Posted in Journals Current--Logs and Inspirations
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Big Week for the Reishes: Disability Awareness Week This week is a big week for the Reishes! Cami (third child, 20, getting married in eight weeks!) is our church’s disability director. This week marks the first-ever Disability Awareness Week at our church. She (and her fiancé Joseph) has been working tirelessly to prepare for the week.
Then, to the delight of our family, our children (along with others involved in One Heart) performed part of the drama that Kara (fourth child, eighteen) wrote for the Luke 14 banquet. Kara directed it, and she and all three little boys performed in it. Lastly, a man who lost three of his limbs nearly thirty years ago in a car accident, who is a traveling evangelist with his family (also homeschoolers!) spoke. This afternoon, Cami had a special luncheon for the families involved in One Heart. It was an incredible, rewarding day for all of us. All week this week, the kids will continue to practice their drama (today they only performed about ten minutes of the thirty minute playlet they will give Friday night) and Cami and Joseph will finish the loose ends associated with the Luke 14 banquet. It looks as though they will serve nearly four hundred people a banquet, along with entertainment and Bible teaching. We are so excited and pleased to see the four younger kids working so selflessly to serve those who are less fortunate and need a loving touch from the body of Christ. You can see Cami’s One Heart promo, as well as the video about the Luke 14 banquet at the link below. They are September 21st and September 14th video announcements. I’m not sure how much longer they will be up there, but they are there now. Oh, and if you want to teach your children to serve, consider disability ministry. As you will see in the video clip, only five percent of those affected by disabilities are involved in church. There are social programs galore for these people, but they do not simply need more activities—they need to know Jesus—and their families need to know that there are Christians out there willing to give of themselves and help them. www.firstassemblyfw.org/VideoAnnoucements.php |
Posted in Journals Current--Logs and Inspirations
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Kayla Moved Away That which I greatly feared has come upon me: Kayla is all grown up and moved away from home! I thought I was sneaky talking Kayla and Cami into staying home while working on their undergraduate degrees. It was great—three to four more years to spend with them, that many more years of continual input into their younger siblings’ lives, oh…what a great idea. But all great ideas come to an end—and so has this one. Now this one may backfire on me—Kayla moved to TX in July and Cami is getting married in November. My “gradual-but-later” approach did not include two children moving from home at the same time! L I know, Kayla is twenty-two, has a nursing degree, and is preparing for ministry—but I still don’t want her to move! She graduated from Indiana-Purdue-University in She got a nursing position at The first six weeks she worked a lot, did her orientation and training at the hospital, and learned to drive in She is in a different stage of life than her “college-counterparts”—she leaves each weekend in scrubs to work twelve hour shifts at a huge hospital. She has one degree under her belt already. She is older than they are. She has written books; preached many, many times; taught the Bible for years and years; taught homeschooled students biology, chemistry, Spanish, apologetics, research paper, speech, debate, government, writing, math, and language arts; and much more. However, getting on campus and studying the Bible there (while working as a nurse) is what she has been waiting to do for some time. To be able to focus on biblical studies and sit under excellent Bible teachers are two things that she has longed for during her difficult three years in nurse’s training. And she is finally there! Hopefully, the “generation gap” and “experience gap” that will likely surface as she lives on a college campus won’t hinder her as she seeks to understand others’ needs and desires. Kayla is an incredible person. She is intellectually gifted while being dyslexically and dysgraphically challenged. She accepted Christ at a young age—and took that commitment seriously. She chose, on her own, at age thirteen, to make “mom her ministry.” She has served this family, and then later homeschoolers all around the world through her curriculum writing for the Advanced Training Institute, tirelessly. She is diligent, wise, deferential, resourceful, loyal, responsible, compassionate, generous, and selfless. We all miss her so much. We talk every day or every other day. Of course, she talks to her siblings every chance they can get her on the phone (the joy of cell phones). I do want God’s will for her—even if it doesn’t involve a little, white, wooden house in |
Posted in Journals Current--Logs and Inspirations
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Kara’s Home Kara arrived home safely after a summer of ministry with the Academy of Arts (http://www.theacademyofarts.org/) traveling drama team with Sanctify of Life (the same drama she traveled with last summer, but this summer she was near us—on the midwest team!). We are so happy to have her back home!! On the last night of the summer ministry, the academy holds a big closing ceremony in which all three traveling teams perform parts of their respective dramas, their home drama team performs, leaders give awards, etc. It is an awesome evening for everyone—seeing all of the young people’s hard work come to an end and sharing the fruits of their summer ministries. Unfortunately, Ray and I were not able to go down to South Carolina this year for the ceremony, but immediately following it, we received “the call”—the phone call from Kara telling us (through tears and cheers) that she had received her team’s “Academy Award”—the character award given to one young person on each team. She asked us if we were surprised that she received it. We told her that we were not the least bit surprised! It was fine if she didn’t receive it—if there