Well I've thought about it and talked it over with Dess and i've finally got the 8 things about me that you probably don't know.
1. I have a tendency to wear womens clothing for shock value.
2. I am a pyromaniac. I love setting off fires and playing with fire. The only problem is that i've burnt myself numerous times. Yesterday i got to light off the burn pile which was filled high with broken up wood and rags. Wee!!
3. Here's a story which Dess reminded me of: It was the day of our wedding. We were on our way to our honeymoon destination which was about a 5 hour drive from where we got married. During our drive we were opening up cards and presents which we'd received for our wedding. Dess felt the need to make a pit stop, so we pulled into a Wal-Mart in a small town in Texas. We sat in the car for a bit and i made sure to take all our cash gifts into Wal-Mart with us because i didn't feel it was safe in the car. When we were finished at Wal-Mart we started back for the car. As we approached it i told Dess, "i locked the keys in the car." She thought i was just joking. I was puzzled because the car hadn't done it's usual dinging to let me know the keys had been in the ignition. Then i figured it out. I'd locked the keys in the car with the car running. We had to go back into Wal-Mart to get a "wrecker" to open our locks. As we were waiting in the Wal-Mart, a lady asked us if we were coming from a prom. We were still dressed up in tux and wedding gown. Very embarassing.
4. I never thought it would happen, but i've married my mom. Well, not actually my mom, but Dess and Mom are very similar in their personalities and even thoughts. I remember telling Mom about how i wasn't going to marry someone like her. I don't remember why i said it, but i did. I think it may have even made her cry. I'm a mean person.
5. I'm an instigator at heart. I like to incite others to do things that are bad. One time i conviced my friend on the ship to "moon" Mary, the facility manager of the ship. He slipped down his pants and drew her attention. It was great.
6. My addictions are video/computer games and chocolate.
7. I feel like i've become part of the "system" at Friend Ships. Like i'm the one who explains why we do things the way we do them when it doesn't make sense to anyone else. It's frustrating because i never wanted to become a part of "The Man" but now i think i am.
8. I struggle with feelings of inadequecy in my life. This extends to all parts of my life, like as a supervisor or as a husband or my spirituality. I just don't feel good enough.
There's my 8 things. I'm going to tag Dess next. She's a good victim and i'm sure you'd love to know more about her. Also this keeps you checking out our blog for her 8 things.
joel
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Saturday, July 08, 2006
36 Hours
It all started yesterday at
By the time we got done with Cintas it was time to start our regular schedule. There really is no rest for the wicked.
Joel and I parted ways. He went to be head honcho over the grounds I went to go ride my big bad truck with a "girl" friend that wanted to go with me that day. Sarah and I had a good morning with picking up from a grocery store, bread warehouse and then vending machine place. The truck was full and ready to be taken to its designated places. We took it to the ship for the galley to go through and then to a shelter. But on our way to the second shelter Sarah SCREAMED while I was driving. "DESS PULLOVER" I had seen what she had seen, a man collapse while another man was trying to help him.
I pulled over knowing a bit more about the situation than Sarah but it turned out to be a good thing that Sarah didn't really know what was going on or I would have not pulled over. When I parked the UD I tried to explain to Sarah what she was seeing. (She is not naive or anything. She is a mother of 3 young adults but she just didn't know what see was seeing) I explained the man was drunk and the other guy was helping take him home. But we stayed around to watch longer than expected. And what we saw unfold was horrifying. The man couldn't even walk with out the other man holding him up. (We will call the drunken man Bob and the other man Fred) So Fred put Bob in a truck. I thought Fred was going to push Bob over so Fred could drive. Oh no Fred put Bob in the truck then set Bob's feet to the where they needed to be on the gas/break peddle and then gave over the keys and shut the door. I was like this is not happening, this is not happening. Fred went inside. I thought Fred was going to come out any minute but he never entered our eye site again. Bob just sat there. Sarah said out loud "I am praying he passes out" For 5 minutes we watch to see what Bob will do. He turns on the engine and goes. I grab a pen and write down on my leg the car type and license plate number. It was horrible. To my surprise Bob was driving extremely well for his condition. Sarah called 911 and I followed Bob for a little ways so we could tell 911 where he was heading. 911 said that a cop car was on his way to get Bob. And that was it. We went back to giving food while praying Bob would be pulled over before he killed himself and someone else. It was crazy.
