My little boy

My baby, Joshua stands at 6'5" tall...and growing. Last night he was the freshman representative for a thing they call "Winterfest" at his school. It's kind of like the homecoming court. Out of the whole class of freshman, Joshua was selected to represent his class. When I got news of this nomination Joshua joked that it must have been because he voted for himself, he's a funny guy.

Joshua has become quite popular at his school. It helps that he has a sister that is a senior, and all her friends are his friends. But a year and a half ago, Joshua wasn't feeling too popular at school.

The biggest kid in middle school was getting bullied. Sounds wierd, but it's true. One day Josh confided in me that a group of kids were picking on him, calling him fat, and physically hurting him. WHAT???? I was shocked! Did I mention he is 6'5" tall?!

Being a little over protective I tried to demand Joshua give me the names of those boys so I could have a word with their mothers, but as you can imagine, Josh wanted nothing to do with any of that. I tried to encourage my little boy as best I could, but this time mom really couldn't fix it.

Ted started teaching Josh some self defense moves that he had learned back in his cop days. Ways to defend himself without starting a fight. Small ways to tell those boys he wasn't just going to take it anymore.

Ted also decided it was time to talk with the principal, so that if a fight broke out one day, the principal would at least know part of the background between the boys.

Joshua's principal was very supportive. He gave Josh some very good advice...he said that although he would love to get those kids in the office right now and punish them, that it would probably make the problem worse. He told Joshua that for some reason those boys had picked him out as a target, and that the boys actually loved seeing Josh get upset. He told Josh in not so many words to defend himself. He advised that if a fight did break out, Joshua would get a punishment but that he would take our meeting into consideration as well.

Slowly Joshua began to make his point nto those boys, and finally the bullying stopped. Thank God!

At parent teacher conferences every teacher told us stories of Josh sticking up for the little guy. Story after story of him standing up to bullies even if they weren't picking on him directly.

Joshua knows how it feels to get picked on, and instead of joining in the bullying as a result he has chosen to stand up for the little guy, and we couldn't be prouder of him.

Isn't it interesting how God can allow something which seems really bad at the time to happen to us, maybe to shape our character and to give us a heart for someone in the same situation?

My camera is not working, but as soon as I get it going I'll post a pic of my "little boy", the gentle giant who sticks up for the opressed.

Here's what we're gonna do...

It was bound to happen, the Tuesday night group met, and Wednesday morning was canceled due to snow. Not a big deal, but now the two groups are not on the same schedule with videos and homework review...that doesn't work at all for me as leader of both groups.

Here's what I've decided to do:

Tuesday February 3 we will NOT have study
Wednesday February 4 we WILL meet for week 5 discussion

Tuesday February 10 we will meet and watch session 5 DVD
Wednesday February 11 we will meet and watch session 5 DVD

Oh my this is getting so confusing!

Please spread the word to anyone in either group regarding the schedule change.

Thank you in advance for understanding!

Things I learned in California...

I started a long tale of Tawnya and my trip to California to surprise Kathy on her birthday, but the details are too plentiful, so here is a list of a few things I learned thru the weekend:

1. A 6AM flight out of Indianpolis means leaving your house in DeMotte at 1:45 AM...OUCH.
2. If you leave Indianapolis at 6 AM, it only takes 3 hours to get to California...sweet!!
3. Even if the directions say to turn on Avenue 42, when Avenue 42 is a dirt path, it's not likely to lead to a fancy Palm Springs resort.
4. Alex Vander Tuig is far better at directions than mapquest ever will be.
5. It is impossible to sleep in the daytime when you have a HUGE surprise planned for the evening!
6. It's actually possible to laugh until your face hurts.
7. Reconnecting with true friends takes only moments.
8. The staff at Consuella's Cafe is very kind and accomodating.
9. It can be 80 degrees and sunny in Palm Springs and 60 and cloudy one hour away in Ontario CA. (hard for this Indiana girl to understand!)
10. Walking against the current in a lazy river is harder than the elderly people make it look!
11. 3 friends can fill hours and hours of time simply talking.
12. California pedicures aren't all they are cracked up to be. (my camera won't work, but ask to see my toes and you'll know what I mean!) (oh and Tawnya's are not much better , fortunately the birthday girl's are great !)
13. It's possibly more fun to surprise than to be surprised.
14. Andrew Vander Tuig is hilarious (even if his mom and dad don't appreciate his humor sometimes ;-)
16. Did I mention it's possible to laugh until your face hurts?
17. Without Mr. Swanson to make us laugh, Aaron and I can sit next to eachother in church and not get in trouble (we've grown up a lot in the last 6 months)
18. The road to California is long but not impossible to travel.
19. Friendships don't end when one friend moves away.
20. New friendships bloom when girls travel together.
21. Bryan, Kathy and the boys are a blessing to their church in California just like they were to us in DeMotte, and although I will still miss them and maybe even still get misty eyed from time to time, they are where God has called them to be, and God blesses his obedient children.

