It’s a new year; lets try this again…

OMG!!! Look at that beard!!!

Haley, Rachel: I’m sorry I’ve not been supportive of the blog for so long.  I’m not trying to make excuses; it just had to be moved down on the priority list for a while.  Thanks for keeping it up, and posting a couple times.  I’ve decided to get back into it again, because, as you’ll read, Marissa and I are trying to be better stewards; again.

To the World at large, well, read through the pages and you should be able to understand where we’re at.  This post is all about short quick statuses to get everybody up to speed on what I’ve been up to.

Family:

1. We had family over for the holidays, tons of people.  We came and went to Florida for a few days.  The holiday’s were cool, but I’m glad they’ve come and gone.  I’m looking forward to normal life again.
2. The kids continue to get bigger and bigger.  God has blessed me with attractive kids… teenage and puberty are going to be great!!!
3. Marissa still loves me, praise the Lord!

Ben:

1. I’ve got a beard!!!!   It took a lot of getting used to, but I’ve got the hang of it now.
2. I’m 7.67% done with my latest attempt to read through the Bible cover to cover.  After trying and failing so many times to complete a 1 year plan, I’ve opted for a 90 day plan.  It’s about 12 to 15 chapters a day and it’s going well so far… 8 days in and I haven’t fallen behind yet.  Something about reading and seeing so much history in each sitting makes it seem more like a book and less compartmentalized then it does when I read just a little each day.
3. I’m trying to loose weight and get healthy.  My Wii avatar got fat after I did the Wii Fit Plus physical evaluation… that was humbling.  Evidently, I’m obese… I knew I was overweight, but obese just seems wrong.

Life Group:

1. We’re continuing to meet on Wednesday nights in our home.  We had 9 adults and 9 kids this week.  We’ve had as many as 15 adults, the holidays really threw a wrench to many of our meetings.
2. We’ve studied all the way through chapter 3 of James to date.  We get to get into chapter 4 next week.
3. We’ll be signing up to lead another group after we finish James.  I’m praying about what book to study next.

Family:

1. We’re doing better at “homeschooling” our kids now than we’ve ever done in the past.  It’s exciting.  I think the best thing is that I work normal hours, those combined with our semi-normal routines, makes the parenting thing so much cooler lately.  Our lives used to be so involved with either ourselves or church we had absolutely no free time. (This is because I wasn’t serving from pure motives, read James 4:1-4, that’s where I was at. The kids have a Dad again!!!)

Environment:

1. It was in the mid-fourty’s today, I was in a short sleave shirt again!!!!  We’ve still got snow that needs to melt.
2. It’s neat to have seasons, but almost claustrophobic to be stuck indoors so much.  I mean, you can go outside, it’s just not any fun…  I’m the palest I’ve ever been…   pasty
3. I’m excited about spring time coming, I miss the life.

Work:

1. It’s going well…  We’ve been here for just over 1 year now.  I’m finally feeling like I might start having a handle on what my job entails, or maybe better said, getting my job done each day.  My employees are great, and I really am blessed in all of the aspects.  God’s still got his hand on my career.

Holy Home:

1. I think I’m starting to get old…   or thinking like a grown up finally…  Anyway, we’re starting to see some of the things we’ve been “teaching” our kids through our choices and are finally trying to address them.
2. We’re not watching American Idol this season… Not that it’s evil…  I just couldn’t think of a single good reason to watch it.  Not a good one.  And with no good reason, we’re gonna sit this season out.  We’re trying to take the same approach with many of the things that take our time away from each other.

Youth Groupie stuff:

1. I’m at some type of crossroads in the ministry/mission/purpose God’s given me.  I’m not sure where it will turn next.  I’m just trying to be patient and attentive.
2. I’ve been saddened as of late by all of the failure I’m seeing in the teens out there.  My heart yearns for kids to keep themselves from all of the mistakes I made.  There are a couple young people who by all appearances look to be making it through life unscathed, but many have chosen the dark side, or are flirting with it.
3. I’ve started to see the hope that shines through brokenness in all of it, and am excited on where my mission with the teens might go next.  I’m honestly thinking about trying to secure some kind of counseling, or psychologist training…   who knows?

