Nice Get-a-way!

I know that it's already mid-week, but I was just thinking about the wonderful time that my wife and I had last weekend, Friday and Saturday. It isn't often enough that Sandra and I get a chance to get away and spend some good quality time together. This time she and I decided that we wanted to go exploring in Casper, Wyoming. I know of nice places to eat and places to see in Casper due to the State of Wyoming sending me there for conventions all of the time.

First of all...."Thank you" to our boys for staying at home and taking care of all of the chores. We are blessed that our boys are old enough to take care of all of the animals, and making sure that things are okay while we are gone.

Well...Sandra and I enjoy having Chinese food, so we were able to have a great buffet at a place called the Dragon Wall. The place isn't that fancy by the looks of it on the outside, but the inside is nice with lots of choices of Chinese cuisine. Yum! I can't wait to get more egg rolls! Good food. Good visit.

After a peaceful night's rest, we got up early and had a mouth watering breakfast at the hotel's restaurant, eggs, sausage, pancakes, etc. It's not very often that I get a full breakfast, because I'm always on the go. Good food. Good visit.

After breakfast, Sandra and I decided that we wanted to look at home improvement items, so that's when we then discovered....Menard's. Have you seen that place??? If you are looking for that hard to find item...look no more. They have everything!...lighting, lumber, tools, showers, tubs, clothes, plants, doors.......We spent about 3 hours in that place. It makes Lowe's and Home Depot look puny. We can't wait to go back.

Of course Sandra and I did a lot of walking and talking throughout Walmart and other places, but then it was on to lunch. One of my favorite places, and she'll agree with me now, is Sanford's. Great food with a Cajun flare! The other great part of the restaurant is seeing all the nostalgic collections they have on walls, hanging from the ceiling....you name it..you may find it there. Lot's of old motorcycles, gas pumps, tin signs, hanging airplanes, tricycles, bikes, neon signs, etc., all done up from the 1930's, 40's, and 50's. Great family atmosphere, along with good food. Good food. Good visit.

All in all, Sandra and I had a great time to talk, reflect, and just spend some good sharing time together. I am very thankful for my wife. She is so special to me. I thank God for her very much. The Word of God tells us that we are to love our wives as Christ loves the church....knowing that, we all need to spend quality time with our spouses.

Praise in the Park!

I would like to invite you to be a part of an event that we are calling "Praise in the Park". On June 19, 2010, "First Praise" of Worland First Baptist Church will be hosting this praise event for our Lord. "Praise in the Park" will be held at Sander's Park from 4-7 pm. Our focus will be to praise and worship our Lord Jesus Christ. Our interim pastor, Pastor Dale Bascue, will be bringing us a message after our time in worship and singing. Please remember to bring the following to the event:

1) Bring your family and friends, especially those that may not be saved.

2) Bring your Bibles for the message, and voices to sing praises.

3) Bring a picnic dinner for your individual family and friends (Beverages will be provided.)

4) Bring your lawn chairs, blankets, sunscreen.... normal stuff you would take to a picnic.

5) Children, bring your favorite park entertainment: football, frisbee, baseball mitts, etc.

We at First Baptist hope that you will be a part of this event. We pray that you will be blessed and that the Lord over all will be blessed. We look forward to seeing you there.

Congratulations to All Graduates!

It's been 25 years since I graduated from high school. Okay....you can do the math! Anyway, I want to extend my warmest congratulations to all of the graduates this year. It is so hard to believe that the school year has gone by so quickly! Congratulations Class of 2010!

In my own family, my son Jacob, will be graduating from 8th grade tonight from the middle school. He is looking forward to high school next year as a freshman.

I am looking forward to having both a freshman and senior at Worland High School next year. I am so excited especially for all the high school games, namely football! Wow! Varsity football on Friday nights and Freshman football on Saturdays!

To all our graduates....my God richly bless you! Be safe and trust in the Lord!

Where is this year going?

I sit here just wondering where the year has gone. It is so hard to believe that we are now in the month of May. There have been so many things going on, including changes. Here are 10 thoughts that come to mind:

1) God is still with us. He never changes!!!!!

2) We are gathering the search committee together, and praying that the Lord will show us the right pastor with the right fit for First "B" to be revealed to us soon.

3) The ending of another school year is now quickly approaching. My son Caleb will be a senior next year. Jacob will be a freshman. Joshua will be in his last year of elementary school as a 5th grader. Sandra will be glad to end her school year of swimming all year. Me? I will be ending my 20th year of teaching. God is so good!!!

4) It so good to see green grass growing again. Not the dandelions though! I hope I can get my sprinklers working again correctly. Winter can really be harsh on them, even after blowing them out with a compressor! Almost ready to plant some flowers with Sandra too. I will be planting trees today.

5) Baby goats and baby lamb are finally starting to get weaned, almost ready for sale.

6) Baseball season is starting up in Worland again. My boys are gearing up! I just wish we had Legion ball for Caleb. He may do some umpiring. I can't wait for the crack of the bat, ground in clay in the uniforms, yelling for the team......spitting sunflower seeds and drinking pop during the games.

7) Time to rototill and prepare for planting the garden.

8) It's about time that I get my fishing license. I can't wait to start slaying the trout again!

