Tread Heavily

Just as we were letting go of some things around the house to raise money for Peru, we were hit with something that might  have made it impossible for me to even go to Peru.

We didn’t make a killing at the yard sale, but we did sell most of the good things we had to offer and were going to be able to put around $200 towards the trip. The rest would go to getting the kids clothes for the summer and other summertime related expenses that we know are coming up (camps, classes, etc.) I left the sale very early because Hollis had a soccer tournament that he had to play in over at Forsyth Fusion Soccer. My beautiful wife stayed behind and diligently haggled, argued, and played the salesperson. The games were…eh…and on the way home, the van just stopped going. It didn’t make any sounds, lurch, shake, or anything. It just stopped going. On southbound 400, the boy and I just coasted to a stop under the overpass near exit 14. I tried and tried to get it going again, but it wouldn’t go in gear. It just stayed in neutral.

We sat there for about an hour, trying to figure out what to do, where to take the van, and how we were going to pay for it all. Immediately, I began questioning if I was supposed to be going to Peru. Luckily, we made enough cash to pay for the tow truck and he was nice enough to drop me off at the house. I eventually found out that the transmission went bad and it had to be rebuilt or replaced…for the second time in less than 2 years. With the things going on (things I won’t mention here) and now with the expense of getting the van fixed, was it smart to leave my family to try and go help others when it might mean taking away some of their comfort?

That night, I prayed and prayed.

I didn’t ask for money. I didn’t ask for perseverence. I asked God to show me his will in all this and to help me understand why this was all happening. I left it up to Him to convict me one way or another.

The next morning, there was such a peace about the situation…a peace that I have never felt before. For the first time in my life, I really felt attacked; spiritually, emotionally, and financially attacked. I recognized the situation for what it was and put my trust in God and felt like he would prevail and show me, and everyone watching, that he could handle anything as long as we stayed faithful and did what he asked of us.

That morning in Sunday School class, in worship and then again in evening worship, the messages seemed to be tailor made for my family. I was encouraged and uplifted and was happy for the trials. I understand that the only way for us to prove our faith is to show it during those times when our faith is tested. I could have very easily sent back all of the money donated to me and put the money I made on my own and in the yard sale towards getting the van fixed and other things in order. But that was not what God’s plan for me was.

I prayed each day, thanking God for his grace and the strength and hope we have through him. And wouldn’t you know? As soon as my resolve was strengthened, God provided.

After this week, I am now 80% towards my fund-raising goal (from 30%!) I am using 1/3 of the money from the yard sale towards the trip, and the rest will go towards the van. I also have some extra work coming in to supplement that so getting it fixed will not be the burden on us that I expected.

I am not saying that I have all of the answers or that God will convict me every time I have a decision to make. I just know that the more we pray and spend time in his Word, the more we will recognize his voice and be able to see his hand in all things. I hope that if anyone reads this and is struggling with something in their life that they will take the time to lean on God for guidance and comfort. There is no one more faithful and capable than Him.

This may be the first blog post I have ever seen advertising a real-life garage sale…

But, that’s what I’m doing! If you happen to be in the Atlanta area, our neighborhood is holding their annual community yard sale this Saturday from 8:00AM to 1:00PM. My wife is going through our house as I type this, looking for stuff we can get rid of to help pay for the mission to Peru. I see a lot of stuff that I really don’t want to lose sitting in the foyer with a yellow sticker on it, so that’s why I am waiting until she finishes before I go out and start on the Garage. We have several play sets and kids toys that we are selling, and LOTS of baby and children’s clothes. Everything will be yard-sale priced-to-go, so you’ll be getting a bargain if you stop by.

If you want more information, please send me an email at rhynearmstrong@gmail.com and I’ll give you directions. If you have some stuff that you’d like to donate for the sale, we would be glad to try and sell it! If you’d like to make a donation right now, you can click the Chip-In link over there on the right side of this page. I’ll give you a big hug when I see you.

