Anniversary

Well it's been a full year since the accident. It's also been a full year that my grandfather died. I really did not think about it till my wife reminded me of it. It has been a week of reflection since the reminder. If I don't stay busy I can see the accident happening again and again. Don't interpret this as being depressed because I am not. I just believe in looking at the past and learning from it. This week I have reflected a lot when I should have been doing my homework for college. Oh well. Reflection is good. It has allowed me to deal with the past year. It helps physcologically to help heal. The scars are deep but not as deep as Jesus endured.
I will begin next week to start a rough draft for a book about this past year. I will post it here on my blog. I hope that I will have more followers to the blog so that I can get some people to critique the book. I also hope to start to connect more with others. Especially now that I have been off of pain medication now for over 2 months. My mental capacity has cleared and allowed me to really think.
Help me celebrate the past and what God has done with it and continues to do with me and my family. Celebrate life with me because I am alive. Celebrate that I can walk and move and function.

November Update

WOW, has November flown by! I started working in November after much STRESS and you all know what to do about that,Phil 4:6,7. I just have to be reminded about every know and again. My wife had to remind me that the old cynical me was returning since I returned to work. So I will have to call upon my humble friend to remind me. I know all of you are those humble friends. So you better start reminding me. I started November 10th and Algebra started at the same time. (Thanks to TK and JM for helping me, I would not have the success that I am Having if were not for you 2)

The transition to work and school have been a challenge to me, but as Paul said we must finish the race! I wish Paul were here today so that he could keep me motivated. I hope to get back with my mentor studying with him. He is mentoring with me with the Paul and Timothy approach. He has also had some health issues as well, so it has been a while since we last met.

I finish with this, God is great and greatly to be praised. After 38 years I finally understand Romans 8:28. My accident was not good, but it has worked out for the good of those that believe. ALL THINGS. It is so easy to fall back into a negative outlook and attitude so I have to constantly tell myself ALL THINGS. I must keep on running the race. See you all soon!

In His love and strength,
accident2008workedoutforgood@gmail.com

Having to Live by Faith

Today has many opportunities. I am not starting my new job today due to current employer not verifying employment. The new employer gives a base salary based upon a point system and verifying employment carries a great deal of points. It would mean being able to support our family with no outside help (if current employer verifies) or having a base salary that would require outside help for well over a year. New employer's rules are that once you start working there, they will not change pay until 6 month review's are done. Even at that it would take several years to "catch up" with the base salary they want to start me out with. I truly do not understand current employer not verifying employment because he told me in July that if I found a better job that I should take it and he would not be mad with me. Direct quote. It is hard to understand.
For those of you that we go to church with know we had a guest speaker and boy did the Holy Spirit move with in our church. He spoke about the paralytic man being lowered down inside of the top of a house just so that his friends faith would allow him to be close to Jesus and Jesus healed him based upon "their faith." The entire passage was incredible how the speaker spoke about the setting and what went on in those days to give us a better perspective of the passage so that we would not just blow by it.
I say all of that to tell you that this year this family has had to learn how to live by faith and trust that God is in control. He continues to prove to us that in all things work together for the good of those that believe.
The things that have happened have not been good by themselves but all things have worked and are working out for the good of those that believe.
Here is a challenge fellow believers. Are you showing the character and faith so that God can work out all things together for the good of those that believe? Some of you can testify to it but are all of "us working together for the good of those that believe?"
Romans 8:28 is a challenge to me everyday! But I have to remember to ask myself the same question in every circumstance.
2 Timothy 2:24-26 should point me in the right direction. Remember God redeemed us through the shed blood of Jesus Christ. Our God is a God of redeemption and so we should also strive to redeem relationships that are strained.
Please be in prayer for our family that we would do the right things as God wants us to do them. Love you guys.

