Tuesday 29 September 2015

A Picture of Provision and Friendship

In some ways, it's like we never left!  Here we are, back at home, waiting for a cheque..... again!  The expenses never stop, in fact they seem to increase, particularly with the CollegePlus costs.... Yikes, doing college at home is cheaper for sure, but each course she takes is not free.  Our daughter finds herself contributing more financially to the costs than she expected as we just can't do it all on our own.

So we pray, as usual.  We also reflect on the image of provision that God gave us while we were in North Carolina.  It seemed everywhere we looked we saw wildlife.  Not bears or sea lions or anything like that, but kind of obvious things, like birds or little crabs that you would see at the ocean.  As you looked over the pier, you could occasionally be fortunate enough to see a sting ray and one time my kids actually saw a sea turtle!  Then, as we swam in the ocean, entire schools of little fish would swim near us.  We also saw many different types of birds like pelicans, sea gulls, sandpipers..... all very busy on the edge of the shore.  They were digging in the sand constantly.  It seemed like they were doing it all in vain, until we realized they were digging for those little sand crabs.  The picture that came to my husband's mind was that of provision.  Each animal, each bird, fish, crab, they were all provided for.  None of them was suffering and yet they didn't have a "job" or a "house" per se.  God took care of them.  I think God gave him that picture as a way of encouraging him that God would care for us as well.  He knows our college expenses, our farm issues that are always costing us, our growing family.  Yesterday it was paying for our piano teacher - another major ouch.  But the school of fish is fed, all the birds, even the sand crabs have enough to eat, so God will take care of us.

Meanwhile, we are also preparing ourselves now for the loss of dear friends as they are making a move, a huge move, across the country.  We've known these friends since they were both single.  They had just immigrated to Canada from South Africa when we met.  In a few short weeks we became good enough friends to be invited to their wedding shortly after.  From there they settled in a home and church near us where we tried to get together regularly.  Children soon followed, but then more moves, across the country and across the world, but fortunately for us, we had the internet and maintained contact as they went through major life changes, major self-realizations, spiritual revelations, even more children!  But then, providence had it that they would move near us again and settle in our church community.  We even became involved in business together.  It seemed this time they were going to stay, no more moves.... but God had other plans....

As they prayed and we prayed, a dream job became available out west.  It is sometimes difficult to discern God's will in our lives, but it was pretty clear.  Doors clearly opened and clearly closed.  My favourite story is that someone actually walked up to them and told them out of the blue months ago that they wanted to buy their home.  They had a great house, but quite a few things were left unfinished and they had no plans to get to them in the near future.  It seemed too good to be true!  But amazingly, it all came together as they just continued to surrender their lives to the Lord, always believing, if they trusted God with their lives, He would make it all work out and He did.  The paperwork for the house was signed and they never even had to get a real estate agent involved.  Incredible.

I love being so closely involved in their story as it is such an encouragement to me to continue trusting the Lord in my own personal life.  God has given me countless books and authors to read as encouragement in my faith, but to know someone's story who is a close friend just seems to make it more real.  I'll reflect on their many answers to prayer for a long time whenever I think my prayers are hitting a wall.

They leave this week, though, so there will be a huge loss in our life.  But I praise God for the window of time that we were all living close by one another.  Who knows how and when our paths will cross again.  I think what I appreciate the most about our friendship was the deep bond we shared in Christ.  We both went through changes in our lives as wives where we figured out what true submission looked like.  Both of our husbands also had major self-realizations about being true spiritual leaders in our homes.  We both figured out that children were a blessing, not a curse and now between the two families, we have 16 children!  We share the same desire to seriously disciple our children and though we are far from perfect, we have enjoyed rich times of family worship in each other's homes, even last night as we prayed as families together for one of the last times.   It is hard to find friends like that.  We will miss them.  Wherever they end up, I hope the community that receives them will understand the blessing that is coming.

So today, I need to remember the picture of provision God has given us and the picture of friendship.  No need for fear, God has given reminders to me all around of how He takes care of us.  I need to simply open my spiritual eyes. 

