As an INTJ female (for those into Myers-Briggs and the like), I am a hard person to know, and an even harder person to love. I wonder if someday my children will want to know what really went on in my brain. I shall leave them this gift. Well, maybe not so much a "gift" as an extremely uncomfortable last will and testament.
The kids went to Christ's Church of the Valley's Safari VBS last week. As part of CCV's evil VBS marketing scheme, you must come to the service the following Sunday morning to get your VBS tee shirt. Since we were planning on attending anyway, the kids were excited to get their tee shirts.
When we picked Colson and Ava up from their class, everyone had their VBS tee shirts on over their clothes. Cole and Ava were jumping around showing us their tee shirts. I went up to get Zachary from his class, and as I walked in, the sea of lime green showed that every single kid up there had their camp shirts on as well.
Every kid except Zachary. He had his tee shirt slung over his shoulder. He was the only kid in that whole building of probably 800 kids who wasn't wearing a lime green tee shirt.
When Zach saw me he walked over and handed me the tee shirt. He said:
"Mom, can you wash this when we get home? It smells funny and I don't want to wear it until it smells right."
799 kids aren't swaying him, that's for sure. I'll never have to worry about Zach jumping off a bridge.
When I was a young teen, my Dad took me to a Walk Thru The Bible seminar. I'm sure for most teenage girls, that experience would have been a horrible eye-rolling memory, but I was not your average teenage girl. My Dad could have taken me to a Dog Turd Carving Slash Flagellation Seminar, and I would have been chomping at the bit to go.
But as it turned out, this seminar was an INTJ's dream. An entire day of memorizing a long series of hand motions to help you remember every main event in the Bible, are you kidding me??? Sign me up every day of the week!! I believe we did the Old Testament seminar, because I remember the "Creation, Fall, Flood" portion really well. I'd go again now as an adult and take my kids. They'd get a huge kick out of it.
Driving home from church two weeks ago, Colson said this out of the blue:
"I want to live twice so I can die and see what it's like, and then come back and not die..."
So I said, "Well, if you go to heaven when you die, you won't want to come back because it will be so great." He replied, "How do you know it will be great?" I said, "Well, the Bible talks some about what heaven will be like. There will be no sadness and no pain, and you'll be happy all the time and you'll live forever."
Cole says, "Wow, so I'd have a good life there??" I said yes, you'd have a good life. But I told him that you can't get there unless you believe in God and ask him to come into your heart and obey him. I said that's how you become a Christian. Cole thought about that for a minute. "So if I become a Christian, I get to go to heaven and have a good life forever?". "Yes, Cole. But", I said, "you have to really mean it. You can't just be joking. God knows if you're serious or not."
"Well then I'm going to do that. Dear God, please come into my heart and let me be a Christian, because I want to have a good life in heaven with you."
Zachary pipes up, "I'm going to do it too! Dear God, please come into my heart so I can be a Christian and live forever. I love you for letting me be a Christian."
Cole says, "Ava, are you going to do it too?" Ava says, "Yes, but I'm going to do it in my room when I get home." "No, you have to do it now." "Fine....Dear God, please come into my heart and make me a Christian so I can come to heaven."
The funniest part of this story happened after all three kids made their professions of faith. Zachary just kept saying, to no one in particular, "Wow! I can't believe I'm a Christian! That's so cool. Can you believe I'm a Christian??!?" It was like his application had just been accepted at this cool super elite club that he never imagined he'd get into. I felt like he'd have said "I'll do it too!" to any interesting group I'd talked about. I could have asked if he wanted to be a Buddhist Monk, a Vegetarian Nudist, a Communist Guerrilla Soldier, and he'd have become one of those with the same enthusiasm as "Christian", just because it sounded so cool....it's a good thing this option came up before any of those others.
