2008, 2009

Well another year has come and gone, and all has been well. God has truly blessed, I am doing fine, aside from aches and pains, but all is well. I find it so hard to write anything down, and I am not sure why though. I do know this, That all is good, do I struggle, yes. Who doesn't though, Those that know Bro. Frank Pittman, please continue to pray. He has stage 4 cancer and it is not good, It is in his lungs and his throat. What hurts him the most is the fluids that build up in his lungs. They have drained out so much. The family hopes to take him to Baja to treat his cancer there, there is a hospital called Hope fro Cancer that treats the cancer only that wont hurt his body. Just pray for him though. I believe God can heal him.
Bro. Sammy Allen will be with us soon as well for a 2 week revival. And I cant wait. He will be in Odem, Texas next week and we hope to go see him Friday night. It will be a long drive, but well worth the drive. I have always enjoyed revival in Odem. God is ever present there during revivals.
Well, have a Happy New Year!!!!!

He is Coming Again!

Diana's Friend Meagan took this random shot today and I had to have it, They were on there way to a wedding when she took it, After I downloaded it to my computer I put it on Picasa and did some adjusting and this is the finish work. I added a scripture that this picture reminded me of. The original picture is lighter, but I darkened the surrounding and emphasized the sun. I now have it on my desk top.

Another Christmas in La.

Well at the time of this post it is almost Christmas, God has truly been good to us here and it has been so true this year. This has been the best year of our Christian life here in La. Yes we miss our parents and family and of course our friends, it truly has been great. This year God has giving me and Melinda the Jobs that best suit us and our kids are chucking along in there schooling, Diana in college and John John in home school. Diana already has her foot in on a job with Leevac and that is great, She got hired during her break to do some filing work that pays her $10.00 dollars and hour and they like her work ethnics, so that is good for her. And Melinda with her job has over and abundantly been blessed at her work. My self at Oustalet Chev. has been a blast. Lots of liberty there. I can go on and on, but it is God who has giving all, and we just like to thank Him. No matter what happens in 2009 we know that God will still be in control.

Please Pray

A preacher that has become one of my favorite preachers and a friend was told this week he only has 2 to 4 months to live. He has cancer, and it cant be removed by surgery. We just got the news Wed. It is such a blow, I liken Bro. Frank as our modern day Lester Rollof, He is a preaching machine, When we had him down during revival we had 2 come to know the Lord as savior. He is also a funny man. I put a link to his preaching library and I encourage you to listen to his messages. To his friends he is known as No Lip Pittman. He almost blew out his lips as a young man trying to impress a young lady by putting a air hose to his lips and pressing the trigger. He had some stories when he preached. Please pray for Bro. Frank, I believe what Doctors cant do God Can.
Still Sporting, is a message you should listen. It will encourage you as a Husband and a Father, it is also a funny message.
http://www.evangelistfrankpittman.com/Listen.html

Cha Babe

Well we just got back from Bro. Ralph's funeral. I still cant believe he is gone. I miss him already so much. No matter what he was real. Told it like it is, or at least what he felt. He always told me he loves he every time before Sunday School. Some man I don't know came up to me at the funeral home and asked me if I was Big John and After I introduced my self he said that Ralph always mentioned me to him, and that he loved me much. I don't know about you, but that meant alot to me. Considering who I am and where I live. He was a true Cajun man. He even bought me a suit about 7 months ago. He gave me 300.00 dollars and said go buy yourself a nice suit, so I did and I still use it. You have to have known Ralph,

Its Snowing!!

Can you believe it is snowing again. For the Yanez family it has been only twice that we have seen snow. Me and John had a good snowball fight, then Tod came over and Diana was ready with a snowball in the house, so when Todd knocked, and John opened the door, Boom Diana got him. we went outside and it was war. You can see John ready to throw a Snowball at Todd. It was great. These are good times for some great memory's.

Oh by the way the wedding is off, Todd yells,"Look Bro. John.", and so I look and Bam, Got me right there, Melinda was taking pics and when she took the pic I was just reacting to the pain. She was like John, and I was like the pain!

A Fathers Downward Spiral.

Where did I go wrong, what ever happened to, Daddy you are the only one in my life, Daddy you are my boyfriend. What ever happened to that little girl. I miss that little girl I brought home form the hospital. I was the first man in her life. Where did I go wrong. I did not plan on bringing my daughter to Louisiana to lose her. Where did I go wrong, did I fail. Did I lose my ever loving mind. What the heck is going on, I feel like my worlds are colliding, it is not a good feeling.........
Ok I had to get that out of my system, I am so proud of my daughter. Today her boyfriend asked her to marry her and like a idiot she said yes, oh wait had one more in me. And off course she said yes, We had it all planned out and it worked out great. She was so surprised. We set it up at the church today and had cameras going in all directions, soon I will post the video of the doom.. oh I mean the proposal. I am very happy for them. Todd is a wonderful man and I am happy to one day call him my Son-In Law. I am so proud of Nicole and I know she will make a wonderful wife and a loving mother. urk.. Melinda is so excited that one day she will be a Grandma, and oh man watch out, You think David was spoiled, watch out. Any ways this is a short post of how my world was turned upside down.

