Eddie Rivero

Passing of Rev. Mario Casanella

Rev. Mario Casanella passed away on July 17th, 2008.  Rev. Casanella was the former pastor of First Baptist Church of Santiago de Cuba, Director of the “Colegios Internacionales del Cristo” in Oriente, Cuba, and the Executive Minister of the Baptist Churches in Nicaragua for 18 years.

Services will be held July 18th at 8 PM at Trinity Baptist Church located at 3520 SW 97th Avenue in Miami (Rev. Victor Reyes, Pastor).

As a little boy growing up at “Iglesia Bautista Ebenezer” in Miami (and later on Hialeah), any time the Casanella's visited, it was akin to the Apostle Paul visiting our church.  The Casanellas left a powerful impression of service, commitment, and holiness upon my life.  “Don Mario” and “Mama Ena” were godly servants of the Lord that gave of themselves selfishly for the body of Christ.  Even in what would be considered their golden years of life, they continued to serve God with complete dedication.

Though we will mourn the passing of this great man of God, heaven is rejoicing at the homecoming of this humble servant.

I remember Don Mario teaching the Scriptures with a "Detective Colombo" kind of curiosity of the Scriptures.  If I "pick up" anything from him, I think it might be that. I can rember him shaking his head, putting his hand to his chin, and smiling.  He loved the Word of God.

Yesterday, I had lunch with two friends of mine and one asked me, who do you respect in the ministry.  I thought about it and the images that came to mind were people from my past like Mario and Ena Casanella, Rev. Manuel Salabaria, Sr (who aside from being a great orator was a life long Boy Scout and would visit our troop at church), Rev Modesto Lopez (a fiery short Mexican Baptist preacher that pastored 4 migrant churches in Central Florida at a time and prayed for me as a young youth leader), my first pastor, Rev. "Ñikito" Rodriguez (it was the first time I ever say someone pray and weep for lost souls), and my uncle, Rev. Eliseo Rodriguez-Velez who is still alive, "retired" and serving the Lord (years before it was popular, he was heling immigrants crossing the border of Brownsville and later helped AIDS victims in Puerto Rico in the 80's.

It's men and women like this that encourage me to continue the path of serving the Lord.
ER

Are You A "Christian”?

A man in the army of Alexander the Great who was also named Alexander, was captured by his own fellow soldiers after abandoning his battalion. He was found hiding in a cave and was brought before Alexander, who asked what his name was. He replied softly, "Alexander." "I can't hear you," the ruler stated. The man again said, a little louder, "Alexander." The great leader was shocked that this cowardly soldier would bear his same name.  Infuriated and not knowing whether to execute the cowardly youth or show mercy, Alexander the Great ordered with a stern and commanding voice, "Young man, either change your name or change your conduct."

Winners never quit and quitters never win!

Thomas Edison once mentioned to reporters that he had tried over 10,000 materials as filaments for his new invention, the electric light bulb. One reporter asked how the young inventor maintained his persistence in the face of so much failure. "Failure?" he responded. "I didn't fail!! What I did was successfully eliminate 10,000 elements which were unacceptable for my needs." What most people would call failure,

Edison

saw as the process of invention on the road to success. The ability to deal with so-called failure and then make corrections is a critical factor on the road to success. Everyone fails. Everyone makes mistakes and has painful experiences. Most people just complain about them, justify them or blame someone else. However, it's not what happens to us but rather what we do with what happens to us that makes the difference. Keep on keeping on, because the best is yet to come!

Scripture to read: Hebrews 10:35-36; Galatians 6:9; Jeremiah 29:11