23 Weeks!! (max of 13 weeks left to go)

Hello there from inside Mommy's belly. We decided we would write Mommy's blog since she hasn't blogged for a couple of days. We keep kicking and poking her trying to get her to write, but she just lays on the couch. We know that she is working, but she could at least take a break to tell you about us!

Here is our picture from this week... well, we are in there somewhere, all crunched together! We are growing stronger by the day and we let Mommy know every time that we move! We love it when Mommy eats food and drinks water! It makes us happy and we like tumbling and swimming around, especially when she eats mexican food. We love the spicy stuff already!!

Our Daddy got an ice-cream cake from Dairy Queen for Father's Day from Mommy. It was the only one that only had straight frosting on it, instead of something weird that we wouldn't have liked. Can you guess what the decoration on it is? Daddy couldn't figure it out for a while. He had to ask Mommy what it was! It's something that we won't get to have until we are 21! Hehe!!:-)

Ah.... and here is our new changing table for when we come home. Mommy has been sooooo impatient for us to get here that she has almost everything set up for us to come out and come home!

Aunt Mimi is down here this week helping Mommy and Daddy clean house and get all our clothes washed and ready for us. We sure appreciate all she is doing! We wear Mommy out too much so she can't do the house work she used to do. Thanks Mimi, we love you!!!

Mimi also brought us a big tote of clothes from our Nebelsick cousins. They turned 1 year last month and don't fit into any of their old clothes. You should see their latest 1 year pictures on their blog at http://nebelsicktriplets.blogspot.com/. They are getting HUGE compared to what they were a year ago (we hear)!!

Mommy keeps saying she can't wait to see them again. We are pretty anxious to get to meet them, and their new little sister or brother at Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Rigsby's house is sure going to be FULL with 7 of us babies in it!

Here is the picture of the crib Mommy and Daddy bought us the other day. It will be the first crib we sleep in (all together too). Grandpa Rigsby is going to be building us a big rolling drawer for under the crib so we can climb in and hide from eachother!! Mommy says its to hold blankets and clothes and other not fun stuff. Hopefully she doesn't mind if we take all that stuff out and play in it once we can! We hear that this crib will be moved into our nursery once we all grow too big to sleep in the same crib. It sure will be a crowded room with three cribs and a dresser in there.

We are enjoying life in Mommy's belly right now. We get to swim a lot and then also go to the pool with Mommy. She loves doing that. We don't get squished against eachother as much when she is in the pool!!

Daddy actually got to feel C kick at him the other day! He was pretty excited about it and tried to keep poking C to get him to kick some more. C decided he didn't want to anymore cause Daddy was being annoying. We love Daddy's voice though. He reads us Bible stories almost every night (as long as he goes to bed at the same time we--Mommy and us--do.) We don't ever really get to hear the end of the stories though cause we fall asleep before he gets done. (Or maybe he stops mid-story and is just jipping us out of the end!!)

Ok, well, we just ate lunch and are ready for a nap now. We better get our sleep so we can grow and aggravate Mommy a little more before we come into this world!! :) We can't wait to meet you all. Only 13 weeks left at the most!!!!

A dose of conviction

Have you ever been sitting in a room full of women, most of them 40 years your senior, and heard the voice of the the Almighty God??

Well, I have been having that experience a couple of times this weekend and I have been loving every second of it.

I am at the American Baptist Women's Ministries of Colorado Winter Retreat at the Franciscan Retreat Center in Colorado Springs. This place is a beautiful, peaceful, serene place. It is a retreat center run by the Sisters of the Convent of Mt. St. Francis. Wonderful and very spiritual place. It is the perfect place to hear the voice of God.

I did not expect it to happen, but happen it did. More than once.

Friday evening, we started the retreat with an introduction and teaching from our speaker, the National ABWM President Terri Simpkins. She introduced herself and gave some of her life story. One bit stuck with me, and I knew it was God talking to me. She said that one of her sons (5 at the time) asked if Romans 8:28 was in his Bible. Just to save you some time here it is:

"And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love
him, who have been called according to his purpose."

I knew not what it meant for me at the time, but I felt the tug on my heart that I should study that verse some more before I tucked into bed on Friday.

So, turning in for the night, I sat on my little twin bed in the small 9x9 room I am in and read Romans 8, the whole chapter. I stopped and wrote down the verses that touched me in the moment.

"For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all.
Who hopes for what they already have? But if we hope for what we do not yet
have, we wait for it patiently." - Romans 8:24-25

"For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,
neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth,
nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of
God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord." - Romans 8:38-39

Do you see anything that could be relevant to me in those verses? I did, and I knew that God led me to these verses through Terri.

"But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently." What a conviction to a heart that is craving and wanting something that only God can give me! Many of you know that patience is not one of my virtues, but I have had to acquire a strong taste for it.

James and I have been trying for almost 2 years now to conceive a child, yet God has told us to "Wait!" We are to wait patiently. God just told me so last night.

I have felt far from God in these last couple of months. Why? I am not certain. Is it because I have been so busy with the holidays? Probably. Is it because we have been in a rut with our church? Possibly. Is it because I have been searching for something that has been there all the time? I don't know what I mean by that, but probably. I just know that I haven't been relying on God to show me His Will for me. I have been praying for it, but not earnestly.

So after my "epiphany" on Friday night I was expecting great things from the teaching this morning. And was I ever surprised to find that God was still there wanting me to hear his voice.

"Are you expecting a miracle? You won't get one if you don't expect one."

That is what Terri said this morning. What a strong statement to a women who just told her husband two nights ago that she was not confident that this round of Clomid would work!

God is preparing me and preparing my heart for what is to come. I know not if He is going to provide that miracle to me immediately, but I do know that we will get our miracle. I believe we will. I "expect" that miracle.

All the words that were coming out of Terri's mouth today seemed pointed directly at me. God had opened up my heart to receive those words and put them into action. I heard His voice more times in these last 30 hours than I have in the last (at least) 2 years.

I can only hope and pray that God keeps my ears open so I can hear, my eyes open so I can see, and my heart open so I can receive and discern His will for me, and for me and James as a family.
I know, I ran long, but I just had to share with you wonderful people who read my blog!!! :) I hope you all have a blessed day on Sunday and remember to open your eyes, ears, and heart to learn what God wants you to know.

An Amazing Race.... Hebrews 12:1-3

I am finally caught up on sleep, I think. I just spent the last week of my life hiking around Quaker Ridge camp for the ABCRM's Front Range Camping. It was one of the best, and possibly most difficult, weeks of my life.

I suppose I will start on Day 1 and give you all details of the week that I can remember. This may be long, so if you have to come back and finish reading later, I'll understand.

Day 1 ..... Sunday, June 15.....

Jami, from Gillette,and I set out to leave my house at 8:30. We didn't get out of the house till 9:30. Our friends Mary and Mike, from Nebraska, had come to visit and we wanted to spend as much time as we could with them. James said that they didn't leave until noon, so it was a good thing we didn't wait till they left to leave for the camp.

Well, anyway, we set out on the road and Jami and I got into talking about something and I missed my turn in Colorado Springs to Woodland Park! :-S That was very frustrating. We had to take a 10 minute detour to get turned around and back on track. Anyway, we got to the camp about 11:00 and unloaded our belongings into our cabin. The cabins the elementary camp was in are actually big lodges. They have 8 rooms and 2 bathrooms with shower rooms. I got to have my own room (which later on I will tell you why that was a blessing.)

