I’ve been remiss in not asking for prayers for a couple of friends and family.
First, my cousin’s husband is serving in Iraq and was wounded last week. He has a broken back neck and was flown to Germany and then on to Walter Reed Hospital (I think) in Washington where my cousin was to meet him. The prognosis seems good (no paralysis), but he faces therapy and potential surgery. His name is Dewight.
Second is Pinakidion and his family. There first child, a little boy named Jasper, was born about 2 weeks ago and is still in the hospital. He has something called Goldenhar’s Syndrome, which resulted in one nostril being blocked, deformed ears and strange ear canals. He may have hearing difficulties, but they aren’t sure yet. It sounds like they are well cared for my their church family as well as their physical family, but it’s hard after so much anticipation to still not be able to bring your little boy home.
Please join me in prayer for these folks.
Update 10/27: Dewight has a broken neck, not back. He’s in a brace and will be for 6 months. Surgery may be able to help and shorten the time he spends in a brace. He’s feeling stressed because he feels that he’ll be just like another kid to Angi. They have 3 boys, a 6 year old and twins who are 3 or 4, so she’s got her hands full already. Please pray for hope, healing and perseverance.

Maria spoke to Kym today and learned that James should be heading home soon. He does have some paralysis on one side, but that should go away with therapy. He’s evidently in good spirits. The doctors are now calling what happened an ‘episode’, I don’t know if that means it wasn’t a stroke or not. They are also, unfortunately, 90% sure that he has Multiple Sclerosis.
I understand that all week folks from Columbus have been driving the 3.5 hours to Louisville to visit and just be with them. One brother drove down this evening, arriving around 6:30 PM, and had to return again later tonight. To see the disciples going out of their way like this just to be with them encourages me greatly. Driving down there to be by their side does nothing for them practically, but it communicates powerfully how much they are worth to us as a church and I’m sure just have familiar faces by their side is a tremendous comfort.
I understand that they’ve made their way here to salguod.net and were encouraged as well. If I accomplish nothing more here than stuff like that, this crazy blogging endeavor will be worth it.
Please, if you’re so moved, keep them in your prayers.

Well, we’re back and exhausted (we rolled in around 4:00 AM). It was an amazing weekend and we’re looking forward to our first opportunity to lead a class. More on that later.
You may recall back in June my story of a farewell to a family that had given so much to our church. They were off to Louisville for a new job and to be closer to family.
On our way home from Chicago we learned that James, at only 35 years old, had collapsed in church Sunday morning from a stroke. We knew only that he was in the hospital and stable, that a specialist would examine him in the morning and that several from our church in Columbus got in their cars right after church to go to Louisville to be by their side. Today I received the following update via email:

The neurologist confirmed that James had a stroke. I guess he had a blood clot from years ago in the back of his brain and the Dr. wants to obtain his old records to review them. This clot is in the frontal lobe. They have him on blood thinners and will treat him that way right now…he will be in the hospital for at least a week and then will need therapy when he is discharged. The Dr. said possibly he may have a leak in the heart causing the clots…they are going to do further testing to determine the source. Of course, this has hit the [family] very hard…keep praying for his recovery and for strength and comfort for the family, as well.

This is a family that has been through so much, I don’t know how they’re still standing let alone still giving the way they do, and now this. It humbles me to think of how blessed my family is and I wonder how one family experiences so much tragedy and another so little. I don’t have that answer, and won’t this side of eternity, all I can do now is trust and pray.
Some of you know James and Kym, most of you do not. Either way, will you please pray for healing for James and for strength for the family to endure? It breaks my heart to hear of their suffering, but I know that suffering makes us stronger.

Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Romans 5:3-5

I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us. The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. For the creation was subjected to frustration, not by its own choice, but by the will of the one who subjected it, in hope that the creation itself will be liberated from its bondage to decay and brought into the glorious freedom of the children of God.
We know that the whole creation has been groaning as in the pains of childbirth right up to the present time. Not only so, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for our adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies. For in this hope we were saved. But hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what he already has? But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.
In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will.

