Onion Outreach

Hello everyone,

Been a little while since I updated....But then again I looked around and no one else has been updating either. Must all be as busy as me!

Deb and I have been crazy busy with Volleyball, Concession stand coordinating, football photography, Senior all nighter committee and finally church stuff. Whew that's a mouthful!

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I always say if I wasn't busy I'd be bored. We have certainly not been bored. Our newest project is heading up a ministry called Angel food ministry. I have blogged about this previously. Well today we went and picked up our food from the distribution site. We met with the coordinator from a local church that is participating. (Spring Valley Community Church) We were met by an old friend of ours who was doing the greeting of everyone who came in the door. We instantly felt a sense of love and joy in the room. It was kinda wierd...which is to bad to say. We don''t expect that kind of atmosphere in our culture.
They have only been participating in the program for three months and they had 92 orders already. This without any advertising. Word of mouth travels fast I guess.
As we got our box filled by the happy volunteers we met some more old friends of ours passing out our onions and muffin mix. They said they weren't even from this particular chuch but thought it was such a great program that they decided to make it there serving thing they do.
What a great morning! Just to see people happily serving and realizing that we can make a difference with this ministry in the future. I am so excited that God wired me this way! Deb got excited to and started thinking of ways she will be able to help. Advancing the kingdom by passing out onions.....who would have thought. I should have told my boys to skip the college education and thousands of dollars in loans. They could pass out onions with tears in their eyes and blame it on the vegatables! ha ha ha
I can't wait to see our new friends at City Life and share the news about our findings. I also am still praying for our involvement at Overflow in Benton Harbor. This ministry could potentially connect us to some really depressed neighborhoods. It's just great to be back in the battle! OK I watched Braveheart the other night and got all pumped up! FREEDOM!!!!
As my cousin Mark told me once...." God doesn't need us...He let's us!"
God Bless,
Randy

Lamentations

The other day I was shooting football and my competitor (shooting for another studio) ask me if I knew of a wishing well that she could photograph. The conversation continued about her thesis prject for college. Basically her thesis was to explain how she hated the way her life was turning out because she is so goal driven and tends to pile to much workload upon herself.
Her gallery of pictures were to start out with beautiful white puffy clouds and end with dark storm clouds. various pictures like the well will be in between.
I must admit I wanted to hand her my ipod and let her listen to 15 Rob Bell messages on the very same topics she was struggling with. But alas all I had was my own story. I told her of my recent struggles with stripping away the things in life that just don't matter and start to concentrate on loving my neighbor. But I also found myself wanting to say some commercial Christian answer that is supposed to solve all her problems. At least that's what it seems to do for everyone else. I've always had trouble with this. I must be denser than the next guy. You need Jesus in your heart ...just didn't seem to fit the conversation. I found myself feeling so inadequate to think of and say the right things. I did tell her of a book in the bible where Solomon ponders those same kind of questions of the meaningfulness of life. Maybe she could read that book in the bible to find some answers. Of course like an idiot I told her it was Lamentations. When I got home I figured out it was Ecclesiastes. Oh what an idiot!
I'll have to correct myself next time I see her.
Enough for now need some sleep.
Randy

Long Days

Well it seems like every day lately has been super long and there is no end in sight! I have been shooting sports almost every night this week after work. Then coming home and processing pictures and orders until midnight. It's been fun but it's allot of work. There will be no rest over the weekend either. We spent the day at a volleyball tourney and handling the concession stand. Deb seems to have volunteered us as the coordinators of the concessions for the senior parents committee. As if we didn't have enough going on.

Yes Stephanie actually got to play in one of the games. She did great! She had two dig saves, had a back row hit for a score and got all of her serves over. We are still puzzled why she is not getting into the regular rotation. I spoke to the coach tonight and we had a good conversation. I didn't want to be one of those intense parents that loses it at the coach. She gave me some areas she would like Stephanie to prove to her. I know Steph can do it. We'll see how it goes from here. The coach knows Steph has the tools, let's hope she gives her a chance.

Tomorrow we have church in the city and then we are starting a Bible study with our new church members. This is the church in Benton Harbor which is an hour commute each way. We'll see how well we sustain this pace. I feel it's really important to start connecting and growing together with them.

Then to top it all off we were asked to head up a ministry for City Life. I am really excited about getting to serve in ministry with City Life. We were asked to look into starting up a food program called Angel Food Ministries. It's basically a low cost food program. $25.00 for a months worth of food.( includes meat) Of course it will be a great program for the low income. If it works well it's a ministry that we can take with us to our next church. Figuring out how many hours are left in our day may be the next trick! I may have to start backing down on some photo work.

Love to you all,

Randy

Toledo Fans

Well it's been a while since my last post. I figured I'd stay up a little later and write a couple of things.
Labor Day has come and gone. Summer has come and almost gone. Man it went by way to fast. I'm not looking forward to another winter working outside.
We went to see our son Mike in Toledo over Labor day. He got us press box seats to watch the University of Toledo play Purdue. The head coach for Toledo goes to Mikes' church and his wife and daughter help with youth. So for a night we were Toledo fans! Go Rockets!
Mike seems to be getting along great with the people and the church so far. He was really blessed by their generosity. They have stepped up and really helped out wherever there was a need. It was really hard to leave Monday morning. Deb was crying and I was even more sad than usual. I'm not sure why because he has been gone quite a while already. It just seemed to hit harder this time. (Mike if your reading this yes we are dorky parents who care about you!)
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Life has been odd this summer. We have seen good friends leave, and I think we've seen friendships leave even though they haven't moved. Deb and I have done things alone allot more this summer. While that is not all bad, I think I'm going to drive her nuts. I love to talk and discuss...She likes to think and be quiet. You can see where this is going! Football games have been especially tough on Deb. I looked up from the sidelines the other night and she was sitting all by herself. What was sad was there were two other couples who's grand kids were playing sitting right behind her. A couple of years ago they would have all been laughing and joking with her and having a good time. Now they barely acknowledge her. I think we are both ready to escape this town and start over.
All is not bad though.....Stephanie is doing well and we are anxiously awaiting to see her get some playing time on the court. I won't bore you with the details...Just more politics! We have been riding our new bikes and exploring this summer. Life has been really busy in the photo field as well. The new lens has been working well. I have gotten some awesome action shots that are actually not blurry! Deb's company has moved into a new complex which is bigger.
Our new temporary church City Life is expanding. They have knocked down the wall to the building next to their sanctuary and doubled in size. I'm looking forward to serving with them in the future.
Overflow Church is starting Bible studies so we will be joining them on Sunday nights. These will be some long commutes each week but I think it will be crucial for us to get connected right from the start. I am thrilled to be on the ground floor of something like this. It's kinda the feeling I get when I read in Acts about how the Good News spread and there was an excitement in the air. How I long for some excitement in the air!
Well enough rambling.
Love to you all,
Randy