What Are You Doing?
By Jason | August 20, 2008
Lots to write about but no time to write seems to be the theme of my blog lately. Oh well. To begin I wanted to catch up on the important things in life…It’s been about a week since my last post and I wanted to take a few minutes and catch up on the baby updates. Cori is doing great. She is more than ready to have the baby. It amazes me how God has made the female body to get ready for having a baby. And I guess it also prepares the husband too. Cori tosses and turns every night trying to sleep. She wakes up frequently because she is uncomfortable and has to change positions. In a sense she is getting ready for those near sleepless nights of having a newborn (and so am I). But even still she is feeling pretty great and looking great. She has also gone back to work. She is hoping to make it into her 1st week of school so that she can have longer off when the baby comes. We shall see. We are getting close to the beginning of week 38 so she could go into labor at anytime! She goes in for a check up exam today! Exciting times!
Here is the official baby update. I can tell now that the writer of these things is starting to stretch a little bit (especially where the food ties in!) http://www.babycenter.com/ says this:
Congratulations! Your baby is full-term! This means that if your baby arrives now, his lungs should be fully mature and ready to adjust to life outside the womb, even though your due date is still three weeks away. He weighs 6 1/3 pounds and measures a bit over 19 inches, head to heel (like a stalk of Swiss chard). Many babies have a full head of hair at birth, with locks from 1/2 inch to 1 1/2 inches long.
Just for fun if anyone is keeping track I didn’t post week 36. Here it is….
Your baby is gaining about an ounce a day. She now weighs almost 6 pounds (like a crenshaw melon) and is more than 18 1/2 inches long. She’s shedding most of the downy hair that covered her body, as well as the vernix caseosa, the waxy substance that protected her skin during her nine-month amniotic bath. Next week, your baby will be considered full-term. Most likely she’s in a head-down position, but if she isn’t, your practitioner may suggest scheduling an external cephalic version, where she’ll try to turn your baby by manipulating her from the outside of your belly.
So here’s something to chew on…
What are we doing to our kids? The other day I was walking through a local grocery store and noticed a mom and her kids. I couldn’t help but notice them. The mom was “laying into her kids” and yelling and threatening them. It was really ridiculous! She had obviously had a bad day because of the way she was treating them (sarcasm). At one point, she grabbed the daughter by the face as the daughter was reaching for a shelf and I heard, “If you ever reach for a shelf again….” She yanked her little boy by the arm and yelled, “You stay with me, don’t walk away again.” All I could think of was those poor kids. How sad for that mom. How are her kids going to grow up? What will they think and how will they treat others? If she talks to them this way in public how does she treat them at home. It was very sad. I was very close to walking up to her and asking her “What are you doing?” In retrospect, I should have.
Last night I had one of those parent moments at the dinner table. Rylee was saying our prayer for dinner. Her prayer went something like this:
“Dear God, thank you for blessings. Thank you for this day. Thank you for our drinks. Thank you for the baby in mommy’s tummy. Thank you for this day. Thank you for our bisketti (spaghetti). Thank you for Jesus. Make our food to bless our nurture. Jesus name. Amen.”
It was that last line that got me thinking and I kind of smiled. Perhaps it was because it was a new line she used in her prayer and she was trying it out for the first time. Or maybe it was because I realized what she was trying to say and why she was saying it. She was mimicking me when I pray for dinner. When I pray for dinner I always include in the prayer a blessing for the food, something like, “Thank you for this food we have to eat. Help it to nourish our bodies and keep us healthy.”
Rylee is learning and growing. I love seeing her grow and learn. I love hearing her pray. I also love to see her picking up good positive traits from me and Cori. However, every now and then, though, she will slip in some little bad habit that she has picked up from us. It’s then that it’s a major gut check and we realize oops we (Cori and I) had better shape up, because Rylee is watching.
This morning I went to a breakfast meeting for mentors at one of our local high schools that I mentor at each month during the school year. A comment was made by one of the speakers, “What will matter is not what you have learned, but what you taught.” Is this not so true about our faith in Christ Jesus? We can learn all we want about the Bible and about Christ, but if we are not teaching it to others, especially the children around us, then have we really learned anything at all? Are we not teaching others by our actions and our words?
So the challenge… Parents, Grandparents, young adults, students. Others are watching. What message are you sending them? What are you teaching those younger than you are? Is it positive, negative? Are you a good example or a bad example? What things are you doing that set a positive Christ-like example for others around you?
Well, that’s it for today’s post. I have gotten out of the habit of writing and I miss it. I am going to work on getting back into the habit again. Until next time….Peace.