Ava kept quoting verses that proved the truth of what had just happened. She'd be quiet for a moment, and then say, "Oh yeah, it's like John 3:16 when it says "whoever believes in me will not perish but have eternal life!". Then she'd think for a while and say, "Right, like Romans 6:23, "the gift of God is eternal life in Jesus"...." She was connecting dots in her head all over the place, finding proof texts and making a Powerpoint presentation, ready to defend her position.
And Colson must have said 27 times, "Now I can have a good life when I'm alive, AND after I die!". He kept double checking with me to make sure that heaven was going to be really great, because God forbid he turn his life around only to end up somewhere so-so. If he's going to put out the effort to follow someone else's rules, the end result better be something fantastic. (Every time he talked about "the good life", he sounded like a beer commercial. )
We shall see if any of these professions are lasting ones, but they sure made for an entertaining car ride that day.
I am such a huge fan of the k12 curriculum. My favorite k12 subject by far has been history. Let me tell you why.
k12 is not a Christian curriculum. It is a public school curriculum that is also made available for purchase by homeschooling parents and private schools, although most public schools don't use k12 because it is one of the more expensive curricula.
The history course begins in Kindergarten, in place of the more common "Social Studies", which was a huge selling point for me. Social Studies should be what parents teach their kids every day. Social Studies is just living life. Don't waste time on it in the classroom.
In my opinion, a great start to a great education includes learning how to read and write at high levels, learning deductive reasoning, which for me begins with learning math and science at an early age, and developing a wealth of knowledge of historical facts and references. If that wealth of knowledge can also include a healthy use of another language, all the better. I believe all of these things can be accomplished by 5th or 6th grade, at which point advanced maths and sciences, and specific courses should be introduced, such as Economics and Politics.
(Music and Art and Physical Education I would group together under one category: The Arts. I don't think you need to delve deeply into all three all the time, but certainly having some form of the arts included in your education is beneficial.)
But I digress. Back to k12's history curriculum. I love how k12 handles the topic of religion. Religion is mentioned a great deal in the history course. And why shouldn't it be? A huge component to understanding a culture and their history is understanding their religion. Religion is why wars were fought and why new nations began. Religion has played such a huge role in the course of history, you cannot avoid it.
And yet most curricula dance around religion, especially the Christian religion. k12 addresses it head on. In history this year, Ava has and/or will be learning about Judaism, Egyptian gods and goddesses, Hinduism, and Buddhism. She's learning about how each religion began, and the basics of what the followers of each religion believe. Each religion is treated with respect and with equal time, and none of the religions are promoted as "right" or superior.
I had no interest in finding a Christian curriculum to use for my children. My goal was to find a curriculum that was academically challenging and technologically advanced. In my mind, while you can become a Christian at a young age, you need advanced deductive reasoning skills to really further your knowledge of God.
If you've taught your children how to reason from a young age, you can trust that they'll come to what is real and right on their own as adults. This is why a challenging education is so important. If young children were taught how to think and how to ask questions and how to challenge themselves and others, this country would become a much different place.
History reeks of God. Science reeks of God. Math reeks of God. Literature reeks of God. God is everywhere, in all of education. You can't escape it. So just teach your kids, teach them all of it. You don't need to send them to a religious school for them to learn religion, education IS religion. God shows himself through all of it. Just give them the skills to recognize Him.
Bror Saxberg, the CLO of k12, explains the concepts behind the k12 curriculum. His "Big Ideas" concept was another selling point for me.
I watched "Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed", the Ben Stein Intelligent Design documentary, the other night. So good. It was overflowing with NT temperaments, so of course I was captivated by hearing my language through an entire movie. The animated depiction of the amount of complexity in the single cell was AWESOME. It's on Comcast On Demand right now, if you have Showtime. Some of my thoughts:
The reason that the debate between science and religion sparks such strong reactions is fear. Most scientists are terrified of religion, and most Christians are terrified of science. Both sides are operating out of fear, and in fear there is no growth.
Christians should have no fear of science. The more scientists try to disprove the existence of God, the more they will find Him. Scientists should have no fear of God, because they don't believe He exists.
