Our focus

Hola to my brothers and sisters in Christ,

I have a request I'd like to bring before you. As I've mentioned in previous blogs Renae and I started a bible study here onsite at the orphanage for the junior high and high school students. Things started really well, we had very good participation averaging about 20 kids (boys and girls) per bible study! But things have started to diminish... so much so that last week only 4 kids came. Now don't get me wrong I understand that bible study is not a numbers game and the success of the study is not based on the amount of kids that come. However the hard part is the reason they're not coming. Allow me to explain.

These kids are not just "kids" to me, they are more like my little brothers and sisters. These are the people I eat my meals with, hang out with, go to church with, do "family" things with. Imagine (some of you won't have to) but imagine that you are on fire for the Lord, passionate for the things of God and desiring to live a Spirit led life but someone you're very close to completely rejects this Jesus Christ that you've devoted your entire life to. Pretty painful huh? Well that is what's happening here. Now if the case were that the kids loved going to church, loved going to youth group, loved the small services we do here at the orphanage, loved the Lord but simply just didn't want to or couldn't come to bible study, then things would be different, but unfortunately that is not the case. Yesterday Renae and I went walking around the orphanage reminding the kids of bible study that was going to happen that night and when we asked one kid their response was "no, I don't think I'll come." When we asked why, we were expecting the typical answer of "I've got homework or chores to do" but instead the teen told us that they hated bible study, that they don't believe that God or the Devil even exist. Now this isn't a kid that just came to the orphanage yesterday, they've been here for a while. Now if one kid had the guts to tell us to our face what they were thinking, there are bound to be far more who are thinking the same but just didn't open their mouths. Like I said before if I saw the kids here at Door of Faith Orphanage living Spirit filled lives and they simply just didn't want to come to our bible study, things would be different.

So please be praying for the kids here at Door of Faith. I encourage you to look at and imitate the way Paul prayed for the churches like in Philippians 1:9-11 " And this is my prayer: that your love may abound more and more in knowledge and depth of insight, so that you may be able to discern what is best and may be pure and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ—to the glory and praise of God." also look at Romans 1:8-12, 1 Corinthians 1:4, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4.

There are also some specific kids who I'd like you to pray for. There names are...
-Kevin
-Lulu
-Tyler
-Alexia
-Luisito

These are the kids who get criticized by others for their love and devotion to Christ. When one of these kids choses not to speak profanity they are criticized, when their answer to everything is "God is in control," they are criticized, when they're not looking for a boyfriend or girlfriend but rather serving God, they are criticized, when they volunteer to pray aloud before bible study, they are laughed at. For these kids I encourage you to pray as Paul did for the believers in Ephesians 1:15-19a "For this reason, ever since I heard about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all God’s people, I have not stopped giving thanks for you, remembering you in my prayers. I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better. I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, and his incomparably great power for us who believe...." I know that's already alot to chew on so I'll stop there.

I'm sure by now some of you are wondering why I haven't talked about my engagement. Yes! Renae and I will be getting married March 12th, 2011 in Placerville and if you can email me your address, you're invited. But the reason why this is but a small paragraph in this long entry is because our engagement and marriage although it means alot and the both of us are very excited there are still things that are more important than our wedding day. If Christ were to return in this instant we know our place, we know we'd be taken up with Him and we know we'd be at the good feast, the marriage supper of the Lamb. But we're working with lost souls, teens, friends who we love who don't know the Lord. Everyone one of the kids here at Door of Faith coming to know the Lord is our focus, our passion and our desire as a couple.

Thank you all for your prayers!!!

