Advocating for Sent Missionaries from RHCC:

As I continue to process the issues mentioned below, I feel compelled to be an advocate for a group of M__s from RHCC.

The CAMEL team.

This group has been in 3 countries where one must be cautious about what is said in communication, so as not to jeopardize their presence to a hostile government. For this reason, I don't write any names, or spell out the countries. 

However, I'm starting to lose sleep over their need for their home church to rally behind this entire team who went out the same year we did!

The Creasmans have been pretty straightforward in our journey: 

As originally planned, we’ve had two years of language and culture learning in mainland China (‘97-99), and then settled in for a long term investment in Singapore to be used in strengthening and building Chinese Christian leaders here. Not just for the sake and strength of Singapore’s churches and pastors, and missionaries who are based here, but for their strategic role in influence over this region due to Singapore’s spiritual and financial resources, heart for the world and multi-lingual schooling.

For our fellow laborers The CAMEL team who are now in their 3^rd country and 3rd language, their direction and journey has not turned out as originally hoped or planned. These diversions have been entirely out of their control. 

When they went out as a team (3 families and 4 singles) in 1997, it was a remarkable achievement for our church: sending an ENTIRE team to an unreached people group. 

Among them were former RHCC youth ministries leaders (Junior High Pastor) and administrators. Bright and gifted, they had developed a heart for the world early. Somewhere along the college years, and the missions pipeline of potential missionary small groups and missions retreats, and leading short term teams from the church we confirmed their calling to make a career in bringing the Gospel to the most unreached peoples in the 10/40 window. As a church we excitedly envisioned this team following the inroads our short term trips had made over a few years. We had "adopted the Kaz_ks" and RHCC short term teams had helped establish the first known Kaz_k church. Subsequent visits had made it seem to us as if Rolling Hills Covenant Church instrumental in seeing the Gospel preached and a thriving church established among a people where there had previously been none.

This was not to be the case. 

I will not go into the details here, but as I remember it, due to their being “discovered” for their “covert” work in evangelism, their visas were not renewed after a few years. I think they were asked to leave the country on short notice, with a black mark against them so that they can not return. In turn, they relocated to a similar people group in Uzb_____, with clear leading from the Holy Spirit about where to move, and even which apartments to rent. However, during this term(s) they were in a political situation where ALL foreign non-profit workers were denied visa renewals and had to move their families out of a second country.

Fraught with opposition and conflict and uprooting and challenges, they have had to pull back, pull out, sort out, regroup, reconcile, hear from God and set out once again more times than any living missionary I know. And there’s a whole team of them! There have been marital issues, health emergencies, team strife and discord on top of the political opposition.

Lesser men and women might have given up, feeling like many do after facing such trials, “Well, we gave it a go, we did our best, perhaps God is directing us through these hardships to turn our hearts back toward home, and find a new path.” Heaven knows how many missionaries have set out at the beginning to invest their lives long term and our now back safely in their motherlands. It’s also pretty safe to say, that any of those missionaries who have returned would be the first to acknowledge the tremendous tenacity and commitment and sense of calling it has taken for this group of people from RHCC to stick with it.

I'll post more later, but this is a good start! Let's not forget them! They need our prayers and support as much now as ever!!

"Forbearance," my new favorite word

This past month, there's been a lot of communicating with my home church leaders and a few individuals. Building bridges that had fallen into disrepair. I had lit a match on the fallen tinder by blogging about the fallen bridge (that particular part of the post below has been removed!). 

To sum it up briefly: I was feeling awkward and like an alien whenever we return to our home church where we'd served for 12 years. Over 14 years it had grown worse and worse each of the times we'd come back as a family (In all fairness, Jim came back once on his own for the 50th Anniversary, and that for him was a remarkable homecoming speaking for and being honored in this special Missions Celebration). This summer was especially hard because, due to our serious shortfall in support, we finally had to start making connections at other churches. We've tried hard to keep our ties strong with this sending church because our trips back are so short that we'd prefer to concentrate our face-time, hoping to have a more significant time of re-connecting, rather than a one-off hellos in multiple church patios. 

This summer, the contrasting experience we had going to other churches (and a few unfortunate and circumstantial mix ups and misses at our home church), turned my long-time sadness into anger. I was feeling mother-bearish for all the other missionaries sent from our church.

