Razor Ray’s World

Well, if you have been keeping up at all, you have noticed that my girls have been growing up quite fast. Raygan, the youngest, with a huge drive to not be left behind, has found a way to do things her older sister is doing, like ride with no training wheels.

Well, tonight, she had her first real wreck on the bike. Unfortunately, she was not really being watched as I was heading in to check on the other girls (our neighbor was over playing) and I had my back to her. But, as a dad’s ears tend to do, I heard the crash and the immediate crying. I knew something was wrong, cause this girls has had a few dings, but she never even lets out a whimper. So, I ran out to check on her to find she had lots, and I mean LOTS of blood flowing from her cheek. So, I yanked her and the bike up and ran to the house as worried neighbors looked on. By the time I got to the bathroom, my shirt was soaked with her blood and it was all coming from her chin. She had evidently introduced her chin to the blacktop, and the blacktop was not pleased to make the acquaintance.

Here are a few pics (careful if you are with a queasy stomach!)

To mine, the Dr, and everyones amazement, she was a huge trooper at the hospital. They have horror stories of me when I got stitches in my knee. (seven nurse, my Mom, and the Dr to hold me still when I was around 4 or 5). But this girl, when I told her they were going to have to poke her with a needle and sew her back together, and that I needed her to be brave and not move or cry, she did JUST that. Not a single wiggle, tear, nervous jitter, NOTHING. She did exactly what she was asked to do and sat there VERY still so they could “fix her chin.”

She gathered in 5 stitches (the cut was too jagged and offset for just glue) and now she looks like this -

they say we will hardly ever notice a scar. Hard to imagine that right now, but just thankful Jesus was holding her during her fall. Could have been massively worse. She is VERY proud of herself, as is her Daddy of her! She was awesome tonight! The Dr gave her a Popsicle for being so good (filled with sugar of course!)

She told me on the way home she plans to ride her bike tomorrow! What a trooper!

I did not finish the title cause you would probably run off! This is an article I read today, and thought it was worth passing along.

Just a few pics of my silly girls!

Very Lady Like!

Who is that HOT chic in the back? WOW! Anybody catch her digits?

Thank you Father for my gifts and help me be the best Steward I can be!

I wanted to take a moment and ask all you out there to please give some money to a great fund for relief of those in need. You have a great opportunity to reach out and change the life of others by sending your donations to this relief effort. We will promise to use your funds to reach out and share the gospel to all we can. Our goal here is to always do what we can to reach sinners for Jesus. We are the Church!

Disclaimer: 40% of all donations received here will be needed to maintain and expand our existing structure for use of those who choose to come here and worship. Another 30-40% will be used to pay our great staff of highly trained Christians who use their skills to help organize our weekly gatherings for our members and kids and guest coming in. We do all we can to make this place attractive to sinners so they will enjoy our service and maybe meet Jesus. Once those have been paid, the remainder of your generous giving will be sent to feed the hungry, treat the sick, bring hope to the hopeless, and support missionaries in their given fields as long as we are current on our fiscal budget. If we have a shortage, then we will have to make that up first!

THANK YOU for giving to the cause! We highly appreciate your generosity. Because of you, we can still have air conditioning, coffee for our members, nice homes and cars for our staff, shirts on our racks, golf carts to help people get to their cars, and expand our current facility for others to come enjoy.

Our deepest apologies to those who are dying of hunger and thirst. We promise we have a team working on how we can possibly send more releif funds. We have just hired an additional staff member who graciously accepted a low 50k a year so they can review our budget and tell us how we might possibly send you more food, water, and clothes. In the mean time, we hope our prayers for you are effective and we cry with each death of your kids and parents. We really want to do more, but these members are giving all they can, and our facilities are growing immensely, so we hope even more people will join us and our giving will grow faster than our bills so we can help more. (Oh Wait, if more people come, we are going to need even more space.) Oh well, our new guy will surely come up with a plan, we better give him a raise so he can work harder on the issue. Till we do get it done, hang in there, our prayers are with you!

Recommendation to the reader of this post, please read all the life of Jesus and his followers, and maybe James. Then ask Jesus where he would like your donations given instead of blindly giving because you were told you had to tithe. Consider the value of HIS money and be the steward of it you were meant to be.

p.s. If God wants you giving it to our local body, that is fine, just be sure you are asking Him where it goes and not just going through a routine.

Alot goes on every seven seconds. We blink our eyes approx every seven seconds. We have multiple random thoughts. and kids are sure to ask for your attention every seven seconds

BUT did you know,

Every Seven seconds, a child dies from hunger? Not some incurable disease. Not a dramatic catastrophe. Nope, they die simply because they do not have the basic necessity of food.

There are ways you can help. We have so much, yet they die with that empty pain in their stomach, and it is no easy death.

Here are some places you can help with need.

Compassion International.

World Vision International.