The element of change

Over this last month I have found myself asking, "what really matters?" (Sounds depressing I know but keep reading, hopefully you'll be encouraged.) Even though I don't live in the poorest area of the world I still can look out my window and see the effects of poverty right in front of my face. When you walk through the streets of a retired Tijuana garbage dump, the pueblos outside of Ensenada, or parts of the La Mision valley inevitably you're going to be surrounded by poverty, sickness and need. Our natural "Christian" instinct is to do something, to raise funds, to pass out food, to distribute clothing SOMETHING but Jesus says something very interesting in Mark 14:7 he says "For you will always have the poor with you, and whenever you wish you can do good to them; but you will not always have me." The words "you will always have the poor with you" rung very loudly in my ear. ALWAYS? Really Jesus? Always? So you're saying that no matter how big my food and clothing ministry grows to be; no matter how many orphans and widows I take in and provide shelter for there will always be the poor? Discouraging? Is it not? That no matter how hard and diligently we work, we will NEVER "fix" the problem of poverty. Now don't get me wrong, I know that the second part of that verse says, "Whenever you wish you can do good to them." I also understand the Matthew 25:40 verse that says "...to whatever extent you did to these brothers of Mine, even to the least of them, you did it to Me." I am in NO WAY discrediting the feeding, clothing or caring for the poor. It is a vital part of our Christian walk and was definitely a significant part of Jesus' ministry here on earth, but was it His main focus? Are clothing, feeding and educating the poor what our main focus should be? If we feed, clothe and educate a million poor people WITHOUT the gospel being shared, without Christ's name at the forefront of our efforts isn't everything we're doing pointless? If Oprah were to say... "Look, I've fed millions, look I've clothed and educated 10,000 African children this year," wouldn't we as bible believing Christians say "good job Oprah, where's the Jesus?" Point is, it is your job to allow the Holy Spirit to make you the element of change WHEREVER God has placed you; but not worldly change, gospel change. The change that that caused thousands to come to Christ on the day of Pentecost, the change that Paul encouraged Titus to bring about on the island of Crete, the change that is currently taking place all over the world. That is WHAT we're supposed to do! A while back I heard a sermon entitled "Jesus' favorite phrase" the point the pastor was making was that we constantly see Jesus saying the phrase "the kingdom of God is here!" We're in it, SHARE IT! Share by whatever means God gives you. If that's feeding the poor, do it! If it's clothing and educating underprivileged children, do it! If that's working at a desk pushing papers, do it! Wherever God has placed you, serve Him but MAKE HIS NAME FIRST. Glorifying Him MUST be our priority in everything we do... the praise of man is worthless compared to hearing the words "well done my good and faithful servant."

That's that guys!!!

How can you be praying:

-bible study is going wonderfully! I've got about 8-10 boys showing up weekly and Renae has 4-8 girls coming weekly to her place. Pray that the Holy Spirit would take over each and every meeting we have. Pray that the words flowing from our mouths would penetrate the hearts of each and ever kid. God's brought them here for a reason, there's no doubt of that.

-Oct. 2nd there is a large youth conference happening in Ensenada. We'll be taking our youth group there and are expecting a turn out of 200+ kids. I'll be teaching a class entitled "healthy relationships." Please pray that God would be preparing the kids hearts even now and ever one of us teachers to teach His truth and His word.

-Being that "element of change" I just talked about. It's still something I'm working on and will continue to strive towards. Pray that there would never be any timidity, or hesitation in sharing and speaking truth in EVERY opportunity given to me.

God's Sovereignty in preparation

I know it's been a while since I've updated this thing and if I were to sit and tell you all the amazing things God has done in the last 2 months or so you'd be reading a book and my fingers would fall off from some "type" of exhaustion.

Our youth group continues to grow!!!! PRAISE THE LORD! We are now at a consistent number of ~50 kids every meeting whereas before 50 was an average and we had weeks of huge attendance and weeks of very minimal attendance. I have the honor and blessing of being the worship leader for the youth group and it's been a wonderful adventure to watch God bring together our worship team and form the desire in everyone's hearts to depict an accurate view of what worshiping a true living God through song looks like.