Darwinists can't explain how the single cell came into existence. They think they have an explanation for how, from it, came human life as we know it, but they can't explain how that first cell came to be. They will throw out some theories, (aliens "seeding" our planet, proteins growing on the backs of crystals) but even they know those theories sound ridiculous.
Their belief that somehow, by some miraculous coincidence, everything that is needed to make the most complex of systems, a self-reproducing single celled organism, came together at the right time is just as unlikely as the belief that an intelligent designer formed that single cell.
The theories are equally ludicrous. And yet one is correct. Darwinists scoff at those who believe in an intelligent designer, and yet they know that their theories sound just as crazy. Neither theory can be proven (although science is trying to prove it with the Large Hadron Collider...which I call the Tower Of Babel 2.0.).
Science and religion, to me, is a beautiful marriage. I "see" God through science. Some Christians see God through other people's actions, but I see God through examining the world He created. The complex workings of the human body, the amazing interlocking workings of a particular ecosystem, pretty much any Discovery channel show, all I see is God God God.
So much more to say, I may have to talk about this again....
My dance partner Richard received an email containing the following photos and poem:
Every Year Christmas Comes and Santa brings us gifts
But God provides the energy for him to give to all that’s on his list God provides the snow and he gave us the sky So thank him, because without him where would Santa fly? God watches us day and night 365 days a year And then he tells Santa who’s been a good or bad reindeer So don’t believe that Santa does everything on his own Because since God and him are friends Santa never works alone
And we Christians wonder why the world is always laughing at us. Christians give Christianity a bad name.
A couple years ago, my brother Andrew sent me a gift for Colson. It was a Bible. Not just any Bible, but the most precious Bible of all. This Bible was so precious that I have never given it to Colson, knowing he would have just ruined it. I've kept this Bible in a special safe place all these years. It is far too special to put on display and write the dates of family births and deaths in...
To this day, I still have a hard time giving it to Colson. But I've decided the time has come; that Colson is ready for it, ready to understand the value and importance of this Bible. So maybe this Christmas I'll give him Andrew's gift, 3 years later.
What?? You don't know about The Picture Bible??? Do you live under a rock? It's only the greatest translation of the Bible ever written (or drawn, I guess). It's the entire Bible in comic strip form. I believe the individual stories were originally single tracts, and this Bible is all of the tracts put together. King James ain't got nothin' on this bad boy...
It's the only Bible Andrew's ever read, and he wanted to bequeath it to Colson. I only hope Colson will respect it in the way it deserves.
I'm going to have to agree with Jason Boyett on this one. Calling the time spent singing praise songs that are full of "meaningless Jesus-is-my-boyfriend language" worshipis stupid. You'd better be doing something more than clapping your hand to a kickin' praise band to worship God....
Bible Study Methods part 1, by Bob Lewis, is now available for download here. Let me know if you have any trouble downloading this. I will be using this method to deliver Dad's videos from now on. In the future, if you'd like a copy of any video that has expired from the file share site, just send me an email and I'll upload that video again for you.
This is the first class in a series designed to teach you how to study the Bible. I apologize for the poor lighting, I couldn't find a great spot to video from. I'll also try to work on better video quality for next time.
My battery died at one hour. There was about 20-30 minutes more after that point. The homework assignment was given out after the battery died. So if you're in need of the homework assignment, send me an email and I'll get it to you.
My kids are doing Christ's Church of the Valley's VBS again this week. I am going to re-post my thoughts from last year, because the same problem exists this year. When I picked my kids up (and my great-nephew Thomas, who is staying with us and attending VBS) from their first day yesterday, this was the conversation:
Me: Did you guys have fun?
Them: If we bring the most friends, we will win a Nintendo DS!
Me: Did you make any new friends?
Them: No, but can we bring all of our friends tomorrow, so we can win the DS?
Me: Did you learn anything?
Them: Yes, that if we bring the most friends we'll win a DS!