I have less than a month to raise the rest of this money for the Mission Trip to Peru. Am I worried? Yes. Am I discouraged and fearful? Absolutely not!

Tonight I am finishing my letter to friends and family and will be sending them off tomorrow. I will also be handing them out at church this weekend after being talked into it by the folks who have done all of this before. When I started these plans, the amount seemed like it wasn’t that much, but as the deadline looms and our personal budget shrinks, the amount seems to grow by the minute.

I am writing this to provide full disclosure to everyone who may be considering if they should support me or not. I want folks to know (like I want to know when I am asked for money) that I am doing my part and not just sitting back and taking money in.

My family and I have made some sacrifices and will continue to make more to do what we feel we are called to do. We’ve cut back on a lot of expenses that were completely frivolous, and I’ve picked up a few small projects to pull in a little extra. Unfortunately, work is getting busier and busier, making this more difficult to sustain through the rest of this month. Now, some of this isn’t because of the Peru trip…you know, with the economy and all, but the majority of this extra work goes directly to the trip and the expenses surrounding it.

Here are a few more things we are doing to save money:

1. Going down to 1 car. The Focus is in the drive way and isn’t leaving until I get back from Peru. This has been the biggest challenge so far.
2. Saying goodbye to Comcast. We are dropping cable TV and going completely online and through the free digital receiver for our TV entertainment.
3. No more video games. I dropped GameFly and am going to suspend my Xbox Live Gold account for a while. I am also not going to do the warranty replacement on the 360, because I don’t want to spend the money on a new warranty. I have time before the warranty expires, so it can wait until the fall.
4. Eating out only 1 time a week. With 4 kids, this is probably smart anyway.
5. Coupons. My amazing wife is doing her best to learn all of the coupon tips our friends have been trying to tell her about.
6. More work. I am going to continue to do side-work to try and cover whatever I lack for the trip, so if you have anything you need done…blog set up, graphics, etc, please let me know.
7. Stay faithful in giving. In the past, our tithing has dropped off when we hit tough times. Never again.

All of this is probably way TMI, but I feel like I should be transparent when asking other people for their money. I expect the same thing and am happy to account for every penny donated to this trip.

To those who have donated already, THANK YOU! I will be contacting you personally, but wanted to publicly thank each of you.

As den leader of the Tiger Cubs of Pack 205, it is my duty to go with my little Tiger on several cool trips during the course of a school year. Back in October we took the entire family on a rain and fun-filled weekend of camping on Lake Lanier, and this past weekend he and I went on an overnight trip up to The Lost Sea in Sweetwater, Tennessee.

The Lost Sea is a very large subterranean tourist attraction that says they have the largest underground lake in America. You can go year-round and take a guided tour through the caverns. During each tour, you get to take a ride on a glass-bottom boat on the lake and watch enormous transpanted trout being fed by your pilot and tour guide. Beyond the normal tours, they also offer special tour packages and even an overnight camping trip. Up top, there is a gift shop, a small restaurant, outside hiking trails, and Old Sweetwater Village, which is a semi-recreation of what the towns in the area were like many years back.

This was not our first time at The Lost Sea, so we went in thinking we knew exactly what to expect. As usual, we were wrong.

Our group gathered in an upper parking lot with several other large groups, ranging from other Cub Scouts to a group from a college in North Carolina. We waited there while other groups started up the hill, patiently waiting our turn to go up and into the unseen entrance to the caverns. When it was finally our turn, we were greeted by a pair of young guides wearing filthly rags for clothes. Apparently they don’t pay these kids a whole lot to walk nervous guests through the dark underbelly of the Tennessee mountains.

After a short introductory speech, we followed the guys up the hill and around a corner where we approached what looks like an abandoned shack sitting at the end of the gravel road. They boys in our group were extremely excited, but more than one of them looked a but unsure at the dark hole they were about to descend into. And when I say a dark hole, I really mean a dark hole. The 130 something cinderblock stairs you have to go down are very steep and you can’t see very far beyond the opening while you are standing up to. It looks like they just stuck a door at the mouth of a rough cave.

