I grew up in Aberdeen, MS, and Ricky and his family grew up in Ripley, MS.  Ripley is about 80 miles north of Aberdeen.  The majority of Hurts still live in Ripley or not more than a rocks throw from there.  I was born in Ripley.  We didn't see each other often, but I remember holidays spent together as well as weekend visits and extended summer vacation visits.  

I have very fond memories of all the cousins hunting Easter eggs together and playing games until late in the summer nights at our Mammaw and Pappaw Hurt's house.  I haven't seen the Mississippi Hurts in several years, I hate to say.  It is sad that you loose touch with your extended family through the years as you grow up, get married, and have families of your own.  

It amazes me, after a few short minutes of reunion, we pick right up where we left off even if it has been several years since our last visit.  Of course we have to get caught up on what everyone is doing in their lives and hear about the children having children.  Family is special!  You need each other in times of tragedy -- especially in times involving a death in the family.

I will never forget the 8mm home movies we have of one particular Easter.  I was 3 or 4 years old and carrying my Easter basket full of candy around the house.  Ricky snuck up behind me to snatch a piece of chocolate from my basket only to have his parents make him return it.  Of course, he had no idea the camera was rolling and it's now used as evidence against him.  Funny stuff.

It has been really sweet, even in such a difficult day, to see the family I haven't seen in such a long time. Please pray for Ricky and Linda and the entire family.

The Christmas Eve service was a highlight this year.  I want to thank Josh and Travis for planning this years service.  It was a very special time of worship as we celebrated the birth of the Christ Child. How special was it to see it snow on stage at the end of the service only to walk outside into the falling snow that gave us the first white Christmas in many years.

We came home from the service to sit down to an amazing dinner Debbie had prepared all day.  The turkey, dressing and all the trimmings were scrumptious!  It is always fun to eat "at the dinner table" and laugh and talk together.  It just doesn't get any better than that!

Josh (and Walter, his puppy) spent the night with us on Christmas Eve.  That is fun!  For the first time, we had to wait on Emily and Drew to get to the house Christmas morning to open our gifts together.  Debbie fixed a big breakfast following the opening of gifts and we finished off the day with a movie matinee.  

Our favorite gift was from the kids this year.  They snuck off and had some pictures taken by AJ at Photographing Sound.  We are having a hard time narrowing down which one to order for the package of pix's they got us.  Check them out at: http://www.photographingsound.com/index2.html  Once there click on Client Proofing and the User Name is terry and the Password is debbie.  Help us pick the winners!  :-)

We made a quick trip to Texas to have Christmas with my family.  It is quite a crew when we all get together but it is always active and fun.  We attended church at mom and dad's church, ate lunch and headed home Sunday afternoon.  It was a quick trip but we had a great time.

We didn't get to see Deb's mom this year.  It turns out there was a flu outbreak at the nursing home where she resides and we wouldn't have been able to see her as they locked the facility down.  We will make a trip to Mississippi to check on her in a couple of weeks.

About the only thing that remains now are the memories and a bit of glitter on the floor that is difficult to get up. I am already looking forward to dragging it all out and doing it again next year!

Sunday was such a visual statement of what God is doing in our church.  We are in a paradigm shift that is taking us out of our seat and into the street.  Sunday we saw and heard testimonies from 10 groups that represented local, domestic and international teams that went on mission with God in 2009.  That is awesome!  Our church is getting a global vision of the Kingdom.  

I appreciate Bro. Danny for his leadership and direction in missions and evangelism.  I believe we will have even more involvement in 2010 with more people on mission with God.  Next year we may have to go to 2 services to see and hear all the testimonies!  I am really proud of the work we have done this year and look forward to more ministry accomplishments next year!

It was 25 degrees this morning when we left the Network building where we are staying and headed for the camp.  There was still about 4 inches of snow on everything so it was a very cold start.  Aaron Helms split and stacked wood and the other men and I continued work on the building.  We needed to have a good day to finish up because today was our last full day of work and there was flooring and electrical to finish.  I have enjoyed getting to know and working along side Mr. Albert Cates.  I have known who he was but I have known him as Heather's dad.  He is a working machine.  He pulled wire and installed several new outlets throughout the building as well as installing new florescent fixtures.  Mac Green helped him along the way as well as helping with the flooring and of course he kept things light and hopping.  Jack Tate has been his usual well thought out and prepared builder and supervisor.  Ted Applegate knows a lot about everything mechanical and in construction.  Lloyd Stem and I rounded out the construction team.  Lloyd and Aaron also helped take the clowns (Cheryl Stem, Shelly Green and Kay Newman) and other ladies (Frue Tate, Heather Cates and Hadlie and Linda King) to the various areas and schools where they did skits and served meals to the people.

It has been a very busy week but a very blessed and successful week.  We are very grateful to the Lord for the opportunity to be light in a very dark area.  Pastor Bruce Plummer needs help, support and prayers as he shares the gospel on the reservation as well as ministers to the physical and spiritual needs of the people.