Again, CCV's VBS is poorly attended this year, with over 1000 kids on the first day. So read on, last year's thoughts are still applicable today.....
My kids recently attended VBS at Christ's Church of the Valley, where we regularly attend. My kids loved it, it's very well organized and very "whoopie".
I just have a few issues with CCV's VBS (I like typing and saying that...I say it out loud to myself every time I type it. Try it, it's fun!). The first is, CCV holds a contest among the kids for who can bring the most new people to VBS, and whoever wins gets a shiny new scooter.
Now, I realize, CCV's VBS is poorly attended. I know plenty of churches around here that get those numbers. Those numbers won't get CCV into any hall of fame, that's for sure..........
But on both Thursday and Friday morning's drive to camp, both of my older children were crying. Why? Because we had "forgotten" to bring friends to camp, thus ending their opportunity to win the shiny new scooter. For one, the sadness even turned into a twinge of anger at me, for not helping in the quest for the scooter.
Wow, fun camp! Can't wait for next year!
Putting pressure on children is more than slightly pathetic. If you absolutely can't help yourself in the quest for more more more, send a note home to the parents. Put the pressure on the people who are more equipped for it, the adults. Fight fair. You don't have to sit in the car for 35 minutes every morning with my children and talk them down from their ledge. VBS isn't supposed to make my life difficult and make my children feel stress.
My kids went to a lovely little VBS at a local Mennonite church with some friends a few weeks ago. This church had a total of 25 kids attending, in grades K-6. Gotta tell ya, there were no clowns or flashing lights or giant Moonbounces, but my kids didn't cry on the way to camp every morning....the attitude there was simply "your friends are welcome here!".
Also, CCV does tons of advertising beforehand. Tons of marketing. Which is great. Get the word out there. But once camp starts, why not focus completely on the kids who are ALREADY THERE? Why make the kids who are already there feel like it's not about them? You only win a prize around here if you bring more people.
My last issue is that it seems like CCV's VBS is just a big push to get more people coming to Sunday services. Get the parents to come back here. Do whatever it takes to get the families to come back on Sunday.
Why is so much focus on Sunday numbers? Why not just focus on the kids who come to camp? I realize that the paybacks of that focus would be much more long term than next Sunday, but shouldn't that be what a KID'S camp should be about? Planting seeds in children's minds and souls? So that in 10-20 years down the road when they get their first car, they might have a moment where they say to their mothers "hey, remember that cool VBS you took me to that one summer? Remember those Bible verses they taught me? I've been thinking about those lately, and I think I might want to go back there".
Slightly manipulative, I must say. And manipulating via children....
Hey, here's an idea...why not give out a scooter to whoever memorizes the most Bible verses?!!!!! At least that contest wouldn't be self-serving.
I can't help but feel like my kids were used as pawns in someone else's contest for THEIR shiny new scooter.....child labor is illegal, you know.
While at Hershey Park yesterday, Eric mentioned to the kids that there might be fireworks once it got dark. Walking out of the park at 9:45pm, with no fireworks in sight, Zachary said:
"Mom! We forgot to pray and ask God to start the fireworks! You know he can do fireworks because he's magic...."
Last Thursday I was teaching Zach his verse for Awana that night. He learns them really fast, they're not whole verses, just little shortened blurbs. Last week's was "For God so loved that world that He gave His son".
So he learned it and I went to get into the shower. A few minutes later, he walks into the bathroom...
Zach: MOM!
Me: What?
Zach: I can say my verse!
Me: Okay, say it.
Zach: "Stinky poo-poo diaper baby"....................Is that correct?
Me: Yes.
Zach: Oh great! Thanks, Mom.
Oh, that kid is delicious. I just cannot WAIT to see what he's like as a teenager. The world has no idea what's in store...
Driving home from practice last Monday night, I was listening to the Eagles/Browns game on the radio. I haven't listened to a game on the radio ever, I think, and I have to say that the radio announcers are SO MUCH BETTER at speaking than the TV sportscasters are.