I remember back to when I was 13 years old and at the time attending Camino Community Church my best friend Elijah approached me and asked if I would like to play the conga drums in the youth band. From there I learned to play the conga drums, bass guitar, acoustic guitar, drums, cajon, jembe, and later piano. God started preparing me 8 years ago for this very point in my life where He would use those skills He developed in me for His glory.... and to think that at that time all Mexico meant to me was a place where good food came from. It's been the little things like that where I look back in my life and realize that if it hadn't been for God's sovereignty and putting me through His perfect plan I would be struggling to serve where I am now. Continuing on the awesomeness of God's sovereignty I've met a wonderful girl named Renae who also is a volunteer here at Door of Faith and God couldn't have crossed our paths more perfectly. It just goes to show you that when you stop running your own race and start running the race that God has laid out for you, eventually you'll look to the side and realize that God's put somebody right there to run with you. It's cool to see that when 2 years or so ago I stopped focusing on creating for myself a relationship and just focused on what God had for me and how I could glorify Him alone; He in turn provided for me an amazing relationship that Renae and I get to use to glorify Him.

My current "long term" goals are this. Finish an entire year here at Door of Faith which for me will end in May, 2011 and possibly return to the states to go to some sort of bible schooling. Then, assuming I'm married by then my wife and I would then travel Latin American countries praying and seeking God's will for our life of ministry. Right now my heart is torn between countries. I love Mexico and can see myself living here forever but for whatever reason God has pressed the country of Nicaragua hard on my heart. I've never been there, nor ever met anyone from there but still it's weighing heavy so we'll see. All I know for right now is that God is definitely calling me into the missions ministry not necessarily church planting or pastoring anywhere but directing some sort of children's ministry much like the orphanage I'm at now. What exactly that means, I'm not sure. However I am sure than in God's perfect timing He'll reveal the need and supply me with everything necessary to serve!!!

Prayers:

youth group
-continued growth (still have 100+ kids in town who aren't coming and need the word of God)
-leadership strength. Not only do we need our current leadership team to grow stronger and more unified but we are asking that God would raise up more leaders (males) with righteous hearts

Relationship
-Renae and myself. We're starting fresh and taking all the necessary steps. A wonderful Godly missionary couple and good friends Brendan and Sarah Mayer have agreed to walk with us in this journey and provide Godly counsel, wisdom and prayer.
-being above reproach. Both Renae and myself are really bad at realizing when something "looks" bad and living in a culture where everything is based on how it looks... that can be dangerous. So pray that we would be wise in our decision making and the actions of our relationship and that MOST IMPORTANTLY that God would be glorified through EVERY aspect of our relationship.

Future
-Future... I'm not worried, God's got it. But there are those who are close to me who would like me to have a more "firm" plan but God hasn't revealed that to me yet so I just don't know.

1 month down... ? to go!

Where to start, where to start??? Let me start with prayer requests so that if you get bored with this entry at least you'll have the most important information.

1. A small core group of us are starting a youth group here at our local church. The bible study at the orphanage has been put on hold (at least for now) because I feel like God's calling me to focus the majority of my effort and energy towards the youth group and eventually I hope to form the bible study with the our core kids from youth. As of now we me every other Friday and in the 2 meetings we've had so far we've already seen God's hand moving! Our first meeting was a sort of "get to know each other, and this is what we're about meeting" but still the Lord brought 34 kids to our door. Our second meeting was the official kick off of our youth program and He brought 58 and we're hoping for even more this next Friday. Our goal is not to see how many kids we can get in the door, or to fill seats but it has been encouraging to have God confirm the need for a youth group in our community. So how can you pray? We are still a bit unorganized. A friend of mine Erik who is 30 years old and is a very gifted speaker has volunteered to do most of the preaching but still cannot take the position as a full time youth pastor because the job just isn't in our church's budget. Pray that even through his busy schedule that Erik would have the time to put the necessary amount of work into every sermon and that the words spoken would never be his but always be the Holy Spirit speaking through him. My friend Chad and I will be heading up the worship team. So you can pray that God would provide a team of dedicated, purpose driven worship leaders and that our ultimate goal would continue to be to bring our best before the throne of God and to lead these kids into a time of worship. The rest of our leadership team are our prayer warriors and in my opinion have one of the most important jobs! These are the blessed ones who won't be up in front doing the "fun" stuff but will be laboring away interceding on behalf of the kids, praying their hearts out, and building strong one-on-one relationship with the kids (as will we all) and eagerly awaiting their reward in heaven. We appreciate your prayers... Our God is huge and can do amazing wonderful things. The youth of this town are thirsty and are yearning for something to satisfy them, WE'VE GOT THE ANSWER and we want to share it with everyone! The Lord is doing amazing things in the town of La mision and I am blessed to be a part of it!