October Blur

These last 2 weeks of this month have been a blur to me. It seems like it has taken forever for the last 2 weeks to pass by. With the 2 kids involved with football now and their seasons coming to end, from having to write for my English writing composition class, going to see an evangelist at my father-in-law's church, (more on that in a minute)the fall festival at our church, (more on that in a minute)riding with my Leadership Pastor to Atlanta, (more on that in a minute) and finally (brace yourselves for this) I received a call Wednesday night the 29th to go to work for a new company on Monday November the 4th.

I want to talk about the last point first. I know I am starting backwards but work with me on this. I had been talking with one of my Bible studies teachers about getting ready for that day when I would have to mentally draw a line in the sand and say this is it, this will be the day that I decide that I would not go back to my old job no matter what. I finally did that on Tuesday and set the date for November the 14th. How cool is that to do that and receive an offer to go to work for a different company on the next day. My wife and I had also gone to Walmart on Tuesday evening and I said let's buy some Whoppers. (You all know that Whoppers are my weakness, you know that chocolate covered malted milk ball. I could sit and eat those things until I became sick. I have done that MANY TIMES. My weight shows it too.) Well I bought them to celebrate God's divine intervention in my life. (My wife might disagree on that because she might say I celebrate too much.)I know you are wondering how the two go together. Well, we celebrate when someone comes to know Jesus Christ as savior or we can definitely tell when God has chosen to show He has moved in our lives. He has moved by giving me a new job to get me out of a bad situation with my employer so that possibly our relationship can be redeemed. Our God is a God of redemption otherwise He would not have sent His son Jesus Christ to die as a sacrifice for our sins and be that propitiation to give us redemption so that He could bridge the gap between God and us. So all who know me celebrate with me and how God has moved in providing me with a new job. I think I am more excited about the end to the former employment so that hopefully the relationship will be redeemed.

God has also given us a gift of a 2003 Dodge Dakota extended cab truck for free! God has truly blessed us this year even through what we have sometimes thought has been the worst time of our lives. Its funny how God works right! As He said in James God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble. Our family has been humbled so many times this year. The people in our life connection class have many times over blessed us with meals, with prayer, (OH THANK YOU FOR THE PRAYERS) with money, and I do not know what else because in the beginning I could not keep up with much due to the pain and the heavy medications that I was on. Our church even has stepped up to the plate and helped out TREMENDOUSLY! Thank you Church! Our family also has been incredible.

Know back to the first point. This past Sunday October the 26th we went to my father in law's church to hear a man by the name of David Ring. He was absolutely moving. If you have not heard of him like I had not, google him and find out about him. His testimony hit me right between the eyes. He kept saying several times over "I've got cerebral palsy, what's your problem!" He was incredible, go check him out. He has a powerful testimony! He also kept saying IF YOU DON'T TELL YOUR STORY IT WON'T GET TOLD!

Fall festival was incredible. I sat with an older gentleman, which most of the teenagers in our church calls him "grandpa", and he and I talked before we got busy. He and I were selling food for $3 dollars and less and man was it busy. My back was so sore that night and the next morning for sitting there for 4 hours. I am not complaining I enjoyed every minute that I was there because I got the pleasure of talking with several people that I have added to my prayer list.

This past Monday, October 27th I rode over to Atlanta airport with our Leadership Pastor to drop off a team to go over seas on a mission project. It was great to share with them before they left. My prayer and challenge to them was Phil 2:7-8 that they would be obedient and that they would be used by God in such a huge way that it would be bigger than their mindset could grasp. We all have our ideas on how big God will use us but when we ask God to use us bigger than our mindset can comprehend most people just look at you with the deer in the headlights look. That's what I got from them except for one lady that went. She knew.
Anyway on the way back from Atlanta the Leadership Pastor and I talked about subjects all the way back. It was a very incredible time for me to hear a pastor share with me the most private of emotions and things that have happened in the past to him and his family. He told me anytime he could share with someone how God has worked with and through him to bless someone else that he would do it anytime, but only when it brings glory to God and not himself. WOW! It was an absolute incredible series of discussions.