was someone else on her team who won the award, great. However, we knew in our hearts, award or no award, that Kara displays the character of Christ in her life on a daily basis. And that made her and us all three happy! Of course, we had talked to Kara every “phone day” that she had throughout the summer, so we knew the challenges she faced—as well as the many, many times that she put herself behind others, gave others the best, preferred her teammates over herself, served asking nothing in return, etc. etc. As a matter of fact, when our kids (16 and up) are away serving in some capacity, or even when our younger kids are out helping with the disability ministry, riding with a friend to drama camp, etc. etc., we always challenge them when they return: Who did you serve? Who did you prefer before yourself? Who did you lift up? Anyway, Kara is now back home serving those closest to her—and serving in whatever context she finds herself. Her latest “project” includes writing, directing, and starring in a disability drama (The King, the Mountain, and the Love That Moved Them Both based on Luke 14) for our church’s disability awareness Sunday and at One Heart’s (the disability ministry directed by Cami, our third child) Luke 14 banquet. (Read more about these at www.homeschoolblogger.com/relationalhomeschool/593858/.) Additionally, she is now three months out from receiving her driver’s license, so she is carting the three little boys to play practices, One Heart, ultimate Frisbee days, the movies, McDonald’s, and Wal-mart. The four of them are having a great time—and we are all so happy to have Kara home—being the wonderful, sweet, diligent, responsible, resourceful, serving, loving, kind, wise, deferential, fun, personable, caring, understanding, empathetic eighteen year old that she is—and not just because she won an award! |
Posted in Journals Current--Logs and Inspirations
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Our daughter has found the love of her life! It is an exciting time around the Reishes. Ray and I are thrilled that Cami has fallen in love (and vice versa) with such a self-less, character-filled young man. The little boys are thrilled to have another guy around. And Cami...well, she is not really all here anymore! tee hee
This is the second of our seven children to find his/her love. Joshua has been married to his one and only girlfriend for 3 1/2 years now. I can still remember when we found out that J and Lisa were in love. We were at a restaurant, and Joshua told us that he wanted to court, and eventually marry Lisa. I was so happy that I went into the bathroom, shut the stall door, and danced and danced. And I didn't even know how to dance (hadn't had any ballroom dance lessons yet!!). I was so happy.
There is something incredible about seeing your children in love--especially when it is a pure, true love that has not been defiled by other "loves" (that you later discover were not loves at all). Joshua and Cami had not had a girl friend or boyfriend prior to the "one." They saved their hearts for the one who would have the entire thing their entire lives.
One of my greatest prayers and desires is that my children will have the marriage that I have had the privilege of having for the past twenty-seven years. I want them to have selfless mates; to be cherished and respected; to raise a family for the Lord--and to be WILDLY, MADLY, CRAZILY in love their entire lives. I want them to get to have the intimacy, transparency, and love that I have had. Oh, I want this for them so badly.
So when Joseph called Ray to tell him that he had feelings for Cami and wanted to know if he could court her, I was overjoyed with Joseph--and secretly prayed that Cami would fall in love with him...and she did! I saw something in Joseph that I thought would complement Cami--he is so much like Ray--diligent, kind, selfless, responsible, empathetic, loving, intimate, emotional--all of the things that I have loved and enjoyed in my husband. It only took a couple of weeks after Ray told her Joseph had feelings for her--then Cami fell in love with all of those qualities that Ray and I saw in Joseph--and in love with him as a person too. (Cami and Joseph had been good friends for year and a half, so she knew him well--just not in this way.)
Anyway, sometimes I wonder who is happier--Cami to be in love or Ray and I to watch her be in love. We are so enjoying their looks at each other, never ending smiles, words of affirmation and encouragement to each other. I love to hear them planning for their futures. Love is SO incredible.
I am pasting Cami's note to her fellow staffers at the church. (She is the disability director at our church.) This was the day after they began their courtship (a while after Joseph came to Ray and we told Cami). You can just hear the joy and love in her note!
From Cami to Fellow Staffers:
Hi! I just wanted to let everyone know what God has done in my life and the amazing thing that He has just done for me. I don’t deserve it, but I am so grateful. Here’s a little background, I have different views on relationships then some people do and when I was 13 years old, I asked God to write my love story. I told God that I wanted to serve Him and love Him with my youth and not have my focus on “finding the right guy” or on going from relationship to relationship. I have a ring on my left hand that my dad gave me when I was 13 and when I made that committed. At that time I also told my dad that I wanted him to be my protector and that any guy that came my way, I would send to my dad. (Haha, I don’t believe in arranged marriages…not at all. It’s that I know that my parents have a lot of wisdom and if they see something in someone that I don’t see because love is blind, I wanted to know and wanted their blessing and approval.) Anyway, throughout the years there have been guys who have come to me and I have sent them to my dad. Sometimes it was hard to say no when I really wanted to get married and raise a godly family, but I knew that God had a plan and that He would write my perfect love story. I had a high standard for my man, not only did he have to love God with all of his heart, have a servant’s heart for other people, love me and my family, but he had to be perfect too.