2. The crazy summer to come. Right now we are very slow, don't have many groups coming down but that's all about to change fairly quickly. Our summer is packed which is a blessing for sure but still we're in for a busy time! My prayer request would be that amidst all the craziness and hectic times that my personal relationship with Christ and the relationships all the staff of Door of Faith have would continue to be our #1 priority. I know from personal experience that when the days get busier and more things get piled on my plate unfortunately something I tend to cut short first is my quiet alone time with Christ, and I know that fault is found in a lot of those close to me too. WE CANNOT ALLOW THAT TO HAPPEN! Christ is our number one, He is the reason we're doing this and needs to continue to be at the forefront of our minds through everything we do!



3. Health. Not for me personally I'm as healthy as an OX! (a fat ox, but nevertheless an ox) My boss DJ is sick with bronchitis and has been for quite some time now and his wife has also been dealing with some health issues for the last year or so. These two are an amazing blessing to the orphanage and we would love to have them back in full health! Besides them two it just seems like a lot of people around us in our community are getting sick. Not just your common cold but serious illnesses, cancer, car accidents leaving people in hospitals ect. God's timing is perfect and we rest in that amazing truth but we still pray for His healing hand on those around us.



I think that gives you enough to pray for over the next month or so. Things are great here in Mexico, I'm moving to the orphanage by the first of the next month. I have been living at the church in town because it was never ok for a single male to live onsite at the orphanage but God worked on the hearts of the Mexican directors and has allowed me to gain their trust and they asked me to move onsite. This will allow me to be more of a help at the orphanage. There's only so much I can do between the hours of 8am-7pm and once I leave I'm pretty much useless there but now I will be on call 24/7 and always be available to help! God has also blessed me with a chance to go to Spirit West Coast next Friday. Another local orphanage has a booth at spirit west coast that I'll be helping run AND get a free SWC ticket! Again, thank you guys for your prayers and please continue to pray!!! I know it gets harder the more out of touch we get but I will make my best effort to continue to keep you updated. "The Lord hears the prayer of a righteous man" and I know that He's hearing many of your prayers... thanks.



Dios les bendiga,

Ernesto

Finally in Mexico... it's crazy!

