Beat the Odds with Bob Holmes!

Our church brought in this speaker, Bob Holmes. He goes into schools and plays volleyball against teams by himself! He has even played against professional athletes. He is able to draw the crowd with this amazing talent and gets to talking to the crowd. Bob Holmes addresses the hard issues of bullying, suicide, and substance abuse. He eventually is able to share the Gospel of  Christ with the crowd.

Last night we had our rally. Even though our church usually holds a Wednesday night service, we instead met in a gym and invited the community. Utah needs to hear this message. We are one of the states that has a high rate of suicide. According to one website, we have 14 suicides per 100,000 people. We have lost church members to suicide. Our twelve-year-old son lost member in his Civil Air Patrol. The young man was only in the ninth grade.

A crowd did come forward at the end to hear about Jesus. I don't know what exactly went on in their hearts, but I sure hope they chose Jesus.





For more information on Bob Holmes, please visit Beat the Odds

Zombies Who Have Trouble Sleeping

The other day I had a few errands to run. Youngest Son invited himself along. As we left our last errand and headed home, he was telling me about a song someone wrote when he had zombia.
"Ew!" I exclaimed. "I don't want to hear anything about zombies."
"No, no. Not zombies. What is it called when you can't sleep?"

Love those moments!

Alone Yet Not Alone

 

 No matter where we are, no matter what our circumstances, we are not alone. God is with us. Satan wants us to think God has abandoned us, but don't buy that lie. We are never alone.

This movie is based on the story of a young woman who had to experience being alone, but knew she isn't truly alone. However, she experienced trials beyond our comprehension. Will she continue to believe God is with her?

This is a great family movie! It is set in colonial America before the American Revolution. In fact, a young General Washington makes a cameo appearance in this movie! A family that is grounded in the Word of God experiences an unimaginable horror. 

My family has watched this movie more than once. I am so glad I bought it! I am planning to write a study guide to go with it. There is a pivotal point in the movie that makes a great teaching moment for parents. Are you going to trust in God? Or are you going to take the "easy" way out? 

Find out for yourself how great this movie is! An added bonus is the theme song, sung by Joni Eareckson Tada. I think she is an awesome heroine of the faith! In the bonus features, the movie video shows Joni praying before recording the theme song.

Cutting the Cord!

Enough! I had enough of cable and I definitely had enough of paying a high cable bill.

It was nice to get lots of channels, but when I would look through the online guide, I realized how many were just junk. They were shopping channels, movies we wouldn't watch anyway, and informercials galore. It especially bugged me with how much time we were spending watching tv, too.

At first, the family kind of fought me on it. I explained it was a monthly bill we most definitely could do without and we were just too dependent on it. "But our shows...." was their response. To which, I said was proof we were too addicted to the tv. Hubby admits he was fighting it the most. As a good mother, I decided I would be negligent of my motherly duties if I did not throw a good ole guilt trip in there as well. This is the guilt trip I used:

We spend (insert ungodly amount of money) every month for tv when we have missionaries who are going without (food, housing, etc.)

Yeah, that got them.  Hubby said I'm really good at bringing down a shower of shame upon him.

I called the company and ordered the disconnect. Boy, did they ever do a dance to keep me. They called me numerous times to offer me amazing deals—amazing till you read the fine print, that is. Why couldn't that deal been on the table in the first place? But, I assured them I was firm in my decision and part of the reason was that we were too dependent on tv. One lady explained to me all I had to do was record the shows on the DVR and then just binge watch them. Okay, she needs a vocabulary lesson because "binge" and "dependency" kind of go hand-in-hand with addictions. Another representative, who spent numerous minutes of my life simply repeating himself (I realized his script on the computer screen froze so he was stalling for time), told me that I could stay with DirecTv and just merely tell my children on a certain day was when they could watch tv. How refreshing to know DirecTv is qualified to give me parental advice! Both representatives tried to tell me streaming was not reliable and you couldn't watch your shows when you wanted them. Clearly, they still didn't understand that still is catering to an addiction and they had never heard of an over-the-air DVR.

I found a basic antenna on Amazon for under $7, with free shipping. We are getting several over-the-air channels now. Our tv is a smart tv, so we were already able to stream Netflix, YouTube, and numerous other streaming sites. Eventually, I may splurge for a more powerful antenna to put in the attic. I would also like Oldest Son to show me how to turn the tv into a computer as well. Numerous channels have websites where you can watch episodes of their shows for free. You may have to wait a few weeks for the latest episode, but again, that helps break the tv addiction. We are such a "got to have it now" society that I'm okay if my family and I learn to wait on things a bit. Even simple things as a tv show.

By the way, the family has adjusted really well.

Focused on His Grace

In this world of self-promotion and self-focus, it sure is good to hear this song and remember– I am nothing without Him. It's all God.

Vocational Homeschool!

What did you do in home school today?

Oh, just took a reciprocating saw and cut up our old refrigerator.

Makes me curious what passersby thought. Our neighbors are used to our little projects out in the front yard.

F Words at the Missions Conference

I heard a lot of f words at the Missions Conference last week.

And they were words I needed to hear.

The message was based on Nehemiah 2 and it was truly an encouragement to hear.  Nehemiah was given a really important task from God. How would he go about doing it? By using his f words.

• Find out the facts

Stick to what you know God has given you to be your ministry.

• Focus

Nehemiah had to focus specifically on what God had called him to do. Now, most of us are not going to be rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem, but our tasks are equally important. They are important because God assigned them to us. I have to remind myself of that. Being a wife and mother doesn't always seem as grand as what Nehemiah was tasked to do, but it is. God doesn't give us busy work. He gives us important tasks. 

This also encouraged me in the area of ministry. For those of us who don't serve the Lord in an occupational position, we may often find ourselves feeling as if our ministry is not as important as what our pastoral staff does. Well, our pastoral staff is really important, but we are in the ministry too. We must serve diligently too. 

Lord, give me fresh vision and encouragement about the ministry you have given us.

• Form a fellowship

In Nehemiah 2:17, we see him saying, "Then said I unto them, Ye see the distress that we are in, how Jerusalem lieth waste, and the gates thereof are burned with fire: come, and let us build up the wall of Jerusalem, that we be no more a reproach." (KJV)

Notice the pronouns? He used them, we, and us. Nehemiah gathered people to help him carry out the   task God had given him. One area in our life where we have formed a fellowship is our weekly prayer group. I cannot tell you how much that encourages us to keep at the ministry and to persevere in reaching out to others for Christ.

• Fortify

It is so hard to serve the Lord if you're burned out. Once I called it "ministry fumes". I really felt I just could not do more. Why? Oh, because I was thinking I was supposed to do it on my own. Forgot the little item of calling on the Holy Spirit to give me the strength to do what God has called me to. 

• Fulfill the function

Bottom line– finish the assignment. When I teach writing to students, I always tell them the most important thing is to fulfill the assignment exactly as specified. If you write a great narrative essay when the teacher called for persuasive essay, did you fulfill the assignment? No. No matter how great that essay was, if it wasn't the one you were assigned to do, then you wasted your time and talent. Do what God has given you to do, without changing your "assignment".

Just like the image above, I am a singular person in the body of Christ. But my part, my function, works with others to spell out the Gospel to the world that desperately needs it. I hope these f words encourage you as much as they did me.