I didn't deal with the growing conflict in my heart in a Biblical way by approaching the missions pastor and commission advocate with grace. I instead spent a few jet lagged hours blogging about it when I got back to Singapore.

Then some actually read my post, and I subsequently needed to do a lot of apologizing! I've been humbled, and convicted that we didn't bring the problem up years ago to people who would probably have listened (calling it "grace" when it was really a lack of courage to speak up).

It's starting to be an amazing case study of dealing with and working through conflict, when to be part of the solution when you have a burden about something (and when to let things go), and seeing leaders - brothers and sisters in the body of Christ show forbearance (my new favourite word) and grace, and work together to build Christ's church. I still have a few people I need to apologize to directly (I pray the Holy Spirit will reveal any more!), but there's already such a hope that we are all going to be stronger and better from this.

It seems now, that even though I lacked judgement in writing publicly, and that I hurt some people by what I wrote; these instrumental leaders have heard. They have also apologized to us personally for this regrettable "blind spot," and now we're working together to make a change. 

For the future, our united heart is that our sent missionaries will no longer be/feel forgotten. We'll find ways to introduce and advocate for them to those who are new people in the congregation (who didn't know them when they went overseas), and for those at home who have let their ties become too loose, we'll work to restore the bond. The mutual hope is that in the future, all of our church's "home-grown" missionaries will feel built up from their visits home. The wheels are in motion for this church to give them an intentional welcome, offer more practical care for them, and somehow publicly honor them when they return.

If you are interested in reading or talking more about it, you can write to me personally. As a case study, it is a remarkable model of processing conflict and I hope others will be able to learn from our mistakes. I'm really encouraged to know that I am part of a church where leaders can respect one another and all be humble enough own our sin and move forward in unity.

Our Sending Church's Human Capitol: A Legacy of Leaders

As I've been learning who are the missionaries currently supported by my home church USA, I realize something they may not have: This sending church can be proud that among those who have gone out from our church over the years. There are a surprising number of directors or presidents of other mission organizations, or seasoned and godly and wise lights for the gospel on the front-lines in difficult places. I just started listing them...

Bill & Robin Harris. Missionaries whose passion for ethnomusicology and networking resulted in founding International Council of Ethnodoxologists (ICE). Robin is the ICE coordinator. Robin and her husband, Bill Harris, now work forOperation Mobilization-USA in the Heart Sounds International division. Bill and Robin Harris write several blogs.

Gwynn & Pooka Lewis, Sowers Int'l, Founder & Executive Director

Joe & Silk Handley, Asian Access, President

Dennis & Susan Wadley, Bridges of Hope Int'l, Founder/Int'l Director: From the Bridges website info on their Partners. BTW: This partnership was profiled in DualReach article about involving local church leaders in mission which in-turn inspires a congregation.

Rolling Hills Covenant Church

In 2004 Rolling Hills Covenant Church [RHCC] sent its first short-term mission team to South Africa to support Dennis Wadley, former high school ministry pastor at RHCC, and his family in their ministry “Bridges of Hope.” Since then, RHCC has continued to partner with Bridges of Hope in its efforts to serve communities and townships ravaged by HIV/AIDS, with specific care for the growing number of children orphaned by this disease. Together with Bridges of Hope, RHCC also partnered with St. Paul’s Anglican Church in Philippi, and provided funds for the construction of the church facility in Philippi.

The children in the black townships outside Cape Town grow up in terrible poverty in neighborhoods with high rates of crime and gang activity and lives that are devastated by AIDS. Many children are orphaned by AIDS and grow up with only knowing life in the township and the hopelessness it can breed.  The vision shared Bridges of Hope and RHCC was to have a retreat center in which children could come and be ministered to in a loving outdoor and retreat center atmosphere. Rolling Hills Covenant has sent several short-term teams comprised of high school students and adults to run after school programs at the Center. 

The dream was also to build a residential High School Academy for children orphaned by AIDS.  This dream was rooted in the belief that God could use the children’s lives and transform them to become key parts of an emerging new generation to lead South Africa. With significant help from our RHCC, as well as other churches, that dream has now become a reality. A former bed and breakfast with acreage that used to be a vineyard was purchased. Rolling Hills helped to fund a full-time missionary, Ted Holdeman, who served in a key role during the construction of various buildings for the Bridges of Hope Leadership Academy, as well as maintaining the operations of the Bridges of Hope Retreat Center.

