Benefit Dinner

Tonight I attended a benefit dinner hosted by the other home here in the city. It was great fun with good food, why they invited me I still don't know but it was nice.

The idea was pretty original I thought, they got the 10 top restaurants in the city to each have a sampling of their courses, buffet style. Each of these restaurants donated their time and food to help the benefit but also for the advertising pitch since the event was attended by some of the cities wealthiest people.

They of course had a family band providing music but they also had a wine tasting presentation that lasted about an hour and a half and 3 different wines were sampled. While they did the wine tasting show a famous local painter painted two paintings which were raffled off after the dinner. The paintings were done by inspiration using the descriptions and discussions about the wines.

In all about 60 benefactors attended and about 20 Family members. Dinner was buffet style where you could sample food from the 10 different restaurants as well as wine that was provided from the wine company doing the presentation. Each dinner table seated about 10 people which made for good dinner fellowship and witnessing.

Below are a few photos from the evening. Although I am saving food photos for another post.

Just for fun!

New Link

Over there on the right you will see a new link that says "Followers" which you can click on to receive automatic updates to this blog if you don't want to be checking it everyday.

Party

We had a dress up party with the SSU tonight and it was lots of fun. Thanks to all those who planned the games and got everything setup.

Pirate Winch and Mexican Cowgirl

Pirate

A worker with a coffee can on his head.

Marlyn Monroe

Pirate

Mexicans

Hippy

HB2Y Elliot

Happy Birthday Bro! Hope you have a great new year. It was good seeing you a few weeks ago. Sorry the photo is blurry , but I thought you would like it anyways since Jade took it.

Cervantino - The Photos

With a group of ladies that got hugs and saved!

Kat praying with a group of 15 after they all got hugs!

Fran, Kat and Gabe

Gabe and Fran hugging and praying with people.

Kat, double hugs are fun!

Lynette and Jacob praying with people.

Maria, hmmm..... just being Maria.

Gabe, with Don Quixote.

Fran, Kat and Lynette with Don Quixote and Sancho Panza

With Mel and Marie.

With two guys we witnessed to who got saved.

With my good friend Mike. It was good to see you man!!

Cervantino - The Story

Guanaguato by night!

On Friday the 24th I set out at 7 am with 5 teens from our home to travel to Guanaguato, a six hour drive from Cuernavaca for the International Festival of Cervantino, a yearly event celebrating international culture and arts. With tourists from all over the world we use the opportunity each year to amass a huge witnessing offensive with other Family young people from all over Mexico.

However, just on the edge of town the clutch cable on the truck stopped working and so we pulled over to the side of the road and waited for the mechanics to open up since there was a workshop just a block from where we were. After hearing our story and our mission the shop owner agreed to work on the truck for free but after taking the cable off they determined the problem wasn't the cable but the clutch itself. Which to me was odd being it was a brand new clucth that was installed the day before. We decided to put the cable back on and drive the truck home in 2nd gear to have the mechanics that installed the clutch to take it back apart and determine the problem. TTL after putting it all back together it worked fine shifting into all the gears to drive it back home.

Now we were back at home it's 11 am and we are not sure if we should still go or not. So after several people in the home prayed about this trip again the Lord did confirm we should still go. And that in His love and mercy he allowed the truck to have problems to protect us from something worse on the road. The next day we found our there was a huge accident on one of the roads we were to travel that day involving multiple vehicles and closing the freeway for about 6 hours. So thank the Lord He stopped us.

So after working out another vehicle to take and repacking the cars and having to leave one person behind (GBY Ivan for staying) we were back on the road again at around 5 pm, and made it as far as Queretaro that night. GB the home the for putting us up.

The next afternoon we arrived and met up with the other family homes already there. From a rough estimate I think there was about 70 different Family members from about 12 different home. The Creature band preformed a show and we did gypsy dancing with the public and lots of personal witnessing.

The girls from the home here made "Free Hugs" signs and we used them as an attraction for hooking people in for a deeper witness. With tracts going out and hugs being given our team of 5 witnessing into the wee hours of the night won nearly 300 souls the first evening there.

At about 3 am in the morning the home from Leon, about an hour away offered there home for us to crash at since we still didn't have a place to stay. GBY them they were hosting about 25 extra people the days of the festival. So we arrived at 4:30 am caught a few hours of sleep and after a hearty breakfast and good devotions we headed out again for another day of wittnessing.

On the first day we met Jacob, a actor for one of the national Soap Operas her in Mexico. He was super inspired and on fire and love the fact we were there witnessing. He spent a few hours with us the first night giving hugs and witnessing to people. The second afternoon upon arriving there we found him as he had been waiting for us to arrive. He spent the whole afternoon and evening witnessing with us and won 50 souls on his own. He will be visiting our home in the coming weeks and got subscribed to Activated.

All in all we made it home safely with over 1200 tracts passed out and 700 souls won, with uncountable hugs given. Thanks for all your prayers for the trip and please continue to pray for all those we met and will be following up on. We collected over 40 emails and phone numbers so we have a big job ahead of us.

Thanks tot he homes in Queretaro and Leon for hosting us and helping make our trip what it was. We love you guys.

At the home in Leon with teams from Cuernavaca, Tampico, Guadalajara and Leon.

The Wedding in Photos

Eli and Liana Rucker got married on Oct 11th, 2008. Here's a few photos from the wedding.

Eli (the Groom), Liana (the Bride) and my dad, Jeff.

The wedding cake.

My mom Rose and I.

My Dad, trying on his nice clothes a few days before the wedding.

The Whole Gang.
Rose (my mom), Adrian, Jade and I, Elliott (my younger bro) and his girlfriend Jeniffer, Jeff (my dad), Eli (my older bro and the groom), Jason (my oldest bro), and in front Cory (my mom's son from her second marriage.)