I was reminded of the old radio show Unshackled, produced by Pacific Garden Mission. When I was a young girl, I'd listen to Unshackled every night at 7:30. I didn't even realize they were still broadcasting. Apparently, it's now the longest running radio drama in history. Listening to a current episode, not much has changed, and I love that! Organ music has to accompany Unshackled, nothing else will do.
Why do people argue over whether God is a man or a woman?
If you believe that God is in any way, shape or form HUMAN, then you're already way off base.
Don't you know your catechism, folks? God is a SPIRIT, infinite, eternal and unchanging in his being, wisdom, power, holiness, justice, goodness and truth.
God is nothing that you can understand or know. You can apply nothing that you know about humans to him. When you argue male or female, you're debasing what God is.
Yes, there are times in Scripture when God, in trying to explain himself to us, used human terms. When he revealed himself to us, he had to do so in a way that we could even minutely grasp. When the Bible uses words like "Father" and "He", those are just words that we can understand to mean someone who protects us, loves us, disciplines us. We get a certain stereotype in our minds when we hear "Father". Think of it as an analogy for what God is to us. Scripture could have said "Mother" and "She", but for some reason God didn't choose to identify himself that way.
But don't get tripped up that those terms mean God is ACTUALLY a male.
It seems like Christians get hung up when they start applying humanity to God.
As Mr. Tumnus says to Lucy Pevensie, in regards to Aslan, "He's not a tame lion, you know...". That line is repeated a few times through the Chronicles of Narnia, whenever anyone tried to speak for Aslan, and assume they knew what he would do.
You have to remember that God is NOTHING that we can understand. NOTHING that we can know. NOTHING like us. All we can know are the little drops of information that He's left us in the Bible. And that ain't much to go on.
You cannot apply Webster's to God. You cannot apply human emotions or human thought to God. You cannot apply time as we know it to God.
So the minute you say "I don't think God would want yadda yadda", or "I can't imagine God would yadda yadda", or "I'm sure God thinks yadda yadda", you're already starting off on the wrong foot.
You CAN'T imagine what God, or how God, or why God. You're incapable of it. So don't even try.
Don't you know your Catechism? God is a spirit, infinite, eternal and unchangeable in His being. Do you think you know anything about being that??!?!?
What would Jesus do? You can't know! You're not a perfect human. So you can't think perfectly. So you don't have the capability to answer that question. Only another perfect human can answer that.
You can ask What Does The Bible Say Jesus Would Do? But YOU can't presume to know on your own what Jesus would do. (I'm going to make W.D.T.B.S.J.W.D bracelets...think they'll catch on?)
Think of God as an alien, from another solar system. If there are beings living on other planets, we can't even begin to imagine how they would look, how they would think, what their actions would be, what their language would be. We can speculate, but that's it.
This is where faith comes in.
He's not a tame God, you know....
(on a side note, funny story...the first time my mother saw one of those "Live Strong" bracelets, it was on the wrist of a waiter at a restaurant. She says "What is that around your wrist, a flea collar??" I died laughing................)
A snazzy purse, Seeing a child standing in a parking place while the mom maneuvers the car around to be able to put her vehicle in that spot, A car stuck on top of a curb stop which can't go either forwards or backwards A mother controlling her rowdy child, while in a store, without attracting attention, Having coffee out. Talking temperaments Not losing control of situations. Flashy shoes, American Idol, Laughing a lot, Competitions Bingo
Things that remind me of Bob: Cleaning bathrooms, I heard lots of stories about you and your boys cleaning bathrooms. In fact it made such an impression on me that I sometimes pick up a couple of paper towels and tidy up a bit. Scripture memory, The way that you make hard things so easy to understand in your teaching. Keeping tuf and tender.