So I'm finally here! Through many long doubles back to back and very generous donations, the LORD has been faithful and provided me everything I could have ever needed to get down here.
I arrived late afternoon on the 28th of April and left immediately at 6am the next day on a missions trip with the local church to Guasave, Sinaloa, Mexico to help build a new church, and encourage the local believers by putting a service on every night at different churches and 3 services on Sunday! After a 60 hour drive round trip I'm back and lemme tell you this, God is amazing and his timing is perfect!
After that last statement you may assume I had a really fun, good time in Sinloa but rather it was a little of the opposite. Yes it was fun and yes I enjoyed a lot of parts of the trip and for those of you who know me I sure did have a lot of laughs along the way but if I were to give the trip a title it would be "Sometimes God has to break you in order to fix you." The trip was hard. I don't have enough time to explain every little detail of what happened because that would take 10 days or so ;) but let me do my best.
Almost the entire focus of the trip was construction. I hate doing construction! :) But God worked with me. I'm not gonna lie, day one when we got to the construction sight and started cutting bars and mixing cement by hand on the ground I wasn't too happy. I was a bit bitter and a bit more frustrated. I wanted to be playing with kids! This town has to have some kids in it right? I kept hoping some of 'em would show up at the construction sight so I could drop the shovel and start a sweet game of tag... but it never happened. That night I lied in my tent on the rock hard ground because I forgot a pad, thoughts of the scorpions and spiders outside ready to crawl through the whole conveniently placed right by my foot and mosquitos, flies and jejemezes (spanish for stupid little satan mosquitos) flying around my face. Then I started to pray. "God, what's the deal? why am I so bitter? This is what I asked for right? I asked for you to bring me to Mexico, I asked that you would give me the privilege of serving your people here didn't I? So what's my problem? Change me LORD, make my heart break for these people. Let me have compassion on them, let me serve them with a pure heart!" Next morning, God began working...
Over the next 7 days or so God really changed my attitude and the funny thing is the trip itself started getting even harder! More "problems" kept getting dropped on my plate with more things to worry about but because of this new changed attitude instead of letting things upset me and ruin my attitude I was able to turn them around into glorifying God through circumstance! I could write forever about all the little adventures and things that happened.... 3 legged dogs, 4 8 year olds ridding 1 motorcycle down the street, 1 10 year old driving a truck past me, miles and miles of corn fields, eating fresh mango off trees, fish dinners caught and prepared the same day, the list goes on!!!! I'm be sure to get some pictures up here really soon too!
After this first 10 days or so I can't say it's been the funnest most enjoyable experience yet, but what I can say is that allowing God to refine your heart hurts, but is beyond worth it!

Dios les bendiga,

Ernesto

and I'm off!!!

This will be a much shorter post than the normal but soon to be followed by a longer one ;)

I'm officially on my way to Mexico on the 25th of April... SO CLOSE! God's wonderful faithfulness is amazing and so evident in my life!!! What an amazing blessing He's given me with all of you! Because of your prayers and your donations I am currently at a point where in the next 2-3 months I'll be completely debt free!!! This means at the end of my initial 6 month commitment in Mexico I'll have the option of continuing my stay rather than having to move back to the states.

On the 29th of April I'll be leaving for a Sinaloa, Mexico on a short term missions trip with the local church. This will be an awesome opportunity for me to grow closer to my church body members and closer to the staff members of DOFO that will be on the trip. I don't know much about what we'll be doing all I know is that it's a 28 hour drive ONE WAY!!! During the day we'll be doing some sort of construction and during the evening we'll be doing church services for the locals exhorting them and lifting them up!

Here's the thing about God's faithfulness... yes, He did provide the money I needed which is an amazing testimony to His faithfulness but the ultimate gift is still to come. Our God is faithful and just and one day He WILL return for us and we'll get to spend eternity worshiping Him! Can't wait, gonna be amazing!

I'll be sure to post pictures when I can. Not sure if I'll have a functioning camera but I'll do my best! Again thanks for the prayers!



this is why I'm leaving :)

26 more days!!!