Then, without much build-up, we started down the stairs in a long single-file line. I am glad we packed light, because you have to carry everything you need for your overnight stay on the first trip. You could possibly go back for a second trip, but after you make it safely down the stairs the first time, you don’t want to test fate to try it again unless you have to.  Also, the stairs are wet and slippery in spots. Oh, did I mention it was dark?  If you slipped, you could tumble down quite a ways before you smack your head into a rock.

At the bottom of the stairs, you have to make your way across a slippery path that goes through one of the large open cavern-rooms formed by the rivers that once ran through. We saw folks putting their stuff down in several spots along the floor giving me the immediate realization that I should have packed that tarp I passed over in the spirit of packing light. When we made it to our section of opening, we put our stuff down and the boys started sliding down the walls. For some reason, I imagined that the walls would be dirty, but dry and smooth. They were, in fact, dirty and wet. The wet clings to everything down there, making it all damp, slick, and muddy.

For the next couple of hours, our guides walked us on a tour of the caves, showing us the amazing rock formations and telling us a little about the history of the area. We took a nice ride on the glass-bottom boats and saw the fish that live in the underground lake. That part of the trip is well worth the price of admission. For the rest of the tour, the boys were treated to the many ‘crawls’ that have been created from the semi-soft clay beds that make up some parts of the cave system. These crawls range from a short trek where you get kind of dirty, to longer ones that would make a submariner claustrophobic and downright filthy!

After the crawls, the boys headed back to the camping area and were told to get ready for bed. These are 1st to 4th graders who have just been crawling through damp red clay, so you can imagine the loving exchanges between fathers and sons as we tried to wet-wipe them clean enough to get into their sleeping bags. Since it was nearly midnight and everyone was exhausted, when the noise and commotion did start to die down, it dropped like a brick. We went from an ant swarm to total stillness in about 10 minutes.

That’s not to say that sleeping was easy. For those of us who came unprepared, sleeping on a hard, uneven surface isn’t fun. Neither is the sound of 20 snoring men echoing through a big underground room.

After a fitful night of sleep…or sleeplessness, we woke up, quickly packed up and then started up the long tall flight of stairs that would carry us up and out of the cool wet underground.

Even though I sounded like I hated the trip, it was a great experience that I would gladly relive again. This time, however, I will be much better prepared. If you are lucky enough to go to the Lost Sea for an overnight campout, do NOT leave without the following:

1. A large tarp to sleep on.

2. An inflatable mattress.

3. Ear plugs.

4. Change of clothes…all of them.

5. Change of shoes.

6. Flashlights or head lamps.

7. Glow sticks.

8. Snacks for everyone.

Our trip ended with a brief breakfast that was provided in with the cost, and a flat tire that was thrown in unexpectantly.

All in all, it was a great time, worth every second, every penny,and every sore joint.

There are times in a Dad’s life when everything pays off all at once. All of the headaches, the heartaches, the sacrifices and the frustrations are made worth it in a single instance. Yesterday, I had one of those moments.

I was working from home to try and keep what I hoped wasn’t ‘pink eye’ from spreading around the office when my wife brought me a paper that she found in my oldest son’s work paper. Here is what I saw:

A little background. This was done in public school. My son is in 1st grade and was given the assignment to write about the topic: Where life will take me.

I can honestly say that I cannot take credit for all of this. We are open and honest with our kids about our faith and we instill our love of God in them. We pray openly, aren’t afraid to answer questions about what they hear at church, and we try to live our life as an example of how we expect them to behave, but as all parents know, that is not enough to get them to really have a heart for God.
A lot of the credit for this goes to the men and women at Vision Baptist Church who go out of their way to love and teach the kids in their classes about what God wants from us, according to His Word, and not according to the mixed-up mess that religion has made His Word into.

So thank you, Miss Kelli and Mr. Robert, Miss Holly, Miss Kathryn, Miss Cindy and Mr. Michael, Mr. David, and Mr. Trent.