Wednesday 23 September 2015

Back to Life

Soooooo....we're home, praising God for a wonderful time away, praising Him for His protection on the long drive back and all His traveling mercies with so many children.  The kids did extremely well, even the little ones.  It was kind of out of a classic road-trip movie with all the "How many more minutes?" type questions or the "I have to go to the bathroom!" after we had just left a rest stop.  It was pretty funny.  RM and I would just look at each other with these surreal glances, but we would have to stop!

Reality set in pretty fast.  The older ones were doing school right away on the first day back while I was doing laundry and unpacking.  The younger ones really needed my help more so that was yesterday.  Slowly sitting with each one as they went through their curriculum, explaining the schedule, what the year would look like.  It went better than I thought.  I was expecting a lot of grief with going back to school after a looooong summer holiday, but you could tell, they had had enough loafing around and needed some reason for living again.  I even explained that I wanted them up early, setting their alarms for the first time in months, no problem.  That's when you know you had a good vacation!

As for expenses on the trip, RM kept meticulous records of each expense.  I haven't heard the overall results, but I think we did end up a little over as we made one final hilarious stop on the trip home which I'm embarrassed to write about.  There is a little redneck in all of us, I guess.... we visited the home of the Monster Truck, Grave Digger!  Yup, that truck is built in North Carolina and they have a little diner, a petting zoo, tons of Grave Digger memorabilia and of course a Monster Truck ride on a real Monster Truck.  There was no way I was going to go on it, let alone my little boys, but supposedly they all met the height criteria, so for $5 a head, we all fit on (it seated 12).  It was the craziest ride of my life!  My daughter videotaped the whole thing - we were all screaming as he took the corners like a mad man and went up the ramps as if he wanted air.  The ride couldn't have ended sooner for me.  I was so glad I went on to hold on to my little guy's head!  He would have knocked it on the hard chair for sure if I hadn't been there!  But, I have to admit, amidst all the screaming, I was laughing my head off, we all were!  It actually was quite fun, scary as anything, but fun!  So much for keeping the trip educational...... that definitely brought us down a notch!

There was one night that I found myself a little worried that we were missing "school", but the next day I recounted all the things we had done that had been a learning experience and I realized how I still get so caught up in the trap of what "school" is.  We definitely did school when I look back.... for example, with the fishing, I was amazed how in such a short amount of time, all of them (including the 5 year old) could identify each species of fish they caught, and they caught a lot.  We ended up catching pin, pig, croaker (they croak when you catch them!), drum, ribbon (who knew they existed?  All 3 of my older boys caught ribbon fish ranging from 2-3 Ft long! And they are shaped like a ribbon!  Very cool!).  In addition to that, they acquired excellent fishing skills, which I actually think is a great skill as a man to have to provide for his family!  They studied what each fisherman was doing on the pier, would go up to them to find out what they were doing to catch fish, became friends with a bunch of them and because of their being forward and the willingness of the men to share, they ended up catching the big ones.  It was really neat to see them go, morning and night, with all their gear and come back with all sorts of stories.  It was as if they took a fishing course.  I really loved that they became so adept at it.  Catching the fish was just bonus.

Going to the Wright Memorial was certainly the highlight of the trip.  We took so much away from that.  Definitely qualified as learning time, too.

We had put away the TV before we left as a way of helping all of us focus on getting ready to leave.  When we got there, there were TVs everywhere.  We caved and they ended up watching probably more TV in the short amount of time there than they'd seen in months.  Big mistake, except that each one of them commented throughout the trip, especially on the way home, that they were so glad we didn't have it back at the farm. They said, "Now we get it, Mom."  We thought it would develop an appetite, but amazingly it was almost an antidote for TV.  For sure there were a few shows we all sat around and enjoyed watching.  What boggled our minds was the number of commercials we had to endure!  The TV is still away, put it that way.  So that was a good learning experience.

The friends who stayed here.... that is a whole other story!  They had so much fun and invited all sorts of people up from the city, including 18 grandmas and grandpa who are typically locked up in their senior housing and brought them out to the farm for a day of country living!  So great!  Apparently it is now going to be an annual event!  In addition to them, they hosted numerous families who also live in the heart of the city and enjoyed camping at the farm and all sorts of animal chores.  My friend's words to me were, "We used your farm for the glory of God."  That made our heart sing.  To know our farm could be a blessing to so many without us even being here made us so happy.

