Roller Blading

Yesterday we decided to try out our roller blades on a paved path that follows the "river" here in Tucson. I use the term "river" lightly because it's actually just a bed of sand with no water in it. It was a fun way to get some exercise but I need to figure out appropriate socks to wear because I have blisters all over my feet this morning.

Splash 6 Ends

Bethany and I just finished up at one of the easiest houses we have had. It is so much fun over there that I went over on my day off to hang out with those kids and play Risk. Yes everyone, once and a while the kids at a house like what I like and are fun to be around! One kid even played soccer!

I lost the first round of Risk to a kid who played all the time in Juvenile Detention (Juvey). Come on, he had hours of practice! The second round I teamed up with my friend Charles, a house parent, and we beat three of the kids. Our armies fought for the fate of Middle Earth in classic Lord of the Rings style. It was quite fun.

While we were at the house we got a check-in. A check-in is a new kid who has been taken from another home. Check-ins are not usually very happy kids. The new guy lasted for only a couple hours before deciding to run away while we were at the mall. His exit cue was, “I have to go to the bathroom.” Five minutes later he was gone and Wal-Mart security was not very helpful in this situation. One of the other kids in the house had predicted he would run, so he was very pleased when it turned out he was correct.

I tried roller blading at a skate park this respite. In a recent Reinhold shopping splurge Bethany and I purchased roller blades. Roller blading is something we both are quite bad at. The kids we work with are very good at skate boarding. When we decided to go to a skate park I was quite nervous about my performance. I rolled over to the edge of a large concrete bowl and watched the children flying around doing tricks. All of them were very talented skaters. I did not want to wimp out because I wanted the kids at the house to see it is more important to try and fail then to not try at all. So I forced myself to drop into the bowl. My knees were inflexible, my balance was poor and my body slapped against the concrete. I picked up my head to see a scruffy young man take his cigarette out of his mouth long enough to say, “That guy is going to kill himself.” I dared to try this routine twice more with a little less embarrassment each time. But I am hopeful and excited about our roller blades and the kids had a great time. Somehow I think I actually gained respect through this ordeal as well.

I got to talk to two of the boys about their spiritual life and what God was doing. One of the boys said he “I really want to know God” and the other said, “God has answered all my prayers since I left Juvey.” I was reminded of Paul saying, “I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord.” Philippians 3:8. I was challenged to keep making my relationship with God and my knowledge of His personality my chief aim. My hunger for God and my relationship with Him will affect those around me, even the broken children in foster care.

Sadly we will not be working at that house anymore because we are needed elsewhere.

Praises: God showed us fruit of His work and our efforts. He also allowed relationships to be built through fun times. Praise God for the way He uses the children to teach us!

Prayers: Pray for the child who ran away and for another child who is working very hard to be reunited with his family.

God Shows Up

This is the second time since we have been in GAP that a really neat God story has happened.

One of the things I (Eric) enjoy about being in the foster care environment is that the kids hate God. Why would I say that? These kids are surrounded by numerous negative influences and love to reject things. I like this because of how much it says about God's power when He changes these rebellious hearts. When God makes a kid want to go to church who previously said, “Church is gay” or when God draws a kid to himself who previously said, “I love Satan.” These changes really speak to me about God's power and love.

This reminds me (Bethany) of something I was reading in The Confessions of St. Augustine last night. Augustine discusses the conversion of someone and says, "And the more peril there was in the battle, so much the more joy is there in the triumph." He goes on to give other examples of how much greater joy there is when a situation seems the most grim and is then resolved. He concludes, "Every where the greater joy is ushered in by the greater pain." Although I cannot claim to understand the purposes of God when I see children whose lives have been almost ruined by their parents, I am beginning to understand how He can bring Himself glory as He works in their lives and how much greater joy there is in His work when He draws even one child to Himself and releases them from their bondage.

Here is a story about a kid in GAP. For the sake of the story I will call the child Jacob. Jacob had been addicted to smoking marijuana and had got caught. He was facing a felony charge and on the verge of turning 18. When a child turns 18 he no longer is eligible for the Juvenile program and instead will be going to state prison for felony charges. Jacob started to ask himself, “What am I doing with my life?”

