Not all who wander are lost.

J.R.R. Tolkien quotes

English writer, author of richly inventive epic fantasy The Lord of the Rings, 1892-1973

"All that is gold does not glitter; not all those that wander are lost. Courage is found in unlikely places. Faithless is he that says farewell when the road darkens. The wise speak only of what they know. Deep roots are not reached by frost. The Road goes ever on and on down from the door where it began. Now far ahead the Road has gone, and I must follow, if I can, pursuing it with eager feet, until it joins some larger way where many paths and errands meet. And whither then? I cannot say. There is nothing like looking, if you want to find something. You certainly usually find something, if you look, but it is not always quite the something you were after. Not all who wander are lost. All that is gold does not glitter, not all those who wander are lost; the old that is strong does not wither, deep roots are not reached by the frost. From the ashes a fire shall be woken, a light from the shadows shall spring; renewed shall be the blade that was broken, the crownless again shall be king. I have no help to send, therefore I must go myself."

I've always been intrigued and repulsed by this quote. It seems in one light to excuse unrighteous living and in the other to encourage a bold search for the road less traveled which these days seems to be the way of Jesus.

Everyday is a battle to stay ahead of my urge to eat pizza and peanut butter. I am thankful that the Lord has given us the strength to lose the weight we have already lost. However, for me the real challenge has arrived. I'm so close to my goal that cheating seems somehow "OK". 8( NOT!
I am not who I was and by the grace of God I will not remain who I am!
We are always striving to be better and reach higher in our service to Jesus!

portion of May newsletter

Many of you have already heard of our decision to pursue service with Restoration Ranch. The Ranch is a new work in the Dominican Republic that will be a residential children's home. Gwyn and I have had a heart for orphans for years and this is the opportunity of a life time for us.

The founders of the ministry, Danny and Denise Stone, have a powerful vision to reach the DR for Jesus. Who better to tell of Jesus’ love for the Dominicans then a person who was helpless until a loving Christian picked them up, cared for their needs and loved them in Jesus name! We are honored that the Stones are considering us for this position. Before we can get to the work of the ranch our family has to make many preparations.

We know that in our service to the orphans of Restoration Ranch it will be absolutely necessary for us to be able to speak their heart language. The Stones and Pastor Tony have asked us to prepare ourselves for service by attending the Spanish Language Institute in San José, Costa Rica. This will be an important time of transition for our family as we learn Spanish and become familiar with the Hispanic culture.

The Spanish Language Institute was started in the 1940’s to train Presbyterian missionaries and has a great program for our family. While Gwyn and I are learning Spanish our children will be taught in another part of the same campus. The children will have English speaking teachers to teach them Reading, Writing & Arithmetic as well as Spanish.

We have several missionary friends who have shared with us that if they were able to go back & change one thing about their ministry they would have dedicated more time to learning the language of their people group before entering their field of ministry. We are blessed to have leadership that loves us enough to require us to prepare ourselves before taking the step into ministry.

We will be leaving the last week in August ‘07 to attend the Spanish Language Institute in Costa Rica.

www.thespanishinstitute.com
This is the school we will be attending. They have a school on the same campus for the kids too.

We are really going

We have been planning on going on the mission field for so long, that I started to believe we would never really go. But we have a house in Costa Rica and plane tickets to leave on Aug. 23rd it is real it is really happening!! The school gives each new student a Big Brother and we have the BEST Big brother! The house he got for us was very popular and three other big brothers were trying to get it for their family. He called us an hour before he was suppose to be able to talk to the landlord and he had pulled some strings and we have the house! I can't wait to see some pictures.