Tawnya and I felt your prayers for safe travel and thanked God for you and for your prayers before we left. Thanks for sharing in our excitement and for keeping our surprise a secret.

Special Thanks to Grandma Patty Roodzant for hanging out with the Roody's while mom was playing, and for hooking us up with a really awesome place to stay.

Also thank you to my sweet husband and kids who had the house picked up, a sign welcoming me home, and dinner on the table when I got home. You guys are so great! I am so blessed, thank you God.

My camera is messing up but Tawnya has lots of great pix, I'll post up as soon as I can.

The Eagles Have Landed

The journey began at 1:45 AM when Cathy found Tawnya waiting in her driveway, we headed South to Indy and had no problems catching our 6AM flight to visit KATHY!!

We arrived in California at 9 AM and spent the longest day of our lives waiting to see Kathy at 7:00.

Check out Kathy's reaction when she was saw Cathy and Tawnya waiting for her at the table!http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgFxBSFSXCw

Check back for daily updates.

Thank you so much for all your prayers for safe travel, everything went perfectly!

Finding just the right balance...

People keep telling me that I am getting too involved with church activities. I find this a curious thing; that another person thinks they know what is a good balance for my life.

Teaching adult Sunday school gives me a great opportunity to grow in my relationship with God. It helps develop the skill of praying out loud, and has given me the awesome opportunity to hear testimonies of God's work in the lives of fellow believers. New friendships have developed, and relationships are growing deeper. The level of sharing is amazing, and we all learn from eachother. God blesses our conversations and we come to understand His Word more and more each week.

Facilitating Women in The Word studies has changed my daily walk with God in so many ways, I couldn't begin to list them. The fact that I now start each day talking to my heavenly Father, thanking him for everything, admitting that I mess things up, asking forgiveness and then asking the Holy Spirit to guide my every word and deed throughout the day, is enough benefit alone, but there are so many more benefits to leading this group. Again, the testimonies of the women in the 2 groups are amazing, we're all on different levels of spiritual maturity, but the common goal is to trust God fully, and to spend enough time in His Word and in prayer with Him that our hearts become fully devoted to Him. Oh and the friendships, and the laughter and the joy we share, and the tears and encouragement freely given...there is a smile spreading across my face as I type this.

Joining a new small group is kinda strange at first. It's so nice to get comfy with people you already know, but what fun it is to hear new perspectives, to learn from the experiences of others, and to develop new friendships. Small group offers another chance to spend some time thinking about God in my life. Do I live like I'm dying...what a great thing to determine before I only have 30 days left!

Three different studies, lots of homework, lots of scripture reading, lots of thinking about the answers to thought provoking questions. What a good way to spend my time.

I think back to my pre-church involvement days and wonder what I did in all that free time. It's amazing that I get everything done at my shop, in my house, and still have time to watch my kids' basketball games and enjoy family time. I believe that my priorities are finally getting in order, and at the top of that list is my relationship with God and that is growing deeper with every turn of the page in my Bible, and in the workbooks.

I have no regrets about how I spend my time. And I thank each one of you who is sharing this journey of bible study and small groups with me, you inspire me to walk closer with God.

sometimes we need eachother

I LOVED my Grandpa Hoekstra. He was strong, but loving. He grew a garden fit for a king; to die for sweet corn, sugar daddy watermelons and juicy raspberries, my mouth is watering as I type this! I would go to his house and hang out in the yard with him every chance I got. I can picture his yard in my head, perfectly rounded symmetrical flower beds, and rows of flowers along the driveway, planted with care and perfect spacing and height variations, and colors. It was stunning, I wish I could find a photo.

My early years of life were spent on our family pheasant farm. One year all sorts of problems happened, a tornado destroyed all the pheasant pens, next, a bad winter storm hit and the heavy snow collapsed the pens once again. I was young and I don't remember the details of that year, but I do remember that when things got crazy at our house my grandparents always showed up.

