Warning: Before You Become a Christian

by Beth-Anne

Matthew and I have been reading through a book my Aunt Shari gave us for Christmas, have a little faith by Mitch Albom. We read together at night usually and last night there was this part in the story.

“As a general rule, Judaism does not seek converts. In fact, the tradition is to first discourage them, emphasizing the difficulties and suffering the religion has endured.”

I stopped Matthew and commented that I thought it was interesting that they did that. I said how that’s kind of what Jesus did when He would tell people “the Son of Man has no where to lay His head” when people asked if they could follow Him. We only paused for less than a minute but some thoughts had begun to germinate.

Then today I was reading from Velvet Elvis by Rob Bell and he mentioned this, “He [Jesus] is constantly trying to find out who really wants it. And so he keeps pushing and prodding and questioning and putting it out there until some leave and the diehards stay. We never find him chasing after someone, trying to convince them that he really wasn’t that serious, that it was just a figure of speech. He didn’t really mean sell your possessions and give to the poor.”

I have never felt that when I was young and being a Christian was talked about that something challenging but rather it was as if we were being begged to join.

There is something thrilling about Christianity, the call of Jesus, that would say, “Hey, this is amazing, and incredible, but it’s serious too. It’s going to break your heart and mold it stronger. It’s going to shatter your view of yourself, the world, and everything there is, and heal the depths of your soul. The call of Jesus to follow Him is not to be taken lightly, but it’s worth every second.”

That makes my heart beat a little faster and I want to stand with those who ready to follow Jesus, even though it will cost everything--because the risk is worth the reward.

“...we are reclaiming the simple fact that Jesus said the way is narrow...The call of Jesus goes the other direction: It’s about making our lives more difficult. It is going out of our way to be generous and disciplined and loving and free. It is refusing to escape and become numb to and check out of this broken fractured world.

And so we are embracing the high demands of Jesus’ call to be one of his disciples. We are honest about it. We want our friends to know up front that the costs are high, which is what is so appealing about Jesus--his vision for life take everything we have....

This is what we are all dying for--something that demands we step up and become better, more focused people. Something that calls out the greatness that we hope is somewhere inside of us.”

Beth-Anne's First Quilt: A Rag Quilt

A quilt. Something I’ve always wanted to do but after my tablecloth semi-failure, I didn’t think I’d ever try. But then friends on mine on facebook said that they were going to try and make one. So I asked if I could join them, and graciously they said yes!

So they sent me links and I found a website and I went to buy fabric and batting.

First I cut it into 6” squares. This was after trying to figure out how to get the most squares for the amount of material I had by mathematical calculations. (You know, a yard is 36” and 6 x 6 is 36...so...)

Then I cut the batting

...but I miscalculated that and cut too much batting, but that was okay.

Then I put the batting in between the cloth.

And then I put it in a box because I felt that I had no idea how to do whatever came next.

Thankful, I have an awesome friend, Nicole, who does know what she is doing so I went over to her house. She showed me how to x my squares and I was able to finish all my green squares at her house. She also helped save my tablecloth! (Although I still need to finish what she showed me to do, it was at least a start!)

I felt really great about those beautiful green squares and was determined to do the yellow ones on my machine at home.

My sewing machine was my Great-Grandma Curtis’ and probably from the 1940 or 1950s. I am not a seamstress and it just confuses me. However, I had made the tablecloth so I knew sort of how to work it. So I sat down to do it! The thread tension was off. I tried to read the manual. I called my dad and figured out some of the problems (yes, the foot has to be put down to sew). I called my mom and she said to ask for help from someone in the area who could come over. So I did. I seriously thank God for friends. I sent Nicole a message and she said she had time to drop by and help me. So she did. She battled my machine and helped me to understand it.

And so I was off to do they yellow squares!

I was happy to actually, sort of, understand my sewing machine and make it work! I can sew a straight line and in a zig-zag pattern.

Bear-Lee and my finished squares!

Next I put the squares down to figure out how big, and what shape to make it. I did a simple pattern because I didn't want to overwhelm myself with the first quilt.

Then I stacked each row so I could sew the rows.

I started to sew the rows but then I ran out of thread.

After I bought more thread I finished my rows. I wanted to take a picture of them, and saw Mei Mei (one of my basset hounds) shivering near by and decided to let her be decorated with them.

She didn't seem too upset but I wanted to begin piecing them together.