Back at the beach, on the final day, we were going to take our family photo.  We didn't quite know how to do this as my daughter hadn't brought her tripod.  We figured we would ask someone down at the pier, but then I got brave and approached my neighbour.  She was more than happy to do it, so she followed us all the way down and took picture after picture which a random person at the pier probably wouldn't have agreed to.  The new photo on the top was definitely our favourite, so it made the blog and will go in our kitchen soon as a memory of our trip.

There you have it, 20 years of marriage, celebrated in the most fun way.  Will we do it again next year?  Not sure, it is already booked next year for that same week, so it is clearly a great spot to go.  Our kids sure hope we do it again!  The condition?  We will have to save and have the money so it doesn't go on credit.

Well, the alarm clocks should be going off soon....

Tuesday 15 September 2015

Carrying My Cross a Little Differently

Our first week here we had great neighbours on both sides.  I never even thought to think about that.  The second week one of the neighbours stayed, the others left.  Only to be replaced with what appeared to be a beer-drinking, music-playing, loud-talking group of tourists.  I was so upset!  The first night they played their loud awful music till nearly midnight.  I had gone to bed at ten and was laying in bed trying not to panic, praying, hating, all at the same time.

The next morning no one else had heard them in our family, just me.  I tried to explain, "This is not good."  What if it was going to be like that the rest of the week?  Would we have to say something, call the owner, approach the neighbours?  This all sounds so petty, but I was convinced our final week was on the line and I didn't want to be kept up for hours at night only to go back home exhausted from no sleep!

RM was determined to be calm, to not panic.  He led us all in a great prayer about it, for me, for them.  But I was still mad!  I was walking around the house wanting to send my toddlers over there to wake them up from their stupor.  I was thinking of ways of getting back at them.  I was being quite awful I have to admit!

Then I read the devotional book I had brought along.  I shouldn't have, it changed my attitude!  It was so simple really.  It talked about carrying whatever cross it is that is giving you distress, but carrying it with a smile.  Instead of carrying it around as a burden, it was suggested that you take your cross and use it as a crutch to help you.  I knew that was what I was supposed to do.  I decided to be friendly, look for an opportunity to say hi (as I had with both neighbours the week before).  I decided instead of modeling this awful attitude in front of my kids, I would try to be a good girl and instead of pretending I'd given it up to God, this time I really would.

Almost right away I felt better.  Then I went down to the beach with the kids to collect shells.  I recognized one of the new neighbours on the beach immediately.  I started to pray for him.  I prayed for conviction for him, that he would be sensitive to the fact a whole family, full of children were right next door, that they would not be partying the whole week.

Then I headed back to the other side of the house where we swam in the pool.  I saw the two guys approaching their house and our eyes caught.  "Hi!" I waved friendly-like.  "Are you here all week?  Where are you from?"  One of them came over to the fence to talk for a minute.  I had barely gotten out where we were from when he basically cut in and started explaining that they normally don't drink and make all that noise and that he's not like that usually and that, well, he likes it here because it's quiet and he went on and on.....I hadn't said a thing.  He seemed to feel tremendous guilt for their behaviour the night before without me saying a single word!  I just smiled and told how much we had enjoyed our first week and how pleasant it was here at the Outer Banks.  That was it.

Last night was oddly quiet!  No loud music or partying on the deck.  At first glance they seemed like young punks, at least from a distance.  But up close they were actually two couples probably in their 40s.  No kids around to speak of.  Perhaps just on a holiday celebrating their first night away, who knows.  All I know is God convicted them.  Is it coincidence that it seemed to happen right after I changed my attitude?  Not sure, but it did seem like interesting timing.  Oh, there goes my neighbour now, with a fishing rod in hand.  He looked up and smiled.  I waved.  Seem like such nice people!

Monday 14 September 2015

Dauntless Resolution and Unconquerable Faith

 
Yesterday we headed out to the Wright Brothers National Memorial.  We had studied these two guys and read a lot about them in our History program.  We felt so privileged to then go on a field trip to see what we had read about and see where the first flight actually occurred.  One of the kids said, "Can we go on field trips like this all the time?" 

