Archive for February, 2008

Road to Jonesboro

Published on February 29, 2008 in promise house. 3 Comments

Today, we loaded up the mini-van and headed for Jonesboro to represent ABCH at the Global Impact Celebration hosted by Central Baptist.

I’ve never been to Jonesboro. It takes forever to get there! Seriously. FOR-EVER.

I was just about to my wits-end when we came upon Weiner. That’s right. There is a town in Arkansas that goes by the name of Weiner. Here’s a photo to prove it.

Happily, I’m picking up some wireless at our host home. They’ll be more to come as the weekend progresses. Stay tuned!

[My wife made me take all the mood pictures off.]

Global Impact Celebration

Published on February 29, 2008 in promise house. 1 Comment

Amanda and I will be representing the Arkansas Baptist Children’s Homes this weekend at the Global Impact Celebration hosted by Central Baptist Church in Jonesboro, Arkansas. We are pretty excited about it for lots of reasons. One being that this guy is going to be there. The Austin family came to Peru to join the ReapSouth team 2 weeks before we were leaving it.

Come on over if you get the chance!

I’ll be posting about the conference throughout the weekend. Ya’ll come back now. Ya hear?

Skyping Iraq

Published on February 29, 2008 in promise house. 3 Comments

Without Skype, we might not have survived Peru. It is truly amazing, this technology thing. We called home literally daily, and never paid anything, and it was crystal clear.
I haven’t had much use for it since we returned to the U.S., until now.  Two of my best friends are serving with the Marines in Iraq. Amazing. I can talk to a guy in Iraq, for free, and it sounds like he’s in the next room.

It’s been a good day. Anything good happen to you today?

How old are you?

Published on February 28, 2008 in promise house. 7 Comments

A few days ago I mentioned my lack of adult-to-baby-to-adult communication skills. Laura, a good friend of ours, suggested that we teach Sophia to answer. What a brilliant idea! We worked on it and I think we might have gotten somewhere. Here’s a video of Sophia holding her own.

Search Engine Terms

Published on February 27, 2008 in promise house. 2 Comments

Wordpress does this really cool thing. Every time someone finds my blog through a search engine, it shows me what word or phrase was searched that led them to my blog. Here are my favorites so far from 2008.

Hair

Published on February 26, 2008 in promise house. 2 Comments

I’m learning about hair.

Lesson #1: What you see isn’t always what you get.

One of our girls had really long braids. Then, Friday night, while she was watching a movie, she began quietly removing them!  It scared me I was very intrigued. In about 45 minutes, she went from long braids to . . .

Self-Feeding

Published on February 25, 2008 in promise house. 5 Comments

I take feeding myself for granted. I mean, I wasn’t born with that ability. Yet, I can get almost all of my food into my mouth by myself and in a socially acceptable manner. Sophia, on the other hand, can’t. But, she’s working on it!

Here are two photos documenting two of her three preferred methods of eating. 1) Using an eating utensil. 2) Using her hand. And her third method is on this video. It’s called “The heck with it. I’m just turning up the plate.”

Two Polaroids: A peek inside Sophia’s world.

Published on February 23, 2008 in promise house. 4 Comments

Improbity

Published on February 22, 2008 in promise house. 7 Comments

Do you know what improbity means? I didn’t either, but I knew a whole lot of other words. Enough to get more than 2,000 grains of rice donated. How? Well . . . .

Firefox just reached 500 million downloads. That’s a lot. To celebrate this significant milestone, the company is doing a ‘get behind’. Today they are asking users to visit the site FreeRice.com, which is a sister site of Poverty.org.  At FreeRice.com you play a vocabulary game and for each word you get right, the site donates 20 grains of rice through the UN Food Program. Give it a go. See how high you can get your vocab level.

Improbity, by the way, means dishonesty.

Firemen Cut Ring Off Finger, Recieve Cookies

Published on February 22, 2008 in promise house. 4 Comments

One of our girls slipped a way too small ring on her finger yesterday. And when I say ‘way too small’, I mean WAY too small. She slipped it on and it wasn’t coming off. Soap and water . . . nope. Crisco . . . nope. Praying and fasting . . . nope.

It ultimately took a trip to the fire station where 2 fireman used their highly specialized resources (butter knife, wire cutters) to detach it. She’s baking some cookies to take to them just now. So, if you happen to see one today, give a fireman a hug.

Ask me.