How do people just do that? Oh I forgot to mention when Bob pulled out there were two guys across the street watching everything from a car dealership. But when Bob drove down the road the two teen guys started laughing hysterically like it was the funniest thing they had ever seen I was so mad.
Any way. It was just as crazy the rest of the day. Joel and I picked up another new crew member during lunch. When I got back I was sent to a city 1 hour away from
Just as I got back to Port Mercy I got a call saying Laura ran out of gas and needed gas to be taken to her. By this time I had had no break since
I went to bed right after that and woke up to go to Dinner and then Joel and I went to get him his new glasses. We will send you pictures of the new Joel when we get some. They are awesome we both really like them. Don't Tell Joel I told you but they are girls glasses but he still looks MANLY with them on.
As of now I am waiting for Joel. He is sooooooooo nice . . . Ms. Gwen asked him during dinner well she didn't ask she just said she can't flush her toilet because her tank is full. This is asking, in her own way, if Joel could empty it out for her. Some times I get frustrated because she doesn't ask or doesn't care that she keeps asking Joel to do it on his time off but then I remember the words of our beloved Pastor Rufus in
So that is it for the past 36 hours. Hope everything is going great with you guys.
Love you LOTS!!!!
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Morning Refreshing
Hi,
I just have a story that i want to tell. I hope that it'll be encouraging to Paul! Dess was asked to arrange some songs by CD for Wednesday's morning refreshing. She picks out songs and then writes the lyrics on a big piece of paper so the crew can sing along. One of the songs that she picked was "The Prodigal Son" by Paul Butler. I think it was the debut playing of the song in Louisiana. The crew liked it and clapped along to the music (which they don't often do). I just thought that it was really neat to be praising God along with Paul.
Okay so that was my main point on blogging tonight. I haven't had anything really exciting happen to me lately. But i guess i can talk a bit about what's been going on. Something strange happened at Friend Ships over the weekend. It was Saturday afternoon, around 4:00pm and Stuart, one of the crew, came back to the property after a bike ride. He heard some loud music coming from one of the ministry mini-vans. When he went over to the van to see why the music was on, he found a kid from the neighborhood just sitting in the van, listening to music. Someone had left the keys in the van, and for some strange reason, this kid happened to come into our property (all the gates were locked) and he found the van with the keys in it and decided to play some music. Well, he took off with the keys. Later on, Josh, another crewmember went out to look for the kid (who was probably about 16 years old) to see if he could get the keys and let him know he's not welcome. He found a kid who claimed that it was his "twin brother" who'd been on the property. Josh couldn't get anything out of him, so they left it alone. I don't know what this kid was thinking! Why would he do that?!?! It just doesn't make any sense to me. Then on Wednesday i went checking around to make sure we didn't have anymore keys left in vehicles and i found the CB radio was left on in one of our semi trucks. I assume that this kid had been in it too and had thought that it was a normal radio. So, security at Friend Ships has been beefed up again. Today Tim and i have been putting up vinyl along our fence. We used to have it up, but had to take it down when hurricane Rita came through so it wouldn't tear out the whole fence. It makes our property look more like a military compound because the vinyl is a dark green color. But the good thing is that people can't just look in and see what's going on anymore.
