Welcome Back Baseball….

Its the greatest time of year. Spring Training is over. The smell of freshly cut grass and hotdogs and peanuts are in the year. Every team has a chance, Its opening Day.

But withe baseball (FINALLY!!!!) back, I thought I would share some wonderful quotes (mostly the same as last year, but I hope to add some more throughout the day) and a video at the end that gives me goose bumps every time I watch it. Do you have nay great quotes to add? I’d love to hear them in the comments section below.

You gotta be a man to play baseball for a living, but you gotta have a lot of little boy in you.- Roy Campanella

It breaks your heart. It is designed to break your heart. The game begins in spring, when everything else begins again, and it blossoms in the summer, filling the afternoons and evenings, and then as soon as the chill rains come, it stops and leaves you to face the fall alone. ~A. Bartlett Giamatti, “The Green Fields of the Mind,” Yale Alumni Magazine, November 1977

You see, you spend a good piece of your life gripping a baseball, and in the end it turns out that it was the other way around all the time. ~Jim Bouton, Ball Four, 1970

“Character, Courage, Loyalty.”

Little League Motto

One of the beautiful things about baseball is that every once in a while you come into a situation where you want to, and where you have to, reach down and prove something- Nolan Ryan

Don’t tell me about the world. Not today. It’s springtime and they’re knocking baseball around fields where the grass is damp and green in the morning and the kids are trying to hit the curve ball. ~Pete Hamill

That’s the true harbinger of spring, not crocuses or swallows returning to Capistrano, but the sound of a bat on a ball. ~Bill Veeck, 1976

People ask me what I do in winter when there’s no baseball. I’ll tell you what I do. I stare out the window and wait for spring. ~Rogers Hornsby

Baseball is beautiful….the supreme performing art. It combines in perfect harmony the magnificent features of ballet, drama, art, and ingenuity.-Commissioner Bowie Kuhn

 

 

 

Casey

Proverbs 16:3

3 months in Yale!!!

I can’t believe it’s been 3 months since we arrived in Yale, WA!  The months have flown by, and life is changing quickly.  In our own family, Caleb is now 6 months and crawling, Rosie has decided talking is fun and is now speaking in paragraphs, and Finn turns 4 in just two days!  We all are enjoying being out in the country, and love being outside as much as possible.

Our ministry is growing and expanding.  Casey has preached a few times, and people are shocked that he’s nervous, because they can’t see it.  He’s been helping teach the men’s bible study, as well as the adult bible study.  We have a weekly prayer time with the men and women that is also amazing.  There are some mighty prayer warriors here in the valley.  I am helping with mom’s bible study, and am teaching an after school kid’s class until the end of may for the 1st – 5th grades.  These kids are amazing and sweet.  1/2 don’t go to church at all, and are hearing some of these bible stories for the first time.  Their questions and enthusiasm are wonderful and insightful, I am learning as well as leading.

We have really been pouring into the youth group, 7th-12th grades.  We’ve shared a little about them, but they hadn’t really had much for quite a while other than some sunday school.  We have an average of 15 kids, and are growing.  We officially outgrew meeting at our house this last week and are invading the church, which is fun. These young people have lots to contend with, between home situations, school, and just being teenagers.  They are eager to learn, share, and grow, meeting our challenges to them and really taking their faith into their own hands and making it their own, knowing what they believe and why.  We just took them to the Son of God movie, and that made for interesting discussion.  They saw they knew more of the bible than they thought, pointing out missing parts of the story or conflicting events.  They are quite smart and, well, just wonderful.

We are really getting to know others in the valley, as well.  A big part of our ministry is just being with the people, visiting with them, and sharing our lives together.  One family in the congregation just adopted their 6th son, and we were able to be there with them, which was awesome!  He quickly became one of Finn’s best friends here, and our families have become close, so it was extra special to be there to celebrate with them.

There are many we are becoming close with that do not attend church, some that aren’t that interested in faith, and these are the people we have to be especially consistent with,  caring, being there when they need, and living our faith in friendship.  This is when God reveals Himself and shows His faithfulness.

We would ask for prayer for our community in some different ways.  There is not really any direct employment in our community, so jobs are scarce and commuting to Vancouver or Portland is tough on people and on families.  The kids here can spend as much as 3-4 hours a day on the bus.  Many believing women in our church community have husbands who are either apethetic toward church or outright hostile, so they are having to carry the spiritual burden for themselves and their children.  As with other older congregations, many health issues plague our church.  Cancer, heart issues, and other physical ailments keep many home instead of having fellowship with friends.  I know these concerns are not unique to our area, and your communities are facing other issues that we would love to pray for as well.  We have a prayer request page link that you could write in, or just send it directly to us, letting us know if we can/should share it in our church prayer time, here, or keep it to ourselves. This is how we can be the body of Christ for each other, no matter where we are.  Thank you for your continued prayer and financial support, which helps us do the work we feel God is giving us to do here in Yale.  We thank God for you every day.

