A crow, a raccoon…nope…just a fly

Have you ever noticed that certain creatures have this irritating ability to be a pest and not leave you alone…until you get a weapon? They say that crows are like that (I wouldn’t know because I’ve never hunted one). However, think about your lawn. It could be covered in starlings for many days in a row. They eat all your cherries and scare away the song birds. Grrr! Finally, you have had it! You grab the BB gun and wait, and wait, and wait. It’s as if they have a sixth sense and they are nowhere to be found. So you put away the BB gun and suddenly they are back.

Raccoons are similar. They come around and make a mess of the garbage, eat all the cat food, and make annoying scuffling noises on the porch. My natural inclination? Grab the shotgun, but again the next night: no raccoon. Arg!

All that to say, I have discovered that flies are of the same ilk. I like a good afternoon power nap. A half an hour nap can get me back on track and ready to plow into more reading and homework. However, recently I had this fly that landed on my face and woke me from my nap! You understand that when you are in the groggy-sleep-mode you just want to go back to sleep and not deal with finishing him off, so I just brushed him away foolishly thinking I would receive the rewards of a nice sleep. For the next 5 minutes straight the fly and I had a little understanding. He would land on my face; I would brush him off. He would land on my arm; I would brush him off. He would land on my ear; I would brush him off. And so the cycle went. I could not sleep! I was upset because Dori wasn’t around to finish him off while I got my beauty rest. Finally, I had it! He landed on me once more on my nose! and I jumped off the couch and tore the fly swatter off the wall and turned around…but wait…where is he? I searched and searched for that fly. I even stood still to see if he would land on me but all of this was to no avail. Mister Fly won that round. He used his cunning mind and disguises to hide from me, and in the end I could not go back to sleep because I had gotten so worked up!

Well there is no moral to that story, unless you really stretch it. I’m sure we could come up with some spiritual application. However, this weekend was spiritually reviving for me because we drove up to Oregon to spend Thanksgiving with the Ruble relatives. It was also Grandpa Ruble’s 80th birthday and so we did a double header. We had about 35 Rubles gathered together in Elkton to celebrate thanksgiving to God for all that He has blessed us with and came together again on Friday morning to commemorate Grandpa’s 80th birthday.

What a refreshing time for us to be with our family. Jacob, Justus, and Kiera were excited to see each other and play. Annelise loved seeing Caleb and Caleb loved trying to chew on Annelise’s fingers. Stephen, Nathan, Aaron and I were able to play some basketball and practice new songs together. Dad had a little bit of rest for his voice until Sunday when he preached at Elkton Cornerstone Christian church.  Mom, Tina, Dori, and Christina all were able to do a little bit off shopping together and make Eggnog Lattes. The beautiful thing is that we all love God and so as we gather together it is an encouraging time and I know that not everyone enjoys that kind of family get together. I am so thankful to God for His bountiful provision of a godly physical family. I am also so thankful for a godly spiritual family that I long to return to in Anacortes. The time draws near for us to come home…please pray that the baby does not come until we get home. Dori really would like to have her doctor and our own home when the baby comes. We look forward to seeing you all!

(By the way, Mister Fly did not win! When I got back from our Thanksgiving trip he met his doom. He must have gotten lazy because he landed on my chair and stayed there way to long; I squashed him with the fly swatter. So I wrote him an English sonnet.)

How can I explain what this fly means to me?

He lands on my nose and the parts I can’t see

So we have a friendship me and the fly

How I wish I could end it *blink *blink *sigh

Buzz-Buzz he says to me while I sleep

He wakes me up from counting my sheep

How can I slumber my fiendish friend?

My love-thoughts for you are at a dead end

My thoughts turn to anger for what is the answer?

I could dip him in tar and then dose him with ant’s fur

Maybe tie up his legs and roast him over the fire

If I told you I love him I would now be a liar

My solution, my friends, is much simpler than that

I’ll swing the swatter and my fly-friend goes SPLAT!

DORI LOOKING PREGNANT!

ANNIE PLAYING WITH GRANDMA IN OREGON

JACOB AND JUSTUS WRESTLING WITH GRANDPA IN OREGON!

FUNNY-GUY STEPHEN PUT THE ANTELOPE HEAD IN NATHAN’S BED!

Dori’s Fellowship

Tonight (Sat.) Dori is at a Ladies Fellowship at Placerita Baptist Church. This is a blessing for her in so many ways. This is an opportunity for her to just get away and be able to socialize with other ladies. She doesn’t have to worry about the kids (or me for that matter). As well, she gets to have a meal served to her that will hopefully satisfy her pregnancy cravings. She will also be hearing from Barbara Cameron, the mother of Kirk Cameron. Some of you may remember Kirk as an actor on the TV show Growing Pains. More recently, my generation will remember him from his role in the Left Behind series. For the youth they will remember him as starring in the 2008 #1 independent film, Fireproof. Kirk is also part of a ministry (along with Ray Comfort) called Way of the Master which promotes boldness in evangelism.