Let's see, i guess i can talk about our Canada Day/4th of July celebrations. Well, i guess celebration isn't the right choice of words. On Canada day we went to the indoor football game that i've mentioned in a previous post. No one really acknowledged that it was Canada day and no one in the States has ever heard of Canada day. They just don't get it. Then on the 4th of July we drove to Houston to see Chuck and Janet. Chuck was being released from the hospital that day from surgery. He had some problems with his veins or arteries in his legs. They cut him up good. We went to be a support for both Chuck and Janet. Chuck was doing well. He was pretty weak because his hemoglobin count was low and he was hurting from the surgery, but he handled himself really well. Janet was a little bit emotionally fatigued. She'd been going through a lot during the surgery, worrying about the procedure and the future. Dess and i were able to just help relieve some of the stress. We spent about 4 hours in Houston with Chuck and Janet, then we headed back for Lake Charles. We picked up some Taco Bell went back to Chuck and Janet's apartment (they were letting us stay in it while they were in Houston) and crashed out. We didn't see a single flash of light in the sky from a fire work. I guess we just aren't that patriotic.
Life is going well as a whole. We are going to get an extra day off next week because we've been working so hard! That will be a nice break. I'm still waiting to get my new glasses. They were supposed to be ready today, but when i called the eyeglass store they said i'd need to wait until tomorrow. I'm looking forward to having a new look, a stronger prescription and no scratches on my lenses.
That's all for tonight... until next time.
I just have a story that i want to tell. I hope that it'll be encouraging to Paul! Dess was asked to arrange some songs by CD for Wednesday's morning refreshing. She picks out songs and then writes the lyrics on a big piece of paper so the crew can sing along. One of the songs that she picked was "The Prodigal Son" by Paul Butler. I think it was the debut playing of the song in Louisiana. The crew liked it and clapped along to the music (which they don't often do). I just thought that it was really neat to be praising God along with Paul.
Okay so that was my main point on blogging tonight. I haven't had anything really exciting happen to me lately. But i guess i can talk a bit about what's been going on. Something strange happened at Friend Ships over the weekend. It was Saturday afternoon, around 4:00pm and Stuart, one of the crew, came back to the property after a bike ride. He heard some loud music coming from one of the ministry mini-vans. When he went over to the van to see why the music was on, he found a kid from the neighborhood just sitting in the van, listening to music. Someone had left the keys in the van, and for some strange reason, this kid happened to come into our property (all the gates were locked) and he found the van with the keys in it and decided to play some music. Well, he took off with the keys. Later on, Josh, another crewmember went out to look for the kid (who was probably about 16 years old) to see if he could get the keys and let him know he's not welcome. He found a kid who claimed that it was his "twin brother" who'd been on the property. Josh couldn't get anything out of him, so they left it alone. I don't know what this kid was thinking! Why would he do that?!?! It just doesn't make any sense to me. Then on Wednesday i went checking around to make sure we didn't have anymore keys left in vehicles and i found the CB radio was left on in one of our semi trucks. I assume that this kid had been in it too and had thought that it was a normal radio. So, security at Friend Ships has been beefed up again. Today Tim and i have been putting up vinyl along our fence. We used to have it up, but had to take it down when hurricane Rita came through so it wouldn't tear out the whole fence. It makes our property look more like a military compound because the vinyl is a dark green color. But the good thing is that people can't just look in and see what's going on anymore.
Let's see, i guess i can talk about our Canada Day/4th of July celebrations. Well, i guess celebration isn't the right choice of words. On Canada day we went to the indoor football game that i've mentioned in a previous post. No one really acknowledged that it was Canada day and no one in the States has ever heard of Canada day. They just don't get it. Then on the 4th of July we drove to Houston to see Chuck and Janet. Chuck was being released from the hospital that day from surgery. He had some problems with his veins or arteries in his legs. They cut him up good. We went to be a support for both Chuck and Janet. Chuck was doing well. He was pretty weak because his hemoglobin count was low and he was hurting from the surgery, but he handled himself really well. Janet was a little bit emotionally fatigued. She'd been going through a lot during the surgery, worrying about the procedure and the future. Dess and i were able to just help relieve some of the stress. We spent about 4 hours in Houston with Chuck and Janet, then we headed back for Lake Charles. We picked up some Taco Bell went back to Chuck and Janet's apartment (they were letting us stay in it while they were in Houston) and crashed out. We didn't see a single flash of light in the sky from a fire work. I guess we just aren't that patriotic.
