2011 Challenge to Family

As I was walking and running at the arena early this month, I had an inspiring thought. Why not set a goal of running and walking 1000 miles in 2011. My next thought was, why not challenge the family to that goal. I have always found that if I am more disciplined physically it helps me be on track spiritually. I passed that on to the family with a financial incentive. Then the Lord reminded me of I Timothy 4:8 "For bodily exercise profiteth little: but godliness is profitable unto all things, having promise of the life that now is, and of that which is to come." Therefore I added reading through the Bible in the year also. I added some smaller goals so the grandchildren could get involved as well. It ended up as follows:
$100 reading through the Bible
$30 reading through the New Testament
$100 for 1000 miles of purposed walking or running
$50 for 500 miles of the same
$25 for 250 miles of the same
Must be completed by Dec. 31, 2011
God has encouraged me to invest in the family. I trust this is helpful. May God bless our family.

A TEST FOR MY KNEE

On October 16th quite a number of our family were involved in the Waddell&Reed Marathon in KC. Mary and I signed up for the 5K. Our son, Roger did it with us to encourage us.It was good to be able to do that with Mary after the knee surgery. Here we are after the run.

ONE YEAR LATER

One year ago today I had surgery to repair an ACL. As I reflect on this past year I have much to be grateful for. When I injured my knee, Roger drove across Missouri to take me to Blue Springs. In the morning Julie took me from Roger's home to Lisa who then drove me to Hutchinson. Julie and Susan helped Mary with the Thanksgiving meal. I am so blessed with our family. They are there when you need them. Mary was super help in getting me back on my feet. She is a wonderful help mete. Our car insurance paid the medical bills and God had a wonderful surgeon in our church in time for the need. God has been gracious and my knee seems as good as new. I am sure I learned more patience and more understanding for those in pain. I am more thoughtful of avoiding those kind of accidents. It brought me closer to Brady, the fellow I was helping that day. There is no doubt good that God has worked that I haven't yet recognized. When I declare daily to the Lord that I accept all that He plans for that day, I realize I may not like all of it, but I have no hesitation for I know His plans are good. One year later I am grateful for His healing.

STILL STANDING

Whenever we make it to the meadow near LaVeta,CO we check on the trees we have labeled with the year we were there. Here is a picture of "our" tree and the one for the Tuckers. It is always good to see the Aspen standing tall and strong.

A TIME TO REMINISCE

Mary and I spent some time in Colorado last week (September 2010). We spent several days in the Spanish Peaks area where we have visited for many years. We have friends who have let us use their cabin over the years. Our times there date back over 30 years. There are so many memories there with our children and also Mary's parents. It is a good thing to return to areas where God has given you special memories and remember His faithfulness. We spent devotional times by the mountain stream where we spent times in the past. Our son Roger and I prayed and wept there over some heartaches in his life. One of those was the onset of rheumatoid arthritis that he was battling. God has healed him from that. We are so grateful. We visited our tree in the meadow about a mile upstream. We have been carving the years on the tree over the years. Mom and Dad Tucker made it to the meadow several times and also had a tree. We had worship times together several times. Dad Tucker has now "gone higher".
God is a faithful God and has demonstrated that to our family in so many ways. It was so good to take some time to reminisce. That has been such a special place to our family. We are grateful to our friends for making that available to us.

I HEARD THEIR CRIES

Something today reminded me of something God began to do in my heart during my last semester at seminary and the first part of the summer of 1966 as I was working in Chicago. Every once in a while it was as if I heard crying somewhere far away. I remember inquiring of God, "What is that all about?" I did sense it had something to do with my future and ministry, but beyond that I didn't know. Later that summer I received the call to teach at Central Christian in Hutchinson, KS. I thought maybe it would be the students there, but that was not it. God later got me involved in helping broken victims of abuse and ritualization. Now I knew where the cries were coming from. It has not been an easy work to help these to freedom in Christ, but it has been very rewarding. God said of His people to Moses, I have heard their cries and I will send you to bring them to freedom. I thank God I heard their cries and have been able to help some find relief and freedom. May I have a heart like His to hear the cries of hurting people.

Camp Gramma 2010

We have just concluded our sixth year of "Camp Gramma". We want you grandchildren to know in the days to come about our motivation. It is our desire to provide some fun things for you. We also want you to know that you are important to us, so we sleep with you in your tents. This year was different. Because of 5 inches of rain before we started, we housed you boys in the garage and you girls in the basement. We love to be WITH you. Our main motivation is to have a time to share our hearts desire for you to grow up and walk with God. As we prayed about a theme for this year, we were impressed with the importance of having the fear of God in your lives. We chose the theme from Hagar; Thou God Seest Me with the theme verse from Deuteronomy 5:29, O that there were such an heart in them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always, that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever. We shared with you the wonderful promises for those who fear the Lord and walk in His ways. We know that you precious kids will face various temptations in the days to come, but if you are aware that God's eyes are on you and that you fear the Lord, you can come through those temptations in victory. We are committed to pray that God will develop the fear of the Lord in your lives. We are grateful that your parents are training you to walk with the Lord. We just want to lend our supporting voice with theirs. God bless you dear grandchildren!