Pray for the people of Cuba

A team from First Baptist Jensen Beach will be traveling to Rodas, Cuba in September. We have been told that our project will be building walls, concrete...hauling materials, etc. for a local church. Rodas is a small town see link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rodas or http://travelingluck.com/North%20America/Cuba/Cienfuegos/_3541999_Rodas.html#local_map

We will have this building project to keep our days busy but the mission's purpose is to help the people and let the people we meet to know that God loves them!! As Jesus told his disciples, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, "baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo"I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28: 19-20

Awesome knowing that Jesus is with us always, ...peace and contentment...even knowing we will have government restrictions and lack of local knowledge, or even the ability to speak good spanish....I am totally relaxed.

So, Pray...pray that God... readies their hearts, helps the team learn more Spanish to convey His word, for protection and guidance, safety for our families at home and safety for the FBJB team that Pastor Paul will lead to Cuba.

Thank you all and remember through His strength you can do all things.

Thank you God for the ability to serve, use me as your tool for good works...

Al

Bahamas Mission Trip 08

Dom and I had a great time and thank all of you who prayed for us!!! Trip was a success but not because we rebuild a community center that the locals use for church gatherings. The reason I know our trip was a success was the hope that we may have changed a young boy named Mario's life.


On our first full day, Sunday, we attended a local service...Pastor John spoke and our youth team sang praise...it was awesome. Then upon our return to the school, our room for the week sleeping on the floor, some of the men noticed their wallets stolen. Quickly the local law enforcement was on the case...(note only 300 people live on Great Harbor cay). This is where Mario comes in...he was the thief. A 13 year old boy, Mario had been getting into trouble for a while. He spent the night in the local jail and then the local law decided to do something out of the norm...they gave Mario to us to work off his sentence. Our team gave him jobs, and cool drinks in the hot summer and by the end of the week we all got to know Mario better. We hope our love showed to him even he robbed us showed Jesus....who tells us, love one another as you love yourself.


Please check out the pictures http://web.mac.com/melissa_jenkins



The other success was the quality one on one time with my son Dominick. We slept on the floor in our sleeping bags, worked, and throughout the day prayed...side by side. No TV, cell phones, intenet...just our group having fun and working hard. Dom really enjoyed the local kids, teaching them his back flips and racing them up the street. Dom reminded me several time what Pastor John told us the first day..."we are not here to build a building, we are hear to touch the local people of this island, show them that God love us all"...he use this as a good reason to go play and handout with the local youngsters.


Thank you Lord for giving g us the ability to travel and meet such great people, the are all precious gifts.


Next mission trip...Cuba in September...Keep on praying and thank you all!!!

How Great is our God !!!

Wow,


It has been a while since I have updated this blog and need to let you all know "How Great is our God"...I can not even express the blessings that He is pouring over our lives. For starter Dominick and I are leaving this weekend for a mission trip with a team from First Baptist Jensen Beach to rebuild a community center in Great Harbor Cay in the Bahamas. Get it "Great" and yes my son gets to go and serve as well, the two of us with so much quality time....God is Great!!


Now another blessings that over the past month...We are moved into our home known as "The River" and it is Great...kayaking off the backyard and the sunsets remind me of our creator every evening...the awesome colors that reflect off the cocoa palms and river...How great is that.

My life journey has intersected with an incredible woman that could only be a gift from God. We have many conversations about how God has blessed us both and pray together often...our relationship is full of spiritual energy that is deep rooted...I feel my soul, bursting with passion and strength that could only come from knowing God and being able to speak with Him everyday...I wake knowing that He is their with out stretched arms awaiting me, I just need to go to him, he will always provide...How great is that!!!



Please continue to pray (what power we have in prayer) for us and we will continue to pray for you.

Live, Love and Laugh...don't forget to hug your love ones and let them know today, you can't wait another second, let them know now how much you love them before the moment is gone.

Make is real,

Love Al

Jamaica - God was everywhere!

The Jamaica 08 mission trip was unexpectedly wonderful because it was not our plans that were being executed, it was His plan. From our first day attending a local church in Trench Town, Joy Town Community Church, the local people welcome us (not all but most). Pastor Eddie delivered the message with passion, not like I had ever experience before. Then the open air building turned into a fellowship hall, (during the week it is the school) in which we danced and the children touched my hair saying "its soft"...I got on the floor, we danced (the kids had not seen a crazy white man move like this, ha ha) and they all jumped on...it was great. Love was in the air and God was everywhere.