Life is going well as a whole. We are going to get an extra day off next week because we've been working so hard! That will be a nice break. I'm still waiting to get my new glasses. They were supposed to be ready today, but when i called the eyeglass store they said i'd need to wait until tomorrow. I'm looking forward to having a new look, a stronger prescription and no scratches on my lenses.
That's all for tonight... until next time.
Sunday, July 02, 2006
It's A New Season
Hi Everyone,
Well, Dess just blogged last night about our adventures in eyeglasses. I figured i'd give you a bit of an update of the last week. It's been pretty intense and tiring for us, so you must want to know what we've been up to.
Last week Friend Ships held their first annual Disaster Response Training. About 50 people from around the United States congregated in Lake Charles, LA to participate in this training. The training consisted of many lectures and some practical work shops. Dess and i both got to teach in a work shop. We had 2 hours to teach about our different topics and then we got to repeat it 4 more times because the people had the opportunity to attend 5 of the 7 work shops available. Dess' work shop was on disaster response radio broadcasting. After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Dess' voice could be heard on 107.9 FM as she pronounced public service announcements and played her rocking gospel and hip-hop music. So, she was the perfect candidate for teaching this course. She was able to create the atmosphere of a mock radio station and had the participants speak over loud speaker to get the feel. Dess did an awesome job and many of the people who came to the training spoke highly of Dess and said she had the perfect personality for it (and that was even before they knew i was married to her!!!).
I did the work shop on roofing. It didn't go as bad as i had expected. About the week before the training i was told that i was going to supervise groups tarping a RV for Miss Gwen (the founder of Friend Ships mother). This disgusted me and made me not want to do it. Then, Dess knew a lady through the food ministry who needed her roof tarped. She had gotten her roof fixed after the hurricane, but it started leaking again just two weeks ago. I gave a 15 minute talk about tarping and then we piled into cars and vans and drove to the lady's house. We would put up a few sheets of vinyl and nail it down. Then we'd pack up and head back to Port Mercy. It was awesome because we finished tarping the roof during my last work shop. Everyone who came to my work shop was able to go away feeling more comfortable working on roofs and hammering in nails. I was glad.
Last night Dess and i went to an arena football game. The home team is the Swashbucklers. Arena football is a fast paced game with lots of action. We had a good time screaming and cheering. It made for a late night to end our tiring week, but it was worth it.
Well, for any of you who are waiting for me to respond to my "tag" from Sarah, you'll have to wait a bit longer. I've gotta do some deep thinking before i come up with 8 things. Keep checking the blog and i'm sure i'll come up with it sometime soon.
That's a bit of what's happening with us.
Well, Dess just blogged last night about our adventures in eyeglasses. I figured i'd give you a bit of an update of the last week. It's been pretty intense and tiring for us, so you must want to know what we've been up to.
Last week Friend Ships held their first annual Disaster Response Training. About 50 people from around the United States congregated in Lake Charles, LA to participate in this training. The training consisted of many lectures and some practical work shops. Dess and i both got to teach in a work shop. We had 2 hours to teach about our different topics and then we got to repeat it 4 more times because the people had the opportunity to attend 5 of the 7 work shops available. Dess' work shop was on disaster response radio broadcasting. After hurricanes Katrina and Rita, Dess' voice could be heard on 107.9 FM as she pronounced public service announcements and played her rocking gospel and hip-hop music. So, she was the perfect candidate for teaching this course. She was able to create the atmosphere of a mock radio station and had the participants speak over loud speaker to get the feel. Dess did an awesome job and many of the people who came to the training spoke highly of Dess and said she had the perfect personality for it (and that was even before they knew i was married to her!!!).
I did the work shop on roofing. It didn't go as bad as i had expected. About the week before the training i was told that i was going to supervise groups tarping a RV for Miss Gwen (the founder of Friend Ships mother). This disgusted me and made me not want to do it. Then, Dess knew a lady through the food ministry who needed her roof tarped. She had gotten her roof fixed after the hurricane, but it started leaking again just two weeks ago. I gave a 15 minute talk about tarping and then we piled into cars and vans and drove to the lady's house. We would put up a few sheets of vinyl and nail it down. Then we'd pack up and head back to Port Mercy. It was awesome because we finished tarping the roof during my last work shop. Everyone who came to my work shop was able to go away feeling more comfortable working on roofs and hammering in nails. I was glad.