The stress began!

This was my first year coordinating camp and I really did not have a clue as to what I was to be doing. Well, I had somewhat of an idea, but I was very nervous when those kids started showing up. I got a phone call just as the kids started to show to tell me that one of my male counslors would not be there! Talk about starting the day out bad! So I had to assign my camp pastor as one of my male counselors. (In the end it worked but starting out I am sure he wasn't too happy.) I ended up having 25 2nd through 5th graders under my wing, with 8 counselors to help me. It was fun!!!

The campers got checked in, and dinner was served by the Quaker Ridge staff. Then we had to join the whole camp, which was all grades (2nd -12th) for a rules and expectations and a praise and worship time. That seemed to work well and then we had campfire. Oh those kids did not want to settle down! They were soooooooo hyper, and LOUD. I think my hearing is going to take a while to recover.

After campfire I had to leave camp and run into Woodland Park, which is only about 10 minutes away. I had forgotten to bring a bunch of stuff, so I just went down to get the stuff. That started my week off badly, because I didn't get back untill about 11:30 and didn't get to bed till 12:30. At 1:00 I heard a big thud and thought it was just something outside falling against the building.

Day 2 ...... Monday, June 16 .....

Rise and shine at 6:00 in the morning because the girls were up and loud by that time in the morning. I had a feeling this was going to be the death of me! The big thud I heard in the night was one of the girls falling out of bed. She landed on her knees, but just crawled back up into bed and went back to sleep. Strange, but glad she was ok.

I woke up this day a little more confident in my abilities as a coordinator. We had breakfast, then the campers went to clean their rooms in the cabins and the counselors and I had a staff meeting. We organized things for the day and decided on how activity rotation would work.

We then went to chapel, had a camp photo taken, and went to the athletic field to play games. OYE..... I found out just how out of shape I was. The kids were playing a couple of games and I decided that the counslors needed to join in and play with the kids. So, thanks to me, we played a game of capture the flag... Counselors v. kids. Dumb, dumb, dumb. There were 25 of them, and only 9 of us. You would think that would be even, but they are all used to running around like wild animals. We adults weren't in any shape to do that in the least.

They won!

My favorite time of the day was coming up after lunch! NAP TIME... or what they call FOYB (flat on your back). I was so tired from the lack of sleep the night before that I was looking forward to sleeping! Alas, that was to escape me. I wasn't paying attention to the time and only got back to my cabin to get about a 5 minute nap before the girls were up and were loud again. I really should have moved my room from the same side of the cabin as them, but that would have been the smart thing to do, and I wasn't thinking like that!

Activity time was next. I have to explain how this went. We had 3 girls "rooms" and 3 boys "rooms." So we paired off a boys room and a girls room for "family groups" for the week. This seemed to work really well and they got too know eachother well.

Unfortunatly since Pastor Alvin (camp pastor) had a group of boys so he really did not have much down time to plan for the lessons later in the day/week. So he asked me if I would take his boys and watch over them during activity time. I agreed and we started out swiming! That was a lot of fun. They have a really nice swimming pool at this camp. Then we had Canteen, or for those of you who know WYOBA, snack shack. Once done with that, one of the other counselors and I took the family group to the horses.

YEP... they have horses. The kids are so lucky that have so many activities to do. There a couple of girls decided that they didn't want to ride horses. I wanted to ride so bad, but they have a 250 weight limit. I knew that I was just a couple of pounds over, but I decided that I would be ok not going. A little disapointing, but I thought I could go back and take a short nap.

Didn't happen! I got sidetracked into talking to a couple of people, so I didn't get a nap. Once the kids got back from horses, we went to archery! Oh man, that was a lot of fun to see the kids do that. We had 2 boys cabins and a girls cabin (because of some mixup) but everyone got to shoot some! Even the counselors and I got to shot. The problem was that the bows were just a little too small so I couldn't get a full pull when I would go to shoot. We got to do 9 rounds. Out of those 9 rounds, I snapped myself 5 times with the string! It hurt SOOOOO BAD! It formed a welt and gave me a HUGE bruise on my arm for the rest of the week. It was ugly. The picture to the left was taken on Saturday after I got home, so if you can imagine, it looked a lot worse than that picture!

The kids had a great time. Only 1 of them were snapped by the string, and he only did it once. One of our girl counselors was the only one to get a bullseye the whole week! I was happy for her!

Dinner time came and went, then we had worship and family groups. That gave me a little bit of free time. I just relaxed for the 30 minutes I had without kids. Then we hiked out to the outer campfire. This hike is about a 10 minute hike and none of us really knew where we were going. We just happened to take the correct turn at the fork in the road and came upon the campfire. It was so much fun.

We taught the kids the song "Children Go Where I Send Thee." It is a screaming song. Literally. The boys are on one side and the girls are on the other and they try to out scream each other. I figured with that, and a couple of other screaming songs (Little Red Wagon [more about this later]) they would not have voices the next day. I certainly wouldn't I thought. We tried to wear them out, but it just didn't seem to work. Dan and I stayed behind to put out the fire once the kids left. (Later I relized that just two of us was a REALLY dumb idea).

Joy of all joys... I got back to the cabin and was ready for bed by 10:30. All the girls were asleep so I crawled in bed and had the lights off by 10:45. I tossed and turned for a while, and was just on the verge of sleep, when I heard crying and shuffling around. I dismissed it as another girl falling out of her bed, when I got a knock on my door. UH OH... not good when you get a knock on the door. I got up and one of the girls had puked all over her bed and threw up a couple of times in the bathroom. EWWW! I hate puke. But the counselor, and CIT (counselor in training) got the stuff cleaned up and I took the girl to the nurses cabin.

Not thinking, was I, that the nurses would be sound asleep and I would not be able to wake them up by knocking on the door. Luckily, each coordinator had a walkie-talkie to connect to all the others and the camp director Mike. So I called Mike, told him my situation, and he called one of the nurses on the phone. She got up, let us in, we had to scrounge around to find some kind of blanket for the girl and eventually Mike gave up his sleeping bag for her to sleep on in the nurses cabin. (NOTE TO SELF FOR NEXT YEAR... bring extra bedding.)

I got back to my cabin at 1:00. Another late night.

Day 3 ..... Tuesday June 17.....

Again the early morning light came too soon and the girls were not exausted like I had hoped they would be! Up with the sun at 6:00. This week was not going by fast enough!

Breakfast, staff meeting, cabin cleanup. OH.... one thing I forgot to tell you. If you look at the map of QR you will see that there is something called the "Stairs O' Death." They are not kidding you when they call them that. Every time the girls had to go eat any meal, they had to go down them to get to the dining hall, and back up them to get the cabin. Down was not as bad as up. Over the week the girls ended up counting and there are between 55 to 58 steps (no one was certain.) However, these steps are not normal stairs. It is a set of stairs cut into the side of the mountain. It is about a 100 foot climb to the top and the stairs are NOT even. Some of them are as tall as my knees, some are just like regular steps. Needless to say, Stairs O Death is like the stair climber from hell! It killed. Every person who attempted to go up them, had to stop somewhere in the middle to catch their breath. Even the most in shape of the kids.