Topics: Family, Ministry, Parenting, Teens | No Comments »
Homeless for a Night
By Jason | August 13, 2008
This week our teens participated in what may have been (in my opinion) the best backyard mission of this summer. We were Homeless for a Night. We began our evening with a trip to the near downtown area to visit a local homeless shelter and then to walk around the neighborhoods delivering care packages to the homeless in need. Crazy…Yes! Different…Yes! Out of our comfort zones…Yes! Scriptural…Yes! (Matthew 25:35-40)
Our trip downtown well surpassed my expectations! We began the trip downtown by touring the homeless shelter, which always feels rather awkward because you are simply viewing how people less fortunate are living, almost feeling like you are walking through a zoo or museum or something. There is no interaction, or little, and the “tour guide” just walks you through talking about the shelter, the residents, and answers any questions that might come up. The second part of our downtown trip was most important. We split into teams and spread out over the neighborhood in our vehicles in search of homeless men and women with whom we could pray for and deliver a relief bag containing water, granola bars, snack crackers, anti-bacterial wipes, toothpaste, a toothbrush, and a Bible.
I was overwhelmed with the kindness and joy that the people expressed to us. They couldn’t believe people would walk in their neighborhoods to show them love and pray. God was truly at work. Some of the highlights from our visiting with the homeless in the downtown area:
Our group found one man walking down the street pushing a stroller filled with all his belongings. We waited in our church van until he got close enough for us to venture out and talk to him. Just before we got out he held up his hand and gave us a big “thumbs up” and showed us that another group had already given him a bag. He had a huge smile on his face and you could see the joy in his eyes as he waived to us holding his water bottle. Later on we were driving through a nearby neighborhood and around the corner came the same man with his overflowing stroller. He waived his arms and began blowing us kisses as he smiled and yelled “thank you”.
Another lady that we came across outside a convenience store sitting with another lady and a man touch our group’s heart. She was sick and wanted prayers for her health. Her friend sitting next to her also wanted prayers. Both were in tears as we pulled away.
One man we met was just getting off work. He had worked that day temporarily doing lawn care. He said he tries to work for the same lawn care service everyday, but sometimes they don’t need his service. He was happy, smiling, and talked about the blessings that he had (keep in mind he has no home, no car, only what he could carry with him). He told us about his love for Jesus and how Jesus had made him happy. He was so glad to see people in his neighborhood “sharing God’s love” with others because his neighborhood “needs lot’s of love”.
We came across another man sitting on a bench. His clothes were ragged. His hair was messy. And it was fairly evident that all he had was in a little torn up bag next to him. We offered him water and a bag. He turned us down with a blessing and said I think I will be ok tonight, but there are a lot of people a few blocks away near the shelter that could use water and snacks. Wow! What a lesson to us.
Something I also noticed each time we handed a person a relief bag, they never looked into it immediately. They would talk to us, pray, and then we would say our good-byes. It was then, if you looked back over your shoulder, you could catch people peering into their bags. Each time a huge smile glowed from their faces as if they had opened a present on Christmas morning. Some reached in and took out a snack, others pulled out the Bible, a few grabbed for the water. Each time it seemed to me as if time stopped for just a moment, and those people weren’t homeless; they weren’t forgotten; they weren’t alone. It seemed as if they remembered that someone cared for them, that God loved them and you could feel them almost breathe a sigh of relief for just a second.
I could go on with stories of the individuals that we met. They were polite, thankful, and willing to share their stories with us. I think that we went in to help them, but came out with them actually teaching us. It was powerful.
I asked the kids afterwards to share their thoughts. Some said things like: “They were nice. It was a little scary at first, but the people out there are just normal people like we are. God loves homeless people. It makes me appreciate what I have. I want to help them more. I feel sorry for the homeless people.” And they shared many other stories of their experience.
When we returned to the building, our night wasn’t over. We ate dinner then set up makeshift homes made of cardboard boxes outside the church building. It was there that we all slept the night. We lived (mildly) as homeless people for the night. It was uncomfortable, damp, and actually kind of chilly. Some got hungry, many were a little bored. Some woke up with backaches, some had headaches, others wanted to know how messed up their hair was. We left the comforts of home (TV, cell phone, computers, music, etc) and spent the night trying to experience a life like those on the streets do. And it was actually a little difficult.
I think the point was made through our night. As the teens processed the next morning at breakfast we discovered that we are blessed to have what we do: warm, soft beds, fans, showers, music, refrigerators, and pantries; basically all the things that we do have.
