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thekittles
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Name: Jamie and Brad
Interests: hunting, boating, jet-skiing, rafting, camping, the great outdoors!
Occupation: Pastor & Assist. Resident Prog
Message: message me
Member Since:
7/30/2006
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| Imagine what it would be like to be in a foreign country....in a foreign city that you can maybe barely pronounce....only knowing a handful of people who came with you...in a foreign hotel for the first night....to awake in the middle of the night to someone at your door frantically trying to tell you something that you're not quite sure about what they are saying....except for understanding that you must leave.... This was the experience of 8 students from Japan their first night in Findlay as they were visiting America for 3 weeks as a part of the program with the University of Findlay. Their wonderful, exciting experience was quickly turned upside down into a horrifying terror as the flood waters swarmed around their hotel. They weren't sure what was happening, where they were being taken, or anything. They ended up at the shelter at The Cube. One gal was so frightened that she became ill. Luckily, their contact at the Univeristy of Findlay found them, and they were moved to a hotel in Bowling Green since all the Findlay hotels were booked, and are now having a much more pleasant experience since then. I met these students today and found out about their story. What a memory of America! | | |
| Hi everyone!
Alot of people have been trying to get ahold of us to see how we're holding up here in Findlay, so I thought I'd do a little update. Brad & I are doing ok. The flooding stopped a few streets down from our house, so we were very fortunate. We live on the edge of Findlay on some of the highest ground, right near I-75 (exit 159 for those who are familiar). It seems that the whole town has basically been flooded from one side to the other....just depends on the severity of the flooding with various elevations throughout the city. Youth For Christ's building called The Lighthouse (where our church has been meeting) had 8 inches of water, and I'm guessing the sound equipment and digital Roland piano, and various contents were ruined. So, our church will be joining Faith Community Church again on Sunday (the church we've been meeting with and have been working to merge our ministries). Their building has been untouched by the water, and I'm sure they'll be happy for us to join them again. Some of you know Dick and Alice Krcal....former pastor of our church. They evacuated their home by boat as the water was rising around their home and they had a good foot of water in their garage, but luckily it never made it into their home. They and their dog stayed with us the past 2 nights, but were able to get back into their home today. Water around their home was chest-deep, but their house sits up high enough that it was ok. We also had church members with water and sewege backing up in their basements and one couple from Faith Community had 4 feet of water in their home. Brad has been busy the past few days helping people get stuff re-arranged in their houses, wading through flooded waters to retrieve things from flooded homes for people, helping them clean up their homes, delivering water to people and to the Cube (our rec center that has been turned into a shelter)etc. I've been busy at The Heritage, the nursing care facility where I work, to help keep things running smoothly as many employees haven't been able to make it to work.
Alot of neat things have been happening in the city. Yesterday, Brad had went to wade into one of our friend's houses to help him retrieve some things from his house. A lady pulled up behind him, and it was the secretary of Faith Community Church, who Brad had been ministering to recently. Her daughter lived a few doors down from our friend and was without air conditioning in 90+ degree weather, so she had bought an air conditioner for her daughter not knowing how she would ever get it through the flood waters to her daughter. She prayed that God would send someone to help her and trusted that God would provide someone and bought the air conditioner. She was very suprised and relieved to see Brad and they carefully took Brad's Blazer through the water and delivered the air conditioner so her daughter could have some relief. It was neat to see God so faithful in answering her prayers and well as very impactful in her life.
Obviously, there's been lots of tragedy....homes have callopsed under the pressure of the waters on their basements and foundations, and people have lost everything. The water has gone down significantly in alot of places in Findlay today, but is still high in Ottawa just west of us. My company has another nursing care facility in Ottawa, and they are without power...and have only the basics run by a generator. They almost had to evacuate last night as the water continued to rise until this afternoon. I'm thankful our city has still had power through this.
Please pray for the people of Findlay. Everyone has been exhausted, stressed, and emotionally drained by the situation....working day and night to help. Pray for strength to continue on. Some in Findlay do have flood insurance, however, but's it's often not near enough to cover everything. Supposedly FEMA is on the way. Pray that people's needs would be met. Pray that God would use our church to touch people and share Christ through their efforts.
Blessings!
Jamie
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| I just wanted to make sure everyone knew about Skybus.com. It's this new airline that flies to various destinations (out of Columbus for those of us who live in Ohio...and my favorite - 2 Florida destinations). Anyway, they guarantee 10 seats on each flight for $10 a leg. Brad & I actually just got tickets to St. Augustine, FL for late February for $30 each way...so we only paid $150 for roundtrip tickets, taxes, and all! The seats start out at $10, and go up from there, so if you want them super cheap, the best thing to do is sign up to receive their emails, and they let you know when they are adding more dates to their flight schedule as well as more destinations. By 9 a.m. on the day the sent out the email, the tickets were already $80 in Ft. Lauderdale, but only $30 in St. Augustine...so although we're going to have a further drive to our destination, it's totally worth it for those prices! | | |
| March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb....who has ever heard that phrase? Well, I hadn't until this week. We'll see if that is really true with this crazy rollercoaster of weather patterns. But it seems like it's been true with my life this month. But, I'm hoping the month is slowing down as we near the end of the month. The good news is that my grandpa was flown home from Florida last weekend. He is now at a good nursing home in Convoy that has done more for him in 2 days than the one in Florida did in 2 weeks. Unfortunately for him, his health has went backwards in the past 2 weeks, so now he has some ground to make up assuming he is able with his Parkinson's disease. He currently is not even strong enough to push his food down when he swallows, so he had to get a feeding tube yesterday. The good news is that on Wednesday he prayed to receive Christ with me. It was awesome. | | |
| Brad & I had the priviledge of attending a marriage conference in Dayton this past weekend. It was sponsored by Family Life, and we were able to attend for free since he is a pastor! And we used our Christmas $$ we received as a gift from our church to pay for our hotel and food. Although, the trip did end up costing us a little more than we had intended. We enjoyed the conference so much that we just had to buy a number of the recommended resources while we were there....and we decided to "pay forward" the blessing of the conference and bought a gift certifcate for another couple to attend. It was a great weekend away (2nd in a row actually since the weekend before was our spontaneous trip to Florida)...refreshing for our relationship, awesome to be ministered to, and revitalizing to the soul. A Must For All Marriages! (Whether you think you need it or not!) By the way, the conferences are held all over the U.S....just visit Familylife.org (I think), and the conference is for engaged couples too (hint, hint - Tricia and Machel - you'd love it - they even have special sessions just for engaged couples). Brad & I benefited alot from the conference, and I could share so much, but I won't bore you with it all. But here's the new rule in our household: we must sit on our couch instead of our recliners when we are in the living room together. (A few months ago, we received new furniture, and for the 1st time had 2 recliners instead of 1. So, instead of sitting on the couch together, we are always sitting at opposite sides of the room in our recliners...which at first we really enjoyed this "luxury". But after this weekend, we've realized how just this little "luxury" has caused dissension in our relationship because we often get involved in individual tasks and don't communicate or spend quality time together while we are in our chairs.) So, although it may sound corny, that's the new rule! (And habits are hard to break, let me tell ya!) | | |
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