 

A mother’s joy

As mothers, we get to share our faith with our children often.  Sometimes by reading bible stories, other times answering questions, and sometimes using life as object lessons.  With all, we pray that some of it sticks.  You know the verse, “Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.”  I do this often, just praying that a tenth of the good I teach sinks in, not the things I do wrong.  But I was reminded this last week, that it is not what I say or do that gets to my childs’ hearts, it is Christ Himself and His word that works in their lives.  I got to see that with Finn.

I was in the kitchen, cooking dinner, when he came around the corner, cute as could be, playing a little doggy guitar his aunt had given him for his last birthday.  He started singing, not asking me to be his audience, like many other times.  He already had one.  He sang, ” I love Jesus, God you are strong, God you are the only super hero in real life, God is good for sin, He takes our sin and timeouts.  God you are beautiful.”

My 3 year old was praising God, and in his simple song, was more profound than many so called preachers in the pulpit on any given Sunday.  He, with his child-like faith, showed understanding I strive for and miss on many days.  I bent down, misty-eyed, and thanked him for singing.  He asked me, “mommy, did you like my song?”

“Yes, Honey, I think it’s the best song I’ve ever heard in my life.”  I got to see the grip God has on his life, and am so excited for his next song.

What Lent is and is not

What Lent is and what it is not

                There is a lot of confusion out there about what Lent is and what it is not. This is my attempt to clarify things. First, Lent is not mentioned in the Bible. It is an extra biblical tradition, and if done with the right heart, one of the best ones, in my opinion.

What it is not: Lent is not a time to change yourself, though it may have that effect. It is not a time to change the world, though we should be trying to do that. It is not a way to prove how good of a Christian or how disciplined you are. It is not a way to earn righteousness or favor with God.

What Lent is: Lent is primarily about remembering Jesus sacrifice for us. It combines two sacrifices he made, with one obviously infinitely more important than the other.  Jesus, while preparing for his ministry, spent 40 days in the wilderness, fasting and praying. At the end of the 40 days, Jesus was able to refute the temptations that Satan provide him with. This is where we get the 40 days of Lent.

But Jesus also sacrificed his body and his life to defeat sin and death and so that we would have the opportunity for eternal salvation. Jesus gave the ultimate sacrifice. He died on Good Friday and was raised up on Easter Sunday. This date is the most important date in the history of the worlds and is one of joyous celebration for Christians around the world. We end the period of Lent on Easter Sunday as a celebration that Jesus sacrifices was completed and successful.

The reason to practice Lent: Lent is intended to be a way for us to remember how hard the sacrifice was that Jesus made. We have a tendency to take for granted the historical fact that Jesus died on the cross and was raised from the dead. We forget just how much of an effect this has on us. Lent is a way for us to get closer to God, to align ourselves with God’s will and most importantly, to remember the ultimate sacrifice that was made on our behalf.

How to practice Lent: These are just going to be some principals on how to implement this so as not become legalistic. It is meant to give some ideas, not to be a rule book or a checklist. If you give up something that you purchase, such as Starbucks, or ice cream, use the money you would spend and donate it to a charity or to your church. When you give this money over, remember 2 things; first, it was not your money anyway. God gave it to you and now you are giving some back. Second, the money and the coffee you are sacrificing is nothing compared to the sacrifice that Jesus gave in our place. If you are giving up a hobby or a meal or something that takes time, take the time that you would be eating lunch and use it to study the Word, or pray.

Again, the point of Lent is to remember the ultimate sacrifice that Jesus Christ, who is God, came down from heaven as a man, lived a perfect life, committed no sin, died on the cross to pay the price for our sin, and rose from the dead to defeat Satan, sin and death. Live this and celebrate this.

Casey

Hebrews 10:1-18

Active Faith, and Holy Spirit convictions

So here is the follow up to my sermon on Genesis 13. This ism y sermon on Genesis 14! Its names you can never pronounce, more than you ever thought you would hear about Melchizedek and learning that people cant change before they meet Jesus, they need Jesus in order to change.

Thanks ahead of time for the feedback!

 

 

 

Casey

Proverbs 8:1-11