Jessica Marquez
Missionary to Costa Rica

He and his family are now Aim Workers in Ireland!

He was working at Enterprise Car Rental in NYC When September 11th took place...

My Remembrance of Tues. Sept. 11, 2001

All,

It is after 5pm here in Ireland as I write this email. Every year on this day I can't help but be taken back to that fateful morning in 2001 when the world as we know it changed. I think of Sean Waldron, a wonderful friend and fellow laborer in Christ who made it home same despite being in the 102nd floor of the second tower hit. I think of all the people who came into my car rental office covered in soot and dust and tears in the eyes looking for someway to get home to their families. I think of the American soldiers and all those who are with them all over the world helping to spread freedom and keep us safe. I wonder if those who experienced Pearl Harbor still feel the same way I do about 9-11. I think that they must. I will never forget the sounds, the sights, or the strange burning smell as the smoke covered my city. I will also never forget the way New York rebounded. How people came together and helped each other out in times of need. How America rose up after she had been so brutally knocked down. The terrorist will never defeat us because they don't understand us. They don't understand the tenacity that has been instilled in Americans from 1776 to the Alamo, from WWI to Pearl Harbor, from 9-11 to Katrina. America will stand as long as it is in "God we trust." I remember Mike Piazza hitting a home run to win for the New York Mets in the first baseball game played since the tragedy. I remember enjoying and not taking anything for granted. Yes my world changed forever. Not just the added security or the constant awareness that we all have now. I mean something different. I experience life now and I don't just go through the motions. I urge everyone who reads this to suck everything you can out of the wonderful life the God has given us. Don't let anything, no matter how dark or terrible it may seem, ever steal your desire to "live" your life to the fullest. Of the many events and circumstances that aided in the healing process, music played a major role in my life. I remember hearing a benefit concert on the radio. Elton John was there and dedicated "Your Song" to New York City. I remember the tears flowing down my cheeks as he sang "how wonderful life is that you’re in the world." To me it symbolized the joy and relief that I felt knowing I was still alive and kicking. My wife was still here and we still had time to do something. It didn't really matter what the something was as long we did something. I now try to love my family and friends more today than I did yesterday. To be a better Christian, husband, father, brother, and son than I was before. I guess what I'm saying is this. Life is wonderful. Life sometimes takes some really strange twists and turns that we cannot control. God made us and He will never leave us or forsake us. How wonderful life is that you’re in the world?or How awful life is that you're in the world? The choice is ours. As for me, it's a beautiful, wonderful life and if it's not right now I believe it will be tomorrow.

God Bless You All,

Matthew McFarland

September 3, 2007
By Scott and Linda Guinn, UPCI Missionaries to Mexico

We thank God for His protecting hand on our family!

We decided to travel to St. Louis, after our national convention in Tampico, Tamaulipas, Mexico. Praise God for 1,030 that were filled with the Holy Ghost, several healings, and victories!

We went to see our pastor's wife, Sis. Mary Dugas, and take care of some business in the area. After four days there, my family--my wife Linda, and sons, Nicholas, Nathan, and Neil--was returning to Mexico on August 12, 2007. We were an hour outside of Oklahoma City (where I was scheduled to preach for Bro. Mark Parker) when I asked my wife to drive while I went over my notes for that evening.

We Never Saw It Coming

About five minutes later, we came upon construction where the highway narrowed to one lane with a concrete wall on the left side. Speed was reduced to 45 mph. A tractor trailer behind us did not slow down and impacted our GMC Yukon at an estimated speed of 70-75 mph. This pushed us into the side of an Oklahoma Highway Patrol car and the stalled truck parked in front of him (this was all captured on the patrol car's camera). There was also a Ford Taurus with a mother and her 15-month-old baby that was caught between the tractor trailer and the wall and dragged several hundred feet.

Everyone except Neil was knocked unconscious by the impact. We never saw it coming.

One police officer witnessed everything, and another was responding to help his partner when the accident occurred. (God had help on the scene and on the way before we ever had the accident.)

The police told us there were many people who rushed to our aid. Among them was one man in particular who told those helping how many people were in each vehicle, and, as they extracted us, he told them what the injuries were with each person. He was there until the paramedics arrived; afterwards he was gone. No one knew his name or where he went!

Prayer Protection?

