Another Blog - Perhaps Turn Into a Book??

Got another blog going now. Since parents are the biggest influences in kids lives, I have decided to start focusing on parents. This is just started and will grow with time. The name of the blog is Coaching Parents and the address is
parentalcoach.blogspot.com.
Any suggestions or links you think would be beneficial to the site/blog, please send them on.
Thanks.
Blessings to all.
<' ((( ><

Why We Do Youth Ministry

WARNING: The poem that follows is heart wrenching.
This is just one of the poems that a teen wrote and shared with me. After I was able to speak again, she granted me permission to have a copy and share it with others. This teen has since left NY and last I knew was in Florida. She, along with so many others chose to seek the love she longs for in anyone that will give her the time of day, and for her it didn't matter anymore if it was a boy or girl. She just wanted to be loved. So the next time you see a teen that seems to be all together or those that are into the Goth or whatever the extreme is nowadays, remember that you don't know their lives......but you do know that they need Christ. Please share Christ with them. Don't be afraid of them. They may put on an act in front of their "friends" on how tough and disrespectful they are, but if you can get them alone you will most likely be very surprised at how much they listen to you. And if you feel they just blow you off.....know this.....they are thinking about what you said. From an encouraging comment (even if you think their hair looks horrid, tell them how cool it looks cause it does in their circle) to the full Gospel, when you leave them, pray for them like a mad person. This why my wife and I do youth ministry. God saved us from hell and died a viscous beating and death for us.....how dare we ignore hurting people. Our passion is for teens and families. And when I get frustrated with youth ministry or feel weary or ready to give up, I read this poem that I have as the cover of my youth ministry binder, and clearly remember what God has called me to do and will give the strength to do.

After I read this poem for the first time, I was just silent and then told the girl, "Wow. I, I don't know what to do with this." She just gave a half smile and nodded. "Sh-- happens and you just have to figure out how to deal with it and get through it. Hopefully you come through it ok and can help someone else" she replied. She floored me. Warning, this is a bit graphic and you will need to be sitting down with tissues. NOT FOR CHILDREN.

Mamma Help Me
He comes home late again with whiskey on his breath,
In the air is the stench of certain death,
As he climbs the stairs up to my room, where I lie sound asleep,
I must have done something wrong, 'cause he tears me from my dreams,
And throws me out of the bed.
As I stumble half asleep through the darkness I feel the blood streaming from my head,
I swell up with fear as he charges at me with fire in his eyes.
I scream, "mamma help me", but she doesn't seem to hear my cries.
Then he lashes at me with the buckle of his belt,
Pain, fear, and blood were all I felt,
As I screamed, and half begged, "mamma, please help me, I don't know what to do",
But still, no one comes to my rescue,
Then I cry out as he grabs me by the hair and drags me down the stairs,
He hits me again and tells me to shut up, before the neighbor hears,
I feel light headed and dizzy from the loss of blood.
But still I plead,"mamma why won't you help me? what did I do wrong?"
Then he grasps me by the throat, I can't breathe, I struggle to get free, but his grasp is too strong,
I sink to the floor, unconscious and near death,
I wake up in a hospital room, alive but confused,
I think to myself, "why am I here? in my house is where I thought I took my last breath"
Suddenly another question pops into my head,
"Who brought me here? Surely not the man who tried to kill me?"
But sure enough there he was, looking as concerned and innocent as can be,
Then I look to his left and ask, "mamma, why wouldn't you help me?"

--
< ' ((( ><;

Forget the switch....take a fast!!

I challenge everyone that reads this to a simple 1 week fast if you dare. Are you man enough? Are you woman enough? Prove to yourself what you can actually do. Don't whimp out on this one.

Here is the challenge:
Instead of stressing over the governments forcing the tv broadcasting change from analog to digital and worrying about what you will miss out on, look at it as an opportunity to give your eyes and brain a break and spend a short and quick 1 week fasting from the TV. Record the time that you would have spent watching tv and then record what you did in place of that (and no, watching movies with the family doesn't count......this fast includes movies and video games). For those of us that are Christians, spend some extra time reading and studying God's Word, listen to God's Word, listen to Christian radio, spend more time with the family, play some games, get outside, throw a party, get creative, more "spouse time".

After the week is over, go ahead and watch tv again, unless you are really liking what you are doing more of instead. I guarantee that you will be amazed and even shocked perhaps at what you allowed yourself and perhaps your family to watch on tv. We don't even realize how far we have gone in what we allow into our minds and homes and kids until we are forced to examine it. "We don't know what we have til its gone" rings very true but in this case its a negative thing.

The media moguls are wise to this about human nature (sin nature) and take advantage of it by pushing the envelope just a little further all the time. We let them have an inch one day.....suddenly they have pushed us 49.2 miles away from our original standards that we so desperately need to get back to.

So go ahead and take the challenge (unless you are like us and don't watch much tv anyway, and I mean not much. We get 3 channels where we are, all pretty fuzzy, and usually only have Dora, LIttle People, or Clifford in the DVD player lately).

Are you up to the challenge?? I dare you !!!

--
< ' ((( ><

Daughters First Article

She wanted to practice her numbers and abc's on our computer, finding and pushing the buttons...so here is what we did today before she was ready to play with something else....

15  12  89  74  41  85  85  39  9  6  96  58  85  74  633 

 

  0    1    2    3    4    5    6    7    8    9 

10  11  12  13  14  15  16  17  18  19 

20  21  22  23  24  25  26  27  28  29

30 

 

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUU

--
<' (((   ><

Coming Back

So I have been off of here for quite a while now. Been so busy that something had to take a back seat. And I still don't have done what I want to have done by now. Grrrrrr. Anyway, I will be taking the time to write out some thoughts over the next few days and post them when they are done. I rather enjoy being able to write out my thoughts in a notebook and I lost that notebook so I have been at a loss as I have been trying to find it. There was good stuff in there. Oh well, I just hope whomever has it that they will benefit from the contents therein. But like I siad, been busy, with cars, family, unofficial counseling, classes, sleeping, etc. But now that some areas of life that gave me some attitude have been put back in check, I can get back to "normalcy".



Be back soon. And I do mean soon. :-)