Bees!!

Today Shalayne and I went on an exciting field trip with the Contos' to visit a bee hive. Timothy got to be the assistant bee keeper!

Travis is Sweet 16: Party #2

60 people came out to celebrate Travis! It was a fun evening despite being very cool. Check out the photos our friend Randall took: http://gallery.mac.com/sandalstrap#100278
When it grew darkish, we watched a movie projected onto the house while sitting around the campfire.

Travis is Sweet 16: Party #1

Travis is 16! We celebrated his birthday with all our Passion Play friends this evening after rehearsal. What fun! Everyone lighted a sparkler in the campfire for him and sang Happy Birthday and then Travis swung at the pinata we hung from a giant cotton wood tree.

Ten years ago today, my dear dad passed away. It was sudden and unexpected. He, my mom and my youngest sister had just been home less than two weeks from their mission work in the Philippines. It's interesting that this 10 year anniversary should fall on the same day of the week as it actually happened. It is also the day before my son, Travis' birthday, and just before Father's Day.

My dad was a wonderful Christian man. I so wish that my children could have known him longer. However, he left us with the story of his life written in his own hand, an incredible story, and even more amazing, a written legacy, which he had penned shortly before his death. The morning after Dad died and his family was all gathered together, I was helping my mom gather some of their things (they were visiting and staying with my grandmother) when I came upon his journal and it fell open to this writing. I do believe that God purposely placed this before us to comfort us and provide us with Dad's greatest desire for his family. I include it here now, in his honor, and so others can reap from his great insight and wisdom.

Dad's Legacy

God has blessed me with such a wonderful family, right from my grandparents down through my own parents, to my dear wife and our four wonderful daughters, and on to my grandchildren (some hopefully yet to come) so that I would like to see the bond or legacy of God’s ordained family connection carried on and passed on down to each succeeding generation as they come along.

From the earliest beginnings of time, God uniquely ordained the family as the primary human organism to transmit His life. The entire structure of God’s chosen people, Israel, was founded on family. Chief among the commands of Moses to those under His charge was: Teach and pass these things down to your sons and daughters.

The scriptures make abundantly clear that God’s intent when He created the family was that His life be carried down through time, through the family, forever- for a thousand generations. Each individual was designed to be nurtured by roots which reached deeply into the soil of the past, giving strength, which then in turn extended into the future.

In Satan’s devious cunning, however, he infiltrates and cuts off that umbilical cord of inner life which God implanted within the ongoing and extended family institution. When he is thus allowed to destroy family roots, this many generational process is undone, and the result is that every successive generation or two, men and women have to discover their heritage and faith anew. The ongoing vitality and strength of a permanent, life giving root system is made impotent.

For if I had a record of the faith and struggles and successes of my grandparents to encourage and bolster me in times of struggle or pain (which do come in life) I could hopefully gain strength and assurance from realizing that they had risen above all the obstacles and uncertainties that surely must have arisen when they ventured forth into a new and unknown land of Canada so many years ago.

God has given us, however, and prompted me strongly, to shoulder the responsibility to infuse a heritage into our present generations- a heritage involving both the past and the future, and a heritage far broader in scope than the mere story of my life. God desires a permanency from His people, an ongoing fight against Satan’s ways, a continual breaking of the chains of evil and mistakes of the past, even to the third and fourth generation back, and a passing on of the mandate of obedience to God to all the generations ahead.

I’m afraid that few apprehend the legacy which has been given us to pass down. We leave the treasure of God’s life and His working in our lives buried. The story of my life with Verone and our conversion to Christ is but a repeat of the universal story which God has been working to infuse within the human chain of generations with every family on the face of the earth. For He created mankind and ordained the family because He loves us. In reality, the heritage of God’s life within us is a legacy He intended for all families, for all time!

So hopefully this will not be merely my story, or Verone’s and mine, but my desire would be that you, Shauna and Tammy and Janelle and Twyla, would step into it in your own time and in your own way, and that you would bring Greg and Scott and Chris and ? into it, as well as my four present grandchildren and all the future ones the Lord may provide. You, my precious daughters were born into my bloodline; others like Greg and Scott and Chris, and who is yours going to be Twyla?, these must be grafted in. But it would also be most interesting for posterity if they would record their own story.

For the life of God’s Spirit moves mightily throughout time, and every man and woman must one day face their own place in that life, in that legacy, just as the people in the lineage of Jesus were, as told in Matthew 1.

God takes us where we are, farmers, teachers, salesmen, homemakers- in need of a Father, in search of our true Home- and makes us an integral part of that legacy.

In marrying Verone, I became more than I could have alone, because the stream of God’s purpose swept over us, drew us into it, and made it ours. The legacy of our story is God’s life, not ours, but through our trust and obedience it was sublimated, and thereby hopefully passed on into future generations.

At every time, in every era, within every human heart, my dear family, the decision must be faced whether to accept one’s place within that legacy. Will we abandon ourselves to God’s plan and life for us, or will we ignore the river of the Spirit sweeping over us, and let it pass without bringing us up into its inherent life? In every successive generation, every person must face the choices which will determine the impact God’s lifeblood will have in his or her own existence, and whether it will move through them into the future, or die. In this regard, I thank God daily, that at the time of this writing you are all safe in the love of Christ as your Savior.

But please be aware that at every turn Satan will try to steal the inheritance which has been given us. Forces can infiltrate our families telling of false priorities, false ambitions, false attitudes which are not God’s . But we are commanded and impelled to stand firm, to walk in the calling of the one true legacy, and to pass on His heritage to those who come after us in the ongoing flow of generations.