Kirk grew up an athiest in an unbelieving family. However in his late teens he was captured by God’s grace and began immediatly to make changes in his life. Today he is blessed to see most of his family saved, including his mother Barbara Cameron. Dori was encouraged to hear her testimony.

This is a very busy time for me. I thank you all for your prayers and apologize for not updating you last week. By Tuesday of next week I will be done with all 3 of my major projects. Pray that I will be effective with my time and stay focused.

We are very excited about seeing our family for a Ruble reunion in Oregon for Thanksgiving. Jacob has been talking about seeing Justus for a couple of weeks! I think he is going a little stir crazy in the RV. We will all be thankful to be with family for a few days.

“Eight Silly Monkeys”

We have found that there is only so much you can do in an RV with kids. Dori can’t often set the kids loose outside because there is no yard to play in. Since there is no yard the kids end up playing in the roads that are frequently traveled by the garbage-man-crazy-driver, rushing neighbors, and grounds keepers on carts. So Dori spends a lot of time with the kids at the local parks or inside the RV with the kids.

Therefore, we end up reading a lot of books to the kids. I’d wager that we have close to half of the reading material in our RV memorized (I exaggerate). I could quote you the entire “Big Red Barn” book by Margaret Wise Brown and most of “From Head to Toe” by Eric Carle. Even Annie’s cardboard books about colors and letters are permanently stamped in our minds. Ask me what is on the “A” page and I will tell you “apples, airplane, ambulance, ant, and avacado”. Turn back to the “Q” page and you will find “quilt and queen.”

Sometimes it helps to have Jacob read to Annelise. It gives Dori a couple of minutes to just sit and relax! So you can watch Jacob reading to Annelise the book called “Eight Silly Monkeys”. It has a definite rythme; if you have never read the book before  I think you will catch it in the way Jacob reads it! Annelise, who never tires of reading the same books over and over, is sitting attentively chiming in with her imcomprehensible jibberish.

I wonder though, how many of us are so familiar with the word of God because we read it tirelessly that we can qoute it with familiarity. Is it indelibly stamped upon our brains  so that we recall it with joy and authority? Why is it that memorization of Scripture is a child’s duty but as soon as we graduate from AWANA we rarely practice it?

I’m reminded by Psalm 119 how the writer loved God’s law so much that it was with him night and day. He meditated upon it and made it a practice to apply it to his life. He loved God’s laws because it made him wise when he practiced what it taught. Do we share in his joy? I hope we do. I would encourage you to read Psalm 119 and consider all the ways the writer has made God’s Word a joy to his heart.

Please pray for us as we look forward to Thanksgiving. The next three weeks I have many big projects due and Dori has hit the uncomfortable stage of pregnancy. She is experiencing pains and loss of circulation to her feet. Thanks for your cards, prayers, and gifts; it is good to know we have a church family that loves us!

A Window…

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. I’m tired of reading and writing so we are gonna let the pictures do most of the talking tonight. The pictures will be your window to our week!

It’s weird picking out a pumpkin in 93 degree weather.

Pastor Dave Kaneversky and family were at the pumpkin patch same time as us. This is his son Klayton who Jacob is friends with.

First Rain

Hey to all you Washington folk

Yes, you heard, the clouds, they broke

It dumped rain on us like mad

I’m sure the firemen are quite glad

Glad they were but I was not

I take my bike to school a lot

The rain can’t soak into the ground

Water on the streets like Puget Sound!

Trying to ride home from school in the watery dark

Is like rubbing your tongue on some splintery bark

Why would you do that? Your question fair enough to me

For the ride! “So long lives this, and this gives life to thee”

What is a man who cannot enjoy

The simplest of freedoms to employ

Actually Dori had a visit to make

I let her have the car for goodness sake!

So I rode to school early in the morn

Yet after a while the clouds were torn

The rain came down and the floods came up

I saw the Mississippi close-up

So my ride home at 8 o clock

Scared me more than the falling rock

That finished off Piggy in Lord of the Flies

Because no wiper on my helmet vis’

So I could not see the road or cars

I could not see the lines or the stars

Hydro plane I cannot do

The number of wheels I have are two

The ride lasted long as I-5 stretch from here to there

I arrived home and I was wetter than Lake Bear

It was splendid to come home to the RV to dry

We don’t have our warm fireplace I think I’m going to cry

Yes, our first rain did come this week, however this weekend it has bumped up to a dry, warm, high 80’s temperature again. We had a couple of special things happen this week.

