Another tournament!!!

The Emerald City Qualifier starts on Wednesday and Rayni and I are working on getting our speeches ready. We are partnering to compete in duo, along with competing individually in Impromtu and Apologetics. Rayni is also competing with her Persuasive on fathers and I'm competing in my Illustrated Oratory on the bible.

With around 250 students competing this is going to be the largest Washington tournament so far and probably a lot of fun.

One quick really awesome thing happened today. We had our neighbor come over to take a look at something we were wanting to get fixed. He told us he would do it for free, and after taking a glance at our computers and asking what operating system we used he asked us if we wanted his old computer. He had bought it in 2008 and used it for week, but hadn't been able to run a program on it that he used often for work so after trying to sell it to a friend who ended up backing out, he asked us if we wanted it. Of course we said yes, and with it came a 20 inch screen. Now Jos is upgrading slightly to the new computer, Jed and the younger ones are getting rid of their very old XP computer and getting Jos' old but newer then their current computer, and I got the 20 inch screen to use on my computer. I had been thinking about getting a better screen, but due to the cost hadn't. Now I've been blessed with a 20 inch screen for free, Jos is blessed with a slight upgrade for free, and Jed and the younger ones are blessed with a big upgrade. Its pretty awesome to see how God provides.

Signing off

-Hosanna

Hey Everyone

So it has really been a long time since my last post! I have been wanting to post for a long time but every time I get back to it I think about how much I have to say. Its this terrible disease I have for a need to have a full update. Haha, I am forcing myself to make this post and I must tell you it really isn't a full update at all, but I hope you enjoy it.

The family is doing great! Life is going on, all of us kids are back in school. Zeb is working on his tests, Jos is still going to community college Rayni and I are back at highschool trying to get caught up in areas the we got behind and Jed, Keziah and Malachi are all working with mom and getting a lot done. Malachi is working on reading and doing really well.

The Latest News (which comes in a list of blessings):

1.) Family The week before Christmas our whole family headed off to Colorado we eventually got there after a little bit of delay from the snow. To sum it all up, it was amazing, fun, and well worth it. We stayed at our Aunt Millie and Uncle Gail's house most of the time and went around visiting everyone. We had some kind of family get together almost every day and it was an awesome time to spend Christmas. At one point when we were about to have dinner we all gathered around to pray and as everyone bowed their head I glanced around and realized what an amazing blessing our extended family is. I've talked, known, and heard of people with broken families sometimes not even talking with each other because of something or other. But here I was standing in a circle of family all bowing our heads to praise God. There were 6 kids in my dads family. From that came twenty-eight grandkids (one of which I am one of them) and so far forty-three great grandkids. A big get-together, amazing fun, and a huge blessing. We got back the 3rd of January and it was nice to be home.

2. Friends My dad had his 50th birthday on Christmas eve of this year. Before we left we had a surprise Birthday Party for him (and yes, it did turn out to be a surprise...he didn't figure it out until after about three different families arrived haha). A lot of people ended up coming and it was pretty cool getting to see everyone. We have had a lot of amazing times and have been blessed by the families the Lord has put in our lives. I was talking with a good friend and talking about some of the fun times we had about 8 years earlier. I wish I could remember everything all of those fun times. We also had a surprise when we came back from Colorado, because someone had fixed our window that had been broken (for 2 years) and we're still not sure who it is.

3. Time As I'm getting older and the years are passing by faster and faster I am more and more realizing the blessing of time. The fact that we have time is a blessing in many ways. Most of them obvious, no time means well...no time. The fact that we have limited time makes us value, treasure, and hopefully use it all the more, along with making us look forward to the time we'll have in heaven. So exciting!!!

All this we have because, well...God gave it to us. How amazing He is. I've been reading some of the Old Testament prophet books. I don't know if you have ever heard someone say that the Old Testament God is a God of hate while the New Testament God is a God of love, but I was struck by how wrong that is. Yes, He disciplined His people, but my parents discipline me. Do I draw the conclusion that because they discipline me they hate me? No, all the more I see the love they have because they are taking the time to train me up in the way I should go...and every time I mess up and realize it, they let me back into their loving arms. God did the exact same thing with His people constantly letting them come back and always loving them. I was getting quite frustrated with the Israelites, why on earth do they keep making the same mistake, and why on earth does God keep letting them? Then I think about it, and have one of those "oh duh" moments and realized how much I do it and how God still puts up with me...not only that but LOVES me. Pretty crazy thought.


Well, its lunch time so I better go. I hope you're year is amazing!