Romans 8:18-27

I received the following from a friend from church and a regular reader of my blog. I thought, I know that of the half dozen regular readers here at salguod.net, several are from outside Ohio. So, if you are so moved and can send a postcard in the next couple of days, email me and I’ll send you the address.

My son’s first grade class is learning about maps and are collecting postcards. When received they read the postmark and label where it came from. Then they will read it to find out who sent it. They would like the postcard to have a picture or info about where it came from. I think it would soooo cool to have a postcard from a different country. Would you pass this along and see if someone would be willing to send a postcard to the class? He and his class would be very excited to have many different postcards and he would be greatly encouraged. Thank you!!

This woman is one of the most encouraging people I know. She’s a divorced mom of two with every reason to be a grouch, but she’s not. Every August 26th I get a card from her and I wonder what that’s about. It’s only after I open it that I remember that it’s my ‘spiritual birthday’. Not only did she remember & I didn’t, she got me a card! So if I can help her son, who is basically growing up without a dad, feel special, I will do what I can.

I got this forwarded to me from my wife a while back. I checked it out on Snopes, and it’s legit. They point out some drawbacks to the proposal, but it still sems like a pretty good idea. It’s a rare instance of an email forward that’s worth the energy required to hit the ‘delete’ key.

ICE – In Case of Emergency
A campaign encouraging people to enter an emergency contact number in their mobile phone’s memory under the heading ICE (In Case of Emergency), has rapidly spread throughout the world as a particular consequence of last weekend’s terrorist attacks in London.
Originally established as a nation-wide campaign in the UK, ICE allows paramedics or police to be able to contact a designated relative / next-of-kin in an emergency situation.
The idea is the brainchild of East Anglian Ambulance Service paramedic Bob Brotchie and was launched in May this year. Bob, 41, who has been a paramedic for 13 years, said: I was reflecting on some of the calls I’ve attended at the roadside where I had to look through the mobile phone contacts struggling for information on a shocked or injured person. Almost everyone carries a mobile phone now, and with ICE we’d know immediately who to contact and what number to ring. The person may even know of their medical history.
By adopting the ICE advice, your mobile will help the rescue services quickly contact a friend or relative which could be vital in a life or death situation. It only takes a few seconds to do, and it could easily help save your life. Why not put ICE in your phone now? Simply select your person to contact in case of emergency, enter them under the word ICE and the telephone number of the person you wish to be contacted.

