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Aaron Freeman Updates

July 13, 2009 by Pastor
Filed under: Missions, Pastor 

Below are the latest updates from our missionaries to South Texas, Aaron & Melissa Freeman. To see the pictures they have posted, click here.

2009-07-02

Well, it’s now July and our ministry has “officially” begun.  Not that we haven’t been busy the past few months preparing, but now we are actually conducting our weekly Bible Studies and moving forward with the direct aspects of the ministry.  That said, preparations in other areas are continuing.  While the group from Holly Hills was here they were able to clear an Aloe Vera flowerbed along the fenceline beside our enclosed trailer.  They also moved a large pile of dirt that was beside another flower bed.  Both seem like simple, unimportant tasks.  However, because of that work being completed we were able to move our trailer about 5′ closer to the fence and then move the bus into the grassy area beside the trailer (their was not enough room before).  That change, combined with the removal of the dirt pile in the driveway freed up parking for at least 3 more vehicles.  This will be very important as we begin to have visitors, as previous visitors (workers from Betania) didn’t really have a place to park and it confused them greatly.  So, this will certainly help.  We will eventually improve the parking more, either with cement or gravel, but this arrangement will work for the time being.  Today I am also ordering signage for in front of our property as well as on the main road, which will help people locate our facility and understand where to go once they arrive.  Our neighbor was gracious enough to grant permission to place signs on his property along the main highway, which will help direct others onto our road.  Last night we held our first “service” here on the property.  There have been others, but July 1st was the date we gave to the general public as far as our first service date.  We did not see any visitors, but are not letting that discourage us.  We are willing to wait as long as it takes for this work to move forward.  We are already conducting the services in Spanish, even though for now it is just our family .  This is excellent practice for me, and will help the rest of the family as well.  Until we have visitors, Melissa translates everything into English, which allows me to double check that I said what I intended to say!!  I am very thankful for a wife with a gift in the area of languages.  Yesterday afternoon I re-arranged the casita and moved our “meeting room” into the smaller of the two rooms.  Because of the dimensions of the room we are actually able to seat more in there, plus it is the room with the Air Conditioner!  At this time we have seating for 14 people, but will be able to add about 2 more seats in the near future.  As we grow we expect that Melissa will take the youngest children into the other room for a more child-oriented service, which will increase our capacity even more.  We will probably “max out” at around 25-30 people, but by then should be ready to begin pursuing other arrangements for a meeting facility.  Not much else to report at this time.  Have a great day!

2009-07-06

Ugh, is it HOT!  The last couple of days we’ve been hitting 109 degrees for the high temperatures.  Fortunately, it “cools off” to the lower 80’s and even sometimes the upper 70’s at night.  But, the days have been brutal.  Not a lot to report today, but we can share a few things.  This past weekend we enjoyed a special “4th of July” service at Iglesia Bautista Betania.  They had “patriotic-themed” services and then after the morning service they had a large “cookout” under the tent.  They were serving free Hamburgers and Hot Dogs, with chips and a drink.  The food was good and it was a chance to spend time with some of our church friends as well.  Today we had to continue with property work, despite the heat.  Braden and I started painting around 6:30 this morning, but had to stop by 10:00.  We are trying to touch-up the walls on the garage and casita and also paint all of the trim.  It’s hard to see the difference in the photo below, but the trim is now the same color as the “blocks” on the garage door.  Tomorrow I will paint the other door, but by the time I got to that point today the paint was literally drying as soon as it was applied.  We also began scraping the remaining walls so that they can be painted as well.  After we stopped painting for the day I moved inside to the “cooler” office.  I say cooler because it was much more comfortable, but it wasn’t altogether cool.  The AC in my office struggles once the temperature outside tops 100.  But, I was able to install the two new bookcases, giving me room to finally finish unpacking all of my boxes from Virginia.  I’m still working on organizing everything, but am glad to have my space finally coming together.  Also, this afternoon I spoke with a fellow missionary that lives here in Rio Grande City.  His name is Marvin Hooge and he and his wife are veteran missionaries with several works over in Mexico.  I offered our services to help him in any way that we can and look forward to the possibility of spending some time with him.  He also mentioned that they occassionally have leads of individuals that move from Mexico to our side of the border, and that therefore he may be able to direct some individuals to our ministry here as well.  Have a great day.

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