The story of my life and my family is true and as accurate as my simple ability will allow. But beyond the reality of my earthly physical life, and the blessing and treasured times involved in it, there is a real treasure, a life, a land, a home, and a heritage that it is all too easy for our earthly eyes to lose sight of. As Jesus said, the mysteries of the kingdom of God are hid, like parables, so that only those with eyes to see and perceive, may truly apprehend them.

In too many families, in so many generations, the treasure gets buried, hidden, sometimes for centuries. May it not be so in ours. For the treasure forms the very strength of God’s family, of which you are all a part. May from you flow the ongoing knowledge of God’s love and His life in the world. For it is a treasure awaiting discovery by every family, by every man, woman, boy and girl, by every child of God in every new generation. Be sure to pass it on, for your loving God isn’t willing that any should perish.

God bless you, one and all. It has been truly a joy to share my past life with you, and I hope to experience ‘real joy’ by sharing my future life with you all in heaven.

Selah!

Passion Play

Our family is back into rehearsals for the Canadian Badlands Passion Play! Every weekend from now to the middle of July will find us in Drumheller. Unfortunately, this year Dustin will not be joining us, but we are excited for his opportunity to travel and serve with Youth Alive in Christ to different churches and camps in Montana and Western Canada for three months.

Below is an article that my hubbie, Greg, wrote on his reflections of being involved with the Passion Play.

Amazed and Bewildered by Jesus

Being in the Canadian Badlands Passion Play, gives one opportunity to look at the gospel with fresh eyes. As an actor, you want to get inside your character; to see what he sees and feel what he feels. You don’t really have to be a great actor to do this. You just need to master two responses. Amazement and bewilderment.
Imagine this. You and your friends are in a row boat in the middle of a large lake, when a life threatening storm comes up. You strain at the oars for hours, but can’t make headway. Then Jesus comes walking across the waves toward you. With a few words he tells the storm to stop and in an instant the wind and waves are still. We can read about it, but what would be your response if you were actually there? “Who is this man?” can hardly contain the emotions that you would feel! Do you know anyone who can do this? I don’t. At another time, the daughter of our friend Jairus lays dead. Through our tears we see her grey, stone cold face. Then Jesus speaks a few words, and her eyes open. She sits up. Soon she and her father are dancing. How do you respond? How do your tears turn to joy in that short of a time? By the time Bartamaes is healed of his blindness, we know what to expect and we laugh as we see Jesus at it again. Restoring life to the blind and health to all who ask. Yes, learn to show “amazement” and you are half the way there. Everything Jesus does is truly amazing.
Now work on bewilderment, for Jesus was truly bewildering. Cast and directors were constantly looking for alternatives to the word “What!!?” When we heard him say that the tax collector would enter the kingdom of heaven before the pharisee, our response was, “What!!?” Bewilderment was all we could feel when he told stories we didn’t understand, when he called our highest religious leaders serpents, when he said that all who were persecuted for his sake were blessed, when he said that he would rebuild a destroyed temple in three days, when he said that he and the Father were one, when he said that he must die and be raised in three days. We just didn’t understand. How could we? Everything he said was contrary to common sense! When he said for us to daily take up our cross and follow him, what did that mean? Remember, Jesus had not yet gone to the cross, and we certainly didn’t understand why he would. The cross wasn’t a decoration on a chain. It was our enemy’s weapon of execution and horror. It would be like saying to take up your noose, or your electric chair. What was that about? When he looked me in the eye and told me, “He who saves his life will lose it, but he who loses his life for my sake will save it,” I was too stunned to speak. I played James, and I knew that within a year or two my character would be beheaded and he would lose his life for Jesus sake.
After a passion play experience, I usually find myself pondering some truths. This year those truths lead to questions. Would I lose my life for his sake today, as James did then? What does it mean to lose my life for his sake, when it isn’t actual martyrdom? How do I take up my cross daily? It also clarifies my thinking about who Jesus is. He is the master of creation. He can calm a storm with a word. He is the master of life. He can restore it at will. He can lay his life down and take it up again. If I do the same, he has promised that life giving power to me.

(As an end note, this year Greg is playing Jairus and I am his wife.)

If you wish to read more on the Passion Play, here is an article I wrote last year.

Butterflies and Chicks

What an exciting week it has been! On Monday, our butterfly emerged from its chrysalis! On Tuesday, our chicks started hatching!

Faith Begins at Home

Last night, Greg, Dallas and I went to hear speaker Mark Holman from California and the author of Faith Begins at Home, a book which I highly recommend. Mark's goal is to establish the foundation for equipping the home to be the primary place where faith is nurtured. Do you know that according to Barna Group research, only 10% of churched youth have experienced either family devotions, prayer, or bible reading in the home?! That stat makes me want to cry! Only 28% of churched youth have talked with their mom about faith, and only 13% of churched youth have talked with their dad about faith!! Wow! No wonder our young people are leaving the church and faith in droves!

We must, as parents, take back our God given responsibility to "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them upon your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates." (Deuteronomy 6:5-9) Because faith must be caught (rather than taught), the responsibility to model an authentic Christian lifestyle~ every day~ begins with us, with ME. Surveys show that mom and dad are 2-3 times more influential in their kid's lives than any other person or program. Children will love what their parents love (a sobering thought!).

I commit to living a lifestyle of faith, leading my children to God through His Word and prayer. For this has eternal significance; the pursuit of worldly treasures is so temporal and is Satan's way of breaking the church ~one family at a time.

Please stand strong with and for your children. Do the right thing, "...so that you, your children and their children after them may fear the Lord your God as long as you live by keeping all his decrees and commands that I give you..." (Deuteronomy 6:1-2) It will have multi-generational repercussions!