A Little Stroll

Yesterday the family and I went for an outside adventure. Any time you take 10 children anywhere, it is and adventure, but this one was a planned adventure. We woke up and told the children we were going on a hike. They were pumped. Even our older children were excited, and that is always a good thing. We got this great idea from our friends who went on Sat., but we could not go, that was our crazy busy day. So the children were out of school, and we said what the heck.

The first place we decided to go was on the NW side of town by oracle and Magee. When we arrived there was not a single place to park. There were even cars double parked,crazy So we moved on. There was a sense of, oh no, now what. Christie and I had been to a place in Catlinia State park before. It was a bit more up Oracle and we had to pay to get in. We decided we could not allow these excited children to be in a car much longer so we did it.

We paid our dues and parked the car. The children were pumped. After about 1/2 mile in to the trail we hit a fork. One sign said, something pools 2.2 miles ahead. We were leery but decided to try it. That's a long way with 10 children. about .7 miles from that fork we hit another fork. Take the high road to the pools or the low road into the canyon. The children decided to go to the cayon.

These children are brilliant! The canyon was filled with water, and steeeeeeep canyon walls. Water falls all around and beauty that would take your breath away. I told all the children, at one spot, "The the first child into this water fall would get 5 dollars." They were not certain I was serious, until I pulled the 5 dollars from my wallet and layed it on the groud. Don't forget we are in January and this water is snow melt. Plus this place that I am asking them to jump into requires swimming once you are in to get to the edge and back out. After about 2 minutes of all the children giggling and looking at each other, you see Jordy flying through the air and Splash! She cam out of the water just as you would imagine a cat, shocked, wet and happy all at the same time. It was great!

We decided that it was time to go after 2 other children (David and Jyneen) decided to follow suit and get really wet. We had a great time and there was minimal teeth gnashing from the wet ones on the way back. It was great!!!

NOW !!!!!

So I'm reading through Gen. and I get to Chapter 8 where Noah has been in this ark for what I can gather is about 6 months. Plus or Minus. Keep in mind that this is probably one of those low times in his life. He is a farmer, not a sailor, then you throw every animal on earth in your boat and close the top. This is a valley in my book!

Anyway, Noah sends out a raven to see if the water has dried up. This bird keeps comming back and doing this for 40 days. How low can this valley get? After 40 days Noah sends out a dove and it comes back empty. What If we were Noah and the dove comes back empty? How do we react? I would be very angry and might start to doubt God. Does Noah go down this road? Nope, he waits a week and does it again. Sure enough the Dove comes back with a sign that this journey is about to end.

We keep hearing that we are a microwave society and that we want things done now and with out the wait. I am in that place where my life is at the cross roads and this message has brought it all back into perspective. I need to wait and be patient to what God has planned for me. Not NOW, but wait.

Falling Short

I made a pack with a friend to go through the bible in a year and blog about our experiences. I have to say, to this point, I have kept one day so far. I feel bad, not that I am not keeping up with the plan, but that I am robbing myself of such rich knowledge and wisdom that comes along with reading God's word. To spend time in the word of God is like having him sit next to you and whisper into your ear.

Our community has a blog, and one of the questions that was brought up was, what can you do to hear God better ( I am paraphrasing ). I would say spend more time with Him. If you are unfamiliar with someones voice and they tell you something you are not likely to listen. If your father asks you to do something, It could just be a whisper, you would be all over it. I think that is where spending the time in the presence of God can come in handy. Pray for me that I might get the strength to start back up again reading and get something out of it.

Golden Compass

I may take some heat for this post, but that is the way it goes, right. There has been a lot of hype about this movie, and the fact that we as Christians should not go see this movie, and tell our non Christan friends not to see it as well. I felt the need to see the move to educate myself and if the opportunity presented its self, and I was able to encounter a person that was not a Christ follower we might have some common ground to work on. I believe that is what we are called to do, build relationships and allow God and the spirit to do the rest.