Published on February 21, 2008 in promise house. 7 Comments

I can’t get the “I am asking your 19-month-old a question, but I really want you to answer because she can’t form sentences yet.” thing down.

It happened again today. I walk into an office with Sophia. Two very friendly ladies start admiring her drop-dead-gorgeous red hair. They tell her she’s very pretty. And then, it comes . . . “How old are you little girl?” Silence. I stare at Sophia like the other ladies waiting for Sophia to answer. Only, they’re not waiting for Sophia to say anything. They are waiting on me. A few more seconds of silence. Finally, the lady looks at me a little confused and annoyed. And then it hits me. That question was for me. Only, it wasn’t directed at me. I’ve got to learn this new way of communication. So far, it’s pretty much lost on me.

“Oh! My bad.” I tell the lady. “She’s 19 months.”

Dang! We’re tired!

Published on February 21, 2008 in promise house. 5 Comments

After 8 months of 200 hour shifts . . . we’re that tired.  We’re trying to stay healthy and sane.  What we really need is some Royal Caribbean cruise action.  Wanna go?

Here Fishy Fishy Fishy

Published on February 21, 2008 in promise house. 6 Comments

This will take you back. Go ahead. Give it a click.

I can’t sleep. Are you awake?

Published on February 20, 2008 in promise house. 6 Comments

It’s 11:45pm and I can’t sleep. Too much to think about. Or maybe it was that McDonald’s coffee at 7:30pm. Probably both.

What’s on my mind? Well, lots of things. Most of which I can’t just spray all over the internet. Not yet anyway.

But, let me just say this: I know what matters. My relationship with my God matters. My relationship with my wife and daughter matters. My relationships with friends and family matter. My relationships with my Promise House peeps matter. Everything else is secondary (and potential distraction).

Could I be any more vague? Probably not. But, for some reason putting this out there is going to help me get to sleep.

Thanks for checking in.

Ryan

Hey, You . . . (Pt. 4)

Published on February 19, 2008 in promise house. 1 Comment

Hey! I noticed you visit my blog. That’s cool. I thought I’d return the favor by visiting you (cyper-spacially speaking). Here are a few tidbits about you that you might not know.

San Angelo, Texas: Hey, listen. I think there might be something we need to clear up. There seems to be a discrepancy here: Your nickname is ‘The Shining Star of Texas’ yet as an early frontier town you were “characterized by saloons, prostitution, and gambling.” Do you have anything to say for yourself?

Cairo, Egypt: Friend, you are truly historical. From Pyramids to Pharaohs, you are pretty much the most ancient visitor I’ve had yet. I feel wiser just because your graced my cyber-presence. But, not only are you an old wise sage, but you keep company with some real head-bangers. Lisbon, Portugal, for instance, is your sister city . . .

Lisbon, Portugal: Hello. You rock. Literally. Rock in Rio, the largest pop-rock festival in the world boasting an attendance reaching 100,000, calls you home. Just think, you’ve hung out with Anastacia, Metallica, Shakira, Guns N’ Roses, Roger Waters, Britney Spears, Red Hot Chili Peppers and many many more. You really do rock. Thanks for stopping by.

Friendsville, Tennessee: Hey there. You seem like a friendly place. Did you know that you were founded by Quakers in the 1790’s? I love oatmeal.

Youngtown, Arizona: Dear Youngtown: According to the United States Census Bureau, you have a total area of 1.3 square miles. Is this correct? Can this be true? That’s tiny! You’re tiny! I hereby christen you “Tinytown”. You will, from this day forward be known as “Tinytown: The tiniest town in the land.”

This is history in the making. No kidding.

Published on February 19, 2008 in promise house. 3 Comments

Akeelah

Published on February 18, 2008 in promise house. 3 Comments

Akeelah made it to the outside world on Valentine’s Day!  Her mom did a great job. Things went smoothly and both mom and baby are now at home.

Akeelah weighed 7 lb and 6 oz. She measured about 20 inches.

This isn’t lock-down.

Published on February 18, 2008 in promise house. 2 Comments

This isn’t a lock down facility. You’re free to go when you want. Really. You can get up, put your shoes on, and walk out of the door. We aren’t going to stop you. We will try to talk some sense into you, but we won’t stop you.