9) I hope to get out a lot more and get some more exercise. The weather is starting to warm up slowly...just can't wait to see more 70 degree weather. It's the best in Wyoming!

10) I hope to do more exploring in the mountains....The Big Horns with the family!

Well spring is here....with summer right around the corner! Thank you Lord. We'll see what tomorrow brings!

Thank You Pastor Shaun and Jodi Matako!

Well...it has been a great five years that Pastor Shaun and Jodi Matako have spent with us in Worland, Wyoming at First Baptist. We will truly miss Shaun and Jodi as they depart from Worland, and return to Ohio.

I am very fortunate and thankful that I have had the privilege to work side-by-side with Shaun and Jodi in ministry, and that my wife, Sandra, has had the opportunity to work with Jodi in children's ministry. We were and still are truly blessed by them. We love you, and thank you for all that you did in our church, our community, and our lives, all in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I know that we are deeply saddened by the fact that Shaun and Jodi had to leave Worland, but I know that the Lord has new things in store for them. They are leaving Worland in tremendous standing. I venture to imagine that the Lord is already saying, "Well done faithful servants," about Shaun and Jodi's work in Worland.

Shaun, we love you like a brother, and Jodi like a sister. Please keep in touch. We would love to see you again in the future. I do know this...we will see you Heaven!

Okay Shaun.....and Jodi you are a part of this too! Thanks for the following and then some:

1) Your faithfulness to Christ.

2) Teaching and mentoring me about Christ.

3) Your support of Worship Ministries.

4) All that you did to help us to grow in God's Word.

5) Your support of all ministries.

6) Your support of the Worland community and it's families.

7) Your involvement with youth sports of all ages.

8) Football! Football! Football!

9) A better appreciation of Ohio State Buckeyes.

10) Baseball!

11) The Warriors!

12) Announcing!

13) The chain gang!

14) Football games in person or at your house!

15) Great Football FOOD while following the game!

16) Fantasy Football!....well, "I" have good memories anyway;-)

17) Laughing so hard (especially about inside jokes-i.e. "shrapnel") that I thought my head and gut were going to explode.

18) Seeing you laugh so hard you turn purple!

19) Making fun of my VW Bug, Rusty.

20) Offering me a can opener.

21) The birthday EXPLOSION!

22)............The list could go on and on!

Thank you, my brother and friend. Thank you, my sister Jodi. We love you guys. You will always have a special place in our hearts. Until we meet again. So long. My God richly bless you. You will be in our prayers.

From my family to yours,

Jeff, Sandra, Caleb, Jacob, and Joshua Garza

Thankfulness in a Septic Situation!

Praise God that it turned out not as bad as we had originally thought. The first prognosis was that our septic tank went bad with it's baffles and that our whole leach field would have to be replaced. My wife and I immediately started praying. This can be a huge financial burden on anyone.

I am so thankful for my neighbors Ed and Janine Barnes. Ed suggested that he take his back-hoe and help me dig down to the leach pipe at the septic tank and see if we could find the problem. After digging down, we discovered that right at the septic tank, an iron pipe had broken and caused a blockage before reaching the leach field, at what looks to have saved thousands of dollars $$$ by finding the problem! Thank you Ed and also to your boy, Ben.

After getting our tank pumped, I am also thankful for Jeremy Carver, for being available to come out and help recover and fix our problem, including fixing a new baffle for the tank. He is a very hard worker and is very good at what he does as a plumber! He is very highly recommended in my book!

Thank you God for taking care of us. This situation could have been a whole lot worse. Jeremy told me that this was a blessing in disguise by catching it the way that we did. It wasn't luck, chance, or coincidence. I believe that God had His hand in this dilemma. Thank you, Lord, for your faithfulness. I trust in You!

Blessed Easter!

I pray that all of you had a wonderful and blessed Easter to celebrate our Risen Savior, Jesus Christ. At First Baptist Church of Worland, we were able to have a wonderful Good Friday service with a time of intimate worship, communion, and message. Of course on Easter Sunday, we celebrated the resurrection of Jesus Christ! He is risen! He has risen indeed!

I am so thankful that my family and I were able to spend time in celebration of Easter with both my wife Sandra's family here in Wyoming, and my visiting family from Idaho. We not only got to worship together, but we were able to have some fun activities together. Here are some of the things that I am thankful that we could do:

1) Brunch at the Bennett Ranch- (Sandra's folk's)

2) Easter Egg Hunt for all the little kids- ( I love hiding all of eggs...This year some of us were eating the eggs as we were hiding them...and we were losing count of them!)

3) Of course we had to keep our tradition going at the Garza house by putting together a scavenger hunt to find the Easter baskets. My little Josh never let's us get through an Easter without the tradition.

4) I was able to spend some time with my mother and her husband Larry. A highlight was introducing them to Butch's Place. It was great food!

5) I was thankful that I was able to take Monday and Tuesday off from my day job, teaching at the Wyoming Boys' School. With that time I was able to spend some more time with Mom and Larry. We worked on projects around the house. Larry likes to keep himself busy...and he kept me busy catching up on household odds and ins.

All-in-all it was a great Easter. Even with the family fun, I'm glad that we were able to keep Christ as the center and focus of the Easter weekend. I pray that you were able to do the same.