Rolling Hills Covenant Church has enjoyed our thriving partnership with Bridges of Hope. As a congregation we give praise to the Lord for connecting our church with Bridges of Hope. We pray that together we will serve Jesus in redeeming lives for His glory and bring lasting and sustained positive change to South Africa. 

On Feeling Guilty/Convicted: How to know the difference between Satan's Voice and The Holy Spirit

After reading a sweet email from a conscientious friend who was responding about her feelings she was wrestling with after reading the blog article below, I picked up a book I'm reading through with the bible study gals here in Singapore: The 10 Best Decisions a Woman Can Make.

It was a segment headed:

"So what do I do with the guilt?"

Just a refresher, I'm sure, but here's the bullets of what Pam Farrel wrote about processing guilt feelings:

If it's from Satan, he will make you feel

• Condemned
• Confused (half-truths, conflicting statements, distractions)
• Calloused (I give up, why try! it's hopeless)
• Driven to overcompensation (taking on responsibility that isn't yours to take on feeling, "If I don't do it, no one will" and fall headlong into a martyr role!)

If the conviction is from the Holy Spirit, he will

• Be consistent (you keep getting the same message, in line with God's word, from a number of sources that point to the issue)
• Be positive (even if it's strong, you won't feel like you are stupid, useless, hopeless etc!)
• Be forward thinking (showing you long term consequences or long range eternal reasons why a behavior change or action is good- keeping end results in view)
• Be specific (instead of vague innuendoes, and generalizations. ie he won't say, "yesterday was a waste of time" he may say, "you let yourself get sidetracked again by ___, what can we do to avoid that next time?"

"As you sort through the expectations that everyone has about you and your life, remember that healthy boundaries will send you back toward God. he will remind you: you are salt- one grain. You are light- a lght! A woman knows her place in His plan when she knows she is talented and capable but limited, and only God is limitless."

May we all sense the grace-filled leading of the Holy Spirit, not serve out of "oughts and shoulds" but out of a true sense of obedience to his calling. May we accept our limits, and be willing to obey when he calls us to be stretched in our faith and service.

In transit in BJ

It's a sweet season of ministry- To be away and get messages from Singaporans while away. Being truly missed. Being eager to get back.

Finally, after all these years invested there, I feel in some ways like I'm going HOME.

Though being on the Air China flight, and on the same flight w some Miss'ys we know from Kunming (imagine that!), I kinda miss REAL China, and all the craziness there!

A Month Home: Schitzophrenically Glorious and Rotten at the Same Time

Psalm 34:6-8

New International Version (NIV)

⁶ This poor man called, and the LORD heard him;

   he saved him out of all his troubles.

⁷ The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him,

   and he delivers them.

 ⁸ Taste and see that the LORD is good; 

   blessed is the one who takes refuge in him.

-a status update from Leslie Green at the top of my newsfeed 

when i awoke the other day at 4AM from a bad dream.

Coming Home...


We're so extremely blessed. I think I count 7 times we've been back since 1997. 7 times in 14 years! Sure, I have expat friends in Asia who return twice a year. But at least I didn't pack my stuff in my coffin when we headed out. This is what many missionaries did in previous generations. We've averaged coming back about every other year. This is a privilege of being a missionary in an age of air travel and frequent flier benefits. We're not complete strangers at home! Still, we can feel a bit alien returning...but I'll write about that in a minute. [NOTE: Now I'm dealing with it in a proper way, and that section is deleted! I apologize to those who were wrongfully hurt by the original, and am grateful if my lack of grace and forbearance has served to make things better.]

   

Our time in the USA started out with a sweet, unforgettable two weeks with family. We celebrated my parents' 50th Anniversary with our small but close extended family vacationing together. The adults had great joy in seeing the 4 cousins wrestling and giggling and making new memories despite their age difference (8-18) and the fact that they are being raised on opposite sides of the earth. This carefree joy of late June was followed by the inevitable feeling of needing to be productive in July.

After a week of reconnecting in the South Bay, there was a growing heartache over seeing first-hand the effects of the recession in the US. Many friends who are out of work, or living with less, or trying to get things done at work with hacked budgets. 

[text removed]

Returning Home





We can turn our hearts back to Singapore with joyful anticipation. 