The hardest part was just moving it through the machine once it got longer and bigger. My squares didn't match up perfectly, but I was okay because this was for fun, not stress.

And...tada! The sewing part is done! This is is the front where the rag/frayed part will be.

This is the back/smooth side. Again, the squares are perfectly all the same size and right by each other, but it's close enough!

Then came the clipping. This caused my right hand pain. I didn't have the right scissors so I used what I had and learned that next time I will be buying better scissors. Either way, I finally finished clipping all the pieces.

Since Mei Mei had a picture taken with the quilt, I thought Nani should have a photo with it.

Now it was time to wash it. So (after being told to put it in a pillow case to protect my washer) I washed it.

Then I shook it out to get rid of the little pieces of string and got it all over my fleece pants. It was brilliant, I know, to wear fleece and shake out the quilt...

Finally I dried it and it was finished!! I didn't want Hana to feel left out so I included her in the final product picture.

So here is my first quilt and I am so excited and happy about it that I'm about ready to try another one!

Mad Libs by Matthew

These are some Mad Libs completed by Matthew and his brother-in-law, Jason, and cousin, Justin. Thanks for the laughs!



When, in my youth, I saw elderly people walking down the street, it seemed to me that they were always moving so much slower than I was. Why were they so brown all the time? I was spry and glittery, kicking around, this way and that. Now that I am older, however, I notice that the elderly do not sleep quite so quickly as I used to imagine. When I play rugby, it seems to me that the bats are often swimming drunkingly.

To tie it all together – don’t eat boxes, or drink nitroglycerin.



Why are people so angry all the time? Instead of being gleeful, they actually enjoy life! As for me, I like to float in my room and bark. This is because I failed my last tree-test. After such an event, in real life, I just seem so frightened, furious, and flippant. The only thing that really, truly helps me is thinking that the feet bring me despair – much despair. To end it all, I say eat socks – they bring endorphins.



Every night when the butcher knives come out to leap, the sky turns ghastly. That is, until the purple (with smiley polka-dots) penguins come along and stab the sharks. Then, everything changes and the fluorescent light bulb becomes sleek. When this happens, the trees explode and the owls eat sheep. Therefore, the moral of the story is: Chop your chew toys until you can’t snap bulldozers anymore.



Whose shotguns these are I think I know
His chainsaw is in the classroom though
He will not see me slicing here
To watch his shotguns fill up with snow
My little deer must thing it queer
To stop without a bazooka near
Between the shotguns and bloody lake
The bloodiest evening of the year

He gives his harness snails a shake
To dissect if there is some mistake
The only other sound’s the sheep
Of darkest wind and decaying flake
The shotguns are gloomy, discouraging, and deep
But I have zombies to keep
And yards to go before I seep
And yards to go before I seep




Once upon a time/dolphin, two girls and a very fat boy fell into a maroon sledge-hammer. Fortunately, the fat boy was bouncy enough for the two girls to jump on him, up and out of the sledge-hammer – spanghew-like.

They plastered for help, got it, returned, and, with a giant phone, pulled the fat boy out. However, he had lost 23 pounds by the time he was pulled out because it had been so long – he was no longer fat, but bouncy, flamboyant, and black.

For supper, they ate artichoke-hearts, and he became fat again. The end.

Asking for Love

I love to sit and listen to a song as thoughts fill up my heart like rain in a cup too small. Here is a rain drop.

Every time - every time - I ask for God to help me love Him more, He has increased my heartbeat for Him. Without fail, in the next hours or days after such a prayer, I can say that I love Him more.

If you feel your heart toward God growing cold, whilst it grows warm for this world, I suggest a simple prayer - asking for love.

Rain drop of Matthew

Time Traveler

Matthew Talks Time

Time goes so quickly.

I am considered young by most. Even my elementary school students say so. I am 27 currently - 28 by month's end. I still have 2 very full years to live in my 20's before I even reach my 30's which are still considered youthful.

However, times goes quickly.

Much of my life as a child was plagued with trying to prevent this river of time from flowing forever onward.

Even the Bible says that God has put eternity into the heart of man. Even if we all lived to be 1000 - it wouldn't be enough.

The dilemma's answer is found only in eternal life with Jesus. I still struggle once in a while with how quickly my life is dripping away, but free eternal life (and I get to give up my heart of pain and suffering) sounds like a deal too-good-to-be-true.

I say we take it!