Well, I’m back from vacation. We spent a week away visiting friends and had a great time, arriving back home late Saturday night.
We traveled 600 miles NW to the beautiful hills of south western Wisconsin to visit our best friends. Byron (known around here as BEG) and Jeana were our best friends here in Columbus until they deserted us moved up north a couple years ago to be closer to his family. No one in the past 9 years has influenced me and my family more than these guys.
They live on a 103 acre farm between Gays Mills and Boscobel Wisconsin in a beautiful rural area of rolling hills and valleys. There’s not a building within probably 3/4 of a mile of their home. He’s got about 60 acres or so that he can farm and they’re planted with corn and soy beans. My girls had a ball exploring the farm, walking through the 8-10 foot high corn near the house, venturing up the hill past the grain bin to the ‘flower patch’ (a concentrated area of the wildflowers that are scattered all over the farm) and following the ‘tractor path’ up to the big 40 acre field on the hill, probably a 1/2 mile or so from the house.
We spent Sunday and Monday inside, mostly, due to the heat. It was about 95 and humid, thank goodness for AC even in little rural farm houses. I spent part of Sunday getting a tour of the property inside the air conditioned cab of Byron’s new 70 horsepower, 4WD, turbo diesel Agco LT70 tractor (His doesn’t have the bucket on the front like that one in the picture). It’s a pretty cool piece of machinery. I sat in Laura’s seat while we took the tour. Later, Byron let me drive it and bush hog part of a field. Actually, he talked me into it because I was a little intimidated by it, but it was as easy to drive as my minivan. the property looked quite different from when we saw it in March of 2004 right after they bought it. It was cold and brown then, the old barn was still a pile of rubble, no grain bin and nothing but weeds. He’s slowly making improvements and hopes to sell last year’s bean crop in the coming weeks.
Monday afternoon and evening we made a side trip to Mauston to visit Maria’s cousin. We had a nice time, and she and Maria talked stamping and scrap booking, their 13 year old daughter entertained our girls and I watched TV. On the way back, we drove through one of the worst storms I’ve ever driven through. Our diagonal path pretty much matched the diagonal of a severe storm system moving across the state and we were in the thick of it for most of the trip. Our 1 1/2 hour trip up turned to a 2 hour white-knuckle-watch-the-white-line-because-you-can’t-see-farther-than-30-feet-wipers-at-full-tilt-40-MPH trip back. It was exhausting, but we made it OK.
We also made a couple of side trips to Iowa. On Tuesday everyone ventured over to Pike’s Peak State Park, just up the hill from McGregor Iowa and overlooking where the Mississippi and the Wisconsin rivers merge. The view overlooking the rivers is amazing. Even hundreds of miles from it’s end in the Gulf of Mexico (some 600+ from the Ohio River!), the Mississippi with it’s islands and branches is still 1.5 – 2.5 miles wide up here. On Thursday, Byron and I spent the day exploring. We started by heading to Lansing, Iowa to get gas. Gas in Iowa is pretty cheap actually, and the mid-grade is significantly cheaper than regular due to the ethanol subsidies. We headed to another overlook to get a view of the river again and then to Genoa WI to watch a barge go through the lock. If you like big machinery, this is a really cool way to spend a couple of hours. The lock takes 9 barges at a time, so the 15 barge and tug we were watching had to be split in two. Driving 9 barges into the lock would be kind of like putting your car into a garage only an inch wider than your car and maybe 2-3 inches longer. Oh, and to match the inertia of that barge I think you’d have to do it at 100 MPH or something. Amazing. If you’re a fan of big machinery and horsepower, it’s a cool way to spend a couple of hours on a sunny day.
Maria and Jeana spent Wednesday and Friday night scrap booking at a scrapbook store in Boscobel while we kept shooing the kids outside watched the kids. It’s one of their favorite things to do and they’re already planning a get together in Milwaukee in October. Plane ticket and convention tickets are already bought.
Byron’s dad loaned us his ‘Mule’, a 4WD little mini-truck, and we took the girls around the farm on Friday while they were gone. We had the four girls in the back (his oldest at 3 and my 6, 8 and 10 year olds. the new baby was with Jeana) and him and me in the front. That little truck is quite capable, climbing small steep sections that I wouldn’t have tried pretty easily, making the girls scream with delight. We explored nearly every area of the property from the top of the hill to the abandoned section of township road that runs through the woods along a little valley, my favorite part of their place, stopping to pick flowers and a couple of wild raspberries along the way. The girls had a blast, except when a rather scary looking big black locust landed in the middle of the bed between the four of them. It took a minute to realize that the screams of delight had turned to terror, but we stopped quickly and Uncle Byron bravely extracted the beady eyed monster from the truck and exterminated him.
Later that night, after everyone was ready for bed, we hopped back in the Mule to go star gazing. It was a beautiful, clear night and we hoped to see some shooting stars and maybe a satellite or two. We headed out a little past 10:00 PM, when the last vestiges of light were on the horizon. We ended up on the top of the hill and waited as it got darker and darker and more and more stars appeared. Once you get away form the light pollution of civilization, the number of stars visible is simply astounding. You can actually see the denser areas of the Milky way spread across the sky like a mist. We found the little dipper, the North star (we think) and Mars (we think). We did catch a shooting star or two, but couldn’t find the satellites sometimes visible just after sunset. By the time we got back to the house at around 11:00, the sky was filled with thousands and thousands of stars. For city dwellers like us it’s a sight we rarely can see.
Each evening after the kids were in bed we stayed up playing cards and laughing. Then after the ladies went to bed, Byron and I would talk about church stuff for an hour or two. There’s a couple of posts brewing in my head from our late night discussions. Byron’s my best friend and it’s sad he’s so far away. I’m just glad he’s got internet now so we can at least communicate a little bit, though it’s not quite the same. A finer fried and mentor a man cannot ask for.
Do you have a friend that you’d drive 1,200 miles round trip just to go see? Maybe they’re not that far away now, but if they were you’d go. I hope so. Most friendships, even pretty good ones, can fade with distance. This one will never be that way.