Well here I am, 26 days away from starting my move to Mexico and to look back on the last 3 months of my life it is AMAZING to see how present God was through everything! My debt still is not eliminated but a huge chunk has been taken out! I currently only owe 3k more towards everything and plan on making another 1k payment before I leave April 25th.
How will I be able to move with debt you ask? Basically all this means now is that after roughly 6 months at Door of Faith I'll have to move back to the states to pay the remaining balance off. I've paid far enough in advance on my loans to keep me current until that point so after the 6 months are up I'll most likely move back to Southern California, get my old job at Olive Garden back, take 2 months to pay off the rest of my debt then go back to Mexico for good!
So what have I learned in the last 3 months? Well tons, but if I had to boil it down to one thing, it would be that not only is God in complete control but He desires for me to have a 100% trust in Him. When I initially made the move back to northern California I knew that I would be working 40+ hours a week to pay off my debt. My first problem was the trust that I put in my job. I had been making a good amount of money at my old Olive Garden and trusted that this new job would provide for me the means to pay my debt off rather than trusting that God would provide for me through my work. Then came the problem of fund raising. Before I moved back up to Northern California I had just assumed that because of my past history with Green Valley Church and Door of Faith that Green Valley was going to be my main if not my only financial supporter. However I found out fairly quickly that Green Valley as a church was not going to be able to financially support me. So there I was again putting my faith and confidence in Green Valley rather than having confidence that God would provide for me in His own way.
Through these realizations God has yet again, provided. Circumstances that from the outside seem "random" have now provided for me $410 of guaranteed monthly income. God has used what seem to be "random" people to provide for me. One of my monthly supporters is a friend's mom whom I've never even met. Another is a wonderful couple I used to work with who despite their new engagement and the thoughts of wedding and newlywed costs on the horizon, they have committed to monthly support. Yet another is a new found friend who I didn't even know 3 months ago. All this to say, God is amazing and works in mysterious ways.
So I'm ready, ready to go! My last day in Northern California will be April 25th. From here I will be heading to Southern California to spend 3 or 4 days catching up with friends in Santa Clarita then will be arriving in Mexico on May 1st to start the real journey!!!
I'd like to thank all of you for your support and especially for your prayers. This last 3 months has been tough. There have been many 3-4 day periods when I somehow survived on little to no sleep. Despite a failing economy God has brought generous people to my tables at both Olive Garden and Denny's and I know that this is all a result of God working through your prayers.
A few prayer requests:
-Current Door of Faith staff: Right now is a very busy time for them and they've been working nonstop for the past few weeks and it's starting to wear them down. Pray that God would be their strength and their comfort. That even through these busy and tough times that they would continue to lean on Christ for their every need.
-continued health: right now I have no major health issues and when I move, I'll be dropping my health care and medical insurance for cost reasons. So pray that God would continue to keep His protective hand over my life.
-Money: God has been extremely faithful in providing for me financially and I know that He will continue to do so. If God it's will I wouldn't mind somehow acquiring the 3k in the next 7 months so that I don't have to come back to the states in November but could just stay in Mexico.

If you'd like to make a donation please click on the "donate" button at the top of the page or sends checks payable to "Ernest Duke" to:

603 Canal street
placerville, ca 95667

Thanks

Dios te bendiga

I just got back from a week down in Mexico and let me tell you this, if I were to make a list of the best weeks of my life, this last week would take the number 1 spot. Let me explain.

I arrived on Monday the 15th with one goal in mind, find somewhere to live offsite for when I move down in May. The biggest hang up with this transition has been where I am going to live so that was my top priority and what I thought I'd be spending my whole week doing. I thought my week would be spent talking to people in town who may have a room for rent, looking at apartments in la mision and meeting with realtors but oh how wrong was I, God had other things in mind. It's amazing how quickly and clearly He made it know to me that this week was to be used for something else. There I was, mind set on spending a week in Mexico looking for somewhere to live and I kid you not within 2 hours of arriving on Monday a friend of mine at the orphanage came up to me and said "did you hear what Pastora (pastor's wife) said?" "no" I said, "I haven't." "I guess someone mentioned your name at the church and she said she would LOVE for Neto (me) to come live with us!" There it was, an entire week of work finished in 2 hours. Believe me I was so excited but puzzled at the same time. I went up to my room and sat on the bed and started praying. "LORD God, why am I here? 1 week of being here is me losing out on a weeks income. I thought you brought me down here this week to find somewhere to live. What do you have for me? Show me what you want to show me this week, show me why I'm here." Let's just say this, God's timing is nothing but perfect and there was a precise reason he had me at DOFO that week.



I went on with business as usual. Another volunteer and I made a run to a girl's house who used to live at the orphanage to say hi, then of course stopped by the panadaria for some scrumptious pastries and then up to pick one of the older girls up from school but still, no answer. Nothing had happened, things were just "normal" and as much as I was enjoying myself I started thinking I could be at Olive Garden right now working since I still have plenty of debt to pay off in 2 months. The next day however, God got the ball rolling.