Anyway, at our staff meeting we decided to go for a hike that morning and do our worship somewhere along the hike. It ended up being about a 2 hour adventure. But it was just enough to give the kids a taste of what was to come on Thursday when we hiked to the top of Soldiers Peak! During our chapel time out on the trail, Pastor Alvin discussed with the kids what they should do when they feel like they want to quit the race. He told them to stop and pray, saying "HELP ME JESUS!" That little prayer became our motto for the rest of the week. We would say it when we needed just the littlest encouragement, or the most courage. It was one thing that the kids really took away from camp.

That afternoon I still did not get a nap. I had to go into town and take the girls sleeping back to the laundry mat to wash it so she would have something to sleep in. I also had to get the supplies for CAMP OLYMPICS! Oh, those of you who ever spent much time at WYOBA would know what that is!!! Jami and I planned out the games on our hike. I was soooo excited for the games. It really fit well into our theme of the week too.

I suppose I should explain. Our theme of the week was the Amazing Race, based on Hebrews 12:1-3. "Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted." We talked about this race that each of us is running and did a lot of comparison to the Olympics coming up in August. Therefore, Camp Olympics, was perfect.

Needless to say, those of you who know what camp olympics is, you know that it is nothing like the REAL Olympics.

HEHEHEHEHEHE.... I was so excited for this night to come. We had a bunch of "games" planned. So after dinner the kids went on a hayride, we had chapel with a visit from the pastor and his puppet (I can't remember the puppets name) and family group times and then the games began!

We stared out with the most disgusting game of them all! The CHEERIO BLOW!!! Yep, I made them all do it too!! This game is where you have a cheerio, put it in one nostral, (yep part of the nose), close the other nostral with your finger, rare back, and blow. You try to shoot the Cheerio as far as possible. It was soooo disgusting!!! We had a couple of kids with some "danglers." Boogers that hung out their nose when they were done blowing! What a way to start of the night!

We continued with a game I called PUFFY TOP. Each team, we had 3 (family groups), got to choose 1 person to sit in the middle of the room. The rest of the team was split into two and part went to one side of the room, the rest stayed where they were. The person in the middle had a shower cap put on their head, and shaving cream all over the shower cap. The rest of the group had a bunch of Cheeto puffs (the balls) put in front of them. The object was to get as many cheeto puffs to stick on your person's head as possible in 1 minute. There were cheetos flying everywhere! It was so much fun to watch, but it made the biggest mess. We didn't have a broom so we just left the cheetos.

Next was the infamous LICK N STICK. The teams picked another person to be in the middle. This time they all had to gather round that person and lick LifeSavers and stick them to the persons face. After one minute the LifeSavers would be counted. It was gross, but the kids loved it!

I had no idea what to call the next game so I came up with the name THE NOSA YOLKA. You might be able to guess what it is. They had to get on their hands and knees and push an egg across the room without breaking it. The first team finished, or the last to break their egg, would win. One team broke their eggs pretty fast. The second team took a little longer in breaking their eggs (each team got 2 eggs). The third team won after the second team broke their last egg. One girl just did a face plant right into the egg. It was gross!!

The LAST game finally came about 9:00. I called it the OLYMPATHON. This one was the best game. We had prepared paper bags before hand with a food item in each bag. There was one bag per person. Each person on the team had to go pick up a bag, open it, and eat the food item that was inside as fast as possible. This is where I become cruel! Here is a list of the things that were in each bag (there were 10 bags).

2 Saltine Crackers

chocolate pudding

banana

5 Rollos

8 oz can of Seirra Mist

5 Oreos

Fruit by the Foot

Bag of M&M's

Popsicle

Packet of Kool-aid (unsweetened)(blue)

The kids were halarious. They had to show me their mouths before they could get back in line. I still cringe thinking about the Kool-aid. They made such sour faces, and their whole mouths turned blue! They loved it though. I could hardly calm them down when we finished the game. I think the adults were having more fun laughing at the kids then the kids were. We have some fun pictures of this, I just don't have them yet. I'll post some when I get them.

The kids got to bed about 10:00 that night and all of them passed out. They were sooo tired. I did to. I finally got to sleep before 11:00.

Day 4 ..... Wednesday, June 18 .....

This morning I let myself sleep in some. We didn't have to be at breakfast till 8:00 so I let myself sleep till 7:30. I just covered my head and let the girls and their counselors do whatever. I wanted to sleep.

Breakfast came and went, as did staff meeting. Unfortunatly, Dan had to leave that day, so I had to take over watching his boys during activity time. Luckily it was family groups for activities and I had paired Dan with Jami. Therefor I was with someone I could relate to more! We did morning worship and then we had activity time for the morning. We were assigned to play frisbee golf, mini golf, and volleyball for 1/2 hour rotations.

The first 1/2 hour went off without a hitch. We played volleyball with our group. Our next rotation was to the Frisbee Golf. This is where the "fun" started. We had just started the first hole and were working on moving our frisbees to the hole, when Jami yells to me "JESS, WE HAVE A BEAR!" All the kids point, and I look, and indeed, we do have a bear. A smallish, cub. Where is the momma? went through my mind. I FREAKED. I called on the walkie to the other coordinators and Mike and they said to go to the Canteen and have all the kids go too. So we, walked/ran to the Canteen and I gathered all the other kids up into the building too. I then assigned a counselor to come up with some games for the kids to do while I figured out what was going on.

The QR camp staff went looking for the bear, but never found it! That frustrated me. This "cub" was the size of my kids. I didn't want them getting hurt. That took up most of my morning. Later on I found out that just after I called the other coordinators, the Middle School camp saw Momma bear walking along in front of them when they were at chapel. TWO BEARS... TWO BEARS. One small and one big. Keep the kids calm and keep the kids close. No going out late at night alone!

No nap again. I was too hyped up from seeing the bear and figuring out what to do with the kids. They were told that they could not be in groups less than 3, and that they must be within sight of their counslors, or a counselor, at all times!

After nap time, we had crafts. I stayed in the cabin and decided that hour was a great time for me to take a nap. Oh, what sweet relief. I got a nap, finally. It felt sooooo good. I decided to skip canteen too. I let Jami take charge of the canteen money and stayed in bed. The kids then got canteen, and then split up for activities. I didn't have to worry about Dan's boys during this activity time because they weren't going in family groups this time.

I am glad I got that nap. I would have probably had a breakdown because I was so tired, had I not gotten the nap.

We did dinner, then we had chapel. Pastor Alvin had invited another puppet, P.J. to join us for Chapel. She was voiced by Annie Wamberg. She was halarious and did a great teaching time with the kids about Noah's Ark. After chapel we watched the movie "Evan Almighty." Then everyone was to break out into their family groups and discuss the movie, and how it related to our theme. I was sceptical of the movie. Never seeing it, I was nervous that it would be nasty to Christianity and the story of Noah. I was very surpised that it did a fairly good job of depicting the story and being very kid friendly.

I gave a bunch of the counselors a break during the movie. They could go an do what they needed, or wanted to do, during the movie, but had to be back before it was done. During that time, James came to camp to take Dan's place. Once the movie was over he joined his group and it was lit he had been there all week from that point on.

I realized as I laid down that There would be no more campfires in the outer campfire, with me and 1 other person staying back alone to put the fire out!!! The bear came from that direction. I was not going to be going out there again!!! :)

Day 5 ..... Thursday, June 19 .....

The week is almost over! I was excited, yet disapointed all the same. I was becoming more and more unpatient as the week continued and I think it was just the lack of sleep. We woke up to trash cans all over camp dumped over. Booboo (as we had dubbed the cub) and possibly Yogi (as we dubbed the momma) had been back overnight. They made a mess of the camp.