I know our son Tyler, whom we left behind to start university, is READY. I'm confident that God has blessed our flawed parenting of him with enough grace and wisdom to produce an offspring who is going to make a difference for good in this world. And most likely that will be cross-culturally. We've raised a child who can navigate between worlds with understanding, confidence and remarkable insights from his multi-cultural upbringing. I'm so excited for him and this new stage of his life, I've not yet connected to the grief of losing him and not knowing when I'll see him again.


After 12 years serving the Singaporean churches, it's a sweet season of ministry here. Getting messages from singaporans while away, and being truly missed, we were eager to get back. Finally, after all these years investing our lives here, I feel in many ways like I'm going HOME. 

Thanks again... 



We are always especially thankful to our parents who've sacrificed so much in losing us all these years as we've been overseas instead of down the street. And thank you for always allowing us invade your tranquil lives when we come back. 


 
And last, SPECIAL heaps of gratitude to Karen Boden, Megan Moore, Betty Lindholm, the Nygren Family, the Farrels and the Aanderuds for the multiple ways you gave of your love, advocacy and sacrificial support! You are heros for Christ's Great Commission: seeing the good news of our Saviour spread, and his church growing and healthy to the ends of the earth.  Plus you are just good friends. We are so blessed by you!

Psalm 16

 ¹ Keep me safe, my God,

   for in you I take refuge.

 ² I say to the LORD, “You are my Lord;

   apart from you I have no good thing.”

³ I say of the holy people who are in the land,

   “They are the noble ones in whom is all my delight.”

⁴ Those who run after other gods will suffer more and more.

   I will not pour out libations of blood to such gods

   or take up their names on my lips.

 ⁵ LORD, you alone are my portion and my cup;

   you make my lot secure.

⁶ The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;

   surely I have a delightful inheritance.

⁷ I will praise the LORD, who counsels me;

   even at night my heart instructs me.

⁸ I keep my eyes always on the LORD.

   With him at my right hand, I will not be shaken.

 ⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;

   my body also will rest secure,

¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the realm of the dead,

   nor will you let your faithful^[b] one see decay.

¹¹ You make known to me the path of life;

   you will fill me with joy in your presence,

   with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

Encouraging Others

from one of our heroes...it reminds me to send more encouraging notes to others! This means so much to me!

Dear Kimberly and Jim and Tyler and Cameron--

So nice to be with you last nite.......and I cherish the 50 minutes with you "4" here on my front deck.    Sorry I had to kinda break up the evening to return to to my apt, but my daughter in Germany was going to call me long distance.    So, we missed the accordion music and perhaps some singing......but on the other hand, people were so keenly interested in your work and ministry.    

I'm so impressed with T & C what wonderful guys they are.   You've done a superb job of bringing them up in another culture.   I pray God's best and blessing and leading especially for Tyler---now headed to CPSLB.   And Cameron?   I think he's the greatest!!!    

I'm already looking forward to your next internet report.......Excellent report on your work, Jim, and the nature of your mentoring and shepherding................keep the cards & letters coming.

Howie

"Strength for today....and bright hope for tomorrow!!!"

Choosing a backpack for college

Trying to figure out how he might stand out in California - where everyone looks like him...

Resource for Equipping HS students for Keeping the Faith...

Web Sites and Ministries - Focus on the Family

There are so many great resources from Focus these days. I read down the list on this link today and am thanking God for their faithfulness to helping families thrive. Have you heard of their webzines? When's the last time you did a little reading up on sociological, political or parenting issues from the perspective of some thinking-deep Christians.

The one I'd never heard about until today was True U - a dvd based apolgetics curriculum to "prepare high school students for the rigorous challenges and attacks that will confront them on the university campus."

Photo Projects Online...

Link to Shutterfly!
This is my favourite photo hosting site. Had some fun today drafting up a graduation announcement...

Choosing Decent Plays for High School Shows.

A director can't make much of a production when starting with a bad script. And then you add amateur actors on a low budget, it goes from bad to worse.

Zugzwang was all talking. It might have made a decent radio drama 40 years ago.
The Frogs was completely inaccessible.
My husband leans over 2 hours into the second "ONE ACT" and says, "If you want a ride home, you have to walk out of here with me at the curtain call." That was alright with me. I didn't know what I'd say to anyone when the show was over, and I'm sure that I wouldn't be able to overcome the stricken look on my face.

The best thing about this school play was that Tyler never ONCE said anything negative about it during rehearsals, the run, or after. Nuf said. I've already shown by this that I don't have as much character as my 18 year old son.

