Sixteen months since I have posted.  Wow!  My last post was about my new retirement from homeschooling.  I was “devastated” as you recall, at the abrupt end in August when my DIL took over.  Well, she put the boys in public school this August.  What can I say, I guess she didn’t love homeschooling as much as she said.  I think she wanted them in competitive sports – the  soccer mom scenario. I have gone to some basketball games and T-ball games because I love to watch my grandchildren.  It still hurts me deeply that I homeschooled my boys K-12 and my oldest grandson for 5 years and that legacy seems to have been tossed in the trash heap.

So…I haven’t lost weight either, like my last post resolutions (I still can’t believe it’s been 16 months).

We have been discipling a young man (32) that has lived “on the dark side” all of his life.  It’s no easy chore.  He lost his drivers license, car broke down (he had been living in it) and we decided to try to help him.  He is living above our shop in a small apartment and doing security and small jobs for us.  It’s been six months.  He’s been drug free for 6 months and we have taken him to church with us every Sunday and Wednesday.  Of course, my husband has shared the gospel with him from day one.  We gave him a Gideon New Testament, but he couldn’t read the Old Testament stories that my husband was telling him and he was enthralled with.  So we gave him a Bible.

We were very late to church one Sunday and I said, “I am NOT walking in during the offering!” My husband suggested going to a church that his Yellow Pages rep. had told him about.  It had many services on Sunday.  I said that was fine and he looked it up on his phone.  We had plenty of time to get to their next service.  We loved it and more importantly, our young man loved it.  They announced a series starting the next week about Samson – what makes a strong man weak and a weak man strong?  He wanted to attend.  We did.  We have been going there for 11 weeks.  We still attend our church on Wednesday nights, but this week, I resigned from the little bit I was still doing because we are sure that God is opening another chapter in our lives.

If you like a story…This young man could have prayed “the” prayer with my husband for several months, but he was so appreciative of all our help and belief in him that we were afraid he would have gone through the motions out of respect and wanting to do the right thing.  We tried to get him around other men that would also take him under their wing, but it never happened in our church.  This new church gather around him.  They invited him to a men’s retreat.  He was as excited and scared as a child going on his first campout.  He hung out with and rode to the retreat with a godly man  for several hours.  One hour into the retreat he called us and said that he had received Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior!  Now, this guy knows what the word “Lord” means. (drug lord, pimp, etc.)  This was not the same as a child raised in church receiving the Lord, or even someone that has some knowledge of the Bible.  He had never heard a Bible story in his life.  Remember the woman who washed Jesus feet. Those that are forgiven much, love much.  He was not sure about baptism, but on the 2nd part of the men’s retreat, a month later, they baptized him in the river.

This all sounds glorious and it is, but it has been very hard on us.  This man has no marketable skills except tinting cars.  We have tried to put him to work and he is clueless and breaks things.  He has an entitlement thinking that has been the hardest thing to try to overcome.  My husband has gotten frustrated with him recently.  He has been trying to help him fix many outstanding fines and warrants so he can get his DL back and also get to see his son.  Just because someone becomes a Christian does not mean he is exempt from proving himself and paying his debts.  It’s hard to make money when the state takes your DL because of late child support payments.  I do think this is a stupid law. Many of his outstanding debts and warrants are for driving without a DL.

New chapter:  No one is homeschooling in my family, My son and his family have moved off our property, so I rarely see them, My youngest son has a new baby and we have a great relationship with them. We are feeling God move us away from our current church (we are charter members).  It’s hard to leave.  I saw something on FB the other day about God opening doors, but we keep focusing on the closed one that we don’t see the open one.  I believe that has been where we have been for a long time. Already this week, my husband has been asked to be the chaplain of a group of, for lack of a better term, “doomsday preppers.”  We are not doomsday preppers, but dabble in homesteading, thinking ahead, preserving foods, saving money, becoming less dependent on the government, etc.

