Once Upon a Marriage

Here comes Valentines Day! It's hard to believe that the calendar has already moved that far ahead. So here at North Ridge we are already prepared for the month of love!  The truth is, when it comes to romantic love our world is very confused, isn't it? What we often teach our young girls is that one day, if you play your cards right, you are going to meet the one. Your prince charming is going to come and sweep you off of your feet, and everything is going to be perfect from that moment forward. You'll get the house and the white picket fence, and the dog, and the 2.5 kids, and you are going to live happily ever after. But the reality is, happily ever after doesn't come in so many marriages.

We are starting a brand new series of messages on February 13 called, Once Upon a Marriage. We are going to examine in detail four couples from the Old Testament and see how, for better or worse, their marriages could speak into our lives and empower our marriages to be better!

That's A Lot of Turkey!

Hey North Ridge! I just wanted to give you a quick ministry update on things around the Ridge.

• We are well on our way to filling 750 Christmas boxes for the children in Batey 9 in the Dominican Republic. Many boxes are still available if you, your family or the people you work with would like to participate. 
• The Reading for Randleman project has collected 600 books to date for Randleman Elementary School! Deadline is December 5.
• The Dream Center earned a 5 Star rating this past week! Thanks to all our Dream Center Staff and Volunteers!
• Today North Ridge delivered 440 lbs. of turkey to Randleman Elementary School to be distributed to families in need. That's a lot of turkey!

Thank you for your Radical Generosity! 

Rockin' the Batay

North Ridge showed up big today. We shoveled in all the dirt to fill the floors and then got started on mixing the concrete to finish them. In the batay you shovel in concrete one bucket at a time. We decided to rent a mixer. When we asked Pedro if that would be o.k., he said "No it too expensive". We said "How much?" He said "$30". We got the mixer.

At the end of the working day we still had half of the house floor to finish. We were told it was time to pack up and come back tomorrow. We knew that if we didn't stay, we would not finish the house on time. North Ridge put in two more hours and rocked the batay!

Shovel and Bucket Day

In order to pour concrete floors for the house we have to bring in dirt to raise the ground to the proper level. Why they like to build the walls THEN bring in dirt - we do not know:) What we do know is that the way they bring in dirt is one bucket at a time. We have two shovels and four buckets. We have to bring in enough dirt to bring up the floor 1 1/2 feet! Everyone got a chance to try it! By the way...tomorrow we bring in the cement the same way:) Here are some pictures from our day! 

Meet Anita

Today we were able to spend some time with Anita, the mother and wife who has been praying that God would give her a house for 5 years. We walked to her house and introduced ourselves and I told her that I was the pastor of a church called North Ridge. She immediately grabbed me and hugged me as she said "Glory to God - Amen! Amen!". John told her we wanted to show her picture to more people so that more people would come and more houses would be built. She started with "Glory to God!" all over again.
When Anita saw that so many women had made the trip to build her house, she cried.

We made good progress today. The walls are up and tomorrow we start with the interior walls and roof. the team gets a little discouraged because they want to all be working at the same time and get it done efficiently and excellently.  Things just don't operate on the same time table down here:)

First trip to the Batay

Today was our Teams first trip to the Bateyes. A Batay is a village in the sugar cane fields. The Haitian people live in these villages and work the sugar cane when the cane is ready for harvest. The pictures explain more that my words will, and it will take us several days to absorb what we have seen. You would not believe the incredible beauty of this country. Coconut trees are everywhere. Mountains and blue green oceans side by side. And right in the middle of it all there is extreme poverty. The children are amazing, and we have had a lot of fun playing and talking with them. I have included some before and after pictures of our work today.
Everyone is tired and will not even notice the barking dogs, moped races or 4 am roosters:)

Good Morning North Ridge

Good morning North Ridge! Hello to all of you from the Dominican Team! We are praying for you this morning as you will soon be starting your day and worshiping together. Did I mention there are a lot of roosters in Barahona?

Last week we started more than a new series. We went to the words of Jesus and listened as He gave us His terms for following Him. I look forward to diving into these words with you as we try to get our minds around what it means to abandon everything for Him, love God will all our affections, and take up our cross and die to self. These are the places where Jesus says we begin to follow Him.

Today at North Ridge my friends Chris & Mary Herndon will be sharing their story of how God has restored their relationship with each other, called them to abandon the life they once knew and follow after Him as missionaries to marriages. I am praying God will use their story to speak to us about our own.

Have a great day at the Ridge!