It happened, I got way behind.

So being busy with traveling to ELC in Jesup, GA and potty training a 2 year old has distracted me from what really matters in life.. this blog :p. I will put some photos up and recap somewhat.

We arrived home from GA and watched the nursery for Gene, Joan, Joe and Stacey Lynn who all went up to the panhandle to survey (literally) the new property Gene bought. Noah tagged along and had a blast.

They went to Laguna Beach and Vortex Springs among other local attractions. The property there is really pretty. 

We are gearing up to go to Bonifay and work on our cabin starting Monday, May 4th. I'm going to be installing a back door, hanging drywall, running some water to the cabin, etc. Should be fun! 

While everyone was gone I took it upon myself to cook up some bluegill for dinner one night. I baked the fillets in lemon juice, cilantro, cherry tomatoes, and garlic. The fillets were small and got even smaller when they were cooked so I wished I had caught double the fish. 

The chicks are doing great! They are growing super fast and are getting harder and harder to catch after we let them out to do dirt baths. This is Eli in his happy place: ) 

Random selfie of me and the lije. 

Sometimes I like to take the boys down to a nearby produce stand called 'Brown's Grove'. It is on 301 in Parrish. Don't tell anyone but I occasionally buy them boiled peanuts and ice cream. They also have honey sticks and baby goats. 

I'll close this post with one more photo. It is the sunrise over some of the hoop house at the nursery. I took this last week before I went to work with Jim on repairing House 9. 

I will make sure to post some more once I get internet up and running in our Bonifay cabin. 

Speaking at Emerging Leaders College... 9-16-2015

Today I (Gabe) spoke during chapel at Emerging Leaders College in Jesup, GA. I spoke on 'tov' and being 'prepared to receive' as a candle that is unlit or an empty vessel.

I will post the notes below the photo :)

TOV - good , functional

Root meaning :

“Being prepared to receive”

Not only a season in your lives but a biblical season as well

Backstory - 

Passover - leaving Egypt 

Ex 19:1-18 prepping for & receiving of the Commandments (This was the fist Shavuot)

Fast forward to the 1st Century AD..

Jesus eats the Passover meal with his disciples and then is sacrificed as the Lamb of God

Raised from the dead & appears to his followers.. tells them to remain in Jerusalem

Acts:1:4: “And being assembled together with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem, but wait for the promise of the Father which, sayeth he, ye have heard of me. For John truly baptized with water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence.”

During this time all of observant Israel would have been counting the omer, the daily counting of days for seven weeks or seven 7’s

The day of Shavuot comes, they’re assembled together & receive the Holy Spirit

They preach in every language because observant Israelites from all over have come to Jerusalem FOR THIS FEAST!

You may have heard this day called Pentecost which comes from “Pente” or 50 

A season of “Being prepared to receive”

From Passover to Shavuot - from redemption to annointing 

Time of insecurity, hardship - in the desert & for the disciples

A time of refining & perfecting - 7 weeks - 7 sevens

A time of cleansing & preparing to receive

Finally the big reveal - the commandments & then the Spirit

You are in a season of “Being prepared to receive”

-insecurity & hardship

-refiniing & perfecting

-cleansing & preparing 

Pray for direction during this season - Pentecost / Shavuot May 24th - put it on your calendar!!

Ask for guidance & direction & revelation

BUT

look at the life of Moses

He felt a powerful urge for justice.. He saw the Egyptian slave master beating one of his people and he killed him..

He made his own personal exodus from Egypt into the desert.. where he lived & worked as a shepherd for 40 YEARS…

He was not ready to fulfill the ultimate purpose of his life… God needed 4 decades to refine him - he was a shepherd & not by accident, these were some very transferable job skills.. herding people through the desert, the Israelites sometimes were as stubborn and intelligent as sheep

Moses needed to learn patience (he had killed the Egyptian) & he needed time to stop being what he had been (prince of Egypt)

He was 80 YEARS OLD when he saw the burning bush & returned to Egypt.. 

40 years in Egypt 

40 years a shepherd

40 years leading Israel

2/3rds of his life was spent preparing for fulfilling his calling in the last 1/3

(Repeat from above) Pray for direction during this season - Ask for guidance & direction & revelation

He may only reveal the next steps or season in your life but IF you are TOV, if you are GOOD & FUNCTIONAL in His ways then He will ultimately use your life greatly

*verse about good & bad vessels

Chop shop with family and a run up to Georgia for a week 9-14-2015

We came into Lakeland and met up with my brother and his wife. We ate some yummy Chop Shop food in downtown and watched the rain pour outside.