 

None of us expected to be as moved as we were when we got there.  We had heard of one person actually crying when he went through the museum.  We couldn't understand how that was possible.  But after hearing the talk the museum guard gave, RM and I looked over at one another and both of us actually had tears in our eyes! 
This is a true replica of the original first plane, right down to the exact size and weight.

Before the guard spoke, we walked through a series of displays that explained what Orville and Wilbur did, how they designed the plane, where they worked, the bike shop they started in, the house where they lived, the men who influenced them, etc.  There was an actual piece of the original plane that Neil Armstrong took with him up in space which was really neat. 

Then we listened to the guard explain in more detail what these two men did and the impact on the world of those first 12 seconds of flight.  He held up a picture that was taken without their knowledge of that first flight.  He said, "This picture shows a birth and a death."  Everyone understood that it was the birth of a new age, the age of flight.  He went on to explain that amazing things happened with that birth, but he also explained that terrible things came with the age of flight as he described the flags being at half mast three days earlier on 9/11.  "We all know what can be done with planes, too," reflecting on why the flags were down. 

Then he asked us if we could see a death in the picture.  I wasn't quite sure what he meant, but that's when we started to talk about all the paintings of the great men and women on the walls around the room.  "Because of these two men, we see the death of impossibility in this picture.  Each one of these portraits is proof of what these men accomplished."  He described the man who beat the sound barrier or the first woman who crossed the Atlantic....all of those people were told they would never be able to do what they dreamed of doing.  Orville and Wilbur were great examples that there was no such thing as impossible.  "Impossible just means it has been figured out yet!"  he said. 

I think it struck us because we're always facing the impossible - raising 8 kids for the first time with no experience doing this, farming a farm with no experience, trying to kill debt when it seems impossible, longing to change people's lives with the love of Christ when it seems like Satan has such a grip.....

Yet, despite so many challenges they did it, they accomplished the impossible.  But not on their own.  They had the help of family.  These two men had a mom and dad who loved them very much.  Their dad was a minister who travelled a lot, but he gave them the resources they needed to accomplish their dreams.  Their mom and sister were both a tremendous support, even financially, as their mom became a silent partner in one of their businesses.  As boys, they were entrepreneurial right from the beginning.  It was neat to see their 4 year age gap didn't impact their relationship as brothers.  So it wasn't a solo experience.  They needed the support of others, especially family.  If we accomplish any of our dreams, it'll be because of our families, too.  We've had so much support along the way.  They also had friends, really good friends, who believed in them and came the distance.  They even had strangers from the Outer Banks kick in to help, too.  People who were just plain hospitable and gave them a hand when they needed it.  It was a great reminder no one accomplishes anything on their own.  We all need help along the way.

After his talk, we walked outside and saw reproductions of their "camp".  They had to build living quarters for themselves as they were going to be there so long to do all their tests.  A few feet away from that we stood on the very spot that the Wright brothers stood, as well as Amelia Earhart, who came for the 25th anniversary of the first flight in 1928 where a monument was erected.  Then we walked the actual path of the first four flights.  It was amazing.
The "camp" they set up.
 
The monument in the distance.  We walked all the way!
 

Now it is all covered in grass and cactuses, but 112 years ago it was all sand.  We turned and walked up the long path to the top of the hill where they did thousands of glider test flights.  They chose this spot in Kill Devil Hills, on the Outer Banks because of the soft sand for landings and the great winds.  At the top of the hill another huge monument was built.  It was incredible to stand on the top of this hill and look down and see what they saw.  The words inscribed around the monument were beautiful, too:  "In Commemoration of the conquest of the air by the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright. Conceived by genius. Achieved by dauntless resolution and unconquerable faith."  Stunning, remarkable words....dauntless resolution, unconquerable faith....nothing could stop these guys.  They conquered the impossible.

We all left inspired to take on the impossible, too.
Our oldest, ready to take on the world!
 
All 8 on another replica of the first flight!
#8 in front of the place where the 3rd flight occurred on that amazing day.  He just happens to be 3, too.....