We are also tossing around the idea of a local small group branched from the new church we have been attending.  We can see this in the future.  This church is 30 minutes from us and we have found many people from our area that drive to it.  It is a church that has a campus pastor, but the senior pastor preaches via video.  Satellite churches.  This church is the 2nd largest, maybe largest by now, church in the US.  One church, many campuses with many services.  You might want to check out their online church at LifeChurch.TV.  I might just have to do a whole blog on this church.

We are looking forward to what God has in store for us, now that we have opened our hearts to change. We want to make a difference, we want to serve our Master.  We’ve been somewhat stagnant in the church where our membership is, serving, but with no focus or joy for a while.

Until next time,

Liz

I am not a homeschooling grandma anymore.  My grandson is now being homeschooled by his step-mother and they are doing just fine.  It took her a while to warm up to the idea and she is loving it.  He will be 10 this month and he will have a brother coming along next year in Kindergarten.  So, I have a LOT of time on my hands.

I only found out in early August that she was going to tackle homeschooling.  I have to tell you that I was devastated.  I love My Father’s World curriculum and had already purchased it.  I was so looking forward to this year and all we would discover together.  It was not to be.  I was devastated. Besides wondering if she would do a good job, there was all that experience and knowledge that I wanted to impart and all the supplies and resources I have accumulated since I started homeschooling in 1985.  What was I going to do with all that – what was I going to do with myself?

Retirement has brought me to a place in my life for re-evaluation.  I am finally used to not teaching school and having a child/children at my house everyday for breakfast and lunch, so what shall I do?  It would seem natural for me to continue to help homeschoolers, maybe to continue to organize the support group and continue my Yahoo! group list for homeschoolers in the area.  For some reason, I have not felt like that is the direction for me to go.  I know a few retired or older homeschoolers that are doing that, and they are appreciated and resented equally.  I think the younger mothers should do it, just like I had to.  So what shall I do with my time and energies?

Energies, hah!  I’m soon to be 55 and when you mix menopause with retirement, middle-age spread happens.  At least it has to me.  I am equal to the largest I have ever been and thicker, flabbier and weaker than ever.  I don’t mind being heavy, but I would like to fit in my clothes.  I do not like this thick middle that has just happened and I’m worried about getting rid of it. I’ve heard it is hard at my age.  Strength and stamina is probably the main thing that I need to work on and if I shape up a bit, all the better.  My husband is a youth pastor and I really need to be able to keep up with him.

Staying home + computer/internet = inactivity.  I spend a lot of time on the computer.  On a forum I frequent, I heard about SparkPeople.  You are probably wondering why I have not heard of it before since it is apparently a huge thing and been on all the TV shows for years.  I just don’t watch those shows, I guess.  I know I don’t watch Oprah or the View!  Anyway, Sparkpeople offered a 28-day Bootcamp on their site and I joined it.  It’s free, all of SparkPeople is free.  My first day was today.  You get a daily email with a 10-minute cardio workout video and a strength training video.  You can also get on their diet, but I think I will go back to the Idiot Proof Diet as I hate counting things.  I may try it later.

So, that’s my initial plan to get my body back in shape.  I am not a person for resolutions, but I have a plan and I hope and pray I will stick to it.

My body is one thing, but God gave me a verse this week, two actually.  The first was 2 Timothy 1:6-9, “Fan into flame the gift of God…For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.”

The second was Luke 2:52, “And Jesus increased in  wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.”

I want to emulate the example of my Savior with the help of the Holy Spirit. I am making goals in four areas: (1)wisdom/knowledge, (2) stature/ health/stamina, (3)spiritually and (4) relationships. I also want to remember to fan the flame of self-discipline in my life.  So, I have made 4 columns and goals in each column.  That is a post for another day.

I will tell you a little about what I am doing this year for my Bible study.  I am reading through the Bible this year, online.  I open three tabs, One is the One Year Bible Blog, one is the One Year Audio Bible and One is Bible Gateway.  Actually, to confuse you more, I will tell you that I open the OYBB, click on the Bible Gateway link for the Bible (and you can select any version you want), then I click the link for the Audio Bible.  Now I have three tabs or pages open.