I don't know exactly how to explain everything that happened in the next 5 days but my eyes were opened. Through testimonies and through God's word He made one thing very evident to me. Satan is real, the devil is real and he is doing and will continue to do everything he possibly can to pull me away from my walk with Christ and the closer I get, the harder he's going to pull. My entire Christian walk if you had asked me about Satan, demons or hell if you had asked if they existed I wouldn't have hesitated to say yes, of course they do the bible says so. But it was made real to me. Now I'm not saying I saw the devil or any demons or angles for that matter but God brought to my attention the severity of the spiritual warfare that goes on everyday all over the world. At first I was terrified, scared out of my mind then a friend came to me and said this "Ernesto, you can't give Satan that power that's exactly what he wants. The devils biggest tool is fear and in you being scared of Satan, you're giving him the glory. You must NOT fear anything but God. Take comfort in this, we win and Satan knows that." My friend was right what do I have to be afraid of? "For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord." Romans 8:38, 39 At my old college group in Santa Clarita we used to play a song that were those exact words from Romans 8 and believe me that song rang through my head for the entire week and continues to play over and over everyday. It's not that the Satan that roams Mexico like a prowling lion is any different than the devil I've fought my entire life here in the States but his methods are different there. Here we are so vulnerable to Satan's subtle attacks whereas in the part of Mexico I'll be moving to Satan doesn't have the tools he has in the states to deceive us so he is forced to take a more direct approach, an approach I'd heard rumors of but never truly acknowledged existed. Here in the states those subtle attacks can be through something as seemingly innocent as a "hello kity" doll or through the media, dirty humor or even through politics. Here in the sates we've surrounded ourselves with earthly riches to the point where we've almost invited Satan to come and live next door to us ultimately resulting in a nation of sin corrupt people or "lukewarm" Christians. "So because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I will spit you out of My mouth." Revelation 8:16 My heart is broken. I look around my fellow Christian friends and realize how many of them are "lukewarm" just going through the motions. I'VE BEEN THERE, I know the feeling and I know the comfort and security that the "lukewarm" lifestyle brings. But I desire that nobody would be spit out of the mouth of God. I am on my knees in anguish everyday thanking God for bringing me up out of the miry clay and setting me on fire for Him and pleading for the same to happen in my loved one's lives. I would love to sit her and expound on exact incidents and share with you specific stories but I feel that it would take me pages upon pages to fully explain everything that happen those last 5 days.I now know why God had me down there last week He was letting me know "this fight, isn't a joke and must be taken seriously." If I expect to fight as a warrior of Christ I must strive everyday to be pure and holy before the throne of God that no fault may be found within me. The first step of that process is cutting out the subtle tools of Satan that I've let corrupt my character for the last 20 years.



On a lighter note... I'm still here in P-ville and still trying to get financially ready for Mexico. Working the 2 jobs still at Denny's and Olive Garden but the income is not enough on it's own to get me down by my goal of May 1st. I know that for some of you even sending 1 dollar is impossible and that's ok. Be still and listen to the voice of God in your hearts if the holy spirit puts it on your heart to bless me financially, do it if not please lift me up in your prayers! It will be through God's provision alone that I raise the money needed by May 1st and it'll be through servants like yourselves through whom He works.

Send checks to:

603 canal street

Placerville, ca 95667

if you have a paypal account you can also financially bless by by clicking on the "donate" button on the top of my blog.

En Su manos

Ernesto

The adventure begins... before it starts

Let me start by saying this.... I really don't like blogging, love writing but don't like blogging and even though I do love writing, I'm no English professional so forgive me for my incomplete sentences and improper use of the English language. However, I feel this is the easiest and most effective way for you to know what's going on in my life and how you can be praying for me. So because your prayers are far more valuable than my dislike for blogging, here we are. I will try and blog no less than monthly while I'm still here in the States and no less than bi-weekly while I'm in Mexico.

