Fight for Your Family

Little behind on my blogs. A couple of weeks ago, Gregg concluded our Parenthood series with a message entitled Fight for Your Family.

I realize that I’m a little biased, but I think it was one of the most powerful messages he’s given. You can listen to it here.

As a parent, I want God and His love to be real to my children. Yet, there are times when the task is so difficult that the temptation is to give up.  

We spend a lot of time fighting for their health and protection, but how much energy do we truly expend in fighting for their spiritual development?

God’s presence and power needs to be at work in our lives before we can expect our children to experience His presence and power at work in their lives. 

In Nehemiah 4, when the Israelites became discouraged while building the wall around Jerusalem, Nehemiah made a strategic decision.

Therefore I stationed some of the people behind the lowest points of the wall at the exposed places, posting them by families, with their swords, spears and bows. After I looked things over, I stood up and said to the nobles, the officials and the rest of the people, “Don’t be afraid of them. Remember the Lord, who is great and awesome, and fight for your brothers, your sons and your daughters, your wives and your homes.” Nehemiah 4:13-14

Nehemiah posted them by families. By doing this, the Israelites were continuously reminded about what they were fighting for. If they became discouraged and gave up, they stood to not only lose a generation, but their very own sons and daughters as well.

Don’t ever give up in the fight for your family. Your children need to know that they’re worth fighting for.

Five Days Later

As many of you know, last Saturday Gregg fell over 10 feet in a climbing accident.

Thank you so much for all of the calls, texts and emails expressing your love and concern. We’re so blessed and very thankful for the outpouring of prayers and support you all have shown to our family.

Gregg is doing incredibly well considering the magnitude of the accident. The doctors okayed his travel to the mainland; so we proceeded with our travel plans and are taking one day at a time. He still looks banged up, but so much better than the last picture I posted. It’s amazing how God created the body to heal so quickly.

The fractures on his eye and wrist are still causing pain and will require some visits to an orthopedic doctor when we return. He’s also experiencing a little discomfort in his left knee that was pretty banged up in the fall.

When Gregg hit the ground, he landed on the left side of his head, causing his face to shift about 2mm. He’s started having some jaw and sinus problems and noticed that his teeth have shifted. Planning to follow up with all of this when we return, but for now…rest.

The Fall

Yesterday, Gregg and Rebecca went on their first rock climbing expedition to Makapu’u. I must admit, I was a little apprehensive.

A couple of hours after they left, I received a phone call from Becca…the kind you never want to get. Here’s what happened.

Their group of six had hiked to the top of the climb to map out their route and secure all of the lines. Heading down to the base, Gregg had just finished securing a line when he stepped on some loose rocks that gave way.

Starting to slide, he managed to stay on his feet, swerving to avoid carrying Barry over the edge with him. Gaining speed and not knowing what was below him, upon hitting the edge, Gregg jumped. (I know what you’re thinking right now, so go ahead and say it, “Your husband’s a STUD!”)

Somehow, he was able to land feet-first on a rock about three feet below. Unable to stop because of his forward momentum, he kept going, this time falling head first off of the rock for about another ten feet or so until He crashed into another large rock. 

Thankfully, Gregg never lost consciousness and remained fairly coherent throughout the day. The total damage: fractured eye socket, fractured wrist, lots of lacerations and bruising. The doctors said that the impact from the fall shifted his face 2mm. They said this shouldn’t cause long-term difficulty; however, this morning Gregg mentioned that his jaw felt out of place and he feels like a truck ran over him.

Please pray for a quick recovery. We leave for the mainland tomorrow morning and not sure how the travel will affect him.  All for now.

Hair Drama, Part Two

I managed to keep Becca away from bleach and hair dye for 24 hours then took her to see Carla at the hair salon.

Carla said, “Wow, it’s really black!” She gave us two options.

Option 1: She could add brown highlights to soften and balance the black.

Option 2: She could completely strip out the black and recolor it.

Becca chose the latter and within an hour she had beautiful dark brown hair.

I asked Becca what she learned from her experience. Here’s what she said.

Becca said that she’s grateful because it could have been a lot worse. She went on to explain that one kid at school put something in another kid’s hair and now it’s orange. Yikes!

Becca also said that this was a lesson in patience. She should’ve waited to get color her hair colored properly, but in her impulsive desire to get it done, she did it herself. Then she added, I still don’t think I’ve quite learned that lesson yet. Oh no!

Hair Drama

Last weekend, Becca  asked me if I could make an appointment for her to get her bangs trimmed before our vacation. Shortly after her request, Becca emerged from the bathroom declaring that she had cut her own bangs.

The next day, trying to fix what she’d done the previous day, she cut them again. (You see where this is going, don’t you.) After her third attempt (and significantly shorter bangs), she asked about that bang appointment again.

But it didn’t stop there. Ooohhh, I wish it had stopped there.

Becca decided to dye her hair. She picked black. I asked her, “Are you sure that you want black?”

Becca replies with the usual “Yes, mom I’m sure (with the teenage I-know-what-I’m-doing tone). Her reasoning was that it really wouldn’t look black…just dark brown, and that’s what she wants.

Well, it looked black.

Here we are again at Longs looking for hair color. Becca seems to think that if she re-colors her hair light brown this time, the light brown will mix with the black and morph into the dark brown she was wanting.

Well, it still looks black.

Now Becca’s on the internet doing some research. Apparently, a mixture of lemon juice and some other ingredients could have a bleach-like effect on her hair.

Time to call in the professionals. Tonight, I called, Carla, my hairdresser. “Hi Carla. It’s Kris. Becca cut her bangs and dyed her hair black. What should we do?”

Carla strongly recommended that Becca NOT do anything else to her hair. Any bleach-like agent would turn her hair ORANGE, not the desired DARK BROWN.

Time to hide the lemon juice. Tomorrow, we go for a free consultation, which according to Carla, could cost as much as $150 to fix!

Good thing Becca’s been saving her money for our upcoming vacation.

Part two tomorrow…

Grace Promo Video

One of our staff members, Clifton, put together a promo video from the video footage from our Easter service. 


Take a look here!

Team Baja

Last Tuesday, Gregg and our oldest daughter, Becca, left for their mission's trip to Baja, Mexico. They've been working in a little village called El Nino. Apparently, one year during an El Nino season, their former village was destroyed and they were relocated to this current location. 


Extreme poverty and lack of clean water are just a couple of the challenges this little village faces on a daily basis. In just five short days, the Ten Days Missions team built 2 homes and a church, which is the focal point of the community. They visited the school and hosted a fiesta where they fed the entire village. 


Here are a few of the pictures they've sent me. They return Tuesday night, tired but rich from their experience.