Feed the Children.

Action Against Hunger

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee

Engineers Without Borders USA

The Hunger Project

Five for 50

And there are so many more to go to and help. The opportunities are there, and the voice is calling, will you be a part of the solution, or are will your life continue just the same.

Be a blessing, get a blessing. I promise, the rewards you receive in the Spirit far out weigh whatever “loss” you feel when you send the money!
Please consider what God would have us to do with our abundance to help our brothers and sisters who have nothing.

Thanks!

I am starting to think she wants a bike to ride! What do you guys think?

Got this in an email today, thought it was worth sharing…..

Copper Wire
After having dug to a depth of 10 feet last year, New York scientists
found traces of a copper-wire system dating back 100 years, and they
came to the conclusion that their ancestors already had a telephone
network more than 100 years ago.
————————————————
Not to be outdone by New Yorkers, in the weeks that followed, California scientists dug to a depth of 20 feet, and shortly after, headlines in the LA Times newspaper read: ‘California archaeologists have found traces of 200 year old copper-wire system and have concluded that their ancestors already had an advanced high-tech communications network a hundred years earlier than the New Yorkers.’
————————————————-
One week later, The Redneck Rebel Gazette in  LaVergne , Tennessee ,
reported the following: ‘After digging as deep as 30 feet in an empty  field near Smyrna , Bubba Ray Johnson, a self-taught archaeologist, reported that he found absolutely nothing. Bubba has therefore concluded that 300 years ago,  Tennessee had already gone wireless.

Now if I were still in High School or College, this would be an expose on how great basketball is and how playing One on One with someone better than you can improve your game. Anytime you picked up a ball and went head to head with one of the best, your game was sure to elevate! When I did play, I always tried to square off against the best until I was able to beat them on a regular basis, then I would try to find someone else to elevate my game. You could always do some of this in a team game, but if your goal was to become a better player personally, it was done in those one on one sessions!

As I was recently reminded of the fact that God can be found in every aspect of our lives as He is woven into the fabric of our lives, It began to sink in a little about the power of this one on one deal. Over the past two years I have taken a rather long break from organized church. Some say I was burnt out on it. Others say I have backsliden. Still yet others believe I have left the faith and become a radical. BUT, while I have been gone, I have been pursuing Jesus, the lover of my soul, and in my journey, have found some amazing things going on outside the walls of the building I attended for 30 years! ( NOTICE: I am referencing church in general, not just one institution.)

Along the way, I found great learning in some one on one sessions I was honored to have with a great brother in Christ, who found himself in a quest for more than the pampered lessons he had eaten during a long journey inside the church himself. Together we questioned everything we had been spoon fed and sought our answers from one source, The Word Himself. (after all, if you cannot ask questions, what is the journey all about.)

Together, we discovered some amazing differences in how Jesus did things and how we do them today. Usually these are chalked up to “progress” and the “changing of times.” But these differences seemed to glare a bit larger. Many people asked questions about what we were going through, and even wanted to package them up into a program to teach others (team strategy.) But what we discovered was this, the power was found in the one on one, personal training we were getting. AND, we also found ourselves desiring to hang out, one on one, with other fellow believers for more intensive training. And as each day passed, and the one on one games were “played” radical changes began to take place. The one I begin to see the most was the desire and struggle to be more like Jesus himself, and seeing some of those characteristics come through.

NOW, over the past 6 months, I have found the pull again to broaden the strategy and try and do the sessions with a “whole team.” There is NOTHING wrong with this, unless you totally forsake the One on One sessions solely for the team practices. Granted, you might have a great team game, but we seem to forget that we are all called to a One on One walk with Jesus.. Yes, he trained the 12, but it is more than clear that he did this through one on one times and relationships with each. And when it came time for team ball, they could play well, but each person was never released from the responsibility to train with Jesus One on One!

Personally, I have been missing my one on one times with Jesus, my fellow journeyman, and believers in Christ. I have tried to replace it with team meetings recently, but it does not have the power of those one on one times. So my efforts have to be refocused into the path in which I have been called, the game of One on One. I hope to align myself with those whose “walk” is deeper and stronger in order to grow, and I hope to pass that on to those walking beside and behind me!

There is power in the “Team”, but it cannot compare to the power found in the PERSONAL, ONE ON ONE walk with Jesus Christ!

I did say Hailey’s new bike, right?

You know how kids can be so different. Yesterday while writing about the garden, Hailey decided she wanted to pose with her webkins for a picture to post on here….

a very adorable moment we did not want to miss.

While we were taking this picture, I heard Raygan in the bathroom (door open) going potty. As I was walking back to upload the above picture from my camera phone. I saw this….

YES, she went “pee-pee” in the potty sitting like this. Guess she was tired of the “old way” and wanted to invent a new one.

Needless to say, both moments brought us joy and laughter. Just makes you wonder what will come next!