This day we decided was the day to tackle Soldiers Peak. This hike was up the mountain the "easy" way. HA! We left at 9:45 and did not get to the top till 11:30. 2 hours. We did have to wait a couple of times for kids and counselors to catch up. I was the encourager the whole way up. Now, I am not in the best shape of my life, but when I need to have energy, such as throughout the whole week, I am really really good at pretending that I have energy. Therefore my body believes it and I really do have energy. Kinda backwords thinking, but it works. Those stragglers on the hike up really did not like me by the end of the day!

We got to the top and the view was just gorgeous. Here are some pictures....

Oh, to be on top of that mountain. It was wonderful. Then we had to come down. It didn't take us nearly as long to get down, but it did take us about 45 minutes. We had lunch in a meadow at the base of the mountain the went straight back to the cabins for FOYB. Then we had canteen... I finally got to have canteen time! Then we all went swimming. It was a great way to chill after our long hike.

We got to have dinner outside the canteen again (we did it on Wednesday too, that is why the bears came back). It was pretty good food. The kids then went to the chapel and got to enjoy a concert. I, had to run into town again. This time to get some stuff for the male counselors to prank the boys with. I'll get to that in a bit.

I got back and we built a campfire in the canteen (there is a fireplace) and roasted marshmellows and had S'mores. It was really nice, but the whole time I was thinkng to myself, we need to be making lots of noise so the bears don't come back!! So, we had fun, the kids were so wound up that the boys were literally just running in circles yelling and screaming. I told the counselors that if they could calm them down before bed, good luck!

Needless to say, they werent going to calm the boys down. Here is a little background. Earlier in the day, I guess the boys were sitting on their porch to their lodge and this huge beatle with huge long antenas landed next to one of the boys. They all got up and started screaming and running away from it. THOSE BOYS ARE SCARED OF BUGS! So I was asked to pick up some gummy worms and bears while I was in town. During S'mores time, the counselors went and put the gummy stuff in the boys' sleeping bags. Cruel, I know.

Anyway, I guess before they went to bed, they had a talk that they all needed to be in "God's Army." Not sure where it came from, but it worked to keep them all off their beds before the time came. On the count of three, all three rooms shut off their lights and the boys crawled in bed. The room with the youngest boys had a little boy said to his counselor Ben, "Um..... Ben.... there is something in my bed." Ben then asked "What is it?" The boy answered, about crying, "I don't know but it is squishy...." Ben then leans over, asked him if he is ok, lets just him know its a prank, then yells, "BUG INVASION!" I guess all the boys jumped up and freaked till the lights were turned on and they found out it was gummy worms and bears.

I guess it was halarious. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall. Of course, guess who the counselors blamed it on! ME... Oh well, I had my own tricks up my sleve. I had a little pow-wow with the female counselors in my room before bedtime. It was the only semi-quiet place, and it didn't smell really bad (I'll explain in a sec.) So we planned that at 5:30 on Friday morning we would wake up all the girls and go over and sing the "Little Red Wagon" song to the boys and wake them up! The thing you have to understand though is that this song starts out quiet and as you continue on to "Second Verse, same as the first, a little bit louder, and a little bit worse" you obviously get louder and louder till you are screaming. We also added the little touch of pounding on the side of their building too! I'll get to all that in the next segment.

So we told the girls to get good sleep and be prepared to wake up early. They loved the idea.

As for the stinky rooms. Our lodge did not have screens on the windows, therefore, when we were out of the cabin, we tried not to leave the windows open (ie booboo and yogi). So, all their wet and stinky clothes from the week just festered. Oh man, you would walk into one of the girls rooms and it would be like hitting a wall. OH... it was bad. My room had a screen on the window so I could leave it open. It was nice, so therefore, when the counselors couldn't take the stinch or noise anymore they would come into my room.

Jami and Maida (one of the other female counselors) and just left my room and shut the lights off, when Jami and I heard the garbage can on our front porch go over. We both got out of bead and snuck to the front door to look out. There was Booboo digging in the trash. We had a ball on our porch too and he started playing with it. He bounced it a bit, the it started rolling towards him and he ran off. It was so cute, if it wasn't so dangerous.

Day 6 ..... Friday June 20 .....

5:30 am came way too early, but we all woke up. We trudged across camp, very quietly, surprisingly, and woke the boys with the Little Red Wagon song. They were not happy with us at breakfast. I got scowls and frowns. I was even called a hypocrite. They said that I was the hypocrite for telling them to get a good night's sleep them waking them up "in the middle of it." I just laughed it off.

Chapel and family times took up much of the morning. I didn't attend those because I was preparing for our game time after those. The kids were rounded up onto the athletic field and played capture the flag, boys v. girls. They loved that since the boys wanted to get the girls back for that morning.

Then I brought them all towards the main area of camp where we had set up kiddy pools with a bunch of water ballons. The counslors all took one and saved it till the end. They were going to ambush me! I only got a bit of water on my shoes and legs, so they failed. But oh, how they wanted too get me!

Alas, lunch came and went. So did nap time. I didn't get a nap that day either. I stuck around cleaning up the different things that I needed to. The kids went to activities. This time they got to do Bungee swing, crafts, or horses. The I went out to the bungee swing during the last hour of activities. It looked like so much fun! The problem is that it really is for kids under about 120 pounds. So, no bungee swing for me! However, I did get to launch a couple of kids. Here are a few of the pictures of it.

I wish I would have gotten a picture of me launching. But this last picture kinda gives you an idea. Really, to launch these kids, you have to be pretty big yourself! It was fun. All the kids got to do it, and even our CIT's got to do it. I really think that WYOBA needs to put this up! They could really use something fun like this!

So, anyway, after dinner we did our Talent show. A couple of the kids sang. Some did skits (which they made up on their own and were kinda confusing) and some did skits which a lot of us know so well. I was the person "Centi" peed on. The counselors did the "is it time yet" skit, where they all ask is it time yet, down the line. No is the reply, until the certain time, and then we all uncrossed our legs one way, and crossed them the other. The last skit we did was a skit with two of the male counselors and I. It was the grossest skit! I came up on stage with some peanut butter, jelly, and bread. Sat down to start to make a sandwhich, because I was starving! The two guys come joggin in, dripping with sweat, and decide that they stink and need some deoderant. One of them loves using peanut butter as deoderant and the other loves using jelly. If you look at the picture above, the guy in the camoflage shirt was one of the guys. So, they use up the peanut butter and jelly I was going to use to make my sandwhich. Oh well, I say, and take a peice of bread and wipe some jelly off the underarms of one, and peanut butter off the underarms of the other. Then i stick the two peices together and take a big bite!

The kids went NUTS!! EWWWW! GROSS!!! DISGUSTING!!! YOU DIDN'T JUST DO THAT DID YOU?!!!! Then I stopped chewing, and pulled a peice of armpit hair out of my teeth!! That made them go over worse. I had one girl gagging, and one just rolled over on the floor and wouldn't look up!! It was great! See if you can figure out my secret!! :) I then took a second bite. I had so much fun. We then rapped up the talent show and went to the Canteen for Rootbeer, marshmellows, goldfish, and a T-shirt signing. As quickly as they were grossed out by me, they were chowing down on the goldfish.

