During the Olympics please join me in prayer.

I thought I would pass this along. We often take our freedoms that we enjoy in this country for granted. Let us pray for our Christian brothers and sisters in China that do not enjoy these freedoms.


"The eyes of the world will soon be on the Olympics. But the eyes of God remain on His children and especially those who suffer for their faith.

Despite what you may hear in the news, Chinese Christians who refuse to register with the government controlled church are being persecuted. Many have undergone horrific suffering.

Recently a prominent representative of a group of house churches in China asked Christians throughout the free world to pray for China during the Olympics. The Voice of the Martyrs, in partnership with China Aid Associates, has accepted that call and has produced the Olympic Prayer Band. We would like to invite you to request one for free to wear during the Olympics. Similar prayer bands will also be distributed to house church Christians in China and they will be praying for you as well.

Use the form below to request your free Olympic Prayer Band. You may also order them in multiple quantities to share with your friends or even your entire church. Please also feel free to share this offer with others who will want to pray for our persecuted brothers and sisters in Communist China."

Tolearn more click here: http://etools.780net.com/a/vomso/bg_vomso_CTI-China-Prayer-Bands_317.html

God is moving us !

In a little more than a week from now we will be boarding a plane to Beijing China. Things are starting to come together for the trip. I am excited. I got an email today though that surprised me but I am at peace about it. We were pretty much told that we will not be having a camp in Beijing after all. What??? Yes that is true. Due to the heigtened security surrounding the upcoming Olympic games we will not be camping in Beijing. A couple of days ago a small team of Bring Me Hope staff took a train to Xinzheng City in the Henan province to explore the possibility of moving camp to this area. They connected with a local university and they were very willing to host our camp. They just got final approval today. You can check out the school's website here http://www.sias.edu.cn/en/
Bill and I will still be going to Beijing for two days of siteseeing. We will then fly to Zhengzhou which is about an hour flight. It was either that or travel up to eight hours by train. We figured it would be better time management to fly. Spending the extra money at this point is incidental. God is amazing though, He never shuts a door without opening another. Sias International University where we will be having the camp is the first solely American-owned University in central China. They are affiliated with Zhengzhou University and in cooperation with Fort Hays State University in Kansas. Pretty cool!! Check out the campus map below.


I found this info on Henan province on Wikipedia. The name Henan means "south of the (Yellow) River" (Huang He). With nearly 100 million people, Henan is the most populous province of China by residency. It borders Hebei to the north, Shandong to the northeast, Anhui to the southeast, Hubei to the south, Shaanxi to the west, and Shanxi to the northwest. Henan is a relatively poor province and given its large population of almost 100 million people, its GDP per capita is only about US$1,670. Since undergoing reforms, however, the speed of economic development has increased by an average of about 10% each year for the past twenty years. If it were its own country, it would be the twelfth most populous, just behind Mexico.

I think this trip is going to be an awesome expierence. I will post more updates soon.

Wet Pants

I got this in an email from my Mom. I am not sure who wrote it, but thanks Mom....

Come with me to a third grade classroom..... There is a nine-year-old kid sitting at his desk and all of a sudden, there is a puddle between his feet and the front of his pants are wet. He thinks his heart is going to stop because he cannot possibly imagine how this has happened. It's never happened before, and he knows that when the boys find out he will never hear the end of it. When the girls find out, they'll never speak to him again as long as he lives.

The boy believes his heart is going to stop; he puts his head down and prays this prayer, 'Dear God, this is an emergency! I need help now! Five minutes from now I'm dead meat.'

He looks up from his prayer and here comes the teacher with a look in her eyes that says he has been discovered.

As the teacher is walking toward him, a classmate named Susie is carrying a goldfish bowl that is filled with water. Susie trips in front of the teacher and inexplicably dumps the bowl of water in the boy's lap.

The boy pretends to be angry, but all the while is saying to himself, 'Thank you, Lord! Thank you, Lord!'

Now all of a sudden, instead of being the object of ridicule, the boy is the object of sympathy. The teacher rushes him downstairs and gives him gym shorts to put on while his pants dry out. All the other children are on their hands and knees cleaning up around his desk. The sympathy is wonderful. But as life would have it, the ridicule that should have been his has been transferred to someone else - Susie.