Mother's Day 2011

It's been a good year of embracing motherhood. It's about time. The boys are teenagers. A lot of energy used to stay on top of Cameron! He seems to have matured a bit this year and as of last week had all his missing assignments turned in. One thing I love about their school here is the individual attention they've given to him. The new middle school principal has been meeting with him a couple times a week - just to check in - not threatening, but an "I'm on your team and want to see you succeed." Teachers help us stay with him to keep him honest. Everyone promises that unless he's psychotic he will grow out of it. 

BIG NEWS is he broke two bones in his ankle friday night at 10:30PM - playing basketball. He's made me his slave and is LOVING being needy and "helpless" even to the point of "needing" me to put his SHIRT on this morning for school. He made us late driving him to school this morning. Tyler wrote on his tardy slip, REASON: "crippled brother is lazy." Ah, the adventure of boys.

Tyler pulled the trigger for Cal Poly SLO, even though he didn't have super strong feelings about it v. a couple of his other choices. Finances/Aid offers made the decision to nix a couple. He did get some generous offers from a couple of the private schools. It wasn't enough. There were a couple of circumstances come up that we felt were Divine interventions in helping him make his choice. Since then, it's been nothing but affirmation and confirmation that he made the right choice. Not the least of which is that two longtime good friends, and former pastors from our Los Angeles home church have daughters who are 1 week older than Tyler; they also chose Cal Poly. We all laughed and said there will be a little "Mustang corral" next year for kids of former Rolling Hills Covenant Pastor's kids...(I'm sure these teenagers who don't really know each other yet just LOVE that...). 

We continue to manage just about every night eating off the downstairs hawkers without food poisoning. My little "flock" in the neighborhood has grown this year...Yi Hui has been a regular feature in our home and she has made some strides in learning to read and some other skills. I've managed to make it into the good graces of the family and pray that by the end of the year we can convince them to send her to a special school rather than put her to work at the end of the year. She'll certainly fail the primary school leaving exams, so no secondary school which will accept her. There's A LOT of strife, abuse and ignorance in her home, so we navigate how to help her with a lot of prayer.

All mine got for me was one of the freebie flowers from church (which the stem had broken at the top by the time it came to me), but I still felt deeply loved which is most important. Seriously been having some sweet family times with our guys. They love me, don't need flowers to prove it. Though taking out the trash without being reminded is also nice...

Two single guys in their 30's who are roommates and motherless called at 6 and came by with Subway sandwiches from the mall. One even gave me a red envelope cause he said he wanted to bless a mother and had decided it would be me. they were sweet, and a good object lesson for the boys for the future. I asked James to pray and when he'd finished (including thanking God for me), Cameron says, "SO is it mother's day or something? I wondered 'cause dad was making such a big deal about mom..." Later we called grandmas and on the speaker phone, they all asked, "so did your boys treat you well today?" and I went on and on about how "They made me feel like a Queen from morning till night." Grinning at the guys who were rolling their eyes and giggling. 

My mother-in-law says, "Kimberly, you're not a good an actress as you used to be."

This is true.

CRM. Community of Transformation, Pt. Clear, Alabama

The view from my room. Ahhh.

My brother and nephew attended the event.
A sweet time to be with them and let them see more of what CRM is besides what they know of us.

Mitch Albom | The college that rejects you may do you a favor | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

Mitch Albom | The college that rejects you may do you a favor | The Courier-Journal | courier-journal.com

gotta love that mitch. a friend sent this to me yesterday. great article.

LAUNCH

Wrapped up in my ego

That’s wrapped up in him

I watch the 18 year old.

A most perfect rocket

In between the Lab and space

Crafted and invested

With all the explosive creative genius

I had to impart.

A high octane cocktail for fuel =

Nurture + Nature + Free Will + Sovereignty.

Elegantly, and with an air of casual

He stands out of reach on the launching pad.

Close to the final countdown that will launch him into his future.

Yet, despite his vitality

And talent

And intellect

The engine at his core

Won’t yet ignite.

What gravity has kept him so weighted to the ground?

Afraid to dream

Or work for a dream?

The tools I had to tinker with

To fine tune or tweak

Are proving useless now.

So I put them aside and dig out the binoculars.

Breathless, I watch.

4-3-2-1.