It was still really light out when all the T-shirts were signed, so I told the counselors to go hide around the camp and we would send the kids in groups to find them. Not the smartest thing to do. Just as I was quieting the kids to get them into groups to go out, one of them points out the bear, walking along, abut 100 feet from the Canteen where we were. Crud.... another plan ruined. However, how was I to get ahold of the counselors!! Two of them came running back into the Canteen, they had seen the bear. They called the other counselors cell phones and got them to come back. We came up with some other "indoor" games to play and make lots of noise with the scare off the bears. That wore the kids and adults out and we sent them back to their cabins early to get packed up. The girls all walked back together in a line sing Little Red Wagon at the top of their lungs.

Once in the cabin, the girls knew that the boys most likely would retaliate, and they filled their water bottles and put them in the hall so if the boys did, they would be ready. Needless to say, I had to approve of what the boys were doing, so I knew that they were going to come over at 4:30 in the morning. I told the 3 counselors to wake up at 4:20, open their windows (so the noise would be loud) and come into my room. We then all went to bed.

Day 7 ..... Saturday June 21.....

My alarm went off at 4:20. I got up, put my sweatshirt on, and waited for the counselors to come into my room. The 4 of us snuck out the back door of the cabin, which convenietly was in my room, and walked very closely together to the Canteen. We had decided that the 4 of us would jump out and scare the boys on their way back to their cabin, since they had to go right by the Canteen. We sat and watched them make the girls get up. A couple of girls came outside and started to spray water on the boys, but the boys were prepared. They had a 5 gallon bucket full of water! 2 girls got wet!

They took about 5 minutes to make sure all the girls were up and then headed back towards their cabin. We came running out of the Canteen with our hands up going "roarrrrrr" like a bear. A couple of boys screamed and tried to run. The rest weren't fazed. It was fun. We then went back and went to sleep for a couple more hours.

The last breakfast came and went, and we did a small get together before everyone was to leave. We all said our goodbyes and Jami and I drove home.

I didn't get a nap taken, but I did sleep well that night. I was glad that camp was so much fun. There are somethings that I would like to change if I coordinate again next year, but that will be for another post. This one is long enough!

Fireproof.... a highly recommended movie... coming to a theater near you!

I highly recommend watching the Videos. This is a movie I am going to go see with James!

Update on Sunday School

So, we went to Sunday school this past Sunday. James wasn't going to go, but the church announced our pastor candidate last week and he felt he needed to be there in case there were questions. Well, we went.

The discussion started out standard, with the opinion that we need to love everyone and that God loves every one! I agreed. However, the discussion started to peak up when someone suggested that we do not need to "evangelize." We should not try and convert people to Christianity. I sat and listened for a while. Trying to get a grip on what I wanted to say. But James jumped in first. He asked the people what they felt about Missionaries. The person said that if a missionary is going out to help build houses and help people that way, but if they are going to try and convert people, then they should not go!


WHAT?????!!!!!!??????


Ok, so I had to sit and listen for a while longer to understand where the person was coming from. They still didn't make sense, but I let a couple of others (including James) argue.


Then the topic of universalist vs. dualist views came up. Here is my understanding of them both. As a universalist, a person believes that all people go to Heaven, no matter what. A dualist believes that there is Heaven and Hell and that only those "saved" will go to Heaven. Everyone else is condemned to Hell. (As you have probably guessed, I am a dualist, and may in our class are universalists).


So, going back to the topic of living our lives as good people (from a previous post), a bunch of people in class started saying that the dualist view is a "FUNDAMENTALIST" view! (Am I a fundamentalist? Seriously?) I had to sit there and gawk. I couldn't believe what I was hearing. Just because I believed what the Bible taught, meant that James, a couple of others in the class, and I are all fundamentalists. Oh boy. Do we have our work cut out for us!


Well, I finally had to speak up! I said that being a dualist is NOT bad. I am not a fundamentalist. Just because I believe that some people are going to Heaven and some people are going to Hell does not mean that I do not try and love every one of my neighbors (i.e. everyone I come into contact with.) Granted, I do not know what God is thinking, or do I even have a small incling of His power. All I know is that I need to follow the Bible and what it directs me to do with my life.


Now that I said that, we got back on to the topic of missionaries and conversion. (For some reason there are a couple of words that some people in the class think are "bad words." They are conversion, evangelical, evangelize--any of those--, fundamental, and a couple of others I can think of right now.) Anyway, the couple of people said that they don't think they need to worry about where people go when they die. They are just going to live good lives and if those people want to know, then they will tell them, but they don't care about converting them.


I then said, well, if you are going to live a "good life" you need to live it intentionally. You need to live with the intent to lead people to Christ, because that is what the Bible says to do. Matthew 28:16-20

"Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had
directed them. And when they saw him they worshiped him, but some doubted. And
Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been
given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to
observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the
end of the age."

I laid it out this way. We are called by God to believe in Christ. Christ calls us to live a life centered on Him. We, therefore, try to live as much of a good life as possible, so people will see that we are authintic, so they can wonder why, and then they will ask, and then they will want to know Christ! Does that make sense??


I think I got my point across, and I was backed up by a few people. I tried to agree to disagree with these people, but it is very hard for me to do, when I know I have been called by Christ to "Make disciples of all nations."


I had to leave before the class was over (because of choir), but I wasn't overly frustrated. I actually didn't leave with high blood pressure, but I did speak my mind, so did James. I am still concerned for a few people and for this class, but all we can do is keep working at it and keep praying that God will use us

Inspirational quote

As I have been working today, I realized I really really like this quote. It is from one of the pastors in the ABCRM Region, Rev. DeWayne Moore, of Macedonia Baptist Church. He wrote a devotional for the Region last week and this is the quote I pulled out of the devotional. Think about it...

"In the midst of their deepest depression, people of faith have found that
their one consolation is this: that God is in charge, and regardless of what
afflicts us in this life, our ultimate destiny is in God’s hands."

Heaven vs. Hell via Oprah... I can't believe this...

This relates to my post below. It is a must see. I cannot support this idea, nor can I support Oprah anymore because of this.

Update on Heaven & Hell vs nothing??

Sorry, this is a bit of rant/rave, but it gets better towards the end. I promise!

Sunday James and I decided to attend Sunday School (well, I told James we were going to attend.) Anyway, they were continuing to talk about the book, If God is Love (I'm going to refer to it as IGL). So, the class started out fine. Somehow they veered off onto the topic of politics, but eventually came back. I just sat and listened to the conversation for the right time to chime in. I am not sure what sparked me to start speaking, but I rebutted someone by saying something along the lines of "how can every person go to heaven if there are no consequences to actions?" James then chimed in and we started to say that belief in Christ is the only way to Heaven.

Oh no, though, that was not good enough! THE BOOK (IGL... not the Bible mind you) says that Christ isn't the ONLY way! WHAT???!!!!???? (it gets better) In the book IGL the author points out that the Bible says that Christ contradicts Himself in Luke and John as to the way of Salvation! WHAT!!!????!??!??!? I asked them to read me the passage in the book again...

Luke 10:25-28 is what they quoted. "On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. "Teacher," he asked, "what must I do to inherit eternal life?" "What is written in the Law?" he replied. "How do you read it?" He answered: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind'; and, 'Love your neighbor as yourself.'" "You have answered correctly," Jesus replied. "Do this and you will live."

