When Jesus Met Dad...

Dear Children,
I must tell you my story. It really is the story of Jesus and how He became my friend to change my life. Nana & Papa Randy are where it started for me. You know that they are very loving and can be trusted...always! They are the "real deal". They mean what they say and follow through with what promises they make. They are not Hypocrites! All that to say, i could really trust them.
At 7 years old, i remember having a fear that i would one day die and be separated from them & Jesus. So you can say that God used fear to draw me to Him. Where do you go when you are afraid? You go to your parents. IF they know what's best, then they point you to Jesus (the one who calms our fears). Papa sat me down in his big recliner and shared the message of how I had a sin problem and how that separated me from God. He went on to share with me that God loved me too much to let me die, separated from Him. His love is what sent Jesus His only son to come take my punishment on the cross. It was really...Jesus in my place. He showed me from the Bible that everyone who trusts or believes in Him alone will have theirs sins forgiven and have eternal life. I thought, "Sign me up". He can have my life, if it means that He always does what is best for me. That day in July of 1988, I became a child of God. Never again would God, Nana or Papa ever leave me alone. Two years later, I decided to go public with my faith and got baptized with my best friend Darrit and Uncle Dalmus baptized me. Cool day! I pray that i am never ashamed to be called a friend of Jesus. The rest of my child years were what I called "safe" until God brought Jason (my youth pastor) into my life. Just before my 10th grade year, He challenged, that if I claimed to trust in Christ, I was called to live out my own faith and tell others about Him. That year, I decided to follow Jesus no matter what, with my whole life. Your mom & I served Jesus side by side while in the youth group. Together we learned how to be leaders and how to give of ourselves as Jesus did. As High school went by, basketball seemed to be less of my life and Jesus seemed to become more. That is a good thing :). As we made our way into early college, I really wanted to work in law-enforcement (conservation police). I studied 1 1/2 years at our Community College and all was going well. Then came a day, in which God interrupted my life and plans. That day, my life got rocked and my purpose in life just changed. I will tell you more in a later post of that. Just know this: If you trust in Christ to be forgiven, you are His. If you are His, He never gives up on you. He is ALWAYS drawing you to a closer friendship. He wants ALL of you, and He will stop at nothing to bring you closer to him.
God loves you and so do I...forever
Dad

Ol' Peepee

Today i came home for lunch. While sitting in the kitchen adoring my beautiful wife & daughter, Judah came in the house with Ezra trailing behind. He loudly proclaimed, "Look, we found a rock that looks like a peepee!" He held it up while giggling. From a distance it looked like an odd shaped "peepee". Great description boy! I called him over to take a look at this intriguing and so called "rock" and found it to be a corroded, old bolt that looked fossilized. So, I told him, "This is just an old bolt you found in the the yard." I gave it back to him and thought nothing more of it. As he and Ezra made thier way outside, I overheard Judah say, "This is Ol' Peepee. I am going to name this rock Old Peepee." Anya and I laughed. They must have lost it later on, because I heard Ezra ask Judah if he had seen where "Ol' Peepee" was.

Kids you make me laugh!
We love you,
dad

Why we write

Dear Children,

God is alive. I am living proof of this. Moment by moment there may be times that you doubt God or wonder if you can trust Him. Mom & I write these things that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ and that you might trust in His name. We will not always be here to tell you all that He has done, so we write. We write so that you, your children and grandchildren may know how trustworthy God is and how He is working in your and our lives. He is faithful, we pray that you may find Him to be just that. I thank God that He gave you to us that we might tell of His glory

All my love,

dad