Things have been pretty interesting around here. We just had a baby (I’ll put some pictures up today) and one of our residents left a while back. She made the choice. Even though it will probably mean juvenile detention, she left. Her main complaint (as best we could decipher through her screaming over the phone) was that we were trying to act like her parents. Imagine that. Who ever heard of a teenager with parents? How could we possibly presume to exert authority over a 15-year-old?

In all fairness, it would probably be safe to assume that she has never had any kind of real parental authority or guidance in her life. So, I guess I can understand her discontentment.

I pursue you.

Published on February 16, 2008 in promise house. 1 Comment
I pursue you, Jesus, so that I may be caught by you.
I press in so that I may know your heart.
I stay close so that I may be like you.
Loving Lord, grant me:
purity of heart,
humility of soul,
integrity of life,
charity for all.

Richard Foster, Prayers from the Heart

Here is hope.

Published on February 15, 2008 in promise house. 2 Comments

I know. I know. I push Compassion International incessantly. That’s probably because I’m completely convinced that God is using this organization to bring relief, hope, joy, and life to the most marginalized and broken in the world. Basically, the same thing Jesus did when he was tromping around the Middle East.

Compassion sent a group of bloggers to Uganda to tour the work that the organization is doing there. They are transmitting the faces and stories back to us. You can see the list of bloggers here.

Watch this video. Not so much because I want you to become a rescuer of one of these kiddos, but because I want you to fall more in love with our King. Watch it and you will.

I cain’t get no credit.

Published on February 15, 2008 in promise house. 11 Comments

Seriously. I’ve tried. Believe me, I’ve tried! Thus far I’ve been rejected by:

Citibank

Capital One

American Express

Discover

USBank

No kidding. Rejected. Why? Well, they all say the same thing: insufficient credit history. I’ve never taken out a loan. No mortgage. No car payment. And that, apparently, equals no credit card.

It’s starting to get to me. Am I really that undesirable? Am I really that unworthy of credit?

Any suggestions?

Samera was baptized.

Published on February 14, 2008 in promise house. 3 Comments

A lot of you have read this story about Samera. She was baptized Sunday night. She said she had given her life to Jesus and wanted to make it known.

Samera is almost 18. She had her baby two months ago, but is still with us here at the Promise House. There are a lot of uncertainties facing her. But, one thing is sure. She’ll never have to go it alone.

The preacher began his baptism spill “Samera, is it your confession that . . . ” and she turned and looked at him directly in the face. When he finished she said “yes”.

Amen.

The server is in time out.

Published on February 14, 2008 in promise house. 1 Comment

Apparently, the thingy-ma-bob (server) that keeps this blog running was having some major issues with the dilly-wopper (Apache/PHP) yesterday. Sorry about that. The thingy-ma-bob (server) is now in time out. Hopefully it will learn its lesson.

Anyway, that’s why this little space on the www seemed to disappear yesterday.

IJM.ORG Launches New Site

Published on February 12, 2008 in promise house. 2 Comments

. . . Speaking of changing lives and making Jesus smile . . . International Justice Mission has just launched their new site. It’s definitely worth checking out. The work that IJM does is staggering given the fact that most of us don’t give child prostitution or forced labor much thought. They are fighting these injustices on a daily basis. And there are lots of ways for you to get involved as well.

There is lightening here.

Published on February 12, 2008 in promise house. 8 Comments

. . . and thunder too. I’m not exactly sure why, but storms always awaken something in me. An excitement or anticipation. The feeling that somethin’ is a’ brewin’.

I feel hopeful right now as I sit in the dark of my kitchen with my 18-month-old snoozing a few feet away and the thunder and lightening showing off outside.

I feel hopeful that I can do something today that will change lives and make Jesus smile. I feel hopeful that I am not alone in this and that I can live life abundantly!

Things have gotten kind of tough. It’s just hard to live with a houseful of pregnant teens day in and day out and not get totally exhausted and burnt out. This is really the hardest thing we’ve ever done. And, truthfully, we’ve wanted to give up at times. We’ve wanted to call it quits and go get a ‘normal’ life. I could go find a 9 to 5 job. We could buy a house. We could have some more kids. Amanda could be a stay at home mom. Not that there is anything wrong with that . . . but, Jesus hasn’t given it to us. That’s not what he wants for us right now.

I can do all thing through Christ. I never practically understood that sentence from the scriptures until I became a housedad. For the first time in my life I must remind myself and choose to believe on a fairly regular basis that I can be a housedad through Christ.

What are you doing through Christ?

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