As you can tell, it wasn’t just going to be any guy who got to my heart. (Oh, did I mention that I also have 4 very protective brothers? Joshua, Jonathan, Josiah, and Jacob were not going to let anyone get through who didn’t deserve it. J) Just like God, He brought someone into my life who is everything that I ever wanted in a guy and so much more! Joseph and I have been friends for the past year and a half and we had an amazing group of four friends that would encourage and challenge each other a lot. Two months ago, Joseph David Gross called my dad and told him that he felt God was leading us together. My dad told him to go away and if he still felt the same way after some time, to call him again. Well, the feelings only grew stronger and stronger and God opened up doors beyond what Joseph could imagine to be confirmation for what he felt. Yesterday, we went out with my parents again, and they gave their blessing for Joseph and I to continue our relationship in a courtship that, Lord willing, will lead to marriage. It was a miracle for my parents to approve of someone, they are so happy and feel so blessed for me to have such a wonderful guy in my life!
The most amazing thing for me is that he is so much like my dad! I always wanted to have someone who is selfless, serving, kind, and so in love with God, just like my dad. Joseph is just like that! I can’t believe that I have been so blessed. He loves the Lord so much and loves the One Heart people dearly. It’s not an accident that his brother is disabled or that he has lived the life of a caretaker and friend of someone with a disability for the past 23 years. He has a better understanding of life with a disability than most anyone else. Joseph is my first and only boyfriend. We don’t know all of the answers to the future, but we are so happy and so blessed. Thank-you for being a wonderful Church family and staff for me. I just wanted to share my happiness with you too! Smiling from ear to ear, Cami P.S For Mike, Pastor Ron, and Pastor Don….Joseph is not a hunter. But he does have his private pilots’ license and plans on taking me on some day trips to see amazing things. Hopefully someday I’ll have some stories as funny and great as yours and Joys.
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Posted in Journals Current--Logs and Inspirations
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Winter Spending Fast I made it! Two months without buying anything except food and groceries. Not even a tube of lipstick or a pair of socks. This winter we have been revising our curriculum (Character Quatity Language Arts) to change the labels and numbering system. This has been suggested to us by various reviewers and users, so we bit the bullet this winter and did it. However, it came with a high price tag--over a thousand dollars a week in typesetters and editors. (While we were re-labeling, we also had the books edited three more times each.) Thus, Ray took on more paper routes to businesses and a new Saturday newspaper stuffing job. I took on more tutoring students, and we dug in to be able to afford that many typesetters and editors during the winter--a time that curriculum doesn't sell that well, so we had to generate more income to pay our help. To alleviate some of the pressure that I knew Ray was feeling, I decided to go on a "spending fast." If I'm not buying anything, that is less money we have to earn--and less pressure for both of us. During the first month of the fast, I didn't go into a store at all--grocery or otherwise. I decided that for the first thirty days, I would do a spending fast and a store fast. It wasn't really that hard to stay out of stores as I'm not a big shopper anyway. I don't have a lot of time for shopping and would always rather spend extra money on books or family outings anyway. It's not uncommon for me to go six to nine months without going into a mall at all (unless it is to scrapbook at the scrapbooking store!). Then the second half of the fast, I did go to the grocery and the office store (for our business). Still, I didn't buy anything but groceries or food. I wish I could say I learned a lot through the fast. I think it did help Ray feel less pressure--and feel respected and loved that I was making a sacrifice for him to help alleviate his stress. I didn't really miss shopping--though at the end, I was getting anxious to at least get some new powder or socks! One unexpected result was a teeny bit of jealousy towards people who were buying a lot --new cars, furniture, clothing, etc. It surprised me because I seldom buy that many new things anyway (especially since we started TFT three years ago and put literally everything we have in it). Thus, I didn't understand why it bothered me right now that people were getting "stuff" and I wasn't--when I wouldn't be buying those things if I wasn't on my fast, anyway. Guess I am a little more materialistic than I thought I was! Mostly, I was happy to meet my goal. It always feels good to have self-control! It always feels good to do what you know you should do. So, more than anything, I'm happy that I followed through and had the self-discipline it took to do the fast. Now if I just did the same thing with a food fast! :) |