The next day we got our assignments, I had requested to work helping the schools with the kids, but again not our plans, His will be done. Jeff and I were assigned to the construction team, and our first task was to break a large (20 ft) section of concrete up and move it about 200 ft outside the build we were restoring. The challenge was that we had only one sledge hammer that was falling apart and that was when we met Tucker, a large Jamaican who became our good friend. We began each day with a prayer sessions and invited the local men, God was at work having us reach out to men. This nation, like ours, needs men to stand strong for righteousness and respect of others...to serve. We completed other projects, painting a 40 ft movie screen, Jeff and I are no longer afraid of heights. The media came Thursday night as we opened the Ambassador Theater again to the community with a movie and event night inviting all the community to attend.

The week ended with the "Best Dress 50 fest", an event that local business man sponsored for a week long celebration for Jamaica that had three locations and many events all FREE. Again Gods plan, we thought we were going to be ministering to kids and locals, but instead we were assigned "Security" duty standing a fence line for 9 hours each day. God's plan,while standing the fence we had the opportunity to talk about Jesus with so many people it as amazing!!! God was everywhere! http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20080505/ent/ent1.html . Many, as Jeff ran into the crowd asking "who needs Jesus??", accepted Jesus as their Lord or came back to Jesus during our 10 day trip. God was everywhere!!!

On this trip I learned from many. From the Jamaicans, that although we know Christ..we all struggle with sin and need a savior. From the mission group how God, works his plan and we need to make ourselves available no matter what He requests. Finally I would like to thank all who supported us with your paryers...my biggest lesson learned...Pray about everything and worry about nothing...God has a plan and his plan is LOVE...let it grow inside us all!!!

Respect Him Mon! Be Blessed

God is like the Surf

Today, Jeff and I, take off on our mission trip to Jamaica. I thank everyone for your support and prayers. This week was amazing, I started with too many things going on, work, home, crazy schedule stuff getting in the way. Then I read, "...do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." Matthew 6:34. Also I was given so much strength through fellowship and love of friends around me...strengh and some times a good kick in the rear...Thank you!

I can hear Bob Marley singing..."Don't worry, about a thing, every little thing going to be alright..." So I pray, and he answers. Thank you Father for all the blessing you are pouring on me, giving me the ability to serve you and tell all about the good news, Jesus saves!!!

So God is like the surf. I was given the best birthday present this week. Dom and I had run to see what the beach was doing just before sun down. As I stood praying, thanking God, Dom said "Dad, you know God is like the surf, He keeps answering our prayers like the waves...it never stops". WOW, what an awesome thought...Thank you for my son.

OK, off to work. I will attempt to keep you all updated on our mission.

Make it real!!!

Al

Ready or Not...

This week I began to read/write in my "Spiritual Journal" in preparation for our trip in 3 weeks. The first few sections echoed many of the thoughts that enter my mind...

• Do I understand the Word enough to be effective


• Have I trained my body to follow His path, be self controlled


• How will they hear...will they care to hear what I have to say

Then this..."Pray about everything and worry about nothing"...Pray and He answers!


Jesus took 12 ordinary men and changed the world. WOW more Love, more Power


Everyday I realize new exciting gifts...people, I love people and nature...like the moon and stars tonight. I also think a lot about this one...God knew me before I was born, WOW...He set me apart. He is with me ALWAYS....cool stuff


God said "Never will I leave you, never will I forsake you" Deut 31:6 David said "The Lord is my Helper; I will not be afraid. What can man do to me?" Psalm 118:6.


Everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved, but what if they have never been told about Jesus and the good news? I will not second guess the power of the one who is inside me, I just have to make myself available, He will do the rest!

It's Sherpa Al calling..."More Love, More Power, Jesus send it to me"!!!

Touch a Life

We need to have a "Boldness" about this amazing gift from God. I received a note this month that told me "Get out of the boat", Walk on Water, trust in the power you been given. Everyday a further understanding of an amazing realism. This gift given, the Spirit inside me, is the same powerful Holy Spirit that was inside Jesus which he received after being baptized by John. How Jesus must have felt hearing the Father saying how "pleased" he was with his Son...I need to tell my son how proud and excellent he is everyday.

This month it is not my ability but availability that He is using. The Spirits renewing of my mind has been a constant process of God speaking to me through events around me, reading the word, conversations with guys at First Baptist Jensen Beach and my dearest Friends. The Holy Spirit is on the inside doing a major remodeling...but trusting the guidance isn't easy. What did you say "walk on water?, get out of the boat?"...you will not always be led into comfortable situations. Our human frailty is often effected by FEAR, False Evidence Appearing Real. Trusting in His strength, knowing the testing is part of our maturing, it is this proving that make us most real in Christ.