We have a few small items to finish up with in the morning and then we plan to be packed up and driving out of Zortman at noon tomorrow.  Please be praying for traveling grace for the team as we head home.  I fly home Saturday and am looking forward to worship Sunday!  How blessed we are in Lavaca, AR!!

A video chat with Debbie and Katie was a great way to finish the day.  With no cell service I have not been able to just pick up the phone and call her.  Even though the internet connection is slower than home it was fast enough for video chat.  So good to see her and talk to her...Katie too!

Today was a little of both type of ministries.  The morning began at the camp with continued work on the building.  Now it looks more like a metal building than a barn!  Following lunch we drove up to Fort Belknap Agency to prepare for the evenings activities with the children and families of the area.  The Agency is in the northern edge of the reservation and took as about an hour to get there.  We had some schedule change of venue which threw a little kink in the plans but it all worked out well in the end.  We served chili and hotdogs to the 50 or so folks who came.  The clowns did a great job with the skits, I played and sang and Chris wrapped it all up.  It is a very difficult environment to speak and share in.  When we gather at home, we are use to order and attention to whomever is speaking.  This culture is a bit looser than that.  You have those very attentive and you have those who are attentive for the first little bit but there is always those running around, playing, talking or doing whatever strikes them at the moment.  There was even a huge dog that came in with a family tonight!  However, they seem to hear a great deal of what is going on.  But for us who are not use to communicating in chaos it is a bit nerve wracking.  But we had a great time meeting the people, serving them dinner and spending some time with them.  And as always, the face painting was a big hit.

Fort Belknap Indian Reservation is the blue square between Blaine County (in red) and Phillips County (in green) in northern Montana.  We are staying in Zortman, which is just outside the southeastern corner of the reservation.  Zortman use to belong to the reservation.  But years ago someone discovered a gold deposit here and our government took the land back.  Thus Zortman was born as a mining community and was a booming area at one time, so I am told.  The mine was shut down due to mining regulation infractions and the area is in the process of being given back to the reservation.  There is even an air strip here where mining exec's flew in and out during the boom.  We are staying in a building that once was the offices for the mining company.  A local couple bought it and tuned it into housing for ministry teams and missionaries who come through to minister to the native americans in the area.

I found all that fascinating and thought I would share it with you as well.  It has once again been a long day filled with a lot of ministry.  I am tired and ready to crash.  Not sure what tomorrow holds but I am sure it will be busy as it is our last full day before loading out on Friday.

Please continue to pray for a spiritual awakening here.  These are genuine people who are very spiritual who need Jesus.  The work seems almost insurmountable but we serve a great big loving God who can shatter the darkness.  We can join our brothers and sister here who are praying and working to that end.  Once again I see how spoiled we are in the buckle of the Bible belt.  I am reminded of Luke 12:48...to whom much is given...much is required.

Today has been more of the same.  Work continued on the floor in the barn and more wood has been hauled to Pastor Bruce's house.  I worked with Aaron Helms today loading, hauling and unloading wood.  We drove up a mountain in Pastor Bruce's 4 wheel drive to about 5000 ft.  The forestry service cleared a bunch of timber to help control wild fires during the summer.  They selected trees, cut them down, trimmed the limbs and stacked brush piles, cut up the trees and stacked the wood.  So anyone who wants the wood just has to load it and haul it out. But it is a "boogerdo" of a drive to get there, especially if the mountain road is wet.  We hauled 2 big loads out during the morning.

It began snowing around noon and Bruce was a little skeptical about trying to get back up there.  We opted for another place just across the street from where we were that had also been thinned out but was much easier to get to.  The only difference was the trees had not been cut up.  We carried chains, cables and ropes down the side of the small mountain to drag the trees to the top of the hill.  Once we got them on top we trimmed and cut the trees into 8 ft sections, loaded them onto the truck and hauled them to Bruce's house.  By this time we were cold, wet from the snow and very tired.  Once again Bruce was leery about getting out for another load so we called it a day.

The other men had made great progress on the floor and finished getting all the joist in and covered with plywood.  Tomorrow will be work on a small adjacent floor that needs leveling and some attention.  The weather will determine if more wood can be hauled.  If not, much of what has been hauled will be split and stacked.  

Aaron and I also made a quick trip to Hays, which is about 15 miles from Zortman, to catch up with Paige, and the clowns.  They were doing skits with children there along with balloon animals and face painting.  By the time we arrived, the kids were having a great time.  We drove back to the Network (where we are staying) and ate supper.  The ladies knocked it out tonight with roast beef, potatoes and all the fixins.  It was very welcomed and delicious!!

I FaceBook chatted with Debbie and Katie for a while after supper.  It was good to read how their day was but it is really weird not being able to pick up the phone and call her.  I miss talking to her and hearing her voice. I wish she could have come with me.  :-)

Tomorrow afternoon we are driving north on the reservation to the Agency.  The Agency is the headquarters of the reservation and the place of larger gatherings and meetings.  The clowns are presenting skits, I will be playing and singing a few songs and Pastor Bruce will be sharing Christ with the folks.  Please be praying for the gathering.

