May 7, 2007
Dear
Friends,
Finally!
The next newsletter! Sorry so slow getting word out to everyone. But as always,
a lot has been going on.
So first
I'll relate some current goings-ons in our lives, then talk about the status of
the ranch, then draw some spiritual conclusions from some things.
A.
Current events in our lives and the ranch.
1. The
501-c3 nonprofit status paperwork has finally been filed! Hurray! That was a 2+
year project. And people who have been through the process before assure me
that the IRS will work with me on the application until I get everything
"right" about it. So this is a huge step forward. The conditional use
permit is the next huge paperwork project to work on (already started), to be
filed a soon as we secure the land.
2. I am
working several days a week as a logger, just to make ends meet. After my
request for financial support went out in the last newsletter, a few people
have responded, and have made it possible for me to devote at least one day a
week fulltime to ranch activity. This is cool, and I am very grateful. Thanks.
Additionally, through my new contacts in the logging industry, we may have
some interesting long term funding options opening up to us. This is cool
too. God knows what He is doing.
3. My wife
Karen is no longer working in Idaho City or anywhere else either, and is
devoting her time to the home, and making our home here at the ranch beautiful.
She has a talent for this, and I am truly grateful to her. She has a way with
flowers and planting that I admire.
4. The
children have all seemed to adjust well to the Idaho City School District, and
are making friends, though there are still rough days. Sergei and Ruthie both
did well in Track, and enjoyed themselves. Next year, we may again homeschool
several of them, but we'll cross that bridge when we get there. In any case, we
are still actively collecting home school materials from friends, yard sales,
thrift stores, etc.
I also
walled in the back overhang of the house to make a new bedroom for two of our
girls, and thus we are all preparing to play "musical bedrooms"
again *chuckle*. So much fun!
5. One of
my (Tim) science fiction manuscripts was accepted for publication last month,
and should be in print in 6 ~ 8 weeks. This has been a personal goal for many
years, and it has been very gratifying to see this happen finally. It's
gritty, it's sci-fi, but underneath it all, you can still find God in it,
as it should be with all things in our lives.
6. We've
seen God answer some really cool prayers recently *grin*.
I outloud
asked God for a canoe in March, in the car where all my girls could hear
me. Two days later, I found one that needed repair, and got it for $10 (after
not seeing any available for 3+ years, yet watching for one). I repaired it,
and it's now lake worthy. We're just waiting for good weather to take it out
(would you believe it snow flurried here last week? And is 70 today?) It built
the girls' faith in God, and His desire/ability to hear and answer our prayers.
Karen gave
up her Library job on faith, so that she be at home where everyone needed her.
The very next day after her last day of work, at church, she asked for prayer
that I would find better work (the manuscript job is drying up). Another man
immediately piped up and said he needed help logging, and basically hired me on
the spot, right in the middle of church *chuckle*. It was cool. I'm
enjoying working with him.
A lady we
know with severe motorcycle accident related lingering problems has
relayed to us that there has been medically unexpected healing in her body
after several of us prayed for her. She was supposed to be in a wheelchair by
now, due to the slowly debilitating nature of her injuries, but it was neat to
see her walking fully upright without a limp, in much lessened pain, when I saw
her yesterday at church. She suffered quietly and gracefully for a long
time, without letting it dampen her gentle spirit of servanthood to wounded
people around her.
And many
others :-)
7. We are
still attending the little Mountain Life Ministries church in Idaho City, and
enjoying it. We feel "plugged in", the people care, the pastor is
honest, and we as a church are beginning to impact our community.
8. Baby
Taylor, the baby we had been taking care of part-time because of a drug
littered biological home life, is back in that home when the mother demanded
the baby back from the intervening great grandparents. We watched Baby
Taylor going through apparent withdrawals from something, and come through
it okay, and begin to respond positively to us. Now that she's back in that old
environment, we are truly concerned, and praying for her safety, and praying
that her mom makes some good choices about her care. The grandparents are
frustrated that they can't seem to get the law to intercede, and are trying to
work it out with the mom to let us adopt her. That's the only way that any of
us can see that Baby Taylor has a chance at a real life.... It hurts. Can
I say that? Pray for her.