The ability to share Jesus and the gift I have been given is becoming a daily occurrence. Opportunities to "Touch a Life" by sharing is exciting. Two weeks ago I had the opportunity to see the Passion of Christ acted out at St Martins. I prayed, "Please Father, let me hear your words tonight"...Wow 2 seconds later the pianist read the same scripture I was meditating on and had written in the earlier blog entry..."through my weakness...", the next hour I was a sloppy mess, thank you Kim for the tisues...I needed a box full...God was speaking to me.

Later that week I had took a truck load of surf groms, Dom, Cole and Hunter to Cocoa Beach. We surfed for the next 48 hours, well they did I carted them around. OK that night, Good Friday, on a 30ft big screen at the beach, under the stars with the waves crashing in the background we watch "Walking on Water" http://www.walkingonwater.com/. a movie about young groms that come to understand Christ on a surf trip around the world..The next day one of my boys pickup a "Surf Bible" from the Christian Surfers stand at the beach, (it's a God thing, how is all this Jesus stuff at Cocoa Beach???),..I told him.."you know thats a really good book, if you have an questions let me know"...when I dropped them off at home that night he was searching for it...Get this he wanted to read the Bible...AWESOME...I was walking on water and jumping out of the boat the rest of the weekend Jesus is Arisen it's Sunday morn!!!

Thank you all for keeping Jeff and I in your prayers. We will be Kingston, Jamaica in 30 days doing Gods work, serving all that we can present the opportunity. Can't wait to see what is next in this Life Change...

Thank you all and God Bless,

Al

Walk by faith - How do you know?

How do you know?

Wouldn't it be nice if life had road signs like this? A mapped plan, open door, notes, food, the basics like Leslie had for us at 3 am Thanksgiving day after a long journey north.

Well, God has been putting up major Post-it notes for me this week. It started with that thank you letter from Kim, "FAITH" was engraved on a medal with a feather (think its from an Albatross not a Phoenix...more later). Next was Curtis, a tattoo ladened biker dude from the mens group on Tuesday, he talked about his life change. Change was recent for him as well, he spoke of the before and after man he was, changes he could not explain. Curtis told us about how the Word, the Bible, how it became a daily part of his life, he said "the Bible got smaller after he accepted Jesus". WOW, I could so totally relate, I can't get enough of the Word!

Next was the early morning radio station on the alarm clock. The radio preacher began with "How do you know?", let's look in 1 John for some direction, guidance, to better understand if we have been saved. Is the Holy Spirit really inside me? I grabbed my Bible and journal, started taking notes...he start with 1 John 1 Desire, seek, read the Bible - OK that is me these days..."seek fellowship with other believers" 1 John 1:7 - check #2 lately I have been going to three different churches looking to engage in many different children development or outreach opportunities, then the mens Bible study Tuesdays, Wednesday Grace Place, FBJB, or TC3, Sunday teach 3-4Th graders (they are teaching me more) cool....check #3

"If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us" 1 John 1:8, I sin and if asked God forgives, but lately I have a greater sense of my sin, something inside telling me, now more than ever, not only my sin but others around me, I feel sadden by what I see... especially the affects on the children..."we have come to know him if we obey his commands"..."if anyone obeys his word, God's love is truly made complete in him" 1 John 1:5...this is the peace that Curtis spoke of, he told how life's craziness was now gone. This is how I felt, through this past years painful ripping apart of our marriage, our family...I felt an unexplainable peace inside me, not anger....

How do you know? - "Do not love the world or anything in the world" 1 John 2:15, WOW now my understanding is God is not telling me not to love people or His creation but the worldly stuff, money, power trips, casual sex, Jack Daniels...Everyday I change more, it's my choices, feeling that this world is not my home any longer, just a gLife training ground. My human spirit has been replaced by the Holy Spirit, causing an inner passion to grow by Faith in Him who made me ,through His Word.

Everyday I am blown away by the fact that Jesus died for me....who am I?...all so I can call God, the Big Guy who created all things, Father, he picked me...I am child of God...communicating with Him, a daily relationship...MAN this is AWESOME!!!

Pastor Paul, FBJB, has been talking about a Strange People..who we are, those that know me can relate, and how we feel in this world...more road signs...

So....This is how I know, and therefore..."Whoever claims to live in him must walk as Jesus did" 1 John 2:6...WOW big shoes or sandals to fill..Hope this note might help others that have questions like Curtis and I....and now you know.

Keep you posting on the gLife journey and God's road signs. Make it Real !!!

Who are you praying for?

