Great Week and Weekend

Hey everyone. I hope you are doing well. What a nice Thanksgiving we had with about 15 people crammed into our house for the turkey dinner. It was wall-to-wall people, but I am thankful to the Lord for the many blessings!

Here are some of my thoughts to start off the new month:

1) Can you believe it's already December?

2) Just a few more practices left for the "A Night to Remember" Christmas Eve Program!

3) Do I start Christmas music for worship at church yet? Maybe one more week....

4) The youth praise band did such a wonderful job leading worship yesterday! They are really learning to serve more and more. I'm sure proud of them!

5) It was nice to spend time with my family over the Thanksgiving break. Boy did we need a break!

6) No snow in Worland yet. I hear the snowy weather will be hitting soon...... later this week!

7) It was good to talk to my mother and brothers in Idaho and California over the holiday.

8) I hope my family from out of state can come to Wyoming some day.

9) The NFL is really heating up again! My fantasy football team got knocked out of first place after many weeks at #1. Wheels Warriors / a.k.a. The Spoiler Kids (Dennis Wheeler) got me this week. This changed my seeding in the playoffs. It may be the end for me this year. Oh well...I guess I deserved it after talking smack. Great fun this year!

10) I got to drive Rusty the Bug again yesterday, after a few days off. Lots of fun! Rusty is sitting right outside ready to go again.....I love the lower gas prices!!! VW's rock!

11) Did you hear Pastor Shaun and I yelling from blocks away enjoying the Sunday night football game??? Shaun and I both agree that football is the best sport!!! Go Cowboys! He won't agree with me about my team though!

12) Jacob is wrapping up basketball season soon. I'm proud of him. He has worked so hard trying to play and suffering from a deep cough at the same time. He says he's ready for the season to be over. He can't wait to hurdle again in track. I don't blame him.

13) Joshua and I made an igloo out of sugar cubes for his Native American project. It took forever! We had fun though....especially sealing the cubes with white cake frosting. It was finger licking good.

14) Caleb is doing well. Everyone better be careful driving the streets and walking on the sidewalks....he turned 16 and got his drivers license!

15) Why does car insurance have to be so expensive?

16) I've gotta lose some weight......have you seen Pastor Shaun?

17) I guess I just have to take Hank the Cowdog for walks. That would help.....but we call our dog Hankenstein....he's a monster! Go figure....walks won't be easy.

Hockey with FBC Student Ministries!

Wow! What a Saturday we had! I had a great time taking the FBC Student Ministry kids up to Cody for a Yellowstone Quake hockey game! I drove 6 kids up in our Explorer.

We all met at the Cody Burger King first to chuck down some cheeseburgers, fries, pop, etc. Then we drove a few blocks to the event center. Of course we had to wait for the tickets because we were early, but the kids enjoyed goofing around in the mean time.

When we finally got inside. We got some great rink side seats. Yes..it was cold at first, but once all of the crowds got there, it quickly got warmer in the building.

The action was great, seeing the players knock each other into the plexi-glass in front of us, and the crowd screaming and yelling! Things even got rough on the ice when some players let their anger get the best of them. The Yellowstone Quakes were winning all through the periods until the last :38 seconds on the clock, when The Billings Bulls scored and sent the game into overtime. Then the world came crashing down for the Quakes.....They lost in sudden death with another 30 some seconds on the clock.

Oh well. We all had a great time anyway. It was wonderful getting rowdy with the youth from our church. Can't wait to go to Acquire the Fire now!

Blessings After Broken Down!

Last Saturday our car broke down in Cody after we left Walmart. It was chugging and dying! How were we to get home? Well, the Lord took care of us! I know we broke down, which was frustrating, but God worked some miracles. First of all, I thank Him for the fact that we have AAA insurance and roadside assistance. I called AAA and they informed me that we had a 100 mile radius towing package. This was the first miracle. We live exactly 98 miles from where our car was! Praise God! Other miracles? It wasn't snowing, raining, or freezing! We could have been out in the middle of the Wyoming NOWHERE! Walmart gave us good shelter until the tow truck was able to get there. And....we had a really good driver who knew what he was doing that took us back to Worland.