Last night Dess and i went to an arena football game. The home team is the Swashbucklers. Arena football is a fast paced game with lots of action. We had a good time screaming and cheering. It made for a late night to end our tiring week, but it was worth it.
Well, for any of you who are waiting for me to respond to my "tag" from Sarah, you'll have to wait a bit longer. I've gotta do some deep thinking before i come up with 8 things. Keep checking the blog and i'm sure i'll come up with it sometime soon.
That's a bit of what's happening with us.
Saturday, July 01, 2006
We are more than conquers . . . WE whooped those eye glasses in the bud!!!
GOODNESS . . . . . is all I have to say. We have been trying to get new glasses for Joel since Dad and Mom Butler came up to see us. They wanted to get Joel a new pair since his is all scratched up and falling apart. But it didn't work out. So Joel was able to get a free eye appointment the week after they left. The eye doctor said nothing really had changed when it came to Joel's eye sight.
So we went to get Joel a pair of glasses with his new prescription. Before we went to the eye glass shop Joel found his old prescription and to the unprofessional eye it looked like Joel's eye sight had changed a lot. So we took both of the prescription (one from five years ago and one from the new eye exam) and brought them with us to the eye glass store. The lady at the shop said she would not make us a pair because looking at the prescriptions they were totally different. So we went back to the doctors office but were not allowed to see the doctor, just nurses. When we explained what had happened and showed them the two prescriptions they said they trusted the doctor and would not question him. This was frustrating. We just wanted to know if they were truly different or not. But they would not help us.
So Joel went back to the lady (Jan) that set us up with the eye exam/doctor. She told Joel she would not call the doctor and question him. So being the wife that I am and being a bit tight with money at the moment I had a heart to heart talk with Jan. Finally in the end she said she would fax the doctor with the two prescriptions.
You would think everything was okay but things got a bit stickier. It went to the wrong doctor and Dr. Hart never saw it. They actually called me personally and asked me why I faxed them the prescription since it was another doctor who looked at Joel. Awwwwwwwwww. So we went back to Jan and asked to call Dr. Hart to see if they ended up giving him the two prescriptions. She found out that they looked at it and then called Joel on his old work phone number left a loooooooonnnnnnnngggg message and then ripped up the fax. By the grace of God and knowledge of Joel we some how got that message. It said the prescriptions were fine the new one was a little bit stronger than the first one.
"Finally!!!!" I thought "We can get Joel glasses now." So we went to Sears in the mall they were having a half off lenses and frame sale. Joel and I finally found glasses he liked then sat down for the pricing. The lady would only sell us the most expensive lens, she wouldn't even give us any other price besides the 2 most expensive lenses. Which with out the sale were 400 to 500 dollars for two lenses and with the sale it was well over 200 dollars. The grand total she wanted was almost three hundred dollars. I began to panic but quickly prayed and just said God we have that much money with us and if Joel needs it and this is the best we can do we will manage. The lady suggested we look around .
So the next eye glass store we went to the lady was saying we couldn't buy certain frames because of the wideness. (But the wide frames were the ones we liked) Finally we found one we liked and asked the price. (They were actually having the same sale) The frames and lenses with the sale came to 160ish dollars total. So we took it and are waiting for the glasses to be done this Thursday.
What I learned from this: Tenacity: Never give up and just give it to God. In the end He has your back.
So we went to get Joel a pair of glasses with his new prescription. Before we went to the eye glass shop Joel found his old prescription and to the unprofessional eye it looked like Joel's eye sight had changed a lot. So we took both of the prescription (one from five years ago and one from the new eye exam) and brought them with us to the eye glass store. The lady at the shop said she would not make us a pair because looking at the prescriptions they were totally different. So we went back to the doctors office but were not allowed to see the doctor, just nurses. When we explained what had happened and showed them the two prescriptions they said they trusted the doctor and would not question him. This was frustrating. We just wanted to know if they were truly different or not. But they would not help us.