-Hosanna  

1 John

I'm really excited some of you decided to do this. And I pray we all get more than we ever imagined out of it, as well as it staying with us for the rest of our lives. I'm hoping to be able to post some of the thoughts and insights that may come as I am memorizing this. I would love to hear what you have gotten out of it as well, either through a comment, post on your blog, email or even a guest post on here. I started memorizing today (well I have to admit I memorized a bit yesterday but I was officially starting today) and got through the first 10 verses. It wasn't easy, but it was worth it.

To start let me give you a little bid of information and background on the book of 1 John.

Author: John the son of Zebedee (wrote the Gospel of John and Revelation)
Date Written: Between A.D.85-95
Recipient: To all believers, probably a circular letter.

The recipients of this letter at the time were being confronted with a new form of Gnostic teaching.
The main belief in Gnosticism was that the spirit is entirely good and matter is entirely evil. From this five main messages came
1. The human body, since made of matter, is evil.
2. Salvation is really escape from the body achieved by special knowledge (not by faith).
3. Christs true humanity was denied in two ways a. some said that Christ only seemed to have a body, a view called Docetism and b. others said that the divine Christ joined the man Jesus at baptism and left before he died, a view called Cerinthianism.
4. Since the body was considered evil, it was to be treated harshly
5. And at times this dualism gave way to no moral standard and with people ignoring any legal restraint. In this view, since matter was evil and not breaking the law, then breaking God's law was of no moral consequence/

Because of this it seems John wrote the letter for two main reasons the first was to expose false teachers (2:26) and the second was to give believers assurance of salvation (5:13).  Through those two reasons John covers quite a bit in this book but most of the content in this book is really focused towards what the Christian walk should be like and why.

Now that you've gotten a little bit of an over view
Here are the first ten verses (also the first chapter) of 1 John.
 ¹ That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word of life— ² the life was manifested, and we have seen, and bear witness, and declare to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested to us— ³ that which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowshipis with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ. ⁴ And these things we write to you that your joy may be full.


⁵ This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. ⁶ If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. ⁷ But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. ⁸ If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. ⁹ If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. ¹⁰ If we say that we have not sinned, we make Him a liar, and His word is not in us.


I love the predicament John puts us in with that last verse. Either we are sinners, or we are calling Jesus a liar and in that refusing Him and what He said. We are sinners, but verse 7 and 9 sums it up, if we walk in the light there is way out for us. Walking in the light, John says it later in a different way "if we confess our sins" walking in the light means the we are out in the open for all to see, we are accepting that we are what we are and in this case we are asking for a new body and new life in Christ. One aspect of this that struck me was the fact that walking in the light is not just a quick step out then back in so we can say we did it, but a continual journey.
For me that means I should be continually accepting that I'm not perfect but instead a sinner, someone who has done something and been something that crossed Gods standard of holiness and I can neither fix it, nor hide from it, but instead say yes to the person who loves me and cries out for me to accept Him and let Him cover over me and conquer it and create me anew.
Am I striving in my life to walk in the light, am I on that journey? Are you?


What are your thoughts? I would love comments on what you are thinking.


-Hosanna

A Challenge!!!!!

More details on why I took this challenges is going to come later, but this morning I decided I would memorize 1 John. Its 105 verses and I'm going to try and get it all memorized in 11 days. Thats roughly 10 verses a day.

Now onto the the challenge, Its not the most difficult challenge but it will definitely take work, and I'm not going to say it will be easy, but the reward will be amazing.....will you do it with me?  

 As iron sharpens iron, so one man sharpens another.

Back from Idaho!

Dad, Zeb, Rayni and I got back on Sunday from the Idaho tournament. It was so much fun! On the ride up there we had Heidi Chaffee, Katie West, Grace Thomson, and us Fryes. On the ride back Heidi didn't come with us but we added Jessica to our group. Rayni and I didn't end up breaking in debate, but we were kinda glad about it. I placed in some of my events but, I think going on the trip and learning all the things I did, was way better than whatever I got or didn't get. Being able to go with all those girls and talk with everyone was amazing. We probably laughed more in that one weekend then I ever have in an entire month! I didn't take pictures until the last day. So here are some pictures.

We stopped at a rest stop on a way home for a break, and threw the football around

Zeb and Dad

Zeb, Grace, and Katie making their plans

Dad, Jessica, and Rayni making plans for their Play

Hut, Hut

Hike

Katie

We stopped at the Columbia River and took some pictures.

From the Left to right: Rayni, Jessica(Red sweatshirt), Zeb, Hosanna, Grace (gray sweatshirt), and Katie

Climbing up the Rocks

Jessica

Katie and Grace

Crazy Hair-do

-Hosanna