I listen to the Audio Bible intro for the OT verses and when he begins actually reading, I go to the open tab and read along in my version.  The Audio Bible is in the New Living Testament, so it is easy to understand, but I read along in a different version. When he finishes with the OT, I go back to the Audio Bible page and click pause. Then I go to the One Year Bible Blog and read their commentary for the OT passages. Then I go back to the Audio Bible page and click play.  Repeat until we are done with the passages from the OT, NT, Psalms and Proverbs.  I know it sounds complicated.  It’s really not, just three open pages.  I have this theory that if I read it and hear it I will retain it better.

If you haven’t read the One Year Bible Blog, you probably would enjoy it even if you wanted to read the passages from your own Bible.  He adds art and videos, challenges, Bible verse memory and more to every day.

My verse for today:  Come here and listen to me!  I’ll pour out the wisdom upon you and make you wise.”  Proverbs 1:23  This is my prayer, for God to pour out his wisdom on me.

What am I doing with the rest of my day?  That’s a good question.  I have completed most my former responsibilities and I’m taking the first semi-sabbatical to re-align my priorities.  It would be so easy to jump in with all my time and start committing to everything someone wants me to do.  I want to be in His will, so I am being still and praying and listening.

I am VP of the local Gideon Auxiliary, the wife of a youth pastor, we own a business, and I’m on the Missions Council at my church.  I have other interests and activities and short-term volunteer opportunities, but that is all.  I have started dehydrating food and it is fun.  That’s another post also.

I have been reading the book, “Radical” by David Platt and I can’t recommend it enough. If you don’t want your American Dream worldview shaken up, don’t read it.  It a life-changer.

Until next time…

I believe the Church’s mission is to go out, not to bring people in to “hear the preacher”.  Pastor’s should equip the church to go out. while “missional” is also a word that the emergent church likes, and I tend to shy away false teaching, I love the concept of being missional. I hate the word, but I love what it means.

I am on the missions council at our church. Along with the outreach team, we are constantly looking for ways to “be” the church and not just “go” to church.

I found this video.  Watch it. It explains it very simply.

The Missional Church

I can’t believe it’s been so long and I just happened to come here to the day from last year.  I’m not sure how much I will be here, I’m not blogging elsewhere, just busy. 

Recap of the year:
We started the 3rd grade using My Father’s World, Exploring Countries and Cultures.  We loved it!  My grandson loves geography and social studies.  At the beginning of the year, we read a small book called, "God Speaks Numanggang."  It was the story of a couple who go to Papua New Guinea as Wycliffe Missionaries.  I think they spent 30 years there.  My grandson was enamored with Papau New Guinea.

Two weeks ago, because I am on the Missions council at our church and because I teach a girls missions class, I arranged for some Wycliffe missionaries (that I had met through providence) to speak to our GA’s and RA’s and to the whole church.  They are weeks away from their new assignment – Papua New Guinea! The kids loved them and my grandson – well he talks about them and PNG all the time. And what do you know, next week we will be studying Australia, and will be reading about Papua New Guinea in Windows on the World.  You never know if interest like this will lead to my grandson becoming a missionary. I thank God for the Hazels that created this curriculum.

I broke my pinky finger playing basketball with the youth one evening after church.  I was going after a ball to keep it from going out of bounds (I wasn’t playing volleyball on sand) and fell on it breaking it in 9 pieces!  The hand specialist had to recommend THE hand specialist and it required two surgerys.  I’ll never wear a wedding ring on my left hand again because it rubs the enlarged bone growth from all the breaks joining back.  I was taking fiddle lessons at the time, but the first knuckle won’t bend, so I’ll never be any good.  I have recently been able to play the piano again, though. Such a silly thing to do. See my hardware.