So Joel went back to the lady (Jan) that set us up with the eye exam/doctor. She told Joel she would not call the doctor and question him. So being the wife that I am and being a bit tight with money at the moment I had a heart to heart talk with Jan. Finally in the end she said she would fax the doctor with the two prescriptions.
You would think everything was okay but things got a bit stickier. It went to the wrong doctor and Dr. Hart never saw it. They actually called me personally and asked me why I faxed them the prescription since it was another doctor who looked at Joel. Awwwwwwwwww. So we went back to Jan and asked to call Dr. Hart to see if they ended up giving him the two prescriptions. She found out that they looked at it and then called Joel on his old work phone number left a loooooooonnnnnnnngggg message and then ripped up the fax. By the grace of God and knowledge of Joel we some how got that message. It said the prescriptions were fine the new one was a little bit stronger than the first one.
"Finally!!!!" I thought "We can get Joel glasses now." So we went to Sears in the mall they were having a half off lenses and frame sale. Joel and I finally found glasses he liked then sat down for the pricing. The lady would only sell us the most expensive lens, she wouldn't even give us any other price besides the 2 most expensive lenses. Which with out the sale were 400 to 500 dollars for two lenses and with the sale it was well over 200 dollars. The grand total she wanted was almost three hundred dollars. I began to panic but quickly prayed and just said God we have that much money with us and if Joel needs it and this is the best we can do we will manage. The lady suggested we look around .
So the next eye glass store we went to the lady was saying we couldn't buy certain frames because of the wideness. (But the wide frames were the ones we liked) Finally we found one we liked and asked the price. (They were actually having the same sale) The frames and lenses with the sale came to 160ish dollars total. So we took it and are waiting for the glasses to be done this Thursday.
What I learned from this: Tenacity: Never give up and just give it to God. In the end He has your back.
Saturday, June 24, 2006
Missing Dad and Mom Butler
Hello Everyone,
I know we talked about mom and dad butler coming to Louisiana but we have been missing them and talking about our time we had while they were here. So this blog is Dedicated to (drum roll please . . . like you don't know) DAD and MOM BUTLER.
BRING ON THE PICTURES . . . . . . .
Isn't Mom so Cute. How can you not love this woman?
Dad Showing Joel how it is done . . . Or was He?
Dad and Son!
Thats Not Mom or Dad . . .SMOKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom and New Daughter!!!
Squishy Face
Ode to Dad and Mom. We love you!!!
I know we talked about mom and dad butler coming to Louisiana but we have been missing them and talking about our time we had while they were here. So this blog is Dedicated to (drum roll please . . . like you don't know) DAD and MOM BUTLER.
BRING ON THE PICTURES . . . . . . .
Isn't Mom so Cute. How can you not love this woman?
Dad Showing Joel how it is done . . . Or was He?
Dad and Son!
Thats Not Mom or Dad . . .SMOKEY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Mom and New Daughter!!!
Squishy Face
Ode to Dad and Mom. We love you!!!
Sunday, June 11, 2006
It's Been TOO LONG
Hello Hello again,
I see Joel has done some explaining on what has been going on in our lives. I hope you have enjoyed reading the fun day to day things we face.
As for me life has been so much better. I have finally broken free of the things that have kept me in bondage for so long. Okay so it wasn't me that broke me free but that one touch from Jesus. I have been struggling everyday for a year if God really is good. The old theological question came up over and over again, if you are a good God why do you allow ___________ (you fill in the blank) to happen. I had a very bad experience a year ago that made me question the goodness of God.