A Christmas Tree Farm

Today we went to the Christmas Tree farm to pick out our tree, and it is so pretty. This time though I brought along my Dewalt SawZall, and boy did it do the job. When we first came to Louisiana we went there and I used there hand saw to cut a tree down and it about killed me, but not this year. That SawZall worked awesome. Not only mine but Todd and his Grandmas tree was cut along with Bro. Eric's Tree as well. But wait that's not it. 2 complete strangers asked me if they could borrow my saw, off course I loaned them the saw and they were grateful for that. 6 trees came down today with the help of my saw. It was totally awesome, I felt like a hero today. I did manage to cut my finger though, and it hurts. I will try to post a pic of the tree once we decorate it in a couple of days. It is still wet due to the rain today. That's why it would have been tough to cut with a regular saw also. I guess that's why those people asked for the use of my saw also. Next year I am going to rent it out. (j.k.)

The First Black Friday I Miss

I had to work this Friday and I missed on seeing all the excitement and people fighting over good deals. Diana had a comforter ripped from her hands, I wish I would have seen the look on her face. John was bullied by some Lady's trying to get what he was told to hold on for. Some men were threatening to beat up anybody that would get in front of him to get a Xbox. He literally was laying on the pallet of games. Some other lady told Ms Cindy (Todd's mom) That she couldn't get any towels she was holding for and like the typical Cajun reach over her and said,"Oh Yeah, watch me." she took it and left. She is a nut. She scared Melinda because she was running red lights to get to the next store. It was crazy. I wish I would have been there.

The Lord Gave Me Liberty Tonight

Had a opportunity to preach tonight and God filled Me With His Power. Brother Howard dropped it on me Sunday night if I would preach and of course I said yes because it has been burning in me for a while. So I was honored to be called. He said to bring a Thanksgiving message, so I prayed and God had me to preach out of Psalm 100. That whole chapter is a Thanksgiving chapter. So it was fit for the occasion.
Now that church is over me and Todd and his dad are going to shoot some rabbits tonight. It is a delicacy down here to eat rabbit for Thanksgiving. These Cajuns are weird.

Those were the good years......

No not really, because though today is my first born sons 13th birthday he told me today that he does not feel like a teenager, In fact he said,"I feel the same." That in a nut shell is my son. Today he officially became a teenager. Wow 13 years old. I still remember him as a 1 year old playing on the deck of our mobile home in Harlingen. As a kid he was a good child, slept all night and ate all his favorite foods. He used to eat onions raw up until I saw him take a bite out of one like a apple and asked him,"What are you doing?" Well that scared him off of onions, so with that my wife would say."Thank you John Edward."
Happy birthday son, I love you so much, you are a good boy. I am also proud of you so much.
So with that I will sing a little song.
You say its your birthday, Taadaadaadaa, Its my birthday to,Taadaadaaadaaa. Happy, happy birthday baby, I know I'm acting kind of crazy...
Happy Birthday John Jr.

The Upward Pull

A little boy sat on a rock by the side of the road, holding a spool of cord, whistling to his hearts content. A passerby noticing the happy lad , stopped and asked, "What are you doing?" The lad replied, "I am flying my kite; its way up there in the sky!" The man strained his eyes, but saw nothing, and so remarked, "I don't see any any kite up there." To this the lad answered, "Neither do I, but I know its up there, for I feel the tugging on the string." By holding on to the cord the lad knew his kite was still flying.

In closing to this short message, I want to remind you to keep hold of God. You may never see Him with your eyes but by faith you will feel his tugs on your heart.

Lester Roloff once sang about, How there is something mighty sweet about the Lord, It really doesn't matter what the world has to say, there is something mighty sweet about the Lord.

God has been so good to me lately and I love to proclaim it, for He is worthy to be praised. He has blessed my family, home and church. It definitely has been worth traveling all these miles, There are times of hardship but yet God has been ever close by our side.

Its Caldo Time

Well today we had our first taste of the winter that is to come, so we figured why not start out right and make Melinda's famous Caldo, we even made home made corn tortillas and it was so good, the family is still eating while I am posting this message. Todd tried it for the first time and he has had 3 bowls so far, That boy can eat. It is good to have a taste of the valley every now and then. We had a tradition in the valley with the Deleon's, up until we moved here. My wife is the only one that makes it the way I like it, allot of meat and cabbage, and all that other good stuff.
The Cajuns have there Gumbo for the colds and we have our Caldo. I will take a Caldo every time, especially my wife's. YUMMY!!!!!

Thank You Veterans

Thank you for doing what it takes to defend this country, It is said that a citizen will never know the real meaning of freedom until he fights for it, and to our soldiers THANK YOU.

YOU SAY ITS YOUR BIRTHDAY

HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD,, WHERE EVER YOU ARE,