My husband was asked (begged) to be the youth pastor at our church.  He’s 54!  He told me he had a burden for our youth and was filling in after our last interim left, but he thought he was too old for them.  He didn’t feel too old, but he could be grandpa to the jr. high.  The kids and their parents were the ones that kept entreating him to take the job.  He never turned in an application, but he did pray about it and thinks God must be crazy, but jumped in with both feet.  We wondered why God would put a 54 year old couple in a youth group.  We finally think we may know.  Only last year, our pastor died and had 3 teenage homeschooled daughters.  Also, last year, 4 of our teenagers’ father was killed in a motorcycle wreck.  We also have a boy whose father is in the final stages of cancer. And we have two girls that were abused by a step-father for many years, and a girl whose father left her mother for another man, among others that are being raised by their mothers. We only have about 35 youth.  That’s a big percentage of fatherless teens.  If my husband can be a father figure to these kids and lead them to the Father of the Fatherless, he is humbled and could use your prayers.

What else?  Oh, I have a granddaughter, now.  She is 10 months old and beautiful!  Now I have three grands and oh, how grand they are.  I will not homeschool the younger two as the next one is 5 years younger than the one I am homeschooling.  His mother has finally decided that she would like to homeschool and may or may not try to tackle the oldest, but will start the next one either next year or wait a year. 

We enlarged our garden to 46 x 26 and got some chickens.  We lost our little Boston Terrier, but we adopted a stray Australian Shepherd and she is a sweetie.  We have one black cat.

I guess I’ll blog more as I think of something to write.  It’s had to know what anyone would want to read.

House pets get a lot of time on blogs and show-n-tell and even have laws that protect them.  I wanted to blog about my thoughts on house pets.

We’ll start with reptiles and rodents.  Personally, I don’t want anything that God cursed living in my house – that would be reptiles.  They are cursed in Genesis and called them "detestable" in Leviticus. That says it all for me.  OK, then, what about rodents.  Well, they make good fodder for the reptiles (snakes) that you might have living with you, and a fun toy for the felines, but that’s about it.  I supposed they might be fun to watch running around in one of those little cages reminding us of what a rat race really is, but I can visit the pet store to see that show.  There is nothing cuddly about reptiles and rodents.

How about cats, since I mentioned them above.  AH! Cats, the number two favorite house pet. I have always been puzzled by the allure of a cat in the house.  Cats do not care if you like them or not.  They are narcissistic.  Oh, they love being petted, but they would love it the same if it were a robot doing it.  They are cute to watch, especially kittens, but ragged couch arms, hair on the countertops  and dining room chair pads – and the litterbox, nope!  I do like a cat or two outside to keep down the rodents. I have three at the moment.

Pigs, now that’s interesting.  Pot bellied pigs are they cute and cuddly?  No!  Actually, "cute" is in the eye of the beholder.  I think they are kind of cute in an ugly kind of way.  Stick a red bow on it and take a family portrait.  I have always wondered about the toilet habits of a house pig.  Do you train them to a litter box, or do they oink at the door to go out?  I hear that people eat pork.  It could be convenient to have your food source living in the house with you.

Birds in a cage.  I’ve had a canary.  Other than the seeds all over the floor, it was a pleasant experience.  He sang and sang and when you didn’t want to hear him, you could cove the cage with a sheet and he would stop.  They don’t love you, but they are pleasant.  I think I might like to have a canary again.

Fish.  I’ve had fish. A lot of work.  Nice to watch.  Not worth the trouble.

Let’s talk dogs.  Now, dogs are cute and cuddly.  Dogs are loyal (unlike cats) and they actually love people and have feelings.  They can be trained and house trained – to ‘go’ outside.  Dogs are my first choice for a pet.  I have had a couple of house dogs, that were also yard dogs that came home smelling like they had a lot of fun rolling on one of those dead rodents.  Even with that, a dog will greet you at the door, and if you are feeling unloved, you always know your dog loves you.  Yeah, they will lick you in the face- yuch!  Dogs want to be with you wherever you go.  They are not considered "man’s best friend," for nothing.  I like dogs.  I miss my last two dogs very much.  I have not decided to get another pet at this time, but I’m sure, when I do,  it will be a dog.

I know that this post sounds like a 5th grade essay.  That’s OK.  I never said I knew more than a fifth grader.