My life...seemed to be filled with endless luck, built on self-confidence, pride. It was how I was forged at a young age - survive! Growing up as a fatherless boy with two brothers seemed normal, mom made the best of it, spent lots of time outside with my grandpa, mom married again. As a teenager I felt alone, angry, started drinking to numb my life. I wanted to get out...escaped NYC by joining the Air Force, just wanted out, but I was drawn back to marry a hometown girlfriend at a young age. She was in terrible pain and I thought I could help change her. I was wrong! Six years later seizures, suicide attempts, eating disorders continued, I continued to drink to numb my life...I was tired and wanted to get out again...divorce #1.



Party time...new freedom, life without sickness, worries...I quickly fell head-over-heals in love with my beautiful new bride. She made life fun again, risking it all, adventure, dancing in the rain!!! We jumped in a car and set out to stake our claim, to make it! Four years later our son was born, we wanted to give him all the worldly things we did not have growing up...family, stuff, stability. Life rolled on, attempted to expand our family....no luck...I began to take and make it, continued to numb life through drinking as pressures built, moving up the corporate ladder, sacrificing family time for financial gain...thinking all was well back home..."I was in control", but the reality was I did not listen, could not hear or feel what meant the most to me in life...numb. The crash - train wreck - after 16 years life dream #2 was over, divorce (D2), again...I hit rock bottom, no confidence in life. Something always was always missing, what could it be?



Saturday morning, what am I going to do, wanted to run...get out...my son and I drove around, talking, passed in front of his school he said "let's go to church, dad". What? We had not gone before, Sundays were for fishing and drinking...OK, "what church do you want to checkout?"...he told me of this "Rock-n-Roll' church he had attended with a friend. We did not know how life was about to change for us, mom was leaving and I was about to find what was missing...



Sunday morning..."Life Change" it stated in big letters across this large painting, the bloody body on a cross, with his hand reaching out...I knew it was Jesus but did not think anything of it... then the pastor spoke about the wilderness, how we have all sinned, yet God loves us, sent his only Son and if we believe in him we are never alone...we are "born again"...I LOST it, cried like a baby...can't remember the last time I showed any emotions, I felt like the pastor was talking directly to me, like no one else was around...did he know me, what I was feeling?



As our life change was happening, adjusting to the D2 process, I was not feeling life's pressure and needed to know more, what was going on?...purchased a Bible, could not wait to hear more about Christ on Sunday. A few weeks later I asked Jesus Christ to be my Lord and Savior...went to see the pastor, wanted to know what was going on with me...felt different, expressing feelings, letting go...I am not in control and it's OK, BTW no more Jack Daniels, no more numb life...I want to feel everything!!! The pastor suggested I read "Born Again" by Charles Colson, on page 117, I could totally related to Mr. Colson's experience...this is how I felt when I gave all of me to Jesus.

Paul writes in the Bible asking God to take away his thorn of the flesh... "And He has said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for power is perfected in weakness.’" Most gladly, therefore, I will rather boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may dwell in me. Therefore I am well content with weaknesses, with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong".—2 Corinthians 12:9-10 (NASB)

Thank you for praying for me and I wanted to make sure you know who I am, my weakness, I am letting God do the changing from now on, from the inside out.....

Jamaica 2008 trip

Dear Friends,
I wanted to bring you up to date on what is going on in my life, as most know I have experienced a major change. I really did nothing to deserve these amazing things that happen yet in January of 2007 God reached me and began to change me from the inside out. Over this past year God has done some incredible things in my life and because of this, I am excited to share my present opportunity with you.

I will be going on a short-term mission trip with DELTA Ministries International (DELTA). DELTA is an interdenominational evangelical organization specializing in Short-term and Mid-term missions by supporting the ongoing work of local churches nationwide. DELTA also provides a variety of services that help churches ensure their short-term mission team is prepared and ready to serve when they arrive on the field.

By April 25th, my training will be complete and I will fly out of Ft. Lauderdale International Airport and arrive in Kingston Jamaica ready and excited to serve. I will be helping the missionaries with their daily work as well as helping several special projects and the Jamaica 2008 event http://www.jamaica08.com/ . We might find ourselves conducting open air meetings, distributing literature, leading Bible studies, working in children's ministries or doing work projects. Whatever we do, I am certain that God will use us to further His kingdom.

I am excited about what God will do through my team and me this spring, and I can hardly wait to go. Of course, I can't make it there on my own. I am going to need a lot of help. First, I will need prayer support. I need to have at least 10 prayer partners: people who will pray for me every day that I'm in ministry. This form of help is vitally necessary to the success of the team. So please consider committing to be one of my prayer partners.

Thanks again for the interest that you have shown in my life. You have been a great encouragement to me. I look forward to sharing with you all that God accomplishes this spring. He is so AWESOME……how great is our GOD!!!!

In Christ,

Al Cannon
PS. I am going to Cuba on another mission trip in September…….