I am thankful to God for this experience. I have also realized a huge need for a hurting people. Not only do they need food, water, and a place to lay their head at night; but most are just looking for just a little bit of kindness, a little bit of respect, and a lot of love. God’s love. And it doesn’t seem like too many people are out on the streets showing that love to him. It’s funny actually when you think about, no sad. Most of us live in really nice homes, at least homes. Most of us have meals on our tables each day. Most of us have jobs and cars, and air-conditioning. Many of us have more things than we know what to do with so we keep them in our attics, our storage sheds, or storage units. Yet, most of us have forgotten that we are called to help; that we are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus. And so less than 8 miles away, for some of us a few blocks away, while we are sleeping comfortably inside each night there are people who are outside, cold, hungry, sick, and in need. We don’t want to think about them. We don’t want to deal with them. And we definitely don’t want to venture down to their “unsafe” “scary” part of town. Because most of us are pretty comfortable with just coming to church, and “giving money to help those in need” so that we personally don’t have to get our hands and feet dirty. Of course there are those that giving money is all they can do, and God bless you for that, but many of us can do more and just don’t. However, the other night a group of teens and adults did something fairly unpopular, a little scary, and a little bit uncomfortable: became the hands and feet of Jesus. Bringing His love to an otherwise generally unloved, uncared for people.
My challenge to myself and to each of you is to remember Matthew 25:35-40. May God’s love be shown.
Topics: Family, Ministry, Teens | 2 Comments »
Are You Willing?
By Jason | August 6, 2008
This week is Work Camp and really our last really busy week of the summer. I posted an encouragement thought on the church site today and wanted to share. But before I do, a quick baby update for this week….
Cori is doing great! She is sleeping a little less at night (and waking me up too) from being uncomfortable, but is really doing well. The hot Texas heat hasn’t really bothered her anymore than most people. She is taking lots of iron to get her iron count up before going into labor. We have pretty much finished the baby’s room. Hopefully, it’s a girl at this point because the room is pink and green; the bedding is pink, and her name in on the wall. So we are counting on the doc to be right. If not, I will be running home calling some friends and having a painting party in the nursery!
Rylee is getting excited and talks about the baby all the time. She is still dealing with some anxiety that is evident to Cori and me. Other than that, all doctor visits look good and things seem to be going good. She did tell us that this baby is going to be a small one like Rylee, so everyone prepare yourselves for another tiny little child. I know when Rylee was born everyone thought something was wrong with her because she was so skinny and small so we would say, nothing wrong with her just short, skinny parents! We are praying for a healthy baby and are assuming she will be a tiny one too!
So for Cori’s sake and Rylee’s and my growing anticipating, hopefully, just a few more weeks! Here is an update from http://www.babycenter.com/: Your baby doesn’t have much room to maneuver now that he’s over 18 inches long and tips the scales at 5 1/4 pounds (pick up a honeydew). Because it’s so snug in your womb, he isn’t likely to be doing somersaults anymore, but the number of times he kicks should remain about the same. His kidneys are fully developed now, and his liver can process some waste products. Most of his basic physical development is now complete - he’ll spend the next few weeks putting on weight.
And now…..the rest of the story…
This week our Youth Group is participating in Work Camp. Basically our week is about getting up early, scraping, painting, lightly repairing and cleaning up houses. It’s hot, it’s hard work, sometimes it’s painful, but it’s fun and rewarding.
On Tuesday after Work Camp, I went home and found an article in the Christian Chronicle entitled “Teens eager to show faith by serving”. The article talked about how many teens participate in mission work throughout the summer and actually throughout the year. A couple of quotes stood out and I wanted to share: ”This generation of youth has really seemed to grasp ‘the heart of a servant’ aspect of trying to be like Jesus.” “This generation of teens knows that a faith that doesn’t cause you to act isn’t much of a faith”. And a quote from a teen, “The trick is to remember why you are out here serving people. You have to remember that it isn’t about you. Serving people is about being the hands and feet of Christ.”
I loved these quotes because I see it every day in the lives of our teens. Our teens have a heart and mind to serve. This is actually true of the entire generation of teens right now. They are very outward minded. They want to know what they can do to help society. And they want to serve. I see this all the time in our teens, their friends, and in teens that I don’t even know. They want to know where they can serve and what they can do. I also loved this article because our week at Work Camp is all about being the “hands and feet” of Jesus and the article correlated directly with what we are currently involved in.
One of my favorite stories of Jesus healing someone is a story in Matthew 8 in which he heals a leper. Instead of just saying “be healed”, Jesus actually reaches out and touches the man. Healing him instantly, but also telling him by touching him, “I love you, and you are ok.” Imagine a man who had not been touched in a very long time. He longed to be touched. He longed for someone to reach out to him instead of running away from him. Jesus, the Son of God, instead of running, instead of just saying the words, reaches out and touches the man. I love this passage because the man actually asks Jesus “If you are willing, can you make me clean?” Jesus responds with touching him and saying, “I am willing. Be clean”. Powerful words and a powerful touch.