Well my wife and I talked last night about a resignation letter and we had to talk through our scars but also talk about how we should say it. If we can leave with character and with not lashing out, because that would not glorify God, but leave on a good note and not attack that would bring glory to God later on down the road. I also talked it out with a GREAT friend of mine and he is also helping with the wording of the resignation letter. I tell you he is a great friend because he has done some very humble things. He is a great friend who I can just pick up the phone and say HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING??

Well I promise to get back to the original reason for this blog. I have algebra next month. Ouch! I have not taken algebra in 23 years. I hope I can blow the dust off of that area of the brain.

By the way, for those of you who are involved with our family, I can never say enough how much this family appreciates all that you have done. We love you and cannot say enough how much we are humbled by the grace you have shown us. Thanks to all of you! The body of Christ.

Sick feeling

Friday nights our family usually attends the high school football game that one of my children attends and is in the color guard for our band. She truly has blossomed into it. This dad has noticed that his first baby is finally growing up. She has to wear make up and put her hair into a braided bun. She is truly gorgeous and 100% woman. BUT DON'T TELL HER THAT. Dad is learning how to let go but still directing her "in the way she should go".

Now to back to the main title of this story. We are doing our regular thing at a football game, sitting with family or friends. This night it was just friends. Let me tell you it was a good night for football. A weather front had finally pushed through and it allowed for lower temperatures and an OMINOUS fog. You could hardly see to the other side of the field. Our son, who is still in middle school, was to spend the night after the game with another child his age that is the son of a particular family that goes to church with us. During the game we let our kids go to certain areas surrounding the field but they have to come back and check in with us periodically letting us know where they are and who they are hanging around with. Our other daughter who is also in middle school was hanging out with her friend that she was going to spend the night with. We all had decided to leave after the 3rd quarter but throughout the whole game our son and the kid of our friends that our son was spending the night with kept coming back to check in with us but separately. I knew that something was up with them NOT showing up together to check in. So it was time to leave but none of our kids where back except for one of the other family's son who remembered what time his family was going to leave. The whole time this dad was growing in trusting his kids to do the right things. You know, do the right things and the right things will happen. (At the end of the 3rd quarter. The ominous fog had gotten worse and you could hardly see the players on the field.) So we all got up to leave and headed towards the end of the stadium and go back behind the bleachers where "all the action is" to find the kids. The family that our son was spending the night with showed up all of a sudden but without our son. My wife and I did not panic at this point. We circled around the bleachers to the other end of the stadium past the bathrooms and the concession stand and to the other end and no sign of our son. My wife and the friends that my son was spending the night with that wife and I split up, both of them walked up to the bleachers and walked down the pathway in front and my other daughter and I walked around the back side again and met back up with the other women. NO SON. I PANICKED ON THE INSIDE. By then the WHOLE set of friends decided to help out and look everywhere. I leaned up to my wife and said "go find a sheriff's deputy." (Keep in mind now I still can't walk well from back injury and surgeries and I do not like walking around a lot of people and steps for fear of falling. If I fall and land on my injury area the Dr. told me we would have a high probability that we would have to do surgery again. So my wife has to do the "simple things like steps and crowds." A role I do not like but have no choice.) She went to find one and did out on the track around the field. She proceeded down out of the bleachers down to the track to get him and she sees some kids playing in a grass area behind the field goal. Wham! Their is our son. My wife calls me on my cell phone to let me know and tells me. The whole time dad is very sick feeling. Relieved to find our son but upset. By this time all the friends and families are back together and relieved that everything turned out. We all left and while in the car Dad is relieved but again has to explain why we check in with family. You always are seeing headlines of missing children and what goes on with and as you all know what happens in the end. For the most part the children wind up dead and no telling what they went through physically and emotionally. Our son had to explain to us why and he said "so ya'll won't worry about me and that someone does not take me away." Wisdom from a 12 year old.

Everyone that knows me I will have to tell you, I was extremely angry BUT did not blow up. Shocker huh. If there is anything I teach and have taught my kids is about what could happen to them. Forget about what mom and dad may fell but think about what could happen to you. (You being the kids.) I believe kids should have fun but they have to remember at all times there could be someone lurking ready to take them away, just like the devil huh. (1 Peter 5:8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.)