Without being able to come up with any answers he decided to go talk to his GAP house parent, Aaron. He went to Aaron's bedroom and asked a poignant question, “How do you know God is real?” Aaron gave testimony to ways God had worked and asked Jacob to think about why they were standing there having the conversation in the first place if God was not real. Jacob nodded and asked the house parent to pray for him. As the house parent began to pray Jacob interrupted, “How do I pray? What do I do?” Aaron told him he did not have to do anything special because they were simply talking to God. Aaron prayed for Jacob's addiction, life plans, and that he would be loved.

A few days later Jacob found out his pending felony charge had simply been dropped by the parole officer. Aaron reminded Jacob this was a big deal and asked if he thought it was just a coincidence. Jacob replied, “I don't know”.

The next day Jacob went to school and was offered pot. After being prayed for and seeing the charges dropped Jacob was able to say “no” to smoking pot despite his addiction. Later that day Jacob found out the kids had been caught and arrested. Jacob ran home to talk to Aaron and told him what had happened. Aaron then asked him if he thought it was just a coincidence and Jacob replied, “I don't think that was just a coincidence.” Aaron then asked him if he could say no to smoking pot again and Jacob replied, “I think I could. It actually was not even that hard to say no.”

Another cool thing that happened is this Valentines day we were on a respite while another couple stayed at our apartment. At the end of the respite we came home to our apartment decorated with hearts, candles, red streamers, a Valentine teddy bear, and a note encouraging us to enjoy a late Valentines day. How thoughtful! This made Bethany and I feel like we are starting to make some real friends!

Praise God for answering prayer and speaking to the heart of a marijuana addict! God showed Jacob he was taking care of him as he began to ask for God's help. Pray for Jacob to continue following God and for our heavenly Father to keep working His wonders here in GAP.

Church or Ministry?

Bethany and I thought we had come to a fork in the road. It seemed our ministry would not let us have Sundays off to go to church and now our church was asking us to take a membership class on Sunday mornings or to look for a different small group. Ouch! Our church was asking us to consider giving up our ministry and our ministry was asking us to give up church. That is how is looked at first to us. So we asked ourselves what is more important? Church or ministry?

This led to one of the most painful bible studies I can remember having as Bethany and I searched scripture trying to find out if ministry or church involvement is more important. Let me save anyone who might find themselves in that place some trouble: both are important. You should not be trying to decide if faith or love is more important or if Jesus or God is more important or if praying or reading the word is more important. We decided to stop trying to pick one thing over the other and instead make every effort to live a well-rounded Christian life. Here is a nice list of scripture pertaining to the importance of church involvement and also of ministry. God desires both for His children.

Church Involvement

• Love one another (John 13:34)
• Be devoted to one another (Romans 12:5)
• Honor one another (Romans 12:10)
• Rejoice with one another (Romans 12:15)
• Serve one another (Galatians 5:13)
• Carry one another's burdens (Galatians 6:2)
• Forgive one another (Ephesians 4:32)
• Encourage one another (1 Thessalonians 5:11)
• Offer hospitality to one another (1 Peter 4:9)
• Confess our sins to one another (James 5:16)
• Pray for one another (James 5:16)
• Don't give up meeting together (Hebrews 10:25)
• Worship God and serve Him (Matthew 4:10)
• Hear the word of God (Romans 10:17)

Ministry Involvement

• Give to the needy (Matthew 6:2)
• We are the light of the world (Matthew 5:14)
• Go and make disciples and teach them to obey Christ's teachings (Matthew 28:16)
• Give to the poor (Mark 10:21)
• The sick sinners need a doctor, not the healthy (Mark 2:17)
• Welcome little children in the name of Christ (Mark 9:37)
• Whenever you give a banquet invite the lowly people of society (Luke 14:13)
• Jesus came to seek and save the lost (Luke 19:10)
• People need to hear the gospel (Romans 1:16)
• When we live a Godly life we will be persecuted (2 Timothy 3:12)
• Preach the word (2 Timothy 4:2)
• Live good lives among pagans (1 Peter 2:12)
• Look after orphans and widows in their distress (James 1:27)

So you can imagine Bethany and I trying to decide which one was more important and what to do. What a nightmare of a discussion! Thankfully the discussion is now over but our situation has not yet fully resolved itself. Based on scripture and our experience, Bethany and I feel convicted about the importance of church involvement as well as our ministry. We have missed the fellowship and support of the church long enough and have seen the ways the church could help us and GAP in so many ways. My desire is to see the church and para-church team up to accomplish the mandates of scripture and bring God's kingdom here in Tucson.