First we had a wonderful evening with the Kaneverskys. Dave Kaneversky is the Associate Pastor of Placerita Baptist Church that we attend down here. He and his wife Erin have 4 kids, Townsend, Colter, McCenna, and Clayton. Clayton is Jacob’s age and so Dori took the kids over to their house to play in the morning and then when I got out of class on Tuesday I joined them for dinner. They are very hospitable and easy to converse with. Tuesday was the first day of rain and they served us hot soup!! What a wonderful meal for a cold, rainy day.

Secondly, however, Dori’s grandparents were heading to Arizona for the winter and had Carol drive them. They were in Bakersfield when Carol called Dori and since that is only a little bit over an hour away we jumped into the car and ran up to meet them. So Dori got to see her mom and Jacob and Annelise got to spend time with “Nana”. Annelise showered Carol with kisses but the first question out of Jacob’s mouth was “do you have any pineapple Nana?” It was very nice to see Carol and Dori’s grandparents and to spend an evening with them!

All in all, we are enjoying our time here. We miss a real house and a church where we know everyone. Our church down here is very good though and we feel blessed to have a place to fellowship with other believers. This month (October) has been Mission’s Focus month and so the sermons have been focused on that as well as fellowship times. Last week we had an after service ethnic meal with food from all over the world which was mostly good! Some dishes were less than desirable but our kids are good sports. The last two Sundays we have also Skyped some of the church’s missionaries so that we could hear directly from them. We talked to missionaries in France last week and a couple in India this week. It was neat to see them on the screen and to have the pastor ask them questions for us.

Well, continue to pray for us. We are about half way through and are starting to count down the days until we see you all again. I try to keep in touch with what goes on up there and know that many of you are sad because of the Harringtons leaving. It will leave a hole in our church when we lose their fellowship but at the same time we know that they will bless another church somewhere in Missouri.

The Kaneverskys gave Dori some homemade playdo. Here Annelise is intently playing with it.

We have many playgrounds around us. This one has a little music machine that captivated the kids for a while!

Short Break

I understand that many public schools now have a Fall Break. Interestingly enough, so does Master’s College. They cancel classes for 3 days and send out teams of college students to churches in the “Jerusalem and Judea” areas in relationship to the college. They do all kinds of ministries including evangelism, work parties, and mission projects. Nathan was just hired to a new job and so had to back out of his trip but our cousin Joshua was headed to inner city LA.

I didn’t participate for many reasons. I encouraged all the other students to go but Darrell (Dori’s brother) was working in North Hollywood and took a couple days off to see us. So we spent some days with him and I have been using spare moments to do homework. As well, it is hard to leave a pregnant wife with two kids. So I stayed home.

Thursday, we all went down to Disneyland. It was a very exciting day for Jacob and Annelise. Jacob loved the Jungle Boat ride and the Rocket ship ride. Other highlights for both the kids were the Disney character parade and the Bug’s Life show. Both the kids went with us on the Pirate’s of the Caribbean ride which was a little bit scarey for Annelise. However, they thoroughly enjoyed the day and kept in good spirits despite missing their nap (Annie took a short nap in her stroller).

Hair-do Show

Welcome to Project Hair-do! Tonight we’ve invited out special guest Annelise Sydney Ruble straight from Southern California. We’ve been tracking her different hair styles for a few weeks now. She has more hair styles than Inspector Jacques Clouseau has costumes. Enjoy!

BUNS!

THE FRIZZ!

MOHAWK!!

THIS PRINCESS LEIA LOOK IS CUTE BUT WHAT IS AMAZING IS THAT IT DOESN’T APPEAR THERE IS ANY HAIRSPRAY OR MOUSSE HOLDING IT UP. WHAT IS HER SECRET?

WE CAUGHT HER WITH THIS OUTRAGEOUS BLUNDER! COME ON ANNELISE, THIS 8O’S MISHAP IS GOING TO MAR YOUR FASHION CAREER!

WE LOVE THIS LOOK. THERE IS JUST SOMETHING ABOUT THE SHIRLEY TEMPLE CURLS MEETS PUNK ROCKER LOOK THAT JUST ROCKS!!

THIS IS A RARE CAPTURE! WE DON’T OFTEN CATCH HER FIXED UP AND PROPER WITH GOOD COLOR COORDINATION. WAY TO GO!

THIS IS A VERY EPIC LOOK. THE HALF OVER THE EYES AND SWEPT OVER LOOK IS JUST HAPPENING!

THIS PULLED BACK LOOK IS REMENISCIENT OF OLDER TV PREACHERS WHO PULL BACK THEIR HAIR WITH GREASE. WE THINK THIS LOOK COULD GO!

