I’ve shared this with only a few people but now that Laurie’s home I’m hoping to share this with whoever I might be able to help or change a life. Laurie had fabulous family (sister) and friends who kept up-dates coming to the rest of us about Laurie’s progress. About 3 weeks before Laurie’s birthday they sent out a message: For Laurie’s Birthday…and in this message they asked all the rest of us to join them in doing something out of the ordinary/ special for someone around them to honor Laurie and her life. I talked this over with Mark and we decided on 3 different things.
Being in California we only had a few people we knew, so we decided to give Chase and Katherine (our young neighbors) Dave Ramsey’s Money Makeover and workbook (we’d been talking about budgets with them, etc.). We snuck a nice bill in the midst of this book in the hopes that it would bless them. For the neighbors who life under us we gave our sincere apologies (for having to life under us with 3 kids) I had a hard time wanting to do anything nice for them honestly…we have smelled all their smoking fumes from day 1 of living here and I wasn’t that interest in being nice to them, but Mark told me that God laid them on his heart as ones we needed to do something for…and that next night I dreamed about it…FINE! I said! I wasn’t sure what to get them…maybe a SMOKELESS ashtray? Or a fan to blow it out their window?? But we’d decided on Simply Romantic Nights (a dating game/thing) cause they’d been recently married and for their 2 year old daughter we got her the Bible Stories book that the kids and I ran through last year home schooling (this was Keegan’s idea!) Then we also decided to make a cake (we havne’t gotten to this one because we ran out of time before we left but this will be done soon!) and give it to the people who work in the apartment complexes office – we love them and they love us!! But the scary part is that with each and every gift we gave we had written out a nice long letter. Not only did I need them to know about Laurie and how great she was but I also needed them to know that she wasn’t afraid to die because she knew Jesus…I spent forever on these…not writing them but praying over them and worrying about what they would think (cause it’s always hard to share your heart esp. with strangers!) BOTH couples were ecstatic and so thankful…shocked really. The neighbors under us have even started going back to church…SHORELINE – the church we’ve been going to! I praise God for Laurie and ALL the people her life touched through just this event.
How sad I needed her wonderful life in order to find my bravery and share who Jesus is to me…grow me Lord!
Don’t feel like you have to read these letters, but I posted them JUST in CASE!!
Dear Damion and Ashley,
This is a little something for you from us. Let me tell you the what then I’ll get to the why. We want you to have Simply Romantic Nights cause dating when you are married is almost more important then before you were married. This is a fun and cheesy way to have some good times together and Mark and I have noticed that besides the movies and Cannery Row Bars there’s not much else to do to date. So we hope you enjoy this. The Bible Story is a great book that the kids and I read through this past year during our first year or home schooling. We home school so the kids and I can travel with Mark as he travels with his job…a lot! I love this Bible because the stories are fabulous and you can enjoy them while reading to your daughter. The stories are in chronological order and very easy to understand and fun to read cause they are separated into smaller sections.
Our family has a relationship with our Savior, Jesus Christ and well even though we don’t desire to suffocate anyone with what we believe to be true we do want to share it;
The GOOD news is that according to the Bible NO one is good enough for Heaven and eternal life. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Which means no matter how we treat life we are still dirt sinners and no one is better then anyone else. The Bible also says that all we have to do is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.” (in Acts 16:31). This seems much easier to us then trying to work our way to peace and heaven. God gave us Jesus who gives us heaven – He comes to us no matter where we are in life, and He loves us there! We believe this with all out heart – enough to risk looking completely insane to share it. We are not the born-again freaks that you may see on the news- we are real people with real struggles and we wanted you to know Jesus’ gift is FREE to you as well.
That’s the ‘What’ now here’s the ‘Why.’ This answer is simple, it’s because of Laurie. Laurie’s birthday is today, July 22nd. She’s a beautiful wife to Corey and an outstanding mother to their daughter, Casey. She’s a dear friend to me as well as to many others, She’s a daughter and a sister too. We want to honor her as she fights cancer and has been now for 4 years. She’s been given 3-6 months to live which sends me to my knees often praying for her. So please accept these gifts to honor Laurie and her hard fight to stay with us. Laurie is super strong and is NOT afraid of death – she too has a faith to move mountains and her desire is for others to know Jesus like she does and to know all He has done for her!
So we may look (or in your case sound) crazy, we may not be the easiest family to live under but what you see is what you get – we are real and wanted you to understand our joy. May God bless your family as well because of who He is.
We’ve been attending Shoreline Community Church and love it…try it out or look around. Feel free to ask any questions as well!
We’ve been attending Shoreline Community Church and love it…try it out or look around. Feel free to ask any questions as well!
