Life and it's many challenges.......

It has been far too long since I've posted anything here. I've been pretty busy at Unspeakably, as well as tons of family "stuff"!

Sergeant Soldier Boy is just home from Iraq, and I can't tell you how glad we all are of that! It was quite an experience, but God was by his side all the way, and He has provided a way for him to return to his beautiful wife!! When you think of our soldiers, never forget to pray for them. They need our prayerful support so very much.

Lieutenant Soldier Boy has had quite a time the last few months. Last fall, he entered Ranger training for a period of......I think it was 9 weeks. Long time to be apart from pregnant wife and baby boy. They had a glad reunion just before Christmas, nice long family visit here and at her folks', but he and baby boy both had bad colds.

By the time they left on New Year's Day, his wife was suffering with that cold. But it was to be more ominous an illness for her. She quickly advanced into pneumonia and was admitted to Army hospital on base. She "seemed" to be getting better, when early on a Sunday morning, the Lieutenant got a call from the hospital to rush over to sign papers for her to be transferred to a larger facility, as they could not handle the crisis she was in. He called here as he drove over, asking me to call folks to pray for his wife.

It turned out she had Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome(ARDS). 60% of people who get this do not survive.(see www.ardusa.com for info on this. It happens far more than most people realize, but you just hear, "Oh he died from complicatioins of......" She was 28 weeks pregnant at the time....so baby was in huge danger as well!

They almost lost her at Army hospital....doctors came out of her room telling our son that he needed to pray and pray hard.......nurses were weeping.....and they were 700 miles away from family members..... I had the job of calling her parents, as our son just wasn't able. How do you tell someone the beautiful girl they just saw a few days before, full of health and vitality, is close to death? I'm not even sure exactly what I said, but both her mom and I rushed to the hospital in Atlanta.

It was a harrowing roller coaster ride for the next few days. But, with each crisis, as I called on God's people to pray, He answered mightily!

Twice they nearly did an emergency c-section because they thought they could "at least save the baby"......but God brought her back. Once her body went into labor....but God stopped the labor.

Now, three months later, Bob and I are just returned from visiting them and their newborn and older son!!! Imagine what it is like, the last time you saw a loved one she was comatose and on a respirator, to come into her home, and there she is, the picture of health and vitality again, holding a precious 9 pound newborn!!! How we had prayed he would get all the way to 40 weeks, and he stayed to 40 weeks and 1 day!!

How Great is our God! He is still doing miracles!!

In the midst of it all, there was Sgt. Soldier Boy in Iraq, adult daughter moving back in with her infant, visits from out of town kids......

So, things have been pretty hectic for me.....but at the same time, I have felt more and more of God's loving kindnes in the busyness of life.

Unspeakably.com - Dealing With Untold Pain

We've now setup the forum at Unspeakably.com
The forum will be all a place for folks to write about their untold hurts and abuse etc. We hope and pray that many will be able to find healing through God.

God Healed My Friend of Cancer

Woohhoo. I just got news that God healed my friend of cancer.
God totally rocks.
I have asked her to write and send me her testimony.
I hope she does. If she writes it I will put it online for you to read and be blessed by it.

Relationships Books Accessible Soon

My friends Bob and Sue Dewing Australia have just sent me their books on Relationships. We will be reproducing the books online on an upcoming website Preaching Magazine. A fellow
pastor will also be sending his sermons which we will make freely accessible online. I am speaking to other pastors too so I hope they will be willing to release the documents soon for use on the site. We pray many people will be blessed by them.

Book titles to be released soon:

One Flesh
Marriage
Dating
Lust or Love?
Strong Drink
Training Children
Television?
The Sin of Onan

I will keep you posted.

My Friend Laura Has a Miracle to Share

I met Laura (who hails from Essex, UK) online 6 years ago on yahoo chat and we've been friends since. We were very blessed to have had the privilege to meet in person April 2005. Laura has an amazing story to tell. Do read her story at http://essexgirl.info/laura. It'll be an ongoing story so keep reading each day.

Focus on the Family

I am pretty impressed, The Malaysian Government has invited Focus on the Family to speak at Family development seminars etc. Being a muslim nation it's pretty surprising. But God does work in mysterious ways. I attended one seminar 2 years ago and today my parents who are Marriage Counselors at their church attended the Government subsidized seminars. They brought home a really snazzy manual which the Government subsidized (wow). Anyways I will write to the Government body to see if I can somehow work out a deal to distribute it on my site or something like that. Pray that God will make something happen. Will keep you updated should anything happen further.