We were taken to four different hospitals by helicopter and ambulance, but one week later we were all out and thanking God for sparing our lives. One doctor told my son, Nicholas, “I don't normally believe in 'stuff' like this, but someone was looking out for you.” Another doctor told me, “I have been an emergency room doctor for 30 years, and I have never seen someone just walk away from an accident like this.” The Oklahoma Highway Patrol officer who wrote up the accident report told me, “Your boys should be dead; the hand of God was with you.”

We have received many messages of comfort and prayers but two in particular show us the hand of God. Kandra Robertson, a missionary kid in Tanzania, wrote:

“Sunday morning, August 12, I woke up with such a heavy burden on my heart for Nick and Nate. After having a dream about them the previous night, I told my sister, Tessa, 'I don't know why, but for some reason the Guinn guys have been on my heart all day long.' Off and on Sunday, I would say a prayer for y'all. As I was cleaning the kitchen after dinner, I prayed, 'God, I don't know what Nick and Nate are going thru right now, I don't know the situations they are facing, but I ask that You would be with them and put Your angels around them.'”

Bro. Alfonzo Gonzalez, our District Secretary and right-hand man in Puebla, Mexico, wrote:

“The Sunday of your accident, as I was praying for various needs before church, I felt strongly to pray for the protection of you and your family, that God would bring you back safely to Mexico. During my prayer, I saw in my mind your family traveling down the highway! Without a doubt God knew what was going to happen.”

The Update

My wife reported on the condition of everyone:

Scott--My husband is okay. His head was lacerated and he received staples. He has been strong helping all of us and running from one hospital to the other.

Linda--I was unconscious for quite a while but thank God everything is all right. I look the scariest J. I have stitches on my forehead and both eyelids, and both eyes are black and swollen. My arms, legs, and feet are also bruised. The patrolman told my husband they had blocked me with a sheet because they thought I was dying at the scene of the accident due to my lack of movement or response. God had other plans!

Nathan--His jaw is broken along with several teeth. He was operated on and will have his jaw wired shut for several weeks. He also slit his chin open and has several stitches. He was bleeding from one ear, but there is no permanent damage.

Nicholas--His liver was torn, as well as bruising to the kidneys and spleen. Two ribs were fractured, and he suffered quite a concussion. Thank God with time and rest he will be fine.

Neil--Other than a slight spot on his spleen and soreness he is fine. He was conscious the whole time and said that he checked our pulses to see if we were alive. He was very brave.

Thank God for every miracle he performed!

Mimi Wilson, author of Holy Habits, grew up as an MK in Africa. She tells the following story of God's goodness to her family.

During the Great Depression, a couple with three children felt God's calling to serve as missionaries in Africa. They had no money to finance a move to the mission field, but they did own their small home. If they could sell it, they would have the money they needed...but who would buy it? The economy was at an all-time low and people did not have the money to buy real estate. But they put the house on the market, trusting God for a miracle.

One evening as the family was on their knees, once again asking God for the sale of their home, he spoke to a woman across town, telling her to buy their home. She got on a bus, clutching her purse in her hands, and rode over to their house. When she arrived, she saw the family get up off their knees, and she rang the doorbell. "God has told me to buy your house so you can go to Africa." The lady drew money from her purse and made a down payment. The family was thrilled with God's provision! With the money from the sale of their home, they had the means to go to the mission field.

The daughter was sixteen when her parents moved to Africa. After a few years, she returned to the United States to attend Biola College. While there, she met a handsome young tennis champion who had played against a well-known tennis player Bobby Riggs. The two fell in love and were married. Soon after the wedding, the young woman discovered that the woman, who had purchased her parents' home, enabling them to travel to Africa, was her new husband's great aunt!

Upon graduation from college, the newlyweds also moved to Africa where they worked as missionaries for fifty-two years. During those years of ministry, they lost their household several times due to major theft, political turmoil, and the elements. All their wedding gifts and most of their treasures were taken from them. When it came time for them to leave Africa, they had little to call their own, and retirement in the United States seemed daunting. It would have been easy to worry about where they would live and how they would eat. But they didn't worry. God had been providing for them all through their lives. He would again.

Shortly before they were scheduled to leave Africa and retire, word came that the great aunt had willed the couple the very house that had been sold to her to provide the parents' first trip to Africa! It was completely furnished, down to the linens, china, and crystal! That couple was my parents. When they arrived in the United States after all those years, possessing only the suitcases in their hands, they returned to the same house that my grandparents had sold when my mother was sixteen years old. God provided for my grandparents to go to Africa, and many years later, for my parents upon their return.