I can’t really think of anything else at the moment.

Haley and Ray, thanks again and sorry its been so long.  I’m looking forward to 2010, it’s like a new era, kinda weird almost.

P.S. If anybody’s got anything they’d like to talk about or would like commented on, please let me know and thanks for reading!!!!

I’m out,

Ben

I finally blogged again…

So it as been awhile since I last blogged.. I will use this post as a catch up post. Lets see so much as changed since I last blogged. My life progressed super fast in the last month.

First, I got a Job, I am now working at Oudom’s Thai and Sushi in downtown Mt.Dora, Im a  hostess and it is crazy. I am so blessed to get such a good job, I love it. All my coworkers are great,My boss is great. I am the baby and the only one who works their who is under 18, But it is a really good overall job I work alot, about 18 hours a week.So I have been SO busy.

Next, I am going to be driving soon! Which I am super excited about, now that I work and make money I will hopefully be getting a car and driving.

And last I am also going to start dual enrolling at Lake Sumter, working towards my AA. Everything is happening so fast, and It’s crazy for me to think I will be 17 in a few months, and only have 1 more year of highschool left, it’s bittersweet.

But so many choices are ahead of me, and it is so overwelming. Please pray I make the right decisons. And can stay focused because as you can see I have alot on my plate!

Well, that’s my catch up post. I FINALLY blogged! woo hoo!

Ray

Mission Trip part 2

So, we would set out everyday not really knowing what to expect. I would show up at this Backyard Bible thing not knowing what we were supposed to be doing or how the heck I was supposed to be ministering to these kids. The kids were loud and rude had no respect for authority, and we were constantly breaking up fights. The parents didn’t care, we never saw them.We were all hot,tired,and smelled.It wasn’t ideal.

Gradually, as the days progressed the kids were warming up to us, we actually started  enjoying it. The kids were starting to listen better and all they really wanted was love, someone to talk to, that would pay attention to them, and play with them. You could tell how much they appreciated it and how they were in such a desperate need of attention. We would walk them home and they cried when we left. It was rough. Even if the whole christian thing didn’t completely get across to them, they saw God’s love in action.  But something so much bigger was happening. Doug and Michelle (some of the leaders) met a lady with 4 kids, they prayed with her and talked with her ALOT and really got involved in her situation. We ended up bringing her back to FL. And she showed up to church on Sunday and got saved. Pretty cool stuff.

On this trip, I really learned and stepped out of my comfort zone alot, I did stuff I would never do a year ago, like giving my testimony to a bunch of kids I didn’t know too well. Talking to people and giving them advice.. it was a realization, like a this was you 3,4,5 years ago.What would I have listened to back then.I was praying aloud all the time, helping leading worship. Stuff that would make me so uncomfortable just a few months ago I was doing. It was crazy!

I realized that you just gotta do it. Take the plunge and let go, not care what people think of you. Cause in the end its all about God. I could have been doing this stuff so much earlier if I wasn’t such a baby and didn’t care what people thought. Earlier I was too embarrassed or shy. Or whatever I used as my excuse. There is no excuse. I don’t want this trip to be a “spirtual high” thing either. Like, I was all pumped and strong and on fire on the trip and then I come home and do whatever.

No, I want this to last, instead of making it a choice but a lifestyle. I want to get the youth group on fire, and the church. Because I can do so much more. Then what I’m doing now.

Ray

The Lake (Part Four)

So, I’m done with the lake now, well, this is the completion of it for the blog.  I did it, I jumped in, swam across and made it all the way to the other side.  There was danger.  Amoebas, alligators, drowning, etc. But I made it and I’m glad I did.  You see, it opened my eyes a little.  Helped bring me some clarity.

