Our awesome weekend!

This weekend Rory and I had an opportunity to go to Ocracoke Island and attend a wedding with (wait for it.....................) NO KIDS!  Here is a video that I made of our weekend trip.  Props to the app Magisto, which took 20 minutes of video and cut it into a 2 minute movie.  Great app!

The kids all stayed with friends and had sleepovers.  I really think they were blessed just as much as Rory and I were.  We had such a great time and I know they did as well.
In other news:
  1. School starts back up tomorrow              
  2. We are heading to Williamsburg VA on Tuesday to teach the kids about Jamestown,  Williamsburg and Yorktown                      
  3. We negotiated the purchase of another investment property in Kansas City
  4.  Rory and I still have all the dance moves we had back in the day! We proved it at the wedding!                                

WE'RE FINISHED!

Well, it finally came to pass.  The last box went into the storage unit and it was sealed.  Nothing will disturb it for at least a year if not longer.  All of our possessions, keepsakes, clothes, household fit into a 10 x 40 storage locker.  It was packed floor to ceiling and it was only by the hand of God that it all fit! You never realize how much "stuff" you have until you have to move it.  I am fully determined when we get home from our odyssey to downsize from all our stuff and keep life simple with simple stuff.  I think I am going to enact a law into family legislation saying if you bring something into the house then something must also go out.  We will call it the BJITJO law.  BJITJO stands for "Bring junk in, take junk out!"  Below is a pic of how crammed the unit was! One also of the before.

We had several people come and help us pack and move.  It is always really cool to share the love of packing with others! I mean, really we wanted to keep all that goodness to ourselves but in the end we just felt like sharing it with others who were BEGGING to help! In all reality though, we were honored by those that helped us.  Our friend Heather Bryant, who has been such an honor to have as a friend was there for several days helping my wife.  She is an amazing woman of God and has a powerful testimony behind her of being trafficked and redeemed by God.  We love her and her hubby Joel so much.  Kari Smithson our KC pal came over and helped Rory pack as well.  Our friends Roger and Sara also helped.  Sara did most of the work, (sorry Roger :) ).  We also had some IHOP guys that came that I paid to help do some of the heavy lifting.  Lorejas who has worked on my houses before brought his friend Yanik.  We also had Adam Castro, a guy who has always been eager to work for me and he is so zealous for the Lord.  In the end we got the job finished and the house was cleaned and ready to go for the new home owners.  We did our best to make it right for them fixing some small issues in the end to have it be a place they can immediately feel welcomes with no issues.

So this morning we are leaving MO one last time and getting back to our trip.  Our trip will take us back to Wilmington NC for a few more weeks until the eviction proceedings are over and we can get our townhouse on the market after that to sell.  Rory and I have decided to move our assets out to MO and sell the houses we own in NC over the next year.  It will be easier on us to manage.  It also means nicer ROI numbers on the business side.  Some of you have inquired as to what we do for money.  Pretty good question.  The answer is, I traded stocks and options as a day trader for 12 years.  The Lord anointed me to do so.  I was very good at it because the Lord's hand was on me.  After 12 years I retired and used the money and am still using the money we had made from that endeavor to purchase real estate.  We currently live off the rental incomes of properties we own in NC and MO.  We plan on purchasing 12 more properties over the next two years to add to our portfolio after that we are awaiting God's plan!

As we travel over the next few days keep our family in your prayers.  If you have anything you would like prayer for please comment below.  I would love to lead our family in prayers for you.  We will arrive back in Wilmington on Thursday.  I will try to blog more over the next couple days when God puts stuff on my heart.  For now, I am grateful, content and joyful at the prospects of our adventure.  I am overjoyed that the Lord has given us this opportunity and respite to fill our hearts and love each other well.  Thank you to everyone for your encouraging words to us.  We thank you all! Here is a random pic of our family eating one of our fav's MEXICAN!

29 days in Wilmington

Well after almost a month of being here in Wilmington NC, we are preparing to return to Lee's Summit MO on Sunday.  We are sad to leave and we have had such a great time being here.  Our trip plans have been interrupted due to the sale of our house.  While we are super excited about our primary house selling it has thrown a kink into our travelling plans.  So for now we are going back to MO to pack up our house and then sign it over to the new owners.  When we return this time next year to MO after our journey we will purchase some land (20-100 acres) and start building our own home with our own designs. We are also eagerly awaiting this!

Solar hot air balloon project!