I can picture my dad and grandpa out in the yard as they worked as hard and long as it took to fix the situation, and grandma always jumped to action in the house, cooking a meal or making us clean things up. Grandpa and grandma were always there when we needed them. To me, they were the picture of strength.

The day I got my driver's license I wanted to drive somewhere so I decided to visit my grandparents. I walked into the house, and right away I could tell something wasn't right. Grandma hurried me to the kitchen and we had cookies. Grandpa didn't say anything, that was wierd.

I went to give grandpa a kiss as I left and when I got close, I could see tears on his cheeks. WHAT??? Grandpa crying???? whoa, NOT GOOD! I rushed home and told my mom and dad thru hysterical tears that I thought grandpa was dying.

My dad assured me that grandpa was fine, but decided to go and check on him anyway.

You know why my grandpa was crying? Because someone else was mowing his lawn. I'm serious. My grandpa had been sick, and was having some dizzy spells so my grandma forbid him to mow in case he passed out, so the neighbor was mowing it for him.

Part of the reason my grandpa was so bothered about someone else mowing his lawn was that he took great joy in his yardwork, and he didn't like having someone else tending to it. Another part of it had to be pride, right? After all grandpa was the one coming to everyone else's rescue all the time. He was the strong one, and I he didn't like much having someone helping him out.

One of the strongest women I know is sick, and it's driving her nuts! We missed her at study today. She's the one who is always encouraing everyone else, and she is so filled with the Spirit that she knows just the right thing to say all the time, and now here she is, not feeling well. She knows she rests securely in God's hand, but it's hard to stay positive when she knows she's not feeling well, yet doesn't know WHY she isn't feeling well.

Aren't we all like that in some way? We want to be self reliant, we want to go about in life relying only on our own strength. I think of another strong woman in our church who is paralyzed and is forced to rely on everyone for almost everything. I wonder if it gets on her nerves sometimes.

I just wanted to tell my friend that it's okay to rely on others for a change. We're here for you, praying for you and we love you. You'll be back on your feet in no time and this will all be a distant memory. In the meantime, it's ok to be grumpy, moody, in a funk...it's ok, you are allowed to let to your guard down, you are allowed to be human. Remember that God does give us our daily bread...he provides it in just the exact amount we need for that day...all we have to do is get out of the tent and gather it up. WE ALL LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

A sad day/ A great day

A sad day. Another death at our church. Another man took his own life. Three men from our congregation have killed themselves in four years. I am crushed for our pastor. I don't know if he admits it or not, but I'd guess he feels in some way responsible, although he should not.

I got a call from Pastor on Wednesday telling me about a plan he had to speak to the men in our church. He told me that he felt the need to separate the women to issue a man to man challenge to the men of our church to pursue a relationship with God. He asked if I would be willing to lead the women of our church in prayer upstairs while he spoke with the men.

The Spirit convicted me, I told him yes, but followed it quickly with, "ya know some people aren't going to like it" Yes, he already knew that but he felt that he needed to do it.

On Saturday evening I went to church to pick up some papers, and I met Pastor Joel as he pulled into the parking lot. He asked "have you heard?" I had heard there was a tragedy, I had not heard the details. We lost another man from our church today, he took his own life.

No, it can't be. I asked Pastor Joel if he would survive another funeral of this nature. He replied that he was sure glad that he knows God.

I found the corner in church where I like to hide and pray before WIW Bible study. God, we're going to need you again in a huge way. that was all I could say. I wasn't close with the man who died, but I loved his wife. And I knew what a blow this was to our church body and how hard the next day's service would be. We've been there before, we know what to expect, and it's never easy.

Sunday morning the women did leave the auditorium, and we went upstairs and prayed over the men as Pastor Joel challenged them to thirst for God. Later we circled our men and prayed for them again, and sang as well. The spirit moved thru His people, stirred in some hearts. In a way, it was a great day.

It is precisely thru times of great trial that God shows up and his glory shines brightly thru the thick darkness. Because we believe in a sovereign God who has a plan for us, we rejoice in our sufferings. We know that He is in control. We know that He loves us.

God it is really hard for us to understand your plan at moments like this, but you have proved yourself faithful over and over in the lives of your people from Bible times until today, and we rejoice that again you will be faithful. May you continue to work in the hearts of the men who heard your challenge today. May they see clearly how much they need you in their lives. Break down the great wall of barriers that keeps our men from having a daily relationship with you. You are so amazing, we put all our trust in YOU.