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Our Youth Retreat was a blast! We spent quality time in Psalm 119 learning about the importance and indespesibility of the Word of God. Our teens (and at least one old guy, me) will be memorizing 120 verses of this Master piece in the coming months. We again went to Peruibe for our retreat and had a lovely time. The trip started out rather rough when a normal three hour voyage turned into a seven and a half hour trial because of the holiday rush! The time together was worth that rough start. We saw each of our teens make important decisions for Christ. This retreat came just a week after our move to the neighborhood and several days of painting our former house. Here when you rent a place you have to paint it when you move. We went on the trip needing a rest! Dawn, however, has kitchen duty cooking for twelve during the four day outing. She worked her wonders and everyone was thrilled with her new recipes. We are still trying to downsize and dig out of our quick move. Its one s...

  And the LORD said unto him, What is that in thine hand? And he said, A rod .Exodus 4:2 I'm a "walking-stick" kind of guy. I've always like to grab a stick when going for a walk in the woods and weeds. I have several right now on my back porch. The one that I cut just two days ago is green bamboo! Cool. In Moses’ writings we read about Aaron's rod, God's rod and Moses' rod. All were used in Power move situations. Have you noticed? On Moses’ first encounter with Jehovah God the question is asked, "What is that in your hand" and the response is, "A rod." However, when tossed to the ground that "rod" became a wicked looking snake. How do I know that it was wicked looking? Because an aged shepherd who had been working the "back-side" of the desert for forty years ran like a scared school boy when he saw it! The rod became leverage in the conversation with pharaoh. Don't you just know that Moses was chomping at th...

Exodus 18.9 When is the last time that you shared a blessing with someone. I mean that you literally sat down with a friend and shared the blessings that God has been showering you with. That is what happened in Exodus 18 when Moses met with Jethro his father-in-law. Can you imagine this scene with me? These two old men with their long beards are sitting on the ground at the table where they have been dinning. All the while Moses has been recounting what the LORD has been doing in his life lately. Man! A firsthand account of all of those miracles by none other than Moses. Here sits the entire family around the table recounting God's blessings. The result was that "... Jethro rejoiced for all the goodness which the LORD had done to Israel ...". Interesting that word, "rejoiced". It means to " rejoin ". It has the sense of uniting, intertwining or connecting . I know that you have been in a situation like this. A friend is weaving a story and you a...

Camp was FUN! Thirty two kids and seven leaders had a blast living together and learning from God's Word. Our special guest speaker this year was none other than King Nebuchadnezzar from Babylon! He shared his prospective on the life of Daniel. What made this story even neater for our kids was that one of them is named Shadrack! Ben Jacobs played the king and Ben Broyals played Daniel. They were perfect for each part. Except for the fact that both were blue eyed blonds! The kids were spell-bound as they listened to each installment of the story. We knew that they were paying attention because many questions were asked afterward and their answers were great. Some of them even earned a little of the king’s gold (chocolate coins) for their good attention. We broke into devotional groups in the mornings and it was great to be able to share principles of Reverence and Respect with my five boys. This year we had leaders in training: Amanda, Lucas and Dani helped Ben Broyals, Ben’s ...

Genesis 37 - 50 Moses in preparing his novel called Genesis relates some fascinating human interest stories. One that endears me each time is how Joseph saves the universe! What? You’ve never read that part? Well my friend it is there as plain as day in chapters 37 - 50. Joseph was a casula. Whoa brother you lost me there. Casula (ka-SOO-la) is a Portuguese word which usually means, “Spoiled rotten little brat”. Well... that might be the Amplified version of the definition. It actually means the youngest child in a family. The “baby”. Joseph being the casula got doted on by daddy. Jacob’s favoritism lead to such bitterness that Joseph´s brothers wanted to kill him literally. While planning to do just that Joseph was saved by big brother Rubin. That, “salvation” lead to a life of slavery in Egypt shortly after being sold to a caravan of Ishmaelites. Lovely little family tradition that. Let’s sell the casula! Yay! Sounds like something from Star Wars. Soon after his unexpected journey...

Zechariah 12 As a kid I often saw my dad sharpening a tool on his table grinder. The sparks that flew brought wonder. They were myriad and beautiful. When he was done there was a tiny pile of shavings that I could play with. I’d get a magnet and create fantastic miniature sculptures with the whisks. What is a spark? You might be surprised. Robert Hooke studied the sparks created by striking a piece of flint and steel together. He found that the sparks were usually particles of the steel which had become red hot and so melted into globules. These sparks can be used to ignite tinder and so start a fire. In colonial America, flint and steel were used to light fires when easier methods failed. Scorched linen was commonly used as tinder to catch the spark and start the fire but producing a good spark could take much time. A spinning steel wheel provided a good stream of sparks when it engaged the flint and a tinderbox designed to do this was known as a mill. In a modern lighter or...

Christmas on Sunday seemed strange didn't it? Several friends said that they couldn't remember the last time that it had. I Googled it and discovered that it was 2004. Not so long ago. Dawn and I brunched with coworkers Shaw, Donna, Andrew and Ana Shea Alexander. We then traveled to São Paulo where we worshiped with fellow missionaries Marv and Diane and Nathan and Diane Fray at their new church plant. Both morning and evening were sweet fellowship on the Lord's birthday. Sunday night after the service we traveled another half an hour to Camp Betel. Nathan Fray purchased a beautiful piece of property about five years ago. The property had several out buildings and a pool. It is also on a large reservoir which makes for a lovely camp setting. We spent Sunday night there and on Monday gathered with our fellow São Paulo station missionaries for our annual Christmas party.  We went back to camp and stayed Monday and Tuesday. It was great to get to know Marv and Diane better. W...