Then they quoted John 3:16 (but i'll expand it to 3:10-21) "You are Israel's teacher," said Jesus, "and do you not understand these things? I tell you the truth, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen, but still you people do not accept our testimony. I have spoken to you of earthly things and you do not believe; how then will you believe if I speak of heavenly things? No one has ever gone into heaven except the one who came from heaven—the Son of Man. Just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up, that everyone who believes in him may have eternal life. For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

Ok... granted... I can see the assumed contradiction here. But a person has to read these two passages in different contexts and with a mind of faith. The Luke passage says to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind." Ok... I can do that! But the Lord, MY GOD, includes the TRINITY. Therefore, Christ, is my God. (He is not the Father, but He is the Son, the Savior!!) Jesus stated that He is the only way to Heaven. John 14:6 "Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me."

When Christ stated that we should follow the law of "Loving God and loving our neighbors" he did not say not to believe in Him. Loving God includes believing that He sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for our sins, so we may have eternal life to be with our Father in Heaven and worship Him FOREVER! What is your opinion on this "contradiction controversy?"

I wish I could speak as well or as much as I can write, and have enough time to express what I want to say. But alas, speaking when I am frustrated is a stumbling block for me. I tried to say these things, but I was interrupted and shot down fairly quickly.

The next conundrum that came up, was "If God doesn't let everyone in to Heaven, how can He disown his own children?" The example that was gave was this... If you were a parent, could you end your relationship with your child for doing something wrong? A bunch of people around the room piped in and said that they couldn't and therefore, how could God. I, then opened my big mouth! I said, "Then you mean to tell me, that if your child kicks, punches you, verbally abuses you, and spits on you every single day, you would not tell that child to stop? And if they didn't stop, once you have told them to stop consistently, you wouldn't have to remove yourself from that toxic relationship? You could still love that child, but you don't have to accept their actions."

Oh man, that seemed to set a couple of people off. I had to admit that I couldn't be sure I could do it, but most likely I would be able to. My theory is, you can still love that child, and not accept their actions. They can "repent" (keyword) and say they are sorry and follow in the rules of the house, and then I would have a relationship with them. But if they never repented, I could not say that I could ever have a relationship with them.

The thing is God is so much more than we are. I am sure He does not like the sins we do every single day! That is why He tells us to repent, believe, and then we can have eternal life with Him.
Some in the class did admit that they could not say one way or the other if they would do that with their children, but some in the class said they would never do that. I just didn't know how to respond. What is your response? What would you do? I know that we have no idea what God would do, but what do you think about what you have been taught about God and what He would do?

So, one other topic that was brought up was the fact that there are a lot of people out there that live very "righteous" (not in a Christian way) lives. One example given was, this person has this great friend who is Buddhist. This friend has taught this person more about spirituality than this person has learned in many years of going to church.

I did not have any comment at the time, but I came up with something during church. (I truly was listening, but something the pastor said made me think of a point I wanted to make.) I wrote down my comment on an insert in our bulletin. I said that, I don't care about what other people think and teach on their way to "eternal whatever." Some people may be good, and may do good things, but our works are not what grant us eternal life! Our believe in God, and that God sent Jesus, His son, to die on the cross so we have eternal life, is the basis of OUR/MY faith. If every person has eternal life, what are we here for? Why is there the church? Didn't Christ tell us to "go and make disciples of all nations?" (Matt. 28:19). If everyone is to go to Heaven, then why would have God sent Jesus to earth? If everyone, and anyone can go to Heaven, Jesus' death was in vain.

Needless to say, I am very passionate about this subject! I do believe that God can make exceptions in any case He wants to. But, I do think that we need to follow the WORD OF GOD, and therefore we do not have to count on God making an exception for us. God created us to live our lives in love. That was stated over and over again in this class. I MUST agree with that. But I have to say, I can love, God can love, but we do not have to accept actions for which God has said are evil/bad/wrong.

Which brings me to my next point. (I know this is long, but I need to get this out.) A couple of people in the class asked the question "What is wrong? How can we, since we are not God, know what is wrong?" James brought up the 10 Commandments! These things are WRONG. (This is what Exodus 20:1-17 says)

And God spoke all these words:
"I am the LORD your God, who brought you out of Egypt, out of the land of slavery.
"You shall have no other gods before me.
"You shall not make for yourself an idol in the form of anything in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the waters below. You shall not bow down to them or worship them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, punishing the children for the sin of the fathers to the third and fourth generation of those who hate me, but showing love to a thousand of those who love me and keep my commandments.
"You shall not misuse the name of the LORD your God, for the LORD will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name.
"Remember the Sabbath day by keeping it holy. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, neither you, nor your son or daughter, nor your manservant or maidservant, nor your animals, nor the alien within your gates. For in six days the LORD made the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but he rested on the seventh day. Therefore the LORD blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy.
"Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you.
"You shall not murder.
"You shall not commit adultery.
"You shall not steal.
"You shall not give false testimony against your neighbor.
"You shall not covet your neighbor's house. You shall not covet your neighbor's wife, or his manservant or maidservant, his ox or donkey, or anything that belongs to your neighbor."

I believe that doing those things are wrong. Do you? These are the guides to figure out what is wrong and what is right in God's eyes. Am I correct in that assumption?

Now there are a lot of things that individual churches/denominations have declared wrong, that may not be wrong in other churches/denominations. I think this is where LOVE comes in. I may believe that something someone is doing is wrong, and they may think it is right. We both may have scripture to back up our views. I do not have to agree with that person that they are right, but I do HAVE to love that person! God is the one who judges. I have been called not to judge. (See Matthew 7:1-5) All I can do for the person I disagree with is share my perspective, let them share theirs, listen, love, and pray that God's will is done in my heart and in that persons heart!

We are called to love God and our neighbors. We are also called to do so much more.

I want to ask you, do you believe in Christ? Do you believe God sent His Son, Jesus, to die on the cross for YOU? If you do, I pray that you are preaching and teaching to as many souls as you can reach.

If this is the first time you have heard of Christ, knowing more is easy. Ask God to open your heart and your mind to His word. Ask Christ to come into your heart and seek Him out. Get yourself a Bible and read it. Find a church where you can express your beliefs, and yet be challenged to find the truth in the Word.

I know this took a quirky turn towards the end, but I know there is some reason for this. Some reason for the questions. I am being tested so my faith can become stronger!

By the way, I found all my Bible quotes at http://www.biblegateway.com/. I also found some references in the Bible about Hell and the Devil... Hell (Luke 16:23; Matt 5:22,29, 30; Mark 9:43,45,47; 2Peter 2:4) Devil/Satan (Job [throughout the book]; Zach. 3:1; Luke 4:1-13; Matt 13:39; John 6:70 & 13:27; 2 Thes 2:9; 1 Tim 5:15; Rev. 12:9)

Let me know what you think.... Leave a comment or email me. Thanks.

Heaven & Hell... vs nothing??

So, my Sunday school class is doing a study on a book, that I can't remember the name of. Obviously I am not taking part very much. We haven't been but twice and I have not bought the book. Anyway, one Sunday morning they brought up the topic of Heaven and Hell.

I guess it was just by the way I was raised, but I have never questioned the fact that there is a Heaven and there is a Hell... with Satan! However, in part of this book, the author(I think), a pastor, stated that he does not believe in Hell or Satan. That struck me as very odd. How can that be? If there is no Hell and no Satan, what is the evil in this world? What keeps people from just doing whatever they want because they don't have to worry about the fires of Hell?

I know that the "lake of fire" is mentioned in Revelations. Satan tempted Christ. How can a person who is theologically trained on the Bible say that there is no Hell or Satan. (Also, our church does not sing any verses in any hymns or praise songs that make any mention of Satan, the devil, or Hell.)

