Last Thursday was a reflective day for me. I just could not stop thinking about it. I work in the medical field and everyday there is a new struggle for someone who is coping with a certain disease condition. I recently had my maternal mother go thru surgery having being hospitalized for a few days. Just the fact of seeing her coomplaining of pain, would only sadden my heart on the fact on not being able to do or provide anything to perhaps alleviate her condition. It hits me even more when the individual or individuals are even younger, perhaps my age or less. That is what hapapened to me as I was working. Had two calls from the floor nursing units by physicians inquiring about the radiological results on two patients they are attending who sadly are dealing with one of the most common and deadly diseases in nowadays. (Though for the Lord nothing is impossible). You could feel the desperation and fustration on their voices on trying to hurry things up for a next move on their treatment towards them. Perhaps the patient and their family are waiting for those results or images in order to be transfered to another facility for a more accurate treatment. It really made me reflect and thank to the Most High of the healthy life that I do enjoy every morning a I wake up. Not that I do not do everyday, but in this situautions it makes me thank him even more. I pray that those two patients may have the strenght, comfort and mercy they need from our Lord and that their outcome would be a positive one. "For the Lord is near the hurt and broken hearted" Psalm 34:18

"Why are you looking for the living among the

dead?" asked the men. He is not here, but He

has been resurrected!

Remember how He spoke to you when He was

still in Galilea saying, "The Son of Man must

be betrayed into the hands of sinful men, be

crucified and rise on the third day'? And they

remembered His words. ( Luke 24:5-8)

INDEED HE IS RISEN, HE IS ALIVE

It had been a concerned and busy week for me. My mother had an abdominal surgery and is on her way to recovery. Praise the Lord!!!. And also had been rehearsing almost everyday for our yearly live easter musical cantata that takes place at my church. It is called "The Resurrection". I have had the blessing again to be part of the drama cast portraying the role of John, the "loving" disciple and Simon of Cyrene. Finally today was our first debut and by the grace of God, it went quite well. Yes, there were some minor glitches but today we are trusting it will be even much better. I am humbled to be able to represent those two biblical characters that played a major role in the live of Jesus. John, besides being His loving disciple, he was a man full of energy(Mr 3:17), intolerant(Mr9:38) and Revengeful(Lc 9:54). He was trusted to be the keeper of the mother of Jesus(Jn 19:26) Devoted much of His time to be close to the Master and that explains why more than half of his epistle content, dedicates to talk about the events of the live of the Master and His last words during His last days. Simon of Cyrene was a farmer and a noble man on his way from work who happened to pass by and was chosen to carry the cross until its last destination. Golgotha (skull place). Not much is said about this man only that he was the father of Rufus and Alexander who later became missionaries. One analogy that I would like to point out, is that as christians, we carry our cross everyday. Even Jesus said "If anyones wants to come with Me, he must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow Me". (Mr 16:24). We ought to deny from everything that this evil world has to offer which is NOT pleasant to our Master's eyes. Not an easy as being born in the flesh with a sinful nature, but NOT impossible to do. "I can do all things thru Christ that strenghtens me" (Phil 4:13) As I will be carrying that cross, may I be reminded of denying myself in oder to live for Him. Thank You Lord!!!!

Last Friday I was given the opportunity to share with a group at my church about missions and some of the few GREAT experiences I had been through. Apparently, March is considered to be the month of misions which I did not know until I was told by a friend of mine. It was a unique experience for me. Besides being a little nervous, my main concern and the Lord knows is true, was that my sharing of the word, would bless somebody's life. I started showing a video of my second missionary trip to Peru in which I had the blessing to work along with my brothers and sisters from Calvary Chapel Boston. There it was me with my bandadge left pinky finger. Ouchh!!!! Then, I talked about how one of the things of being a missionary, is taking the risk of being exposed to live out of my comfort zone. I gave out a few examples being the last the unforgettable earthquake experience I went through last year. And lastly, I shared on how in such missions trips, divine appointments await for anyone. I had been through a few of them. Praise the Lord!!!! One of them being on a trip to Paraguay with my local church back in 05. How on the second of three flights that we took to reach our destination, I was able to ministered to a yound lady at about 36.000 feet above sea level about Christ love and forgiveness. She ended up making that decision for Him on that glorious moment. (That lady was a current employee of that airline returning home from vacation) Awesome!!! And to my complete amazement, how the Lord gave me, after seeing my willing heart, the entire airfare trip free of charge. No even a single penny paid for. People were blessed. I was blessed. Had a few come to me afterwards and thanked me for sharing. I said Lord, thanks so much, To you be all glory and power, Amen.

I was reading a series of an interview done to one of the wives of the five missionaries that the movie "The End of The Spear" talks about and I found something neat I would like to share:

"Our future is in God's hands. Only to those who believe that life has any meaning. Those who

know God has life.... He has promised us fullness of joy. He is the God of all comfort and as our

hearts and minds are stayed of Him, our lifes are filled with joy but as we look to ourselves and

take our thoughts off the Altogether Lovely One, we loose our joy. He has promised us

'pleasure for evermore'. This promise is not only for now but for eternity."

Olive Flemming Liefeld