9. One of
the couples at church took in a teenage girl over a year ago that again,
apparently had a home life that had wounded her deeply. Through the care and
nurture of this couple, this girl got her life straight with God/Jesus, and
began making positive steps towards having her own happy, productive adult
life. This couple then went to visit family out of the country a month ago, and
while they were gone, something happened (the story is unclear), and the girl
committed suicide. Oh boy, talk about pain. Pray for Jack and Louise, the
couple that loved and cared for her. The church is holding a memorial service
for this girl on May 20'th, and we expect a large part of the community to be
there, along with lots of teenagers from the high school that knew her. Pray
for this time. And pray that good comes out of this situation.
B.
Ranch Status and Projects
1. We have
agreed to give the owners something firm this month (May). To that end, it is
our goal to raise $10,000 for an Earnest Money agreement and contract, and
present them to the owners, by the end of this month. Any ideas from
anyone on how to help us make this happen? We thought we had some of
our own personal money coming to put toward this, but have since found out
that it's not coming. So the fund has nothing in it yet. I have a
contract almost ready to present to the owners, we just need money to back
it up now. The remainder of the downpayment they are requesting
(another $90,000) would be due in another 2~3 months (or about $30,000 ~
$45,000 a month). We have their verbal assurances that the diesel tanks will be
removed as soon as we present them with money.
2. I want
to start doing some serious fundraising, both the ranch land buy
and for ranch staff (my family included) right away. Grants,
church presentations, banquets, public and home presentations,
selling a music CD we're recording, selling my novel, etc. Anyone got any other
ideas?
3. I'm
working on updating the website (new material should be up in a day or three),
so that people can get a clearer view of what's been happening here, and
a better understanding of our goals, dreams, and passions.
4. As soon
as we get the land contract secure, and the conditional use permit filed, we
will be actively talking about our "Adopt-a-Cabin" program, where
churches, individuals, or groups can adopt one of the cabins/buildings up here
to either fund or directly make happen, renovations on them, to make them
functional for our planned foster kids camps, and other church- related
camps, seminars, and conferences that we want to host here. You might be
thinking about this.
C. Tim's
musings
Several
things have kind of all worked together recently to stir something deep in my
heart once again: the situation with Baby Taylor, the suicide situation
that Jack and Louise are going through, and the fact that one of our Air
Guard Chaplain friends is headed out to Saudi Arabia imminently.
Life. Life
is so precious. And we care so little about it. Why do some people do the
things they do that wound others so deeply?
Why would a
mother betray her own child? Or why would a society betray it's own people?
There has to be healing somewhere! Wounded people wound people. I have
personally seen Jesus Christ/God heal people and put their lives back
together. So why do people resist coming to Him for healing? It's so
simple, yet people resist it/Him. Everyone wants forgiveness (I broke down and
saw Spiderman 3 over the weekend), and true, undeserved forgiveness is a
powerful thing. And God offers that as the first step to healing.
So why do
people fight it so hard? Why do wounded people want to stay wounded? Or is it
that they simply don't even know what healing feels like or looks like or that
it's even available for them? I could talk all day long about the miraculous,
medically unexplainable, physical healings from God I have seen or been a
part of. I could talk all day long about the spiritual and mental healings
I have seen people receive from God, of minds restored, drug addictions broken,
and families put back together. And I simply just don't understand how so
many people still fight it, or refuse to help other people that are actively
trying to bring that healing to the wounded.
Then I look
at myself, and realize that even in my own life, I have not done as much as I
could through the years to facilitate healing in others, either by direct
personal intervention, or by supporting those that were directly focused
on personally intervening in a wounded person's life. Some of it has been
laziness, some of it overwhelmedness, and some it simply plain old
apathy.
My prayer
now is that my heart bleeds for the same things that make Christ's heart
bleed. If my heart bleeds, then I WILL respond to wounded people around
me; it will be an easy choice.
And I
challenge you to the same prayer.
Sincerely,
-Tim
Benedict
208-392-6723
timbenedict@peoplepc.com
http://www.bighouseministries.com
21 Yellowpine Lane, Boise, ID 83716