I also want to thank his 1st grade teacher for the way she handled it. Too many times we hear horror stories of teachers mocking kids for their beliefs. It is very encouraging to see this!

I am so proud of my son I could bust. I am going to save this one for when the teenage rebelion starts…if it starts!

Our student pastor also blogged about this on our church blog: Read that here.

With four kids, it was just a matter of time before their activities started to collide with each other. For a while, the oldest two were the only ones involved with anything, but now Tanner has started soccer and our world is thrown into turmoil.

Hollis has moved from flag-football to soccer and his practices are on Monday nights with games on every Saturday through April. We were fine for a while since Anna’s gymnastics were in the afternoon, but now that Tanner is playing soccer, we have a weekly Saturday morning conflict that has split us up…probably for good. I used to wonder about the parents of the kids on my team who wouldn’t show up for their boy’s game. I guess I didn’t realize how normal it was for the parents to be divided among siblings, one taking one kid to a game while the other took another to a game. Starting this weekend, that’s how it is just going to have to be.

I was an only child, and Jenny’s family really didn’t do sports all that often, so this is foreign turf for both of us. I keep trying to think of when this might end, but what comes first is the possibility of it never ending. What if Hollis is playing College ball of some sort at one school while Anna is playing girl’s lacross at another half a country away? What if Tanner is playing on Friday nights while Emma is …I can’t really imagine Emma doing anything right now other than being beautiful and sweet. What do we do then? I mean, if Hollis is playing for the Gamecocks, I don’t think there will be a choice there, but if he’s at some other insignificant school, I might really be torn.

This weekend I’m with Hollis and Jenny has Tanner for his first soccer game. Next week we’ll switch and I’ll get to go cheer the little one on. Maybe we’ll just make sure Emma hates sports.

I’ve been on Twitter for over a year now, and I have seen it go from a shallow pool to a pretty deep lake of people. Now that just about every journalist and marketeer is jumping in, the world is taking notice and Twitter-trolls are starting to make nests. To try and educate these folks (and other people new to the game) I’ve written down a few of my own rules and want to pass them along here. You don’t have to follow them, but you should.

1. Don’t live-tweet network shows. This one is a shocker for you folks who don’t get out much. We have things called ‘time zones’ and when you’re watching Lost, the guys over in California and beyond are just getting off work. They don’t want to know who did what with whom before they can actually see it.
2. Don’t follow a bunch of people, and then unfollow a bunch after you get a bunch of followers. Not only is this ultra-rude, it makes you seem desperate and insecure. Twitter is about who you follow, not necessarily about who follows you. You aren’t that important.
3. Don’t pick a fight just to provoke someone who doesn’t agree with you. Do it once and you might get an evening of being a superstar for your side.  Do it twice and you’re annoying people. Do it again and you’re just an idiot.
4. Don’t use a picture of your ‘insert body part here’ as your avatar. Nobody wants to see it if it is below your neck.
5. Try to limit your thoughts to one or two tweets. If you have to string together a bunch of tweets to get your point across, you probably don’t need to make it. Nobody is paying attention.
6. Don’t make your post all about your #hashtags. If you say something important, people will RT it and spread the word. You don’t have to link together 5 hash tags. You aren’t that important.
7. Don’t use auto DM. This is annoying, cold, and impersonal. If you’re selling something over DM, you’re using Twitter wrong.
8. Follow people back! If you don’t want to use Twitter as a way to connect with people, why are you even here? Don’t solicit hundreds of followers and only follow 2. I don’t care who you are, you aren’t that important.
9. Stringing together words to be found on twitter search makes you look bad. Are you the type of person who wears a funny hat to a party and screams ‘look at me! Look at me!’? No? Well, you are Twitter’s equivalent.
10. Don’t think you are too important to give back. This goes hand in hand with some of the others. Twitter is about connecting and sharing. If you aren’t into either, quit being a lazy bandwagoner and go start a blog.