Eli and Elliott, my brothers. Elliott was the Best Man.

Eli and Jade

The Rucker brothers, youngest to oldest, Elliott, Gabe, Eli and Jason

A photo of a photo of Eli and I as preschoolers, proof that I did once have hair and it was blond.

Made it home...

Thanks every one for your prayers and donations for my trip. I was able to make it to Texas and then from there my Dad rented a van to get him, my kids, my brother and I all to the wedding. I picked people up in three different cities the day before the wedding and then dropped them all off again the day after. It was quite the trip with 6,400 km. traveled by land, I got home at midnight after having been in buses or vans for nearly 6 days, lugging my suitcases from station to station and crossing Mexico City by Metro. I had fun despite the fast pace and work involved in a trip like this.

My bus to and from the border.

The van my dad rented. It was a pleasure to drive.

Special Thanks

Thank you to all those who have sent me financial gifts to help me make it for the trip I aam taking to my brothers wedding. I am leaving in about an hour and will probably be offline for about a week. I will post post and stories from the trip once I get home. I want to take a moment to thank those specifically that were not thanked yet in my first post.

The Fiesta Home, Texas
S.R., Texas
J.G., Africa
The members of my home that gave me of their personal money, Dawn, Bruni and Vicky
Archos, Luchi and her parents in Argentina.
Divina, Mexico City

Agian this trip wouldn't be possible without each of you. Thanks so much!!!

HB2Y Mike (Of Jess)

Coming soon!!!

Mike I am going to post as soon as I get back from my trip. Just so busy today didn't have time to do the right post. Hope you have fun and a great new year!

Until then here's a photo o a sexy woman for your enjoyment.

The Dentist

I went to the dentist last week for the first time in many years. See I had a cavity and later broke that same tooth on a rock in the beans about a month ago. So after living with the pain for a couple weeks I finally got an appointment with the dentist. After spending 3 hours in her chair and having all kinds of instruments in my mouth... the most popular one being a drill I was patched up with a temporary cap and filling to last through my trip so that the tooth can be reconstructed once I get back. I was super thankful for this as all her services were donated.
Two nights ago the temporary cap and filling came out so I am using cotton in the hole thats there to not have the nerve exposed or to get food in it. I change it several times aday and it's not so bad. At least I am not in any real pain yet. So please pray that my trip can be pain free and that my teeth make it till I get back. Thanks so much.

In the News...

It's always fun to see what's in the news. Here two fun stories I had a good laugh at.

Spelling Errors and Wrong Notes - San Francisco

A man walked into the downtown Bank of America and on the back of
a deposit slip wrote, "this iz a stikkup. Put all your muny in this bag."
While standing in line, waiting to give his note to the teller, the man
began to worry that someone may have seen him write the note and
might call the police before he could reach the teller.

So, the criminal left the Bank of America and walked across to the
street to Wells Fargo. After waiting in line for several minutes there,
he handed his note to a teller. After reading it, the teller determined
that this robber was perhaps a few sandwiches short of a picnic.

She told him that because his note was written on a Bank of America
deposit slip, she could not honor his demand. He would either have to
fill out a Wells Fargo withdrawal slip or go back to the Bank of America.

Feeling defeated, the man said he understood and left. The Wells Fargo
teller promptly called the police, who arrested the man a few minutes
later--still waiting in line at the Bank of America.

A Little Gas

A Dutch veterinarian was fined 600 guilders (about $240)
for causing a fire that destroyed a farm in Lichten Vourde,
the Netherlands. The vet had been trying to convince a farmer
that his cow was passing flatulent gas; to demonstrate, the
vet ignited the gas, but the cow became a "four-legged
flame-thrower" and ran wild, setting fire to bales of hay.
Damage to the farm was assessed at $80,000. The cow was
unharmed. AP

Fill in the _____!!

I wanted to do a post about a certain _____ in my home and the ______ they have been doing but was _____ that if I do such a _____ and that if I even mentioned _____ that certain _____ and _____ would happen! And since certain ______ would make sure that ______ and _____ would indeed _____ I have decided that it would probably just be best not to mention ___ _____ after all!

Thursday Thought – God's Will.

I was thinking the other day about the usefulness of any given individual and how circumstances and location seem to play a large role in their fruitfulness and or happiness.

For example:
Before moving here I lived in Veracruz for two years. The team there was great, I was living with great people and the home had good CTP projects and from what I have seen in recent months they had some good followup and supporters.

I should have been thriving, and in the beginning I did. As time went on though and the longer I was there things just seemed to be a drag for me. I had lost the joy of the Lord. That's not to say I wasn't busy or didn't do my part in the home and out, but I never really felt like part of the team and when I was away on trips I didn't look forward to coming home.

Then I moved here and things seemed so different for me, I felt used and needed like I was really making a difference. I was gone from the home last week for one night and couldn't wait to get home. And as I thought about it I had a hard time accepting the conclusion I was drawing, that by changing location everything else changed to. To me it seemed there had to be a better reason than that.

So I was talking to Fisher about it and he commented that it could only be the Will of God, and being in the Lord's highest. And that makes perfect sense.

The home I was in was not a bad one, on the contrary it is one of the best homes I have lived in over the past 10 years. It just wasn't the Lord's highest Will for me to be there anymore so nothing was right.

So if your feeling like nothing is working out for you, or that your spinning your wheels trying to make things work when it's not, take the time to pray about it to make sure you really are in the Lord's highest Will. An if a change is needed to get into the Lord's highest Will for you, embrace it and you might really see the blessings you were missing out on by outliving the Lord's Will for you in that place.