I was obedient to God in what he told me to do for a certain situation. Then it all went down hill from there. I was called self-righteous, arrogant and conceited for doing what I did. It was hard and a harsh reality. God had been with me the whole time through the storm but after it was all said and done I was like what kind of God are you? I did EXACTLY what you told me to do why did you allow __________ to happen. Has any buddy else been there or is there now. So, every day for a year I thought about what happened and wondered if God was really my friend, BOO, protector, defender, etc.
Then nearly a week ago God got through and touched me in the most awesome way by using a scripture you read all the time. It says rejoice and be EXCEEDINGLY glad when they call you all kinds of evil names and revile you because of me. GREAT is your reward in heaven.
I was extatic when I heard a speaker preach on this. I knew then that for every evil there is, God has good. Whether you see it in this life time or the next. I came to realize I would never see the true goodness out of the situtation until I got to heaven. That yes there is evil in the world, yes bad things happen to everyone (some worse than others) but GOD is soooooooo good that he creates something good out of that bad, whether we see it today or not. It will come to pass: His goodness for every situation. In the book of Ecclesiastes it says Everything will be made beautiful in it's time. I believe this with everything I have or I would cease to see the Goodness that is in God.
So as of now I AM FREE. THANK YOU JESUS, for touching me the way You did.
Other than that work has been good. We are having a disaster relief training coming up at the end of June. Both Joel and I are teaching a class. Joel on temporary tarping for roofs that have been damaged by disasters and for me Emergency Radio Broadcasting. How to go on air for a disaster response. Nervous and exciting all at the same time. God has blessed us in experiencing these subjects so why not teach others before they dive right in. Sounds reasonable? YIKES. Pray that we will do this with God's guidance and that everything we say will be so clear that the people coming could teach the class after we are done with them.
We love you all thank you for keeping up on our NORMAL (hehehehe) Daily lives.
Love you all,
Dess
I see Joel has done some explaining on what has been going on in our lives. I hope you have enjoyed reading the fun day to day things we face.
As for me life has been so much better. I have finally broken free of the things that have kept me in bondage for so long. Okay so it wasn't me that broke me free but that one touch from Jesus. I have been struggling everyday for a year if God really is good. The old theological question came up over and over again, if you are a good God why do you allow ___________ (you fill in the blank) to happen. I had a very bad experience a year ago that made me question the goodness of God.
I was obedient to God in what he told me to do for a certain situation. Then it all went down hill from there. I was called self-righteous, arrogant and conceited for doing what I did. It was hard and a harsh reality. God had been with me the whole time through the storm but after it was all said and done I was like what kind of God are you? I did EXACTLY what you told me to do why did you allow __________ to happen. Has any buddy else been there or is there now. So, every day for a year I thought about what happened and wondered if God was really my friend, BOO, protector, defender, etc.
Then nearly a week ago God got through and touched me in the most awesome way by using a scripture you read all the time. It says rejoice and be EXCEEDINGLY glad when they call you all kinds of evil names and revile you because of me. GREAT is your reward in heaven.
I was extatic when I heard a speaker preach on this. I knew then that for every evil there is, God has good. Whether you see it in this life time or the next. I came to realize I would never see the true goodness out of the situtation until I got to heaven. That yes there is evil in the world, yes bad things happen to everyone (some worse than others) but GOD is soooooooo good that he creates something good out of that bad, whether we see it today or not. It will come to pass: His goodness for every situation. In the book of Ecclesiastes it says Everything will be made beautiful in it's time. I believe this with everything I have or I would cease to see the Goodness that is in God.
So as of now I AM FREE. THANK YOU JESUS, for touching me the way You did.
Other than that work has been good. We are having a disaster relief training coming up at the end of June. Both Joel and I are teaching a class. Joel on temporary tarping for roofs that have been damaged by disasters and for me Emergency Radio Broadcasting. How to go on air for a disaster response. Nervous and exciting all at the same time. God has blessed us in experiencing these subjects so why not teach others before they dive right in. Sounds reasonable? YIKES. Pray that we will do this with God's guidance and that everything we say will be so clear that the people coming could teach the class after we are done with them.
We love you all thank you for keeping up on our NORMAL (hehehehe) Daily lives.
Love you all,
Dess
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