To go along with this, the author (or the mentioned pastor) said that he believes that Christianity is not the "only" way to Heaven. (The whole premise of the book is God is Love... in fact that might be the title.) There were many in the class that believe this too, along with the no Hell/Satan thing. It is a very, very "progressive" or liberal class and I just cannot wrap my head around some of the things they talk about.

I am finding this somewhat frustrating. Can you help me with this? Let me know where there are mentioned in the Bible these topics: Satan, Hell, lake of fire, death (in relation to hell or something like that), and anything else that might be of relevance here. Also, let me know what your church's stance on this is. I'm just curious as to your opinions. Thanks.

More thoughts on Where I think the church will be in twenty + years...

I recieved this comment on my previous post "Where I think the church will be in twenty + years..." and I just had to write my comments on it. I know I am sort of rambling here, but I have a lot of questions and a lot to discuss. Please join me in this discussion. I would love to hear what everyone thinks.

Krismisstree posted...

“Interesting...what's your take on the Hebrews 10:25 verse, then? Don't give up
meeting together as some are in the habit of doing? Do you think that command is
'covered' by meeting in small weekly groups, and not getting direct food from a
church service preaching the Word? Just curious on your take on Hebrews 10:25
and how it relates to your post.”

Hebrews 10:25 says "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." (NIV)

I am not suggesting that all meeting together will be stopped by what the future has in store. Today I was talking to a professor from Central Baptist Theological Seminary and he was saying that “home churches” have been on the rise. They are the people who don’t find the conventional church appealing to them, so they have a church in a more comfortable setting. That is a lot of what I mean by small family groups/Bible studies.

Church doesn't necessarily have to be a structured, liturgical style. As long as people are coming together to worship God, does He really care how it is done? Granted, there will be those that will only get their spiritual “food” from what they listen to on their I-Pods or what-have-you. If those people are to truly live in the Word of God, they will understand that fellowship is an important part of being a Christian.

They will need to have someone to bounce questions off of. However, like we are doing here, they may still not come face to face. I think eventually if they understand, and are reached out to by those that are a part of a community (whether bigger or smaller), they will join a community and have that fellowship.

I do believe that each person needs to have a day of rest. How that person chooses to rest is a part of their own lifestyle. Each person is different. In this day of age, not every person has the liberty to be off of work on Sundays. Therefore the church needs to be flexible with how they offer that fellowship to individuals. If that means that the only time someone can join in some kind of worship is with a small group, at least they are in fellowship and worshiping a God who knows all and understands.

Does that make any sense? Does it matter if someone is hearing the word through preaching or discussion? Can a discussion take place of a sermon? What do traditional sermons do for you? Do you really come away from a traditional sermon every week wanting to implement everything you just heard into your daily life? If you had to choose, which would you prefer as a worship setting... the traditional church or small family style discussion group worship?

Let me know what you think.

Honest to God

"We avoid Lent and Holy Week because it isn’t a happy and uplifting time—but to be honest, neither is most of life. Sometimes we come to church all scrubbed up, dressed nicely, with smiles on our faces, and when people ask how we are, we reply that everything is fine and we even boast how wonderful things are—but it is all a lie. Life is not always uplifting, or wonderful, or pleasant, or joyous—but we have been taught the lie that for spiritual people like us, it must be so. So we become play actors, hypocrites—telling ourselves that by lying, we are having faith, and that if we lie enough, the bad things will fade away, like a dream upon awakening." -Rev. Ken Collins

Read the rest of this essay at http://www.kencollins.com/hope-23.htm. It is very interesting!

Challenge for Lent

Scripture for this Ash Wednesday.

If you are to fast for these 40 (actually 49 till Easter) days, take head to what Matthew says at the end of this post.

Listen to the words of this hymn "Lord, Who Throughout These Forty Days":

Lord, who throughout these forty days for us did fast and pray,
teach us with you to mourn out sins and close by you to stay.
As you did hunger and did thirst so teach us, gracious Lord,
to die to self, and so to live by your most holy Word.
And through these days of penitence, and through your Passiontide,
forevermore, in life and death, O Lord, with us abide.
Abide with us, that through this life of doubts and hope and pain,
an Easter of unending joy we may at last attain!

Words by Claudia F. Hernaman

"Blow a trumpet in Zion; sound an alarm on my holy mountain! Let all the inhabitants of the land tremble, for the day of the LORD is coming; it is near, a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and thick darkness! Like blackness there is spread upon the mountains a great and powerful people; their like has never been before, nor will be again after them through the years of all generations." Joel 2:1-2

"Yet even now," declares the LORD, "return to me with all your heart, with fasting, with weeping, and with mourning; and rend your hearts and not your garments." Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love; and he relents over disaster. Who knows whether he will not turn and relent, and leave a blessing behind him, a grain offering and a drink offering for the LORD your God? Blow the trumpet in Zion; consecrate a fast; call a solemn assembly; gather the people. Consecrate the congregation; assemble the elders; gather the children, even nursing infants. Let the bridegroom leave his room, and the bride her chamber. Between the vestibule and the altar let the priests, the ministers of the LORD, weep and say, "Spare your people, O LORD, and make not your heritage a reproach, a byword among the nations. Why should they say among the peoples, 'Where is their God?'" Joel 2:12-17

"Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, "In a favorable time I listened to you, and in a day of salvation I have helped you." Behold, now is the favorable time; behold, now is the day of salvation." 2 Corinthians 5:20-6:2

"Beware of practicing your righteousness before other people in order to be seen by them, for then you will have no reward from your Father who is in heaven. "Thus, when you give to the needy, sound no trumpet before you, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and in the streets, that they may be praised by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, so that your giving may be in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "And when you pray, you must not be like the hypocrites. For they love to stand and pray in the synagogues and at the street corners, that they may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you pray, go into your room and shut the door and pray to your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you." Matthew 6:1-6

"And when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites, for they disfigure their faces that their fasting may be seen by others. Truly, I say to you, they have received their reward. But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, that your fasting may not be seen by others but by your Father who is in secret. And your Father who sees in secret will reward you. "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." Matthew 6:16-21

Listen to the words of the hymn "Have Thine Own Way, Lord!":

Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Thou are the Potter, I am the clay.
Mold me and Make me after they will,
while I am waiting yeielded and still.
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Wounded and weary, help me, I pray!
Power--all power--surely is thine!
Touch me and heal me, Savior divine!
Have thine own way, Lord! Have thine own way!
Hold over my being absolute sway!
Fill with they Spirit till all shall see
Christ only, always, living in me!

Words by Adelaide A Polland

"Have mercy on me, O God, according to your steadfast love; according to your abundant mercy blot out my transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin! For I know my transgressions, and my sin is ever before me. Against you, you only, have I sinned and done what is evil in your sight, so that you may be justified in your words and blameless in your judgment. Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me. Behold, you delight in truth in the inward being, and you teach me wisdom in the secret heart. Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean; wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow. Let me hear joy and gladness; let the bones that you have broken rejoice. Hide your face from my sins, and blot out all my iniquities. Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Cast me not away from your presence, and take not your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and uphold me with a willing spirit. Then I will teach transgressors your ways, and sinners will return to you. Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, O God of my salvation, and my tongue will sing aloud of your righteousness. O Lord, open my lips, and my mouth will declare your praise. For you will not delight in sacrifice, or I would give it; you will not be pleased with a burnt offering. The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise." Psalm 51

10 Facts You Should Know About American Baptists

This is published by the ABCUSA and is useful to understand me and my faith. I may not agree wholy with everything that is put for in these 10 facts, they are a foundation for my beliefs.

