Happy Father's Day BEST PRESENT OF ALL

So I wanted to tell you that I received the best present for Father's day. This past Thursday I received a text from my wife that said

"Abby prayed tonight 'to have

Jesus come in my heart so I

can do great things and love

you' all by herself tonight"

I can tell you that there is no better feeling as a father when your child starts to get to know YOUR FATHER... God, thank you for your gift that is Abby. Please continue to bless her life and yes, come into her heart so she can do great things and love you... From the lips of babes and infants you have established strength, because of your adversaries, that you might silence the enemy and the avenger. Psalm 8:2

AMEN!!!!

Then Rebecca said to Abby "All of Heaven rejoices???" and Abby replied in her cute little excited voice "YES!!!!"

Happy Father's Day a Little Early!!!

In my house we decieded to celebrate Father's Day a few days early. First, because we will be away on Sunday and there is NO WAY that we were lugging my gift to NY and back again.

Second, I am the worst at waiting to giving gifts and getting gifts. In that way, I am very much like my father.

So what did Rebecca and the girls get me? Well, actually two things. One that I have been asking for over and over again and the other was a huge surprise.

For my first gift (you can see it in the picture) is a portable fire pit. I have been wanting one of these for a very long time now. I just like the idea of being able to have the family sit around a fire in the backyard. What was even better about last night is that we had icecream cake last night and sat around the fire... That was just perfect!!!! Thanks Sweetheart....

Oh and the second gift was a new water bottle with a neat ice pack to keep everything cool in the bottom. I have actually used that more than the fire pit so far... Here are some more of the photos that my wife took. Please enjoy!!! And hug your father between today and Sunday if you can!!! Just tell him you love him, that will be enough...

These last two I took of the sunset last night...

He did it again, and again...

This past weekend my nephew Jonah was invited to play in a baseball tournament in Delaware. Last year Jonah also played at this tournament called "Sports at the Beach" and that weekend he hit a couple homers (one over 330 feet). Well Saturday, I had the joy of attending and watching him hit another home run. It was about 310-315 feet down the line. Then on Sunday, I am told he hit yet another home run over 320 feet... I could get used this! Nice job slugger! Keep up the hard work!!!

Sorry this picture is a little blurry, but you can trace the ball off the bat if you look in the left hand side of the picture, you can see the ball line going out...

Here is a few other shots that I got... Please feel free to leave any comments!!!

He must love this place.

Getting ready to crank that ball!!!

Stealing My Friends Through the Night

"The Prince of Despair has been beaten you know, the loser still fights... Death's on a long leash stealing my friends through the night." (Caedmon's Call: "Love Alone")

DEATH! It was never meant to be this way. Very often I wonder how it must break God's heart when we are brokenhearted over losing someone close to us. God never wanted us to feel the pain of losing someone. WE were not created with Death in mind. When God put Adam and Eve in the garden He provided a way for Death to never be a part of their lives.

¹⁵And the Lord God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to tend and guard and keep it. ¹⁶And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; ¹⁷But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and blessing and calamity you shall not eat, for in the day that you eat of it you shall surely die (Genesis 2:15-17)

God's original plan was for us to live with Him and nature in perfect harmony. Never to know of death or loss. Once Adam and Eve ate of the the tree of the knowledge of Good & Evil... Death was knocking at their door. God promised it!!! See, to Adam and Eve, death was a threat and a promise. A threat because they could no longer live with God and walk with Him face to face. Their relationship with God was lost/damaged and would never be the same. Can you imagine hearing God with your own ear? I mean they knew the sound of God, not just His voice but He had a sound... I think it is the same with people we truly know in our life. Even if they are in the other room or you can't see them, you still know their sound. This is what Adam and Eve had with God... They spent time walking and being God... What we have lost! This must have been so amazing to behold.

Once they ate of the fruit all was lost in a moment and the blame game started.

¹²And the man said, The woman whom YOU (emphasis added)gave to be with me--she gave me [fruit] from the tree, and I ate. ¹³And the Lord God said to the woman, What is this you have done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled (cheated, outwitted, and deceived) me, and I ate. ¹⁴And the Lord God said to the serpent, Because you have done this, you are cursed above all [domestic] animals and above every [wild] living thing of the field; upon your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust [and what it contains] all the days of your life. (Genesis 3:12-14)

Death is also a promise to Adam, Eve and us... After Adam and Eve ate the fruit and sinned against God, God removed them from the garden & the tree of internal life. The Death promise is this: "You will not live forever in your sin". You see, we weren't designed for sin and death. But since we have strayed away from God, we have chosen both. Now we are far too familiar with both. But it is God's grace that He doesn't allow us to stay in our sin forever. He could have allowed Adam and Eve to eat of the tree of life... but He had a plan...