THE OLD MAN & THE BEAGLE - PART II

(Continued from PART I - September 9th, 2010)

The “Fit Solution - Amazing Cellular Nutrition from Switzerland” had not been very fit for my body. It had only stayed down for a few minutes. As I mopped the orange mess from the front of my dress and started to get my wits about me again, I suggested we “make a move,” as we say in Singapore. It had been an eventful visit to this neighbor’s apartment.

“Uncle, we’d better get going now,” I call to the Old Man who had left us in his living room with the dogs and my vomit and was eating his dinner with his wife in the kitchen. We were in his home because he’d been trying to convince my Canadian friend LISA and her kids Emmett and Thizbe to adopt his Beagle. And while we were there, he had introduced us to a Pyramid Marketing product that sounded like the fountain of youth.

Awkwardly our menagerie, which also included my dog Jack, and the neglected neighbor girl Yi Hui started to move toward the door. Emmett was the first to open the door and before he’d gone outside where our shoes were left, in typical Asian fashion. The Beagle scooted out the door and past his reach.

Emmett called out and the Old Man started to scramble from the kitchen, as Lisa and Emmett took off after the dog in their bare feet.

The dog bolted straight down the hall past a few other apartments before he came to the top of the stairwell. He didn’t pause a second as he started down the nine storeys. It turned out this was a familiar route for him!

As Lisa and Emmett ran after the dog, I was in no shape to run and stood, still a bit dizzy, in the doorway amidst the pile of shoes. I was trying to will my groggy brain to think fast.

I put Jack’s leash on and slipped into my Barbie pumps. Thizbe, Yi Hui and I headed for the elevator. The Old Man was going to follow.

“Oh! I hope they can catch him!” Thizbe worried, knowing that this apartment block stands next to a busy street. It was rush hour by now. It was dark and and the streets were packed with cars. She couldn’t keep back her tears.

The elevator reached the first floor and we search what’s called the “void deck” for our friends and the dog. We must have been quite a sight to the Singaporeans returning from work. Scrawny Chinese little girl and a preteen with light curly hair, the floppy happy dog Jack, and me in my pumps and orange vomit stained white party dress. We were so intent on finding the dog, on a mission, that we didn’t really notice the others around who were surely noticing us.

The Old Man came down to the first floor soon after and he told us, “She does this all the time.” We continued to search the parking lot and walkways nearby. Upstairs in his apartment, he had just been showing us all of his discipline methods with his dog.

Singapore has many wonderful qualities. It’s an amazing little country. Unfortunately nearly everyone around the world, if they know anything about Singapore, has heard of an American Boy who, years ago, was caned by Police for vandalism. Singapore’s discipline methods are effective and famous, even if outsiders see them as a bit Draconian. Thinking that this Beagle is regularly whacked like this, I wasn’t surprised that the dog might bolt from “caning” at every possible opportunity.

Before too long we heard Emmett and his mom Lisa running down the pathway, the dog with her floppy black ears waving behind her, just out of their reach.

We tried to herd her in near the wall of letter boxes. She was getting cornered.

Emmett came up behind her and managed to get his hands around her hips. The dog turned around quickly and chomped down hard on Emmett’s hand. He cried out in pain and let go as the dog ran out of sight once again.

Now, Thizbe is crying for her brother and the lost dog and Emmett is crying in pain. Everyone is upset for multiple reasons, but eleven year-old Yi Hui is wide eyed and laughing. In her small simple world of this local neighborhood, she has probably never seen such excitement. Emmett’s hand is bleeding and we tell the Old Man that we’ll take Emmett back home to take care of his wound.

Awkwardly we decided who would go up to get Lisa and Emmett’s shoes from the 9th floor, and said goodbye to the Old Man. He assured us that he’d find the dog; he always does. We headed back home to our apartment a half block away, to tell the rest of my family of this crazy adventure.

Emmett’s hand wasn’t too badly injured, and within 30 minutes the Old Man had called to report that he’d found the dog.

As you might guess, LISA and the kids decided they’d not adopt the Beagle. I didn’t buy any Fit-Solution from the man. 

At least not yet.

Japan Relief $ through network of Christian Ministries

Kimberly Creasman Our ministry connections from Japan are all recommending this network: If you are looking for a way to respond to the disaster in Japan, here is one excellent option. We'll have a way to do online donating soon! http://crashjapan.com/