Bed time is fun time!

Anyone of you parents can sympathize with this story. As you know, Jacob and Annelise are in the same room sleeping. Jacob has a HUGE comfortable queen size bed to himself and annelise sleeps on the floor in the nook at the foot of Jacob’s monstrous sleeping quarters (there is no bitterness in my heart as you can tell that Jacob sleeps in a huge bed while Dori and I sleep on a couch with deep crevices you can fall into between the cushions and walls you bump into if you roll over in your sleep).

We’ve had to build a barricade to keep Annelise in her little nook. We used boxes to make a fence. She figured out this week how to move the top box over a bit so that she could climb up onto Jacob’s bed. Dori told her no and put her back down. A minute later, we heard her out again. So  began a cycle Annelise Houdini appearing on Jacob’s bed. The crazy part is that Jacob slept through all of this which included Annie talking to him, taking out books over him, and crying after her spanking. Needless to say, it was long afternoon.

Of course I’m sure many of you have been there…I remember a story like that with Christina and some pictures! Ask her; actually ask Dad and Mom they could tell it better.

Classes are going well and they are very applicable. The purpose of SPYN is discipleship which is what we have been talking about in depth for 4 classes in Intro to Christian Education. It has gone beyond the Biblical basis for discipleship into the nuts and bolts practical implementation. These tools will be very useful in what I am doing.

The other classes have been just as helpful. Right now in Intro to Youth Ministry we are talking about preaching to students. In Theological Basis for Counseling we are discussing how to help others to see and understand God’s will for their life. As you can see it is all very practical. The classes sizes are fairly small which allows me more freedom to ask the professors specific questions.

Dori is doing well. She had a doctor visit with a Christian doctor for a routine pregnancy check up. She sat in the waiting room for almost one and half hours. Fortunately, one of my friends (Sara) from when I was here in 2001, who still lives in the area, recognized her from pictures on facebook. So they talked for about 45 minutes!

HUNTINGTON BEACH WITH NATHAN, JOSHUA, AND SOME COLLEGE BUDDIES: IT HAD FIREPITS SO WE COOKED HOTDOGS, SMORES, AND ATE SOME WATERMELON!

DORI’S FABULOUS SUNSET PICTURE!

FIRE! SUNSET! FRIENDS! FOOD!

A Week in the Life of a Family in an RV

Well, we are plodding along. We are settled into our weekly routine and are learning to adapt to a lifestyle of school and play in an RV. Let me show you our week:

1. Cooking and staying on top of dishes because there is no where to pile them up! We made shishkebobs and used Vann’s son’s homemade BBQ sauce that was just fantastic!

“Young Goodman Brown”

We all have expectations. We expect to hear from our loved ones. We expect to wake up in the morning. We expect when we go to church we will hear the preaching of God’s Word. We expect that we will have food on the table. The list is endless.

I had expectations of college. I expected to learn. I expected to be convicted. I expected to receive good resources for future use. I also expected certain things from certain classes. However, one of the things I never expected to was learn  such a clear, convicting spiritual message from my only non-Bible class.

I would encourage everyone to read Young Goodman Brown which is a short story about a young man from the town of Salem, New England. In the story he leaves his wife (symbolically named Faith) in town to set out on a dark and premeditated journey. His journey is a depiction of temptation in which he intended to go on yet feebly holding onto resistance to actual sin. The story is littered with many symbols of the darkness and folly of sin. However, Young Goodman Brown, on his journey of temptation sees others from town that he knows to be “veneral saints” seemingly worshiping the devil. The old lady who taught him catechism, good old deacon Gookin, and his pastor were among those he saw in the dark wood of temptation and sin.

The end of the story is sad. Young Goodman Brown goes home but because of the night of temptation his life is thrown into deep bitterness and resentment at those around him that he deems hypocrites. At his funeral no one has an encouraging word because gloom and doom surrounds him; he took his acrimony with him to his grave.

To read the story and the reflect upon what it is saying caused the great conviction. How many people in your own midst have you seen sin and to this day you hold bitterness in your heart against them? It is easy to do. We see ourselves so often in a good light and cast stones readily at others who we feel are great sinners. How willing are we to forgive? Have we sentenced that person to so many months of the cold shoulder or the anger treatment until we feel they have served their time? What does it say about our willingness to forgive, our love for the church, our view of ourselves, and our resistance to sin?

Truly, the story convicted me. Read it for yourselves and find whether it will be the same for you.

Thank you all for your prayers. Dori and I are getting along well. Jacob had his first week of Cubbies this last Wednesday. He loved it and came away with a friend, Tyler. Dori was able to find a Christian doctor and schedule an appointment for pregnancy check up.

We hope all is well with ya’ll. We miss you and love you.

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