This is New Life

"If any man is in Christ, he is a new creation."

"When I get baptized, I'm not going to wait until the weather warms up, I'm going right into the water, I don't care if its cold. When I think about everything that (Jesus) did for me, how could I not get into the water, no matter what temperature it is!"

"This is the first study I understand. I never understood any of the others like I understand is one."

(After the decision was finally made to trust Christ).

"Before when I went to church, I didn't want any (of my friends) to see me. Now I want them all to see me... Now I invite them to come with me!" 

"I want to start reading the Bible. What do I do?"

These are precious unsolicited thoughts from a new believer. Few greater joys than seeing the gospel come to life. 

You Heard it Here First (well, almost)

As we say in Portuguese, there are a lot of novidades in the family, and several great news pieces worth sitting down and writing about. This however is one of the most noteworthy. Enjoy the family fotos: 

Igreja Biblica Batista de Estancia Velha... 4 years in the making

A Repost

We have been "around the world" in the last month. Ok, so not really but sometimes we imagine that we might feel like it ever had been around the world. I think I'm getting older ... but long airline flights have not been kind to me in recent travels of ours.

I have many possible subjects of which I could write but alas, not the time to sit down and develop something edifying or newsy. Perhaps that will be coming in the next day or so. At the beginning of the month we were able to participate in a couple of memorable family events, one of which I wanted to take advantage of and blog about today. On the last day of January, Grandpa Duane passed from this life to the next. What a joy we have in knowing the promise of the Savior that, "He who has the Son has life!" It was a special day of celebrating the life of a man who in a few short years impacted many in the Ortler family.

Unfortunately, my times with grandpa Duane were limited and sporatic but one memorable occasion in 2006 earned a blog post in the very earliest of days in the life of the blog that is currently known as "Grace, and Nothing More." Follow this link to read what we wrote about Grandpa Duane. I still remember the sound of the fish as it flopped around on the ice after coming out of the water.