“As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15
Blessings,
Mark, Stacie, Ella, Keegan, Grissom, & “to be announced” Wortley
Dear Chase and Catherine,
We got you a little something. First I’ll tell you what it is then I’ll tell you the why we are giving it to you. I know Catherine and I have had a few talks about life and who we are and about finances. So with that in mind Mark and I wanted to give you the tool we were told about after we’d been married. We’ve given you The Money Make Over as well as a workbook to go with it by Dave Ramsey. He is the man that gave us the steps to be where we are today. I’d love to tell you that we’ve saved over a million dollars, but I can’t. What I can tell you is that it’s because of Dave’s steps that Mark and I only have our house payment! I truly believe that God gave this material to us in the perfect time because we were in the midst of saving 6 months worth of money when Mark lost his job (for 2 years) and in that whole time we never missed a payment or bill and it’s ALL because we got out of debt when we did. This book also shows you true financial possibilities in life. He’s not at all a normal money guy. First off, he’s a believer in Christ so he uses all his principals straight out of the Bible. He was a millionaire more than once; he took his family into bankruptcy and back into financial bliss so he’s also ‘lived’ life. He’s got a website: www.daveramsey.com as well as a radio talk show. We hope you enjoy this – it’s actually an entertaining read!
Ok…so the why we are doing this is very simple; it’s because of Laurie. Laurie is a wife to Cory, and a mother to their 4 year old daughter, Casey. She’s also a dear friend of mine who is losing her long and hard fought fight against what started as breast cancer. She’s been given 3-6 months to live. Her birthday was July 22nd, and so to Honor her and her life we wanted to give you something special. After I talking with Laurie I learned that she’s not afraid to die and her desire is for everyone to know why. I know Catherine’s told me a little about the Mormon faith so my desire is not to offend you, but to share with you some of the things Laurie and our family hold true.
When Mark and I got married we had to look long and hard at what we knew to be the truth. Our religions were different and important to both of us. We also agreed that before we had children that we needed to come to an agreement to which church to attend and to truly search for the truth. Let me tell you that road starts rocky when your family is in a different place then you are, but the truth also shines and to this day we are mostly unified. Our prayer is not to turn you into what we are, no, our prayer is that you will step back from all you’ve been raised on and examine the truth to find where you two (as a family of your own) should go. The first truth we found is that that the Bible is ALL God and ALL true: 2 Timothy 3:16 says, “All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness…” So we take the Bible very seriously to heart.
Another truth we came to is about God Himself: God is the Creator and Ruler of the universe. He has eternally existed in three persons: the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. These three are co-equal, co-eternal, co-essential, and are one God and there are no other gods but Him, He is the one true God. (Genesis 1:1, 26, 27; 3:22; Psalm 90:2; Matthew 28:19; 1 Peter 1:2; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Isa 43:10,11; John 1:1)
Which then lead us to Jesus and who He really is: Jesus Christ is the Son of God. He lived a sinless human life and offered Himself as the perfect sacrifice for the sins of all people by dying on the cross. He rose from the dead after three days to demonstrate His power over sin and death. He ascended to Heaven’s glory and will return again to earth to reign as King of Kings and Lord and Lords. (Matthew 1:22-23; Isaiah 9:6; John 1:1-5; 14:10-30; Hebrews 4:14-15; 1 Corinthians 15:3-4; Romans 1:3-4; Acts 1:9-11; 1 Timothy 6:14-15; Titus 2:13).
We then took seriously when Jesus said, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) and so we learned about salvation through Jesus Christ: God loves us so much that He has offered the greatest gift to humanity. Human beings can never make up for sin by self-improvement or good works. Only by God’s offer of forgiveness and grace that are received by trusting in Jesus Christ can men and women be saved from sin’s penalty. Eternal life with God begins the moment one receives Jesus Christ by faith. (Romans 5:1; 6:23; Ephesians 1:8-9; John 1:12; 14:6; Titus 3:5; Galatians 3:26). I understand this to be a big difference in what others believe – but to Mark and I it makes perfect sense. Jesus comes to us where we are in life not because of how many good things we do or how nice we are He comes to us and loves us in the dirty places. It’s also said that, “ALL have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.” Roman 3:23 this is good news to us because it means we are all equal no one can be better or more righteous than another. We all need saving and Acts 16:31 tells us how easy it is, “Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be saved.”
This is also what my friend Laurie believes which is why she’s not afraid of death because death is just the beginning of her eternal life. I tell you this to honor my dying friend on her birthday. Like I said earlier our prayer is for you two to go on a search together and find a faith you can stand firm on. Go ahead and challenge what you’ve always known to be true we did. God tells us to, “Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you…” Matt 7:7.
We hope you will be encouraged by this and not offended. We also wanted to help you start off your financial foundation as a strong one that will lead you to have MANY blessings on this earth! We are all adults and are all very capable of choosing what it is that we will believe. Good luck on your journey together. Much of where you are at, SO reminds us of where we started!
Sincerely,
Stacie, Mark, Ella, Keegan, Grissom, and ‘to be announced’ Wortley
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