Saturday 12 September 2015

A few pictures

The Pier where the kids and Dad do all the fishing.
Looking down from the deck, this is where the little boys play in the morning.
Not a great shot, but it's a polaroid of our friend's that we took on the last night together.  12 kids between the two families!
At PolyFace farms with the Shenadoah Mountains in the background (Viriginia).
Wandering around the PolyFace farm in 35 degree weather.  It rained while we were there and we all just stood in the rain to cool off!
Plugging his nose looking at the pig nursery!
This is what Joel Salatin calls a "Chicken Hotel".

A view of the beach from the deck.

The back of the house

Another view of the pier from the beach.
Cleaning fish for the first time!

A cooler full of fish!

We even caught a crab!  (but we let him go....too small to eat...)

Notice the fish skeletons on the table.  So fun.

More skeletons!

A horseshoe crab found on the beach.
 
A great shot of our 14 year old!

The 3 year old model shot.

Friday 11 September 2015

Signs of a Good Vacation

Ok, I think I only made it to Day 4 yesterday.

Remember, this is a record not just about debt-reduction and how we got there, but also it has slowly evolved into recounting God's unique faithfulness in our family's life even on this holiday, including things we've learned, people we've met and so on.  I don't expect everyone to read all the details of our life if they don't want to.  It's as much for us and my children's children as it is for anyone else. That's the disclaimer if this is too boring.....

Day 5 - Finally!  We woke up and were officially on our way to the Outer Banks!  Our younger children were starting to not believe us that we were going as we kept stopping at farms and friend's houses (people that they had never met!).  They were excited to think they were actually going now. We'd gotten some good advice from our friends who had actually been to the Outer Banks, so we had a much better idea what to expect, what places to see, where to go, etc.....

We got there in just a few hours and our mouths started to drop almost immediately.  We were driving over thin bridges connecting us to the mainland more than once and it seemed we would end up on a strip of land no wider than a toothpick.  That's what it looks like on all the maps!  Finally we got on the strip where our house was located and it was narrow - water on both sides of the road!

We found our house on Ocean Drive, so beautiful.  Three stories, decks all around, sand everywhere, lovely beach grasses for landscaping.  We thought we had died and gone to heaven.  Within minutes the kids had checked out the house, picked their rooms and ran to the beach.  That night we enjoyed settling in, catching crabs on the beach and we ate our first meal of shrimp that I cooked in the kitchen.

Day 6 - The first day of skim boarding, catching waves, swimming in the pool and generally getting sunburned and full of sore muscles....all signs of a good vacation!  I had already gotten my share of sore muscles and was just starting to walk normal again.  When I had stayed with my friend, Stacey, I joined one of her fitness classes that was called "This Will Kill You" or "Take This Class and Feel Like Dying After", can't remember which, but I thought it would be fun to do something like that together.  So we got up at 5:30 am (yes, even on my vacation) and went to her gym where a few die-hards worked out doing a ridiculous set of circuits meant to get results.  Stacey and her husband, Jeff, are in great shape and run and work out regularly.  I was not about to be outdone.  I did the whole thing as if I worked out all the time, too.  The next day, I nearly died, thus the name of the class.  I was in so much pain for several days.  That's what you get for trying to keep up with the fit people.  However, it inspired me to get back at it and I am quite determined to get back into it if I ever meet up with Stacey and her gym friends again!

Day 7- No one could walk from all the skim boarding.  Everyone had chewed up knees from the shells and all the falling.  But there was no stopping people.  We bought some body boards and started to catch waves with those.  You can still get quite beat up as they are big waves! But so much fun!  I felt like a kid trying to do it, too.

We also picked up some ocean fishing rods which was the best investment and started fishing twice a day.  There is a private pier right near the house we're staying at and our place came with free passes to get on and fish.  My older boys and RM have been catching fish all week.  We even ate our first freshly caught fish meal that night!

Day 8 - More fishing, more swimming, more ocean wave catching.....caught a puffer fish and watched it puff up!

Day 9 - Same, same, same!  Except this time, we started seeing cool fish right off the pier, including giant sting rays!  Now, my younger boy, Jonas, is going to the pier, too, wanting to fish and catching some!  Later that morning, RM actually caught a small stingray!  Everyone on the pier ran over and started taking pictures while my son had his flip-flopped foot on the tail so it wouldn't sting anyone. Yikes!