I believe we can learn from this as we to are to be the hands and feet of Jesus. There are “lepers” all around us. There are many people who feel isolated, neglected, shunned by society, and that have great needs. Many of these people we, unfortunately, turn our heads and “run away from.” Many are begging for help basically saying, “If you are willing”. Shouldn’t our response be “We are willing”? Shouldn’t we, like Christ, be reaching out and touching these people to say “We love you, you are special” and through that show Christ’s love?
I have been excited this week to see this very thing happening with our teens. I have been encouraged to see them reaching out, to “lepers”, to people that need help, to people that need Jesus and saying “We are willing. We love you and we care”.
Topics: Family, Ministry, Parenting, Teens | No Comments »
It’s about time…and I’m Back!
By Jason | July 30, 2008
So it’s been over three weeks since I have been online. It’s about time…..
There’s no place like home. Dorothy had it right. There is no place like home. I spent two of the last three weeks on the road and then the third week back home playing catch up. My two weeks gone were both two amazingly awesome weeks, but I am glad to be back home. My first week after “halftime” I spent in the cool mountains of Colorado on Trek and the second week was spent in the dry, hot plains area of Whitney, TX at camp. Two completely different weeks but so many great lessons learned at both. Last week was spent so incredibly busy catching up and then some.
I have so much to write about I don’t know where to begin. But I feel that I should. Something good has to come of it all. I have spent the summer trying to do a lot of personal growing. Working on my skills as a minister. Working on being a better husband and father. And most importantly growing my relationship with God. It has been an amazing journey so far and I look forward as the summer wraps up and I become a father times 2!
I don’t think I am going to put a lot of meat into this blog post tonight, sorry. I need to try and gather some thoughts on where to begin. Honestly, this was a big start to getting back to blogging. Since I have been home I have been spending a lot of time with Cori and Rylee when I am home and work has kept me busy with no time to write either. Cori and I made a huge decision to stay in our home and not move. Probably a very smart decision, but it was difficult. Because of that we decided it was time to paint Rylee’s room, get her furniture, and new bedding. All of this because our new baby will be taking over her old room, furniture, etc. And there was a surprise shower for us and we got a new bedroom set (bedding) for the baby so we are now repainting the nursery. We also decided to get new carpet in our house. Our carpet is so nasty that I don’t like to be barefoot in the living room, so there is no way I want to put our baby on the floor.
With all that said I have a lot of catching up to do in blogging and I think a lot to write about. I would like to write about my journey on trek and the experiences there. I would like to write about my week spent at camp. I would also like to write about experiences from the past week. And even a few so far from this week. I will get there.
Oh another thing…I found out that I can grow a pretty good beard by not shaving for two weeks and I had fun shaving it off on the Saturday after my return home. I will stick the pictures on facebook this week.
As for the baby updates…..I have missed reporting on several weeks. So here is playing catch up…Cori is doing awesome! She is feeling great! Looking great! And ready for baby girl #2 to arrive! Actually she is a little tired and her iron is a little low, but she is taking iron supplements now. I think the pregnancy is actually getting to her though because the other day she told me that she is actually enjoying the hot Texas weather this summer and that she thinks she is getting used to it! Our little girl has been kicking like crazy! She moves all the time. All I have to say is “poor Cori”. She wanted a calm baby this time, more like her and less like me, and unless this one is getting all the moving out before birth, she is possibly going to be more active than Rylee!
I know much of this is old news but it’s still pretty cool to me so I thought I would share. To catch up on the baby development here are the past three postings on http://www.babycenter.com/:
This week…Your baby now weighs about 4 3/4 pounds (like your average cantaloupe) and is almost 18 inches long. Her fat layers - which she’ll need to regulate her body temperature once she’s born - are filling her out, making her rounder. Her skin is also smoother than ever. Her central nervous system is maturing and her lungs are continuing to mature as well. If you’ve been nervous about preterm labor, you’ll be happy to know that babies born between 34 and 37 weeks who have no other health problems generally do fine. They may need a short stay in the neonatal nursery and may have a few short-term health issues, but in the long run, they usually do as well as full-term babies.
Last week…your baby weighs a little over 4 pounds (heft a pineapple) and has passed the 17-inch mark. He’s rapidly losing that wrinkled, alien look and his skeleton is hardening. The bones in his skull aren’t fused together, which allows them to move and slightly overlap, thus making it easier for him to fit through the birth canal. These bones don’t entirely fuse until early adulthood, so they can grow as his brain and other tissue expands during infancy and childhood.
Two weeks ago…By now, your baby weighs 3.75 pounds (pick up a large jicama) and is about 16.7 inches long, taking up a lot of space in your uterus. You’re gaining about a pound a week and roughly half of that goes right to your baby. In fact, she’ll gain a third to half of her birth weight during the next 7 weeks as she fattens up for survival outside the womb.
Topics: Family, Ministry, Parenting, Teens | 1 Comment »
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