Hell Fighters in Onalaska, TX

Len and I were able to participate in an evangelistic outreach to people who had suffered from a tornado on April 22nd, 2020.  The Hell Fighter ministry ran the program.  They are quite the eye-catching group, with their motorcycles being front and center!

 They also have their own worship team

 And LOTS of volunteers

 We worked alongside a pastor and his wife and family, who came to the church only last year in October.  Talk about a whirlwind year so far!

 Then we fed people, food made by Daren Skero, a guy who loves Jesus, loves to cook, and owns a furniture store here locally

 We had 2 services, 3 chances for people to hear the gospel:  In the hellfighter tent to put their name in a give-away, they had to listen to a 2 minute gospel presentation.  Then during the service, they heard a personal testimony, & a message given by the head of Hell-fighters.

This is the 2nd service, most of whom were volunteers.  The first service had about 10 people who came up for prayer and the 2nd had 1.  The kingdom of God expanded!

Happy Independence Day!

Well, the obligatory firework watching changes a bit when you have a husband suffering from PTSD, but I still like the artistry of the sparks on film

 I even put our own decorations out. . .err. . .on in our back yard!

 God was showing off His creation right in the midst of our neighborhood.  His was brighter, that's for sure, and a whole lot quieter.

Enter a positive test for Len for COVID-19.  Actually, the drama around that started June 12th (with a migraine-type headache for 2 days, then a mild headache and a bit of dizziness), tested June 18th, confirmed positive June 22nd, and released to return to work June 26th.  That was Len's timeline.  Because I was definitely contaminated by him due to our close proximity, I took an antibody test on July 1st, which is supposed to show whether  I had developed immunity to the virus or not.  The test was negative.  If you look on the CDC website, that means pretty much nothing. . .I may have had it, but not produced antibodies, I may not have tested late enough to produce antibodies, I may have had a false negative test for antibodies. . .in other words, not sure why I got tested in the first place.  Because both of us have quarantined ourselves since his diagnosis, we both have been cleared to go back to work.  Both of us also were compensated by the government allowance through our jobs, so no shortage of finances for us.  AND--get this--if you notice on the blog, we have been interacting with MANY individuals unbeknownst to us that we may have been positive, including a recent widow and her family when Len went to visit them when her husband passed.  Of course, we had to tell everyone we encountered that he tested positive.  They all followed up with tests of their own--WHICH WERE ALL NEGATIVE FOR COVID-19!!!  Praise Jesus for all the prayers that went up for everyone else's protection.  As you can see, no adverse affects for either one of us.  I noticed no symptoms whatsoever in my own body.  Neither one of us ever had a fever throughout the entire time, the one symptom that seems that the CDC is checking everyone for.  

The morale of the story is:  

So do not fear, for I am with you;

    do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

I will strengthen you and help you;

    I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.--Is. 41:10

I'm not saying healing or lack of symptoms comes to everyone.  But I AM encouraging everyone to not let fear win this battle.  The panic everyone felt at the first news of being around someone who tested positive--now I know what lepers felt like during Biblical times.  There were some very hurtful things said because of this fear, and THAT was so discouraging.  Talk about kicking someone when they're down.  It was a fight every day to stay positive, to not be overwhelmed, and to really trust God for the results.  I hope I grew from this experience because I NEVER want what happened to us to happen to others.  Thankfully there were also those who surrounded us during our time of quarantine (from a safe distance of course), and helped purchase groceries, and anything else we needed.  May we do the same for others.