In the end everything works out OK. When we got home, my wife and I talked about it. That sick feeling!

On January 22nd 2008 the worst and best thing happened to me. The type of work I perform I sometime have to get on the roof of homes that I am working on. This particular day we were on a metal roof. We had been at the home working all day long inside and out. We were getting close to finishing the job and while we were on the metal roof it started SLEETING. My fellow employee looked at me and said we need to get off this roof. You know metal roof and ice. I agreed and stepped down off of the safety ladders we had on the roof to a part of the roof where we had been walking on all day. That part of the roof was a 4/12 pitch. For those of you that do not know what that means here is a close definition. If a roof rises 4' in a length of 12', the Pitch is 4 in 12, which is 18.43°. Just so you can get an idea how steep it is. When I stepped off of the safety ladder on this area of the roof my feet slipped out from under me. I was sliding toward the end of the roof. While I was sliding to the end of the roof all I could think of was my children, my wife, and my friend (the owner of the company) and what was about to happen. You see up until this point in life I thought I was invincible and that I would just stand up and be sore. WRONG. As I was falling it seemed like an eternity and like the snap of your fingers. WHAM! I fell on my rear. I was still conscious and in pain. I wanted to stand up, and I tried, until my fellow employee that was working with me, told me to lie down. I was lying in mud as it started to rain lightly and it was freezing cold to. The rush of adrenaline and pain overwhelmed me. My fellow employee called 911 from his cell phone and somehow he was able to tell the responders how to get to the home. (The home was out in the sticks down a BUMPY dirt road with no address number.) When the emergency responders arrived I could hear them talking as they walked around to the back of the home where I fell. I recognized the voice. When the responder got to me (remember I am laying face down in the mud) he asked me "sir are you conscious?" I turned my head to him and called him by name and I think he went into shock. He touched me on my arm and he was shaking uncontrollably. I told him to calm down! He then got the other responders around me and they had to flip my body around 180 degrees on the back board. He told me "now is the time to pass out if you can because this is going to hurt." I did not pass out and it did hurt. The ride to the hospital was painful as one of the other responders cut my clothes off. By then I was in shock freezing to death. I finally persuaded the guy to put a blanket on me. When I got to the hospital they took me immediately to trauma. Well to shorten this story, I broke the sacrum bones that attach to the L5 vertebrae from the pelvis. I could feel my legs but they were cold and numb and I could not move them. It felt as if I was paralized from the wasit down. Hey, I am not asking for a pity party but that through this tragedy God will be glorified. Nine months later, I can walk, I am alive, my family is clothed and feed and cared for and God is using this situation for His glory. He is growing me and He is growing my family and I try to affect everyone around me. I will continue this real life situation in more detail through my blog. Thank you for stopping by to read and I hope you will be affected and if you have not accepted Jesus Christ as savior of your life I hope this will help you to accept Jesus Christ. Reach out to someone or just email me and we will not rest until you have the information you need to accept him. (Romans 3:23) (Romans 10:14) I hope to be able to talk to anyone about Jesus Christ. (John 3:16) He loves you with everything He has.

New To This

I am new to this blogging thing and hope to do more as time permits. Just to inform everyone this blog will be dedicated to using my accident back in January and all of the exciting, humiliating, depressing, challenging, and improvements that have been made will be used for God's glory. Sometimes I might get off the path and try to be resentful but through my mentor teaching me and other Bible studies that I attend and of course my pastor and life connection teacher and BSF discussion group leader I am continually learning to let go of the past and forgive just as Christ has already done for all of us by shedding His blood on a cross 2008 years ago. If I get off the path I expect my followers (on this blog) to correct me and get me back on the path of the straight and narrow. I hope that I may glorify God through this process and may others come to know him.

In His strength and love
accident2008workedoutforgood@gmail.com