She tries to help, but they tell her to get out. You've done enough, you klutz!'

Finally, at the end of the day, as they are waiting for the bus, the boy walks over to Susie and whispers, 'You did that on purpose, didn't you?' Susie whispers back, 'I wet my pants once too.'

May God help us see the opportunities that are always around us to do good...

Remember.....Just going to church doesn't make you a Christian any more than standing in your garage makes you a car.

End of the Weekend

Hey Gang. I found a website where I can create a signature to sign my blogs with. That is pretty cool. I got it off of a fellow Father Bloggers site. He writes a great blog called A Fathers Heart. You can find the link on my favorites. He is quite a talented writer. Check it out!
The site for the signature is called http://www.mylivesignature.com/
Hope everyones 4th of July celebrations were great this past weekend. As Sunday winds down I thought I would just get some thoughts down. I worked on the 4th and had a relatively quiet shift. That is always a good thing. Kim and Hannah visited with all of Kims family and had a nice time. Kim was not feeling her best on Saturday morning so when I got home I took Hannah to the local water park for a few hours so Hannah could enjoy the kiddie pool, water slides and natural spring and Kim could rest at home. It was an almost perfect day. The sun was shining, the water was cool and the smile on Hannah's face all day was contageous. I love these days with her. They come and go so fast but I enjoy every moment. We came home and Kim was feeling better and we had a little BBQ at the house. We went swimming in our pool and had a nice evening. Today we headed to Church and it was a great service. The pastor preached about our perspective with God. We sometimes look at ourselves as if we can never be loved by God. We have too much baggage for him to love and help us. God may be able to answer a prayer over there for someone else or perform a miracle yesterday but not here and now for me. that is the perspective we sometimes have and it is time to shatter that perspective. God does not want us to lose our faith perspective. He does not want us to waver. he wants us to BELIEVE! Pastor read about the sick lady in the crowd from Mark 5: 24. She just wanted to touch Jesus's garment. If she could just touch his hem she would be healed. Jesus said her faith is what healed her. We get so distracted in our daily lives that we need to refocus and see God with a much clearer perspective. Wow. What a great weekend. I wish it would never end. Well, hope to hear from some of you. Have a great week. Back to work for me tomorrow. God Bless:)

Lunch with the Princesses

Today was a real nice day. We had a lunch date with our good friends Bill, Debbie and their three girls, Abby, Jadyn and Tiffany. We had a delicious summer cookout and let the girls play. We were able to have some great conservation while the girls all played. It is hard to believe we have not gotten together for some time but we caught up on each others lives. The girls warmed up to each other pretty fast. They had fun playing dollhouse, kitchen and dress up. Hannah put a cute butterfly princess outfit on and wore it the whole time. Dress up is one of Hannah's favorite games to play. It was a very nice afternoon with all of them. We need to get together more often but life can get so hectic sometimes. Bill and I will be traveling back to China in three weeks with the organization Bring Me Hope. I am looking forward to this trip. We are both a little anxious because we do not know what to expect with working at a summer camp with orphans for a week. I know that God is in control and will make it a miraculous time. We are motivated and focused on doing great things for these kids. We will only be with them a week but we have a chance to be lights for Jesus. I will try not to get in the way of what God has planned. He knows what these kids need. He will give us the wisdom and strength to be exactly what they all need. I am praying for all of these kids and especially the translators who will be at the camp. They are college students who are studying English and are brought to the camp to help us communicate with the children. I know God will use us in a very special way. I cling to two words that remind me of what is most important about this camp. They are " no expectations", those were some of the first words I heard from David Bolt when I spoke to him about volunteering at the camp. He also said be prepared to see something miraculous. Hard not to have expecations with that statement but I shall do my very best. David is a recent college graduate who is currently devoting is life to helping orphans through Bring me Hope. I look forward to meeting this compassionate young man. It will be a great time. Keep praying for all of the staffers, volunteers, translators and orphans as some of the earlier camps have already begun in China. Things are getting under way for us to go. I will be updating from camp and share what is happening. I have my travel visa, passport, plane & hotel reservations. I am even starting to get things ready to pack. I will be posting again soon. Please enjoy the photos from today! Have a safe and Happy 4th of July tomorrow. Please pray for me. I am working and will be preparing for a very busy shift....:)