Things with our kids haven’t been going as well as we’d like. My wife, because she spends more time with them, was more acutely aware of it. I frankly hadn’t paid enough attention, to the kids or to her telling me they needed attention. (That’s another post in itself.)
Maria’s been reading a book called Smart Discipline, by Larry J. Koenig. Among other things (she’s not through the whole book yet), it recommends a list of rules for the house and a progressive scale of discipline for infractions. Having recently read this post at tent pegs, we combined the ideas and came up with our ‘House Rules’ (although, after visiting Tent Pegs again, I like ‘Family Code’ better.) We will revisit these occasionally, and the kids will have a say in them each time. (Their suggestions this time were things like “Don’t touch Mommy’s clock.” and “Don’t climb on the furniture.” (We decided those fall under respecting each other.)
They are principals that guide us, but with small children we thought that we needed to break them down, where possible, to some actual ‘rules’ that they could better understand and follow. We hope, though, that by incorporating them under bigger principals, they will be encouraged to think bigger and deeper than mere obedience.
Our family fears and serves God.

Choose for yourselves this day whom you will serve. But as for me and my household, we will serve the LORD.”

Joshua 24:15

The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom,
and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 9:10

Our family is honest and trustworthy.

The LORD hates every liar, but he is the friend of all who can be trusted.

Proverbs 12:22

But you want complete honesty, so teach me true wisdom.

Psalm 51:6

Therefore:

• We will not lie; We will tell the whole truth
• We will not take things that are not ours

Our family is respectful and loving.

“A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.”

John 13:34-35

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8

Therefore:

• We will not be disrespectful (with our voices or bodies).
• We will not fight (physically or verbally).
• We will not throw tantrums.
• We will not be foolish when not appropriate (at the table, in the car, etc).

Our family is orderly and hard working.

For God is not a God of disorder but of peace.

1 Corinthians 14:33

She sets about her work vigorously;
her arms are strong for her tasks.

Proverbs 31:17

Do your work willingly, as though you were serving the Lord himself, and not just your earthly master.

Colossians 3:23

Therefore:

• We will do our chores without whining or complaining
• We will keep our home and bodies neat and orderly

Our family is obedient.

Keep his decrees and commands, which I am giving you today, so that it may go well with you and your children after you.

Deuteronomy 4:40

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right. “Honor your father and mother”—which is the first commandment with a promise— “that it may go well with you and that you may enjoy long life on the earth.”

Ephesians 6:1-3

Therefore:

The discipline charts work like this. Each transgression merits a check mark. The first few are ‘free’, grace check marks – no consequence. After that, there is a consequence for each new check mark. There are 5 consequences on each kid’s chart, specific to them and what will resonate with them. The last one on each is to be grounded to their room. For the younger two (under 9), their charts are daily charts. They get 3 ‘free’ spots each day and their chart gets wiped clean each day. For the oldest, her chart is weekly. She gets 7 ‘free’ spaces each week and her chart gets wiped clean each Sunday morning.
The system will help Maria and I as much as them. One of the biggest battles we face, as many parents do, is being consistent in our discipline. The kids need it but sometimes we get sentimental, lazy or even harsh. This will help us give our kids a fair and even face.
I truly believe this will produce results in our children. We put in place on Sunday and there’s already a heightened awareness of doing the right thing. We will be on our guard to not produce little legalistsic slaves to the rules. But what we were seeing is them moving closer and closer to an ambivalence to rules, defiance of authority and a generally self focused demeanor. Our goal is to move them toward a greater respect for God, others and authority.

Updated 7/6
Frequent commenter and salguod best friend BEG and wife just welcomed their second child into the world Tuesday afternoon at 4:28 PM central eastern time. The so far unnamed little girl Delenn Elise was 8 lbs, 13oz and 21 inches long. 3 year old big sister Laura is quite excited. “I love this baby!” I think she said. Mom and baby are doing just fine, I hear.
My wife flew to WI Monday evening so she could be there in the delivery room with her best friend, just like she was when Laura came into the world.
Congrats BEG and JG! (I’ve still got the lead on you, 3 girls to 2 😉 )