Late that night we went out to the beach as we'd seen some guy catching his own bait that he dug out of the sand.  When we asked him what he was looking for, he told us about sand fleas.  Ok, these things are the most disgusting things I've seen, but cool at the same time.  They are giant armour-covered flea-like bugs.  Maybe not bugs exactly, but they look like bugs.  Perhaps more in the crustacean family.  They are under the surface of the sand and as soon as the water goes out, if you start digging you'll see millions of these little things.  They get to be about and inch and a half long. All the kids went out there and collected a ton of them which are apparently great free bait, so that's what we'll be using now and I know what my kids will be doing at night!

Day 10 - Today it is a little overcast, but still nice and warm.  I'm out on the deck enjoying the sounds of the crashing waves.  Pelicans are landing all around.

If it rains, we're minutes from an awesome aquarium which we plan on visiting.  We're also minutes from Kitty Hawk where Orville and Wilbur Wright tested their first planes.  We studied them in American History so we can't wait to actually go and see where that all happened.  Everything is quite reasonably priced, so still within the budget.

Ok, I'll include some pictures soon!

Thursday 10 September 2015

A Vacation for the Soul

Well, we are here, in beautiful North Carolina - the Outer Banks, or OBX, as the locals refer to it.  What a gorgeous part of the world.  We snagged a beach house in the off season and I'm sitting on the 3rd floor of the house facing the ocean, listening to the waves come in.  Every day has been hot and humid and I'm just soaking it all in knowing that we'll go back to much cooler weather.

A few highlights so far as I want to write them down before I forget!

Day 1 - We left on the actual day of our 20th anniversary, Sept. 1, seemed kind of significant!  We drove 9 hours the first day (well, we didn't actually drive that long, it took that long with all the stops for bathroom breaks!  Our kids have really small bladders we found out......).  I must point out, I made a real effort to not spend a dollar on restaurants on the way down.  I had packed a cooler that got us almost the whole way down.  We did end up stopping for coffee a couple of times and then once we bought some burgers and fries, and another time nuggets, but we only drank water, no pop.  So we did really well as far as the budget went.  That night we stopped in Virginia where we did stay at a hotel, but we had budgeted for that night so it wasn't a surprise.  RM took just me out for dinner with some money we had received as a gift and that as so fun!  The kids swam in the hotel pool that night and the next morning.  We picked a hotel that came with a hot breakfast and the kids filled up for the next long leg ahead of us.

Day 2 - We drove another long time, over 6 hours (with more pee breaks!) to a little town called Swoope, Virginia, where we visited a famous farm called PolyFace.  This farm is run by a well-known man in both secular and Christian circles named Joel Salatin.  He farming techniques are really unique and what helps to make him famous is that he writes and writes about them.  His books and articles are everywhere.  He got sick and tired of what he calls "concentration camp" animals.  He also thinks the way farming is down now, in terms of mass production, is bad not just for the animals, but for us as we eat the sick animals that are laden with antibiotics.  So he lets his chickens be chickens and his pigs be pig in as natural an environment as possible.  The unique result is that his farm doesn't smell!  Well, the pigs did a little, but that is hard to get away from!  It wasn't a beautiful farm, esthetically, as Salatin is all about the practical.  He just wants to grow good meat.  When you arrive you are allowed to take self-guided tours.  Anyone can show up and just walk around.  So we did just that, taking tons of pictures (which he also allows as he wants everyone to farm the way he farms).  It was brutally hot, so we didn't stay long.  We ended up eating out of the cooler again and then nearly got lost getting out of the winding roaded countryside.  So pretty though driving through the valley with the mountains all around.

That afternoon we drove about 3 more hours to North Carolina where we stopped to visit a friend of mine from university and her family.  The whole drive down we listened to stories on cd like Les Miserables, Silas Marner, Billy Bishop - all great classics.  We nearly caved and bought a dvd player for our van, but it would have been so expensive, so we just used what we already had and it was such good listening.  We were all engaged.

