GREETINGS TO RAYMONDVILLE AND WILLACY COUNTY in the name of the One Most High and Holy, our Lord Jesus Christ!

My wife and I first came to the RGV forty-one years ago to serve the people at the First United Pentecostal Church of Raymondville as pastor. Although we were very young and green the church received us with genuine love and great patience. Our lovely and talented daughter was born here and has always been proud to call the Valley home. Over the next thirteen plus years the church taught us well and we grew together as a church and as a family. We formed friendships in the community and within the congregation that have endured and deepened through the years. Leaving the church and community that we had learned to love was hard and painful.

Over the next twenty-five years our ministry took us through various locales and opportunities. We served as missionaries in Colombia, South America for ten years and we were instructors at Texas Bible College for five years. We pastored churches in Midland, Texas (my original hometown and church), in Athens, Texas and in Canton, Texas. It has been an interesting, challenging and joyous journey.
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Now God has called us full circle and has allowed us the honor and privilege to once again serve here in Raymondville and Willacy County. We are happy and excited to be here in the Valley once again and look forward to the great things that God has in store for all of us here.

We have a new name! GATEWAY UNITED PENTECOSTAL CHURCH. Our name is new but we are the same loving, caring church that has served this community for eighty years!

My family and I look forward to serving you here, renewing old friendships and making new ones. Come and see us soon! We will meet you at the Gateway and we will leave the light on for you (apologies to Tom Bodett and Motel Six). 

THERE'S SOMETHING ABOUT A GATEWAY.

​Rome wanted Calvary to be the end – it was said that even death could not stop the Messiah from saving His people. So they placed Him in a borrowed tomb and sealed it with a giant stone, thinking that surely this would keep Him locked in. 

BUT GOD IS NOT LIMITED BY OBSTACLES, DEATH, OR SEALED GATEWAYS.

​​The story did not end with Calvary – during the three days the world thought it was over, He marched into hell to take back the keys to death and the grave and then He returned in power and rolled the stone away. 

​​Medieval leaders wanted the Bible to be the end – it was said that Messiah would return through Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate to redeem His people. So they sealed up the Eastern Gate and planted a cemetery in front of it, thinking that surely this would keep Him locked out. 

BUT GOD IS NOT LIMITED BY OBSTACLES, DEATH, OR SEALED GATEWAYS.

​​The story did not end in Revelation – during the years He has been away, He ascended to heaven to prepare a place for His people and when He returns neither the grave nor the sealed gate will be able to keep Him from the people He loves. 

​​When God created humanity, He established a close relationship with them – a gateway into His presence that was always open. But sin invaded the world and it changed the nature of that perfect relationship – it sealed the gateway, thinking that surely this would keep God from us. 

BUT GOD IS NOT LIMITED BY OBSTACLES, DEATH, OR SEALED GATEWAYS.

​The story did not end in Eden – in the fulness of time God took on the form of humanity, gave His life for our redemption, then sent His Spirit to live in us. Calvary removed the obstacle and gave mankind hope for personal communion with God once again but seven weeks later, the Holy Spirit fell on the Day of Pentecost. Calvary removed our obstacle to His presence; Pentecost made a way for us to enter in once again.

This is the beauty of God. He saw you before you were born and He sees you now. He saw the times you would fail and the times you would succeed. He saw every tear you would cry and every moment of loneliness you would feel. Most of all, He saw the obstacle between you and Him and He moved heaven and earth to push it aside. 

THERE TRULY IS SOMETHING ABOUT A GATEWAY.
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