory I need right now to give me the strength and renewed passion to reach Mexicans. Pray with me. Pray hard, literally beg God for lives, for victories! I’ll update tomorrow

Hey all. Just wanted to let you know we’re alive and have made it through our first week back in Zacatecas. Austin and I have both been sick this week, Cris is thankfully holding out. I’m feeling better today after resting all day yesterday, Austin still sounds horrible. We took him to the doctor on Friday and he got some antibiotics to deal with an ear infection, hopefully it won’t be to much longer before he’s better.

So here’s our plan for this week. We’re working on some prep for future opportunities we have, we’re heading out on Wednesday to visit the orphanage you all helped us raise supplies for and I get to preach at their church that evening! That’s gonna be awesome, first time I will have ever preached in Spanish, Lord help us all, Friday we head to Aguascalientes and will spend the whole day there interviewing doctors and checking out hospitals so that we can put together an emergency plan in the event of another cyst.

In the mean time and through all this- We’re just praising God to be HOME