Happy Anniversary! Marge Crumby
What I love most about your mom is her commitment to being who she really is. She doesn't try to meet other's expectations or fit into any role, but is quite happy being herself. By her example, I learned not to apologize for who I am or to live according to what others wanted or needed me to be. I remember she said (many years ago when I was in my early twenties, trying to please parents, 3 children, in-laws, husband and all the people at church), "I realize that I can never please everyone....so I just please myself." Glory hallelujah! This is what we all need to hear. "Thank you, Jan, for this marvelous message and for living the life so uniquely your own. I believe it is what makes you one of the most interesting people I have ever known. We need more phenomenal women like you in the world."
Much Love! Sharon Martin
Dear Bob and Jan, Congratulations! As you celebrate what God has done in and through your lives over the years please know how grateful I am to have been a part of your life and family. My year living with you, which begun at Duck Pond Road was a great year. If it were not for being a part of your family, I probably would not have gone to the Philippines, attended Law School, married Cynthia, had 6 children, run for office, been elected, and now be at Prison Fellowship. In short, it was a life changing experience. It marked me forever in very positive ways.
I have some fabulous memories of our times together. Here is a random strand -- waxing that blasted slate kitchen floor, running till I puked, trying to read and run at the same time, eating Amy’s pancakes for breakfast, using leftover pancakes for sandwiches at lunch as I tried to be the maintenance man for Racquet club apartments, destroying more things at Racquet Club apartments than I fixed, changing Suzanne’s diaper while eating a peanut butter sandwich – a feat that held me in good stead later with my own children, working one night at the Nav office when a couple crashed through the doors fighting one another(there was good police response in West Chester as I recall), Jan’s serene nature in the midst of occasional utter chaos, Eric’s love affair with high school academics, Bob’s annoying capacity to actually remember what he reads, Bob trying to get Stevie to eat on his terms, Stevie trying to eat on his own terms, doing laundry, doing laundry, doing laundry, Tony and Vinnie, Stevie sitting in the middle of the floor on his first day at the house, great meals together, POWDERED MILK! (By the way I have tried to introduce the delights of powdered milk to my family on more than one occasion – I would have had more success getting them to eat ferret on a stick!, great times in the word, a sense of being loved, a sense of profound gratitude that endures to this day!
Thanks for being faithful to your friends, your family and to one another. Dare I say the best is yet to come?
Love, Mark Earley
Dear, dear Jan,
What a great friend and mentor you were to me during those great years we spent in Virginia and Texas together so very long ago. You taught me how to really love my children and how to enjoy them in the process of teaching and training them. Our children were so close together I never took the time to really enjoy them. What a difference it made in my parenting style and in my attitude toward them. My goal as a mother was more on performance rather than on relationship in those days before I met you. This was also true in the way I sought to disciple other women. Thank you so much for teaching me these vital lessons in the early days of our discipling ministery with The Navigators. Thank you for so deeply impacting my life. I am sure my children and grandchildren would thank you as well for these vital lessons you taught me.
Also, I will never forget your love and friendship you displayed to me when you took the time to come to my house and teach me how to make a jumper dress for my daughter Melanie when she was five years old. I think you invested several days in doing this for me over the course of several weeks. To me that was the sign of a true friend! With much love and gratitude, Mary Lou Duke
Dear Bob and Jan, Congratulations on your 50th wedding anniversary! You both seem far too young for that milestone. God certainly has blessed you both through your children, grandchildren, and now great-grandchildren. Plus, there were many many more that you “raised”!
In 1967-1968 you graciously brought me into your home while Eric, Amy and Andrew were very young. I was your first “teenager”. I had no where else to live. How can I ever express my deep gratitude to the Lord for both of you. I know it wasn’t easy – it was a challenge – having me there, but you made me part of your family that year and I will always be so grateful.
Thank you for being towers of strength to the Lord for me and others, so many others through the years. I feel so honored that God allowed me to be in your home that year. How very gracious of the Lord to give me Godly examples during such a vulnerable time in my life. Your living examples of Godliness paved a pattern for me to follow.