I’m studying through the book of James, and I think we might possibly be starting a Bible study soon.  I ministered to Cody.  I’ve been praying and seeking opportunities to fit back into a “formal” ministry.  I’ve been trying to figure out how to father my children appropriately.  I read a book called “Do Hard Things.”  Watching the news, looking at the trends, seeing the future unfolding before me, has, well, really motivated me to try and share some of this stuff with the world.

As a dad, how can I express my concerns to my kid?  How can I tell him when he’s making horrible decisions?

What I’ve been seeing is man’s, our, natural inclination to choose the easy way through a situation.  I made horrible choices as a kid, doing everything I could for the instant gratification of getting what I wanted.  Cody did the same thing.  It’s everywhere.  The national mortgage crisis.  It’s everywhere.

One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned happened not to long ago.  I almost ruined my marriage, my life, everything, because I wasn’t being the man I should be.  The core of this behavior, the selfishness, the thoughtlessness, the greed, the pride, all of is is what I’m seeing in Cody.  It’s what I’m seeing in my son.  It’s what I’m seeing in the people on the news.  How do you address this behavior, and try to convince someone that doing the hard thing is the right way to go?

Crossing the lake was a lot harder than I thought it would be, but it was awesome to finish it.  Being the Christian, Husband, Father, Friend I am supposed to be is a lot harder than I thought it would be, but when I do it right, it’s awesome.  At the end of the movie when you see Tom Hank’s character dying after having successfully saved Private Ryan, wow, that was obviously worth it.

When I do it wrong it sucks.  Normally, when I do it wrong it’s because I was seeking the easy way, the immediate gratification.

I’m glad I made it across the lake.

I’m glad I’ve chosen to keep working on my relationship with Christ, with my Wife, with my Children.

I’m glad I’ve been given this opportunity to see again the right and wrong way to live, to choose, to serve.

I’m excited about the next “lake” I’ll get to come across.

Ben

The Lake (Part One)

In the movie “Transformers” there is a scene where the main character, Sam Whitwicky, has finally realized that his car, a transformer known as ‘Bumblebee’, is really a friendly good transformer.  Just after defending Sam by destroying an enemy transformer, Bumblebee swings to a stop in front of Sam and his co-star Mikaela Banes; opening his door to invite them inside.  Sam is now convinced of his intentions and trusting Bumblebee, but Mikaela scoffs when Sam suggests they should get into the car, insinuating it would be the last thing she’d do.  He turns to Mikaela and says “Fifty years from now, when you’re looking back at your life, don’t you want to be able to say you had the guts to get in the car?”

 

Sam and Mikaela were at a precipice, a crisis decision point.  Do they get in the car and join up with the good guys?  Do they run the other way?  Do they stop and ask questions delaying the decision? 

 

I was thinking about something along these lines the other day during a hike my wife and I were on.  Well, actually, I’ll talk about that later.  I was really hooked on this line of thought while standing on the shore of a lake in Florida a couple weeks ago.  In reality, it wasn’t till I was on the opposite shore that I couldn’t get it out of my head.  This concept of taking risk; of throwing it out there, of danger; jeopardy; endurance; fear; worth; value; fulfillment; investing in something bigger then me.

 

I’ll be sharing thoughts with you guys over the next couple posts. Things I’ve been pondering since my time at the lake.  Things that have shaped my view on life, but until recently I didn’t even know how to talk about them.  While working with teens, and with my own life, these things have been hard learned for me. 

 

Come back soon to follow with me on this train of thought.  If you have something to share, please do so.  Anything you want to share, or think could benefit another, would be greatly appreciated.  I get pretty good “viewage” on the page.  But I’m hoping this blog will be an “interactive” one so I’d love to get your comments. 

 

Teaser for the next post:

 

Jumping in the lake