As many of you know I still am not 100% sure that I will be moving to Mexico and volunteering at Door of Faith. While this is and has been my desire for the last 1.5 years there are still some little details that are being worked out and I have yet to get a definite answer from the orphanage director but I've started the "process" regardless. In December of '09 I moved back to my hometown of Placerville, CA to live with a couple named Mike and Kate Logan from Green Valley Community Church (GVCC) who graciously opened their doors to me and are providing me with a place to live and to save money while I work towards my goal of moving to Mexico. I'm still working as a server at Olive Garden just now I'm in Folsom and God has crazily blessed me with a second gig at Denny's working the GRAVEYARD shifts 2-3 times nights a week so needless to say, I'm exhausted. God has really been testing my patience and my desire to be a good witness to those I work with in the secular world. With the two jobs and being involved in youth and worship ministry at GVCC I haven't had a full day off in the last month, I've always got something scheduled but it's good and I am really thankful for the relationships I've been building at Green Valley and will be sad to leave them when I do. The enemy has definitely been trying to use my weakness when I'm tired to cause me to not want to do my daily devotions or maybe to not be a very good Christ-like example at work.... I'm not perfect and it's been hard, so pray if you would.



As far as my Mexico plans are concerned... I am currently at $-6,000.00 :( Because of a series of unfortunate and somewhat foolish events when I lived in so-cal I have that 6k dollar debt. 6k alone really isn't that large of a debt paid off over a year or even 6 months for that matter. The problem is my goal is to move to Mexico on May 1st, 2010. That means I have to make 2k dollar payments at the end of February, March, and April for this to be possible. The problem is my new Olive Garden in Folsom is much slower and I'm only bringing in around $1,000 per month compared to the $1,800-$2,000 I was making per month in so-cal, thus the need for a 2nd job.

I still have no clue how I'm going to make $6k in the next 3 months and maybe I won't. Maybe I won't move to Mexico until June 1st, or even July 1st, or never. I am a firm believer that my life is not my own. I am in His hands now and always have been. You know, little side note for you here. I've been doing a 365 study with my friend Brendan from DOFO and we just finished Genesis and just started Exodus.... It is AMAZING to see God's ultimate control and His pure faithfulness in fulfilling His promises for His people. At the same time we've been reading through Psalms, Matthew and Acts. To step back and see the unrelenting faith of the early believers in Acts, the faithfulness of David in Psalms, and to watch the life and ministry of my Savior unfold in Matthew, I have been extremely encouraged and convicted in this last month and a new meaning has come to the words "all scripture is inspired by God..." 1 Tim 3:16 Our God is powerful, wonderful, loving, just, kind, sovereign, and has me right in His arms, I need not worry. All that just to say that I know who am I, and am excited to watch God's wonderful plan for my life unfold. I know that God makes us passionate to serve Him and God has instilled in me a passion to serve at DOFO I cannot explain. It's like nothing I've ever felt before and when I'm there I have this unexplainable joy. There is no feeling like serving the God of the universe where He has made you passionate. I have a yearning desire to be in Mexico and everyday my heart aches for the kids at DOFO. I long to be with them and to serve them; I cannot thank you enough for your prayers in this journey.

Things to be praying for

-Focus. that throughout the chaos of my schedule that I would continue to focus on devoting the necessary time alone one on one with Jesus.

-Money issues. I know He will provide, but just that I would continue to trust that He will. Too often I find myself thinking I should have gotten a better tip or more tables in a shift and asking Him "why didn't You have them tip me more? every cent counts ya know?" So that I would continue again, to focus.

-Witnessing opportunities. Living up here and seeing old friends and talking to customers at work I'm constantly asked "so, why'd you move back?" This brings an EXCELLENT opportunity to share my testimony and how God's working in my life. So pray that I would have the courage and not only courage, but that I'd be excited and unashamed to share what God is doing in my life.

I do appreciate your prayers and if you feel God has put it on your hear to support me financially with a one time donation or are interested in being a monthly supporter (honestly, no donation is too small)

send 1 time donations to (while I still live in the U.S.)

603 Canal Street Placerville, CA 95667... checks made out to Ernest Duke




or for information on becoming a monthly supporter please contact me at 530.651.4469 or through email at ernesto42189@yahoo.com