I tried to upload a couple of pictures with this post.  The connection here is not fast enough to handle it so we'll do that when we get home.  So stay tuned for that.  That's it for now.  Once again I am very tired and ready to call it a day!

Sunday was a very long day which made today (Monday) even longer.  Following worship Sunday I went home, ate a quick bite of lunch, finished packing (which also included Paige's boots because Chris forgot them) and headed to the airport.  I left Ft Smith at 3:30, changed planes from American to Delta in Dallas, flew from Dallas to Salt Lake City and finally to Billings, MT somewhere around 11:00 Mtn time Sunday night.  By the time I gathered checked luggage, got my rental car and found the hotel it was close to 1:00 before I got to bed.  I hit the floor at 5:00 Monday morning, yes 4 hours later, for the 2 1/2 hour drive from Billings to Zortman.

After arriving I unpacked, said hello to our team that was still here, changed cloths and headed to the camp area which is about 14 miles away.  I was really grateful I packed our GPS.  It was a great guide along the way. Not many times do I go places where the directions to the town include "where the pavement ends."  But it does here! It is beautiful country.  I drove through flat plain areas where I didn't see another person for miles, through beautiful rolling hills and towering mountain terrain.  I saw deer, antelope and elk...just awesome!

We are working to convert a metal building that has been used as a barn into a camp center for kids and youth.  There was once a wood floor in this "barn" along with the deposits of the occupants.  The deposits were removed by the team that was here during the summer and the remaining floor has been removed.  Today we did some dirt work for footing elevations.  We buried and placed block throughout the room and began putting floor joint in today.  Tomorrow is more of the same as we are putting in a new level wood floor for the kids to use.  We also took part of the building a part to get a commercial refrigerator in there too.  Of course what we took a part we put back together.

Sounds like Ted Applegate, who is the room next door to me, has beat me to sleep.  I hear the evidence!!  :-) But I am so tired right now I don't expect it will hinder me from doing my share of log sawing tonight.  Oh, and tomorrow I may get to do some real log sawing as we are also hauling wood for Pastor Bruce and family.  Chris Niblett and Aaron Helms got a good start today by hauling 2 or 3 big loads.

The clowns had a great time with children at a local school.  I think someone said there were about 100 children present.  Homemade vegetable soup and grilled cheese sandwiches topped off the day.  An awesome hot shower and a few minute chat with Debbie before bed was a great finish.  There is no cell service here and the internet service is a bit slow.  Regardless, I am very grateful for the access.

That's it for now.  More tomorrow and maybe a picture or two.  Good night.

How I desire that...to be righteous!  It is a daily pursuit of mine even though I most often fail miserably.  I still want it.  I work at it, trying to live my life in every way pleasing to God.  In my own strength it is impossible. My flesh and will are very strong.  Every morning I pray to crucify my flesh to the cross and take on the spirit filled life.  I am grateful that the Father looks at me not in my own righteousness but it the righteousness of His perfect Son, Jesus.  It is the doctrine of imputation.  It is my favorite, if I can have a favorite doctrine.  :-)

To live righteously means to live for God's kingdom.  Matthew 6:33 says to seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and then all these things (the necessities of life) will be added to you.  Living for Christ and walking intimately with Him is no easy task.  Most everything else in life wars against that desire.  But the scripture is clear that the person who lives righteously is blessed of God even if it cost them everything.  What cost can be put on the hand and favor of God.  Priceless!!

We are also concerned about the well being of our children.  We work to provide for their needs and even their wants often times, even if it cost sacrificing of ourselves to do so.  We invest money to leave them an inheritance to be a financial blessing when we are gone.  What would be greater than the blessing of God handed down to them because of faithful, righteous parents?!

Our children learn from us.  They are learning either righteousness or unrighteousness.  The Biblical principle works all the way around.  We live to please God and He blesses us because of it.  Our children learn because of our example and are blessed of God because of it.  Awesome!!

Proverbs is a book of wisdom written by King Solomon.  It gives instruction for good, just and loving conduct in Godly principles.  It gives both the positive and negative standards for personal behavior.  If we follow these precepts and principles then we are promised a life blessed by the hand and favor of God.  It seems so easy! Follow God's instruction and have the best life.  But we know it is just the opposite.  The reality of it is we often do what we want in making decisions.  It always boils down to our own will vs. the will of God.

Solomon knew this too.  He tells us in vs. 3 that our own dumb decisions in life ruin our lives.  How many times do we talk to people or know of someone who is struggling to get out of bad situations all caused by our own doing?!  What are we trying to "fix" in our own lives due to bad personal judgements?  The real kicker is most of the time people blame God for their misfortune.  Rarely do people take personal responsibility for their own bad decisions. 

The encouragement is to avoid folly by following scriptural guidelines.  Verse 8 of this same chapter says we love our own soul if we get wisdom and verse 16 tells us we guard our own life if we obey instruction.  Those are 2 really big IFs!  Someone said, "You can't fix stupid." We laugh knowing that we all have a bit of stupid in us.  The only way to fix it is by walking in Godly wisdom found in Proverbs and through God's Word.