As Paul states in Phillipians 1, “Every time you cross my mind, I break out in exclamations of thanks to God. Each exclamation is a trigger to prayer. I find myself praying for you with a glad heart.” May God continue to bless you and your dear family as you faithfully follow Christ and lead others to Him. Love, Leonore and Harvey Friez
Dear Suzanne, Your Dad and I worked together in the pro-life rescue movement; I have often shared jail cells with him. Beyond that, he showed great courage in taking a leadership position in pro-life rescue, at a time when many others, who should have joined him, ducked out. I am well aware he suffered because of his activities on behalf of our unborn brothers and sisters. Truly, he is one of the pro-life movement’s heros. I would add that he is my personal hero; I admire and respect him immensely. God bless Bob and Jan on their 50th. Ad multos annos! Joesph Wall
Dear Bob and Jan, Congratulations! Fifty years of faithful covenant unity is sure a great testimony of God’s faithfulness to a lost world. Your lives of dedicated service has obviously been paid back, multiplied by God.
I first met Bob in the early 70’s through Larry Heppes, who Bob was discipling. Hearing about Bob and watching his life of dedication to service, bible study, scripture memory, meditation in the word, encouragement of young believers greatly influenced me. God put a zeal for evangelism in me and a love for discipleship. As for me and my family we are still, in a large measure because of you, serving the Lord as our major thrust in life. We give you a great WELL DONE God’s good and faithful servants. We love you both Jack and Nancy Daggett
Dear Bob and Jan, My memories are fond, and the time I spent with your family was a happy and rewarding one. I still remember lots of cups of coffee with Bob, and his great generosity toward me in the work of the ministry. He took time to talk to me, and let me “drive” often enough to get me feet under me. His version of wisdom was always something pithy, a saying or a hand gesture that reinforced a guiding principle (like “prior preparation prevents poor performance” or the three-stage hand movement describing three levels of “having your people” --- from the closed fist which grips them, to the open hand on which they rest of their own accord, to the upside down hand where they have to cling tightly to stay onboard!
And as for Jan, I will never forget “creating” that little musical number we pieced together from show tunes, about the whole life experience of a couple from courtship (“I am sixteen going on seventeen”) to marriage (“ease on down the road”) to children (“It’s a hard knock life” and “little girls”) to sometime in the middle years (I think it was a tune from My Fair Lady, but I forget which one?) to the wishfulness for more (my big number “If I were a rich man”) and finally to the wistful look backward (“Sunrise, sunset”). We made quite a couple, Jan and I!
I wish I could be with you all for the big celebration. I am sure more memories would come flooding back, and we would all laugh and cry. Be assured that we love you, and wish the very best for you by the grace of God. Still yours, Craig and Betsy
Congratulations, Bob and Jan - what a huge milestone! I'm so sorry I can't be there for the party to celebrate with you - I can't think of another 50th anniversary party I'd rather be a part of than yours. Bob, you have taught me so much... I think I refer to you at least once a day on average, sharing some truth that you have imparted to me. I am so thankful that the Lord placed me in Prison Fellowship and allowed me to have you as my supervisor and then to continue working with you for a few more years. You have really revolutionized my theology and my understanding of a life that pleases the Lord.