Prayers: Pray for us as we try to explain our conviction about church to those we work with in GAP ministries. Pray for understanding so that we might be able to adjust our schedules to receive more of the fellowship, love, community, and support of a local church. Pray that the church would be willing to work with our situation and not ask us to give up our ministry. Pray for us also as we return to one of the hardest houses for us to work in tomorrow. Pray especially for Bethany that God would open her eyes to the good work she is doing and show her the fruit of her service to Him. Pray that we would both be filled with hope in God's promise and see Him at work in our situation!

Praises: I had a great meeting with the pastor of the church today. We looked at our church/ministry situation and he was very understanding. He has a great heart to follow scripture and build God's kingdom. It was very encouraging! Also praise God for a wonderful small group who shows Christ's love to us.

A Night Away

It's been a while since we've been able to sit down and update the blog on our most current events. I thought I would take this opportunity while Eric is at the dentist to post a few pictures and give a summary of what we have been up to.

January was a very busy month for us with 3 regular respites plus two medical emergency coverages and a few days at the beginning of the month when we were covering Christmas vacation. We were certainly feeling the exhaustion of it all by the end of the month and so I planned a night away for us in Scottsdale, AZ which is 2 hours north of here. I found a nice room with a "just for two" package deal so that we could go spend 24 hours away from Tucson and explore some more of Arizona. The room was great--a small whirlpool bath, a bottle of wine, fireplace, and a great view of the golf course. We also had a gift card to a nicer restaurant that we used while we were up there. The food was definitely more expensive than we would have paid for if we didn't have a gift card but it was fun and tasted great. Eric enjoyed barbecued pork and I had pasta with a "flirtini" on the side. Our favorite was a great smoked salmon appetizer.

After dinner we indluged in some Coldstone ice cream and then went back to our room to enjoy the bath tub. We learned from our honeymoon that I can be a little over zealous with the bubbles so I tried to cut back this time but I still managed to overwhelm us with foam. Don't worry Eric is still smiling.

It was a great time for us to get away and talk and enjoy each other's company before heading back to Tucson to start running errands and working on our projects in the apartment. We are always finding new things to work on with the apartment whether it's putting up wire molding for our speaker wires, finding a bigger TV, looking for an end table, or deciding how to decorate our big empty walls all in the cheapest way possible. It is easy for us to get caught up in all the projects and we are striving to continually put our focus first and foremost on our Savior each day. So this is a good item for prayer and growth in our lives; but it is lots of fun to see our apartment evolve into a cozy place!

Last Saturday I had the opportunity to go up to Mt. Lemmon with the ladies in our small group as a way to celebrate birthdays that we've all had in the past three months. I was in for a total surprise as we drove up there. I looked out my window and realized that I was all of a sudden looking at tall evergreen trees instead of tall green cactus and that there was small amounts of snow on the side of the road! We also drove by a sign that said we were at 8000 feet! Once at the top, I realized that this was the place to go if I ever wanted to be reminded of home. There was snow, a ski lift, running streams, tall trees, and forest. The views were spectacular and it was a great sunny day to be outside. I had a great time with the ladies and can't wait to take Eric up there to show him around.

We've been off work since Monday and tomorrow night we start up again at our most difficult house. So far, February is set up with a pretty regular schedule of 3 5-day respites and Eric doing extra computer work so that he can stay at his salary. My salary has been cut back since we have decided to work 15 days instead of 18 each month.

Praises: A chance to get away and be together. We have become good friends with a set of house parents that we now work for and feel like we can rely on each other for a lot of support which is a blessing! We had a good review with our staff manager and they are pleased with the work we are doing in GAP.

Prayers: Please pray for wisdom and discernment as we pursue church membership at our church and how that will look with our job. Strength, energy, patience, wisdom, courage as we head into this next respite. GAP is quite under staffed right now which places a lot of burdens on its employees and lots of couples won't even be getting a respite for a while.

My First Loaf

Today I used my bread maker and a mix that my mom gave me for my birthday to make my first loaf of bread and I used the bread pans that my mom-in-law and dad-in-law picked out for me. It turned out pretty good! Now I'm excited to try more recipes with it and see how they turn out. Eric always says that the key to a good sandwich is the bread so hopefully I can come up with something good for his tastebuds.