We pulled into my friend's house and her 4 kids were outside waiting for us.  I hadn't seen them since they were all either babies or little tots and there they were, big and all grown up, 7 years later.  I couldn't help it as tears welled up.  My friend, who I had known since we were both single and had been in each other's weddings, came out to greet us with her husband and I just hugged her crying.  I felt like a Grandma who hadn't ever met her grandchildren and who felt so proud!  Stacey and I have a special spiritual relationship, too, as I led her in her first Bible study when we were on campus together.  That was how the special bond was formed.  It was so fun to reconnect.

We stayed two nights at her place.  It couldn't have been any shorter, there was so much to talk about!  We left as new best friends with their children and we absolutely plan on not letting 7 years go by again.  Such a worthwhile visit.  (Just as an interesting note, she was the one who first introduced me to Dave Ramsey and the whole debt-reduction idea years ago.......)

Day 3 - From there, we travelled east to another friend's house where we spent another night (saving on hotels and food, yay, bonus!)  This family was also very special, though we had only met the Dad prior to this trip.  RM had first met Jason at a conference he had gone to called "The Master's Plan for Fatherhood".  That trip changed RM's life.  He came back so inspired to be a new kind of Dad, one who led us spiritually, who, like Job, was a priest, prophet and king.  A priest in that he dealt with sin in the family and wouldn't look aside when he saw something in one of our kids (or even in me!).  A prophet, in that he spoke the words of God into our family, from Scripture, leading and guiding us.  A king, in that he led us faithfully through good times and bad, even into battle if need be.  At that conference he made fast friends with Jason and another man, Rick, who both offered up their homes if we ever came down again.  Sure enough, we did and we met Rick's family and stayed at their home so many years ago.  This time, we stayed at Jason's and met his family for the first time.  Another wonderful visit, connecting with their kids like we'd known them our whole lives.

Jason is a church planter with the National Center for Family-Integrated Churches.  We love these people.  They believe the church has forgotten God's purpose and instruction for the family.  Scott Brown, the director of the NCFIC, has recently put out another book, and in it he describes that "God created the family as an important element in the outworking of His eternal purpose.....First, God created the family to give structure and order to the human beings that He made in His image.  Second, the family provides the essential labor of teaching and preparation of children for churches, communities, cultures, and nations.  Third, God created the family in order to pass the gospel from one generation to the next.  Finally, God designed the family to be a living demonstration of various aspects of the glory of the gospel and the embodiment of biblical truths."  Scott goes on to say that today "we are in need of family formation, or rather, a reformation of biblical family life."  But there are so many attacks against the family by the devil.  Why?  Scott says it is not because Satan hates love and family, but because he "hates the gospel of Jesus Christ.  A mangled marriage communicates a mangled gospel; an unloving selfish husband declares a loveless faith and lies about Christ's love for the church; an un-submissive wife represents the falsehood of an antinomian church; a rebellious child images a disobedient individual child of God.  The devil is on a mission, hell-bent to destroy the glory of God and His everlasting kingdom wherever it exists, so he aims at the most important target: the gospel."  Basically, the church is healthier if the family is healthier.  The world is blessed when the family is working the way God planned.

As we left, Jason handed us a book of 500 years of Christian teaching on the family by 56 authors from the Puritans to Calvin to modern day authors. This is lost teaching nowadays, completely forgotten authors that no one knows about.  He also gave us another small book by J.C. Ryle, another author from the 1800s, that knew how to raise children and wrote a wonderful book on that topic.  Between the two books, we've been reading a segment each night with our children and praying together, singing together, calling out to God to use our family in some way, to free us from our bondage so that we can be used.  We long for this freedom, not just for ourselves, but for all families, not just financial, but spiritual bondage that we see in so many families.  We plan on buying these two books and passing them out to everyone we know.

Yes, we're on a beach.  Yes, we're having fun, but this time away has been so great, to talk without distractions, nearly around the clock, about what we can do to achieve this freedom, what we can do to be used in some way, to dream, to be re-inspired about the gift of family.  Spending time with those families was just what we needed.  That was a vacation for the soul.

Well, a long post.....I'm not even half-way done, but enough for now.