Some of these rules might seem harsh, but I’m just trying to help you out. If you are polite, responsive, and give back, you’re likely to gain the followers you want and really enjoy your experience on Twitter. Sounds a lot like real life, huh?

What other bad- behavior gets on your nerves? Want to vent? (and do it without being too crude) post your comment!

It is just before midnight on the first night of the Grandmother occupation of the Armstrong household. My wife is away for a week, and we decided to invite both Mama and Meme (pronounced Mah-Mah and Mee-Mee) to stay and keep the kids while I work. We didn’t want to split the kids up and wasn’t sure if it was fair for one to keep all of them at the same time. So today, just before noon, the mother hens came home to roost.

Behold the wonder that is grandmotherhood:

These are my rules for surviving such a situation as this.

1. Stay out of their way. Grandmothers know what they are doing, and even if they don’t, it is your fault for it going badly. They know how to mess up a kid, so don’t push them. If you do, your kids will turn out exactly like you.
2. Let them do what they do. If you have a cleaner, let them clean. If you have a cook, let them cook. If you have one who likes to buy things, let them shop. Don’t try to tell them what to do, because they know better. If you confront them, you will be reminded of all of the stupid things you did, do, and will always do.
3. Orient them to the household technology. Nothing frustrates a grandmother more than not being able to turn on the TV or the cable box or the computer, or whatever other kind of junk you have in the house. The kids are screaming and if they can’t sooth them with some newfangled contraption, you won’t hear the end of it.
4. Juggle the kids, but do it behind the scenes. With as many kids as I have, you never know who will like which grandmother more at any particular time. If you notice a kid favoring one over the other, make sure you sabotage it just enough so their affection will shift to a more balanced state.
5. Do the heavy lifting. Grandmothers are old and they take every chance they have to remind you of this fact. Go out of your way to do the hard stuff around the house so you don’t spend the evening smelling arthritis rub and hearing them complain.
6. De-spoil the kids after they leave. I believe it takes two days to undo the spoiling that takes place for every day that a grandparent is around. If my math is correct, it will take us 10 days to get them back to where they are now, which is just slightly tolerable.
7. Find something else to do. Don’t be too obvious about it, but if you aren’t there, the kids get any negative attention that might force its way out.

I will keep everyone updated as the occupation continues. Tonight I survived on a heavy dose of rule #7. That rule should be considered the ‘golden rule’ of grandmother survival as it makes sure that all of the other rules are followed or at least makes sure you aren’t around to be the one to blame for things going wrong.

If you follow these rules, you are not being disrespectful. You are showing that you care enough and are mature enough to understand their needs and try your best to make sure those needs are met. It is very important that you stay strong in the face of this danger. If you waffle at all, they will sense your weakness and start talking about converting your garage into a nice efficiency apartment for them to move in to. You know, when they can’t take care of themselves, or more likely when they are ready to cash in all the good will and guilt tokens they’ve built up raising you.

To be as transparent as possible, this post is a plea for your spiritual and financial support for a medical mission that I am scheduled to go on in July of this year. I want to be up-front about that because I don’t want anyone to get the wrong idea about what I am asking for or what my motivations are for this trip.

I have written a long letter describing the mission and my reasons for going. Please read this letter here:

Peru Medical Mission

To summarize, this is the first time I have been out of the country, let alone serve God on a foreign mission. I am extremely excited to be given this opportunity, and feel very blessed that I get the chance to make a real difference in people’s spiritual lives. Who knows what will happen when we step out in faith and follow God’s will?

I am asking for donations, but I am also seeking other means of raising money. Events, freelance jobs, whatever I can think of to make sure I have what I need for the trip and to make the most impact while there. At the same time, I am brushing up on my Spanish and doubling my bible study time to prepare for the trip.

So, if you have any ideas, please comment here. If you have freelance writing, design, or graphic work you need done, send me an email at rhynearmstrong@gmail.com. If you want to support in other ways, I am open to anything at all.

The one thing we will all need above anything else is prayer.

Thank you for your help!