I went to see this movie for the same reason that I went to see the Da Vinci Code. To get more knowledge. I am not going to go into whether or not I liked it, or whether of not you should allow your children to go see it. You need to make that call. I am responsible for 10 children and felt the need to preview the movie for myself. Am I going to allow my children to go see the movie, most likely not. I have children that that rage from 5 to 16 1/2. The older children that are more grounded in their faith I might, but for the most part, I am going to say no.

Time To Breath

This week was one of the most relaxing times in my life yet. Christie and I were given two extra days off this week. We are in the line of work that comes home with you. We work and live at the same place 24/7. After a while that can take it's toll. So when we get the chance to get away we try our best to do it right. That was until we started the dreaded BUDGET. This thing is 2 letters away from being a bad word. It is good to have one of these things (BUDGET) , but it can can take some getting use to. So we start this BUDGET 2 months ago and on our last break we did not give ourselves enough money to enjoy ourselves, so I began hating this thing. You know, the BUDGET. After talking with my bride, who by the way felt the same way, we decided to move some money around and grow that fund that allows us to have fun and still keep us in the red.

IT WORKED! ! We had a great time this time, and still used the BUDGET. There is a passage in the bible that is misquoted a bit more than I would like to mention. It is quoted often as saying,"money is the root of all evil." In 1 Tim 6:10 it states, " For the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil."

Money is not evil, it is not alive. Our love for money is A root. I capitalize the a because it is one way that our eyes can be taken off the real prize, and that is time with God through our Christ Jesus. All joking aside, a budget is a way to tell your money where you would like it to go. Money cares not were you put it. It is very obedient when you tell it where to go. It is when you allow it to go where your emotions want it to go instead of using you wisdom and discernment from God that you get into to trouble.

Titus 1: 1-9

A couple of weeks ago, we as a community started on the book of Titus. Our leader, Josh, spent a great amount of time with his explanation of woman in leadership. That is not what this blog is going to be about. Josh said a quote that resonated with me for a good period of time after that sermon. So I asked him for the quote, and here it is:

"We tend to assess leadership with a corporate mentality. Eldership can be thus seen as an achievement, as a reward, or as an opportunity for advancement. It is all too easy to assume that the elder's duties are parallel to those of board membership in a corporation. This can lead to a perception of elders' meetings basically as a time for decision - making, with the executive (the CEO, as the pastor may be conceived) carrying out the directives of the board. In this scenario, it is possible for elders to consider pastoral concern and care to be outside of their sphere of responsibility and to belong instead to that of the pastor. That is a common and serious misconception. It is corrected by Paul's instructions to the Ephesian elders in Acts 20:28 'to be shepherds' and Peter's to elders in 1 Peter 5:2 to 'be shepherds of God's flock that is under your care.' The examples of shepherding: the good shepherd in Psalm 23 and John 10 and our 'Chief Shepherd' in 1 Peter 5:4 also serve as correctives." (From Walter Liefeld in the NIV commentary)

I am on the elder board for our community and took this statement to heart. I sat and thought about it for some time and came to the conclusion that this statement is a confirmation. I view my duties in our community different than that of a removed board member. I see everyone that comes into the door as someone that matters and to get to know that individual. Maybe not as deep as someone else can, but maybe get them connected to another person who can love on them like I can't. If our entire leadership team felt this way, I wonder what we would look like in the future.

For a while now I have told my friends that I love their company, but I can call on them during the week for help or to socialize. My duties are to the new people that are there for the first, second, or maybe even the third time. My friends are totally cool with that and have started to do the same thing. I love it. What a great community we have.

Do It Again?

I was asked to speak again in our community. We are going to be going through the book of Titus in the upcoming weeks. I'm going to be going over Titus chapter 3. I thought I did really good when speaking on Transformers, but could have used some work with Shrek. Now I am being asked to speak on the the bible. This will be my first time talking twice in the same day. We moved to 2 gatherings in one day at the start of the fall and my friend said that it takes some getting use to. I'm excited.

I have been needing to get back into reading the bible on a more regular basis and so this is a great opportunity. My life has been turned upside down in the past month, and so I have been escaping through movies and video games. Not that movies and video games don't have there entertainment place, but the amount that I have been using them in, is excessive.

Well I'm off to go resonate in the word of my father. If you want, please read through Titus with us/me and give me some feed back. I love feedback.