The 1.5-million members and 5,800 congregations of American Baptist Churches USA share with more than 43 million Baptist around the world a common tradition begun in the early 17th century. That tradition has emphasized the Lordship and atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, believers' baptism the competency of all believers to be in direct relationship with God and to interpret Scripture, the importance of the local church, the assurance of freedom in worship and opinion, and the need to be Christ's witnesses within society. The following facts are representative of the tradition and practice of American Baptists.

1. American Baptists believe that Jesus Christ is Lord and Savior, and that the Bible is the divinely inspired word of God that serves as the final written authority for living out the Christian faith.
American Baptists celebrate the fact that belief in Jesus Christ assures salvation and eternal fellowship with a loving God. The events of the first Easter week are the cornerstones of our faith: the death of Christ, in which He took upon Himself the sin of the world, and the Resurrection, which gave proof of His triumph over sin and death. Holy Scripture always had been for American Baptist the authoritative and trustworthy guide for knowing and serving the God who is revealed and Creator, Savior, and Advocate.

2. For American Baptists the local church is the fundamental unit of mission in denomination life.
Baptist roots date back four centuries to a people seeking the opportunity to worship God as individual members of freely organized and freely functioning local churches. Baptists always have maintained the need for autonomous congregations, responsible for articulating their own doctrine, style of worship and mission.

3. American Baptists partake of two ordinances: believers' baptism and The Lord's Supper.
Baptism, an act of full immersion following Christ's example, is undertaken by those spiritually mature enough to understand its profound, symbolic significance: resurrection to new life in Christ. Through The Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion, the bread and cup that symbolize the broken body and shed blood offered by Christ recall God's great love for us-just as they did for the disciples on the eve of Christ's crucifixion.

4. American Baptists believe that the committed individual Christian can and should approach God directly, and that individual gifts of ministry should be shared.
American Baptists hold that all who truly seek God are both competent and called to develop in that relationship. They have rejected creeds or other statements that might compromise each believer's obligation to interpret Scripture under the guidance of the Holy Spirit and within the community of faith. American Baptists also celebrate the special gifts of all believers, testifying that God can use each of us in ministry.

5. American Baptists take seriously the call to evangelism and missionary work.
American Baptists worldwide mission work is a response to Christ's call to "make disciples of all nations." Through the efforts of our missionaries in partnership with others, ministries of evangelism, healing, education and development have made Christ's love know in the U.S. and around the world.

6. American Baptists support religious freedom and respect the expressions of faith of others.
As a people whose forbears came together in response to intolerance, American Baptists have cherished freedom and pursued it for millions around the world. Manifestations of that ideal include supporting separation of church and state, advocating for people everywhere to be guaranteed the right to worship free form discrimination, and lifting up respectful dialog and a healthy means to understanding.

7. American Baptists acknowledge that God's family extends beyond our local churches, and that God calls us to cooperative ministries.
Early Baptists saw that the effectiveness of their ministries would be greater through cooperation with other believers. Today within our American Baptist regions, churches work with each other and with denominational staff and in local and regional ecumenical arenas to increase the vitality and scope of their ministries. That outreach extends worldwide through our relationships with Baptist World Alliance, the National Council of Churches of Christ, the World Council of Churches and other groups.

8. American Baptists have been called to be Christ's witnesses for justice and wholeness within a broken society.
American Baptists have been led by the Gospel mandates to promote holistic change within society, as witnessed by their advocacy of freed African Americans following the Civil War, the Civil Rights Movement, women in church and societal leadership, ecological responsibility, and many other issues. While not all of one mind as to how to deal with challenges, American Baptists do affirm the need to follow Christ's example by being actively involved in changing society.

9. American Baptist Churches USA celebrates the racial, cultural and theological diversity witnessed within its membership.
American Baptist Churches USA today is the most racially inclusive Protestant body. Represented in our churches are equally diverse worship styles, cultural mores and approaches to Scriptural interpretation. The resulting challenges and opportunities have made us stronger - through fellowship, respect, mutual support and dialog, all based on a belief that unity in Christ involves growth and understanding.

10. American Baptists heed the biblical call to renewal and the need for a vital witness in a new millennium.
As people of faith, American Baptists seek renewal and revitalization. Informed by their history and tradition, motivated by contemporary needs and challenges, and strengthened by God's leading and example and sacrifice of their Savior, American Baptists seek to bring a transforming witness to an uncharted future.

Why have Revival? Why not Renewal?

These are the words from Rev. Duane Eastman, pastor of First Baptist Church of Lamar, CO. This was printed in the FBC Lamar newsletter The Messenger.

Last year Myrna and I enjoyed a rare Christmas with our grandsons in West Virginia. We never dreamed that we would celebrate Christmas in Lamar in 2007. It's a new experience for us, and that is good! That's because Christmas is about how God comes to us in the new.

There is a lot of talk these days in evangelical churches about revival. When I asked a colleague what he meant by "revival" he responded by expressing a longing for a movement of the Spirit of God as in the days of Jonathan Edwards, Charles Finney, or Billy Graham. Sometimes we long for the "good old days" of the Spirit, as if God is not as powerful now as He was in the past. It is a spiritual nostalgia myth to believe that if we go back to doing things as they were done back then, we will experience the same kind of spiritual awakening, i.e. "the good old days." But for the believer, the good days of the Spirit of God are always right now.

The word "revival" does not appear in the Bible. "Revive," as in "to resuscitate," appears only four times-all Old Testament references. To return to the nostalgic past has never, ever been the way of God. While it is the natural way of mankind it has always been a barrier to our experiencing the new things God is doing. The Israelites failed to see Jesus for who he was, because of nostalgia. They were trapped into seeing the status with God defined by the "good old days" of temple worship, military might of David's throne, and possession of the land. That nostalgic memory blinded them to the vision of God's kingdom and purposes as fulfilled in the church.

In contrast to "revival," the word "new" appears nearly 200 times in the Bible with significant emphasis on concepts such as new hear, new covenant, new people, new way, new teaching, new wine, new wine skins, new commands, new creation, new self, new order, new name, new birth, new heaven, new earth, new song, etc. In Revelation 21:5 is the final proclamation: He who was seated on the throne said, "I am making everything new!" Obviously, to understand the church in the paradigm of the old, as a modern equivalent of ancient Israel, is a critical mistake. in the same way, to try to return the church to what it was in the past is also a mistake. too many things are new. Virtually every facet of our social structure (government, education, community, family, corporate business, etc.) has gone through a major revolution. Accordingly, it seems that instead of praying for "revival" we should be seeking "renewal."

To suggest the use of "renewal" instead of "revival" is more than semantics. It is a critical awareness of the radical nature of the New Covenant initiated by the birth of Christ. He saved us, not because of righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He saved us through the washing of rebirth and renewal by the Holy Spirit (Titus 3:5). Renewal is a return, but not to the forms or formulas of the past. It is a return to daily dependency on the Holy Spirit, who always leads God's people into the realm of the "new mandate." Renewal means that the focus is not on the way things were, but on the humbled hear and transforms it into a heart for God. Renewal means to trust God, not our habits. Renewal means to respond to all situations for a heart that is motivated by love.

It seems appropriate that only a week after we celebrate the birth of the Savior that we enter a new calendar year.