We went to our rental house to address a rat trap issue. Apparently, a dead rat has been hanging out in the trap that got it several days ago. I was nominated to remove him..not before gearing up though. 

It pays to have a military gas mask laying around. 

We took off the following morning for Georgia but before doing so, we made a stop in at the Orlando Science Center. Noah had a blast. I can't believe I had never been there before. 

Roller Skating, Berry Picking, and a cool Torah craft 9-12-2015

Hopeful..

 We took the boys to a homeshooling meet up at the skating rink today. It was really dark and the boys were moving a lot so my phone was not wanting to get the best pictures of them. Eli does this dinosaur stomp thing with his skates. Noah is surprisingly fast!

Action shot of Noah. 

So now that Passover is..over, it is time to start counting up to the festival day most commonly known as 'Pentecost' (50 days). In the Bible it is known as Shavuot or the Feast of Weeks. Shavu (week) ot (making a word plural) means 'weeks'. This takes place 7 weeks after Passover and is traditionally when God gave Israel the Torah from Mt. Sinai. It is also when the events in Acts 2 took place. So we are commanded to count all 50 days, every day. Stacey made an awesome little toilet paper roll mountain counter thingy. The Omer counter thinger ma-wizzer! The trucks in the photo are counting as well apparently. 

We went to Erev Shabbat dinner (the Friday evening meal to celebrate the start of Sabbath) at the Scott's house the other night. Noah blew the shofar and scared all the neighbors. Stacey beat me at tether ball. :( :( :( 

What's a restful Sabbath without crashing the cousin's pool? 

To finish out the Sabbath, we went and checked up on some black berries in one of the cow pastures (don't eat the brown ones!). They are getting there but within the next week or two there will be TONS of berries ripe for the picking. 

Watching Shabbat leave :( 

Shavua Tov! 

Oh, Nutella covered matza...

Shot a moccasin, made Passover Pizzas, and worked on the RV engine 4-9-2015

I was walking from Gene and Joan's house over to where our RV is parked and the rooster and two hens were circling around a full grown water moccasin. I yelled for Stacey to grab my .38 which I keep loaded with snake shot. I threw dirt and sticks at the rooster to get him away and then took a shot at the snake. It stunned him long enough for me to finish him off with a shovel. Below is the one I killed yesterday and below that is a moccasin I shot a week or two ago. 

For dinner last night we made yummy Passover Pizzas (we celebrate Passover). They were a good idea except what I thought was garlic powder turned out to me garlic salt and I went a little overboard on the saltiness :( The next batch was better, so I hear. 

Maybe the garlic keeps the snakes away? 

(Noah making his hangry face)

Eli likes to dress like a super hero. He gets really into it! 

Today, Joe, myself, and Gene pulled the cover off our RV engine and started the process of diagnosing the issue. We hooked a compression gauge up to all the spark plugs and realized we might not have as big of a problem as we thought. I'm praying that is the case. Freeing a stuck valve is a lot cheaper than replacing a piston ring. This old thing sat for years in that old man's yard. Who knows what is gummed up in there, especially with ethanol additives these days. We'll open it up further tomorrow. 

While taking it all apart, Joe found a random spark plug a mechanic must've left laying under the hood. 

So that is our mediocre day or two for ya! Stick around for more! 

Park, pool, and, of course, chicks. 4-7-2015

I took the boys to a water front park in Bradenton today; I believe it's technically called 'Riverwalk'. It was a beautiful day and we had a nice time burning off some energy. This was my conversation with Noah as we're loading in the car and I see he's wearing jeans:
Noah do you want to wear shorts since there's a splash pad?
No, I'm fine.
Ok, are you not going into the splash pad?
No, I won't.

Then, of course, Noah became the creepy kid running around in wet jeans showing his butt crack to everyone and their mom. Eli on the other hand, the one who WAS dressed for the splash pad, he didn't get in it but he did take his shirt off and have me make a cape out of Noah's. I wonder what people think of my people when we are out in public, lol. It was just a couple weeks ago that Eli dropped a 'd' on the playground at a different park (we don't go there anymore b/c of said 'd' dropping incident). 

After that, we wandered back to the Ranch and did some school. Later that afternoon it was time for the pool with cousins! 

And..of course..we had to check on the chickies before bed :) We had one more hatch while we were at the park which brings the count to 14..? 

-Gabe