I have invested in 9 Wedding & Marriage related domains with which I hope to develop with assistance of others. Please pray for me as I work things out.
The domains are:
OurWeddingPics.com
OurWeddingCards
FaerieTaleWedding.com
WeddingPublications.com
WeddingContact.com
Solemnization.com
Solemnized.com
OurLovelyHoneymoon.com
HelpForMarriages.com

Do post your feedback or have ideas you think would be of benefits in developing the wedding / marriage sites at http://helpformarriages.com/forum

Information on Mesothelioma

I have just added a full segment on Mesothelioma which you can now access at http://doctored.biz/mesothelioma.html

I am purchasing a suite of Medical & Healthcare Professionals databases next month. This will enable people to do live searches right from the site. Even though the databases will cost me a bomb I would like to make the site available to the public totally free. I hope this will be helpful to many.

There will be over 1,500,000 entries in the databases:
U.S. Dental Laboratories Database
U.S. Dentists Database
U.S. Dialysis Facilities Database
U.S. Health Insurance Agents Database
U.S. Homecare Agencies Database
U.S. Hospice Care Facilities Database
U.S. Hospitals Database
U.S. Massage Therapists Database
U.S. Medical Billing Services Database
U.S. Medical Equipment Supplier Database
U.S. Medical Records Services Database
U.S. Nursing Homes Database
U.S. Optometrists Database
U.S. Pharmacies Database
U.S. Doctors / Physicians Database

If you would like to sponsor financially towards the development of the site please contact Jeremy via email: database @ doctored.biz.

Thanks.

Discipline in the Christian Home

I'm spending a few days with the oldest daughter. She just gave birth to her third little boy, and needed some help recovering and developing the "new normal" that comes about with the addition of a new family member.

We were having a talk the other night about discipline as her dad and I did it when she was young, the things we feel we did wrong, and the things I would change could I travel through time.

She brought up a book called "Shepherding a Child's Heart" which is highly recommended by many Christians. I have to say that there are some things that I just don't think I could recommend the book.

I know that the Bible says that to spare the rod of correction is to spoil the child, and I'm not saying that we should never spank....but in my own experience, many Christians overuse the spanking option for much too minor offenses than is necessary. Please understand that I'm judging myself on this issue. I was one of those Christian parents. I was told that EVERY little disobedience or procrastination was grounds for a spanking. Because I was young, and these were CHRISTIANS and more experienced as parents than I was, I did all they told me.

If you are reading this, and you are a young parent, please read more than one book or idea of parenting. Reasearch lots of methods. Especially if you have more than one child, because what works with one may not work with a second child.

Be flexible. Don't be afraid to spank if it's warranted, but don't use spanking exclusively in developing discipline in your child.

Make sure your life has some discipline. Don't be going off the handle at every little thing.(I had to learn this the hard way too.....)

Mostly, read your Bible. Yes, it does say that sparing the rod with spoil the child, but it also says not to provoke your child to anger.

For practical tips on spanking:

Make sure the child understands what he did wrong

Take him to someplace private for scolding or spanking.

Don't remove undies. Leave them their modesty. Take down jeans, or they won't feel the spanking enough to make it worth while. Light weight shorts are ok to leave up.

Don't spank when YOU are angry. If you can't cool down, then jsut don't spank. But you should set an example of not letting your emotions rule your actions.

When the spanking is over, offer forgiveness without MAKING them say they're sorry. Tell them that Jesus died on the cross for them, and took the "spanking" we all deserve from God.

Try to get them to commit to not doing that thing again.

Pray for them to have the strength to not do it again.

When you walk out of hte room where the spanking occured, the event is OVER. Don't bring it up again in front of the child, except to tell the other parent what happened, and that it was dealt with, and child will try not to do that again.

Don't further punish the child with no dessert or snacks or other privileges. If you're going to use privilege-loss for discipline, then use that. If you're using spanking, then use that...unless it's a MAJOR offense that needs are MAJOR response.

Make sure you've told the child several times in teh process that you love him, and make sure you are kind to him after it's "all over". It can be easy to be angry and hold a grudge, but this is not what God does with us. We should not do it with our children.

The Teddy Bear That Gave His Life for His Country.......

Ok, so the son is in training in preparation for that deployment to Iraq. Despite a real roller coaster ride, including an injured foot that the doctors couldn't decide if it was broken or not......he's back "in the field" although a bit gimpy.

They had rifle training, and he was one of just a few who qualified as expert. Now, this boy hasn't always qualified that well, when I realized that ever since he graduated the police academy, he's come out to one of our neighbor's fields to work on target practice.

so, what does the young cop use as a target when he doesn't want to spend money on a specialized target? How about the well-worn teddy bears of his youth?

So, each week, another poor teddy that I didn't have the heart to throw away, gives his "life" for his country, as he is carried unceremoniously through the woods, out to the creek, at the lip of the field. He's set up on a stump, and executed with deadly accuracy.

Although Teddy was drafted into the service, he goes along uncomplainingly, as his fluff falls upon the earth.

Violent? In a way, yes. But, I am ever so grateful for Teddy, because his sacrifice may end up being instrumental in avoiding the blood of my son falling upon the earth, or the blood of a son of another military parent.....because Teddy was the target of hours of practice....and the expert qualification of my soldier.