As Graham and I (hopefully) start a family soon, I feel so much better prepared for marriage, parenting, involvement in the church, etc. than I was when I first met you. I hope that by the time I'm your age and having a 50 year anniversary party with Graham that I will be able to look back and have positively influenced even half of the lives you have. Thank you for your patience, teaching, guidance and love over the last few years. And Jan, thank you for sharing him with so many others to do all of this discipleship work and for keeping him in line and healthy along the way! I have really enjoyed getting to meet you and spend a little bit of time with you and seeing what an incredible woman you are. Only a strong, beautiful, wonderful woman could walk through life with Bob. God bless you both as you continue into the next 50 years of your marriage :)
Here are some excerpts from a few of the great tributes that people from around the globe sent to my parents:
Dear Bob and Jan,
Congratulations on 50 years of modeling what God intended for marriage. Jan and I often discuss the many things we learned from you both when we were single and after we married in 1974. The time I spent living in your home and in Bible study with Bob and the time Jan spent in Bible study with Jan have had a profound, life-changing impact. Many principles for daily living were taught, but even more was caught from your example. Over the years we have taken the principles you provided for our relationship and for child-rearing, filtered them through our own experience, and used them in teaching opportunities with many couples. Right now, one of our greatest joys is actively interacting with young married couples in the same place in their lives where we were when we moved to the East Coast to be around you. Plus is it exciting to see God working through our children to raise our grandchildren with many of the same principles we learned from you. Mike and Jan Skipper
Dear Suzanne, many and happy are our memories of Bob and Jan. 'So glad you're hosting a well deserved celebration. I'm sure one which will be recounted by many is Jan on a diet eating the entire German chocolate cake (to hide the evidence) while Bob was flying missions over Cuba. And your dad kindly risked his life on numerous occasions teaching me to fly-by God's grace we're both still here to remember.
Probably the most important and outstanding characteristic of both Bob and Jan which comes to mind is their singlemindedness of purpose in life. The Scripture that comes to mind when thinking of the is Col. 3:23,"And whatever you do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men". Hopefully your time together will be characterized by laughter, tears, fond memories and a spirit of hope and joy for the time you continue to serve the Lord together in days to come. Skip and Buzzie Gray
As a former Marine it was a joy to have another Marine, Bob, on my team.
The love and dedication of Bob and Jan were such a temendous blessing to all of us. I loved to jog but being around Bob just blew most of us away because he jogged twice a day. We all prided ourselves in our Scripture memory and review but I finally had to tell Bob to keep quiet about what he was doing in his review of Scripture verses. Nobody could keep up with him. I have never forgotten that and today at age 75 as I review my Bible Verses and stuggle to keep on top of them I think of Bob Lewis and that gives me a little extra push that I need. Ron and Joyce York
Bob and Jan, Congratulations! Hasn't the grace of our God been rich in your lives! I was pleased to get this information in order to express congratuations and gratitude for the years of help and discipleship you give to me and my family. Father uses so many ways to mature us in Christ and your lives were certainly used by Him at important times in our lives. We remain grateful for all the time and love you gave us. I appreciate your love for the Kingdom of Christ and for His Word. Your zeal to know and memorize God's Word remains an example for me. I continue to remember and use some of your nuggets of wisdom, Bob, such as "See a lot, work on a little!" Or "Tough and Tender." Or "If you think you're ripe, you're rotten; if you think you're green, you're growing." We are still in ministry among the saints, working with young couples, working with young men, preaching the Word and doing evangelism in part because of your example and influence in our lives. I want to thank you for that and I thank our God for the years we had together. May our Lord Jesus Christ continue his hand of blessing, grace and mercy on your lives until we all reach that wonderful eternal Rest. Sincere, Harry Stoliker
Bob,
For so many years you were an exemplary leader in the pro-life movement in the Philadelphia area. Your strength and guidance in the rescue movement helped bring many people to witness and sacrifice for the defenseless unborn children. You have inspired us and we are so grateful for your wonderful Christian life. To you and your lovely wife, Jan, we honor your commitment to each other through all these years together. May God continue to bless you and your family with health and happiness!
Love, Lori and Frank Cotterall
I will be posting more tributes throughout the next few days.
For most of us, we'll be lucky if we have ONE person who says these kinds of things about us when we're older. My parents have left an extremely long and wide trail of changed lives behind them as they've walked through life.
I will be posting video of Bob Lewis's "Explore The Book" class, which he holds at Christ's Church of the Valley every Thursday night at 7. I encourage everyone to come out to this class. You will be amazed by what you learn.
I apologize for this clip, which is only the first 40 minutes or so of last week's class. I neglected to change the resolution of the video before I started filming, so the memory card couldn't hold the full hour. Next week I will post the session in it's entirety.