The weird thing is what we found out after we got our car fixed. A bug somehow got past the air filter, got stuck in a sensor and shorted the sensor out. It is amazing how a little creature could knock out a big car. Well anyway.......Thank God we made it home!

Wednesday's Thoughts

Do you ever have those times when a million things are racing through your head? Here is a list of my thoughts today:

1) Thank you, Lord, for my wonderful wife and family!

2) America is getting a new president.....Lord please come back soon!

3) I need to call my brothers a whole lot more. I finally talked to my little brother Monday night.

4) I feel like having some tacos from Taco Johns!

5) My break at work is almost over.

6) My Dallas Cowboys are playing horrible this year!!!!

7) I wish all three of my boys were playing football again and the season wasn't over!

8) Will the Cubbies make the playoffs and make it to the World Series next year?

9) I need to learn more songs to teach to the youth on Wednesday nights. I have to make time to sit down and do it!

10) How many rehearsals do have this week???!!!

11) Lord please reduce my stress!

12) Boy! Pastor Shaun's brother is ruthless in fantasy football! I've got to beat him this week.

13) I love the smack talk that we have in the fantasy football league. Can you believe that Pastor Shaun and I have even written smack poetry?

14) My son, Jacob Garza, is playing middle school basketball. Can't wait to see him play.

15) Lord please help me coordinate the sound crew, media, and musician rotations. Some people will be gone on their rotation.

16) Yikes! The Christmas Eve program is quickly approaching!

17) Kids in my class are getting ready to leave the Wyoming Boys' School. Lord....are they ready for the real world?

18) What can I do to motivate the boys at the WBS to earn their positive weeks?

19) I've got to do more walking and exercising!

20) I've got to lose weight but.....man do those tacos from Taco John sound good!

The Wyoming Boys' School!

Wow! What an incredible experience this last Sunday at the Wyoming Boys' School. We had the privilege once again to preach the gospel and worship with the boys. They were clapping and praising God with the worship team, but best of all, several of the boys surrendered their hearts to the Lord Jesus Christ after Pastor Shaun gave the invitation. The Holy Spirit was really at work in that little chapel. Please keep praying for our team as we go in each month. What a wonderful mission it has been to share our faith in Him! We are excited to see what else the Lord will be doing at the WBS!

A Night to Remember!

Hey 1st Baptist! We are looking for people who can sing and be a part of a wonderful Christmas Eve celebration service. We will be meeting on Thursday, October 30, at 6:30 pm to pass out the Christmas program music. We will then have a brief run-through of the music to get a head start. The program is called A Night to Remember, and we truly want this Christmas Eve to be one we won't forget. The program includes narration, and we are also planning on having our children be a part of the nativity. The children will join us as we get closer to December. We want to rejoice as we take the congregation through the journey of Jesus' birth. We want to celebrate this incredible night that Jesus came to earth. Come join us!

Amazing Early Snow Storm!

It's been a long time since I have written. Wow! God really showed His power that He can do whatever He wants! Worland, Wyoming and the rest of the State of Wyoming got hit by a big snow storm over the weekend! Every person I know has told me that they weren't ready for it, and neither were we. We got about a foot of snow. We were all wearing short sleeve shirts and shorts just last week!

All the trees in town are breaking branches like crazy because of the weight of the snow being held on because their leaves have not fallen yet. As a matter of fact, we saw a huge branch that fell on a car while we were on our way home from Pastor Jess' house.

There have been a couple of challenging things about the snow being early this year. Thank God we haven't had any roads that are really icy yet, but it has been hard to see going through the weather! The barn and animals on our property are a muddy mess! That makes for challenging chores in the morning and evening.

The fun thing about the snow was watching Caleb's varsity football game last Friday night in the snow. We froze! But, it was all worth it! Our Worland Warriors beat the Thermopolis Bobcats 20-0 slipping and sliding all over the field! What a great battle in the white stuff!

God, thank you for the snow. We pray that we can catch up and be ready for winter before the next storm. Amen.