22And the Lord God said, Behold, the man has become like one of Us [the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit], to know [how to distinguish between] good and evil and blessing and calamity; and now, lest he put forth his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live [b]forever-- (Genesis 3:22)

It is promised that if we trust in Jesus and He as our sacrifice, then we will not live forever as sinful, disobedient, wretched beings. Instead, we are promised that once we make it through the death (or end) of this life we will be changed forever... NEW BODY AND ALL!!!! Yes we have a lost a lot... BUT THROUGH JESUS (THE SON) we can have it again...

PS... D I am praying for you and your family! May God's grace and peace find your hearts during this time of loss and pain.

Lost in the Shuffle

One week ago this past Saturday I was in Buffalo for my Nephew Stephen's black-belt extravaganza. I can't tell you how proud of this little man I am. He is ten years old and a Junior black belt. If you don't know my nephew (also my Godson) then let me explain a little bit about him. He is an amazing little boy because he has acomplished this while having a form of Austim called Aspergers.

Taekwondo has been perfect for him and a great outlet for him to express himself.

Anyway, I had the pleasure of taking the pictures for it and here is just a sample!!!!
Congrats Stephen, I love you

Memorial Day!

Price of Freedom is VISIBLE HERE!!!!

I wanted to take a few moments and thank those who served and provided our freedom...


To my cousin Stephen Thank you for your sacrifice and dedication to this nation as a Marine.


To my friend Noah P. Thank you for your service and dedication to this nation. May God bless you and your wife richly!



To My Uncle Richard. Thank you for your service in the Marines



Thank you Opa for your years of service and dedication. This nation and more importantly your family owes you a debt of gratitude.




Thank you to my brother Jamie and his family. Thank you for all you have done and your support. May God bless you richly today.


To Uncle Mike... Thank you for all you have given to this nation. To my mom thank you for raising us children while Dad was away in the service. You both have done a wonderful job.


To my dad: I have no words, but Thank you and I miss you!


This is my Grandpa Heim. He served in Italy during WWII. Thank you grandpa... We miss you!


To my grandpa Schlenker served in the Army during WWII .
"Thank you Grandpa and Grandma and we miss you"

Wow.... What a week!

Last Saturday I was scheduled to to fly to Buffalo with Abby (my oldest). We were going North for a couple of reasons. First, to see my nephew get his black belt in Taekwondo (I was going specially to take photos). Second, my mom wanted to take Abby to get her first Manicure/Peticure done and an appointment for a hair cut. Or in the words of my mom, her first "Princess Day".

THEN, my grandmother-in-law passed on Friday... So I boarded a plane with TWO children under 4 and no wife to help. YIKES!!!! Rebecca was going to drive up to Rochester with the dogs and we would meet up later on during the weekend.... Well, everything worked out perfectly. I mean, the girls were perfect angels on the plane. Then Saturday morning my sister took Abby to get her nails done... (You will see photos later) and my mom and I took her to get hair cut. She was so happy and Madi had a good time also.

It was a huge blessing to be "home" for a couple of days and I know that my wife was a bigger blessing in Rochester for her family. Then we went to Rochester for the funeral of Grandma Lewis (or as Abby says "Gigi"). It was beautiful service and I got to sing with my sister in law (It is Well With My Soul) and if I say so myself I think we sounded great! Then, yesterday we began our long drive back to Baltimore.

As soon as we got home, my second worst nightmare happened. I had left the front door open in an attempt to bring the luggage. As I walking back towards the house, I see a flash of a stray cat running from our front yard and right on it's tail is my BEST BUD Watson... The Cat makes it across the street but Watson is hit by a pick up truck. I am powerless (and yelling on the top of my lungs NOOOOOOO) and only can see Watson disappear in front of the truck and what seemed like a life time later, Watson bounced up to his feet and ran in the house... Then the pain came and the blood was everywhere.... So we (Watson and I) made a late night trip to the emergency vet clinic. It wasn't until 1 am that we returned with the best news possible... He hurt his right front paw, the dew claw and the pad underneath his paw. After a few days or so he should be fine. No broken bones or anything... Absolutely a miracle..... Thanks God!!!

So needless to say, our week was full of ups and downs... But most of all - full of God's faithfulness!!!!

Well, below are some of the photos!!! Please feel free to comment and