We made some new friends here at the campground.  Two of those new friends Milo and Felix, are 10 and 8.  They love to catch lizards and they are being home schooled as well!  The kids have been hanging out with them and spending time riding bikes, playing outside and playing games.  It's really good to see them experiencing life like it used to be.  I remember being a kid and being gone all day from the house with the only rule being come back before dark.  Those days were awesome exploring and learning.  I learned so much about life, friends, responsibility without even realizing it.  I want my kids to have and do the same.  Rory agreed with me to let the kids ride bikes around the park without supervision! That was a huge step forward.  I am sure that many more of those decisions are to come.

Home schooling is going well.  We are teaching the kids fun and cool concepts everyday.  The other day we did an experiment.  In the picture above you can see we made a solar hot air balloon.  We took 3 trash bags and taped them into a large cylinder.  After that we filled them with air and tied it off on the open end.  Then we waited for the air to get hot enough inside to start rising the balloon in the air.  It was a great time because we had an opportunity to teach on experiments, hypothesis, and conclusions.  The experiment was not fully a success but they learned anyway.  We are trying to do field trips and experiments like this weekly to keep the kids learning in so many ways.

Also while we have been here we had the not so great job of evicting a non-paying tenant :(.  This is the first time in 10 years of owning property that I have ever had to do this.  It has been the main reason we have been here so long.  I really tried and tried to work things out with this tenant but he is just continuing to make foolish, prideful choices.  So I resorted to the court system to have him evicted.  Please pray for his heart to learn through this experience.  I have to say, I have had so much compassion and empathy for him.  I truly desire him to prosper and at this point have no other choice than to evict him.  Hopefully, at 23, he can learn from this mistake and prosper from hard taught wisdom in the future.

Thank you all for reading!
                                                                                   

Second week of school and lots of fun!

This week marked the second week that Rory and I have been home schooling or road schooling the kids.  I just want to say that we are having a great time!  I love teaching my kids.  In every way I just love watching their faces light up when they understand new concepts and ideas.  I am so grateful for this opportunity to spend so much time being intentional with them.  There is not a day that I do not thank God for this.

Rory is still searching for a rhythm to all of this.  She very much prefers a system or a plan to be done repeatedly not only for herself but also for the expectations of the kids.  We will hopefully have a full routine nailed down here pretty soon but for the most part we are changing things a little everyday to find the best routine.  Today we introduced the Spanish lessons to Allison and Ethan.  This Rosetta Stone is crazy awesome!  I turned it on and started it for Alli and within minutes she was up and learning using immersion.  For those of you who don't know immersion is being fully enveloped in all aspects of language to learn.  By picture, by word, by sound.  Just like you learn when you are a child and you are learning in your environment Rosetta Stone does the same thing.  Now, while I am only on day one I was really impressed with the technique.  I also am doing it with them as to be a better teacher.  I do know Spanish from my missionary trips and four years of studying in high school but this immersion refresher is sharpening those already learned skills.

While school is underway we are also using our time in Wilmington to continue to hang out with our friends.  It has been great to come back and see great friends who have loved us and been intentional with reaching out to us since we moved.  I would have to say that these close friends have been encouraging to us in so many ways.  We love spending time with them.  Yesterday I went fishing with one of those such friends, Mark Tippet. Mark is one of those guys that would do anything for you at anytime and walk with you while your doing it. I have had the opportunity to see him personally minister to dozens of people and have also had the chance to see his heart shine the light of the Lord to so many.  I love being around his family because they understand what it means for their hearts to pour out to others in intentional relationships.  Anyway, we went fishing with his oldest son Luke and were able to get on the fish early.  We went out around 6:30 and were catching fish within 30 minutes.  This is a picture of the big drum I caught!

This one measured out to 26 1/2 inches and was rather porky.  Mark also got a great drum that was slightly bigger soon after.  We were using top water bobbers, I think they called them...... After that we went out to the jetty and used some mullet minnows to go after some bigger drum.  We did not have much luck with drum but Mark got onto something big and meaty but was unable to land him.  I happen to think it was a shark but who knows.

I love fishing.  I love hunting.  I guess I am just a plain guy with simple desires.  I don't even care if I get anything when I go.  I just love being out there in nature, in creation.  Things are a lot more clear to me when I am pondering and communing with God out there.  That is one of the reasons I love it so much.  It just speaks to my heart!



A night at the Raines.........

This is my friend David.  David is the most likable guy in existence.  I met David when I bought a car for someone and told him he needed to deliver it to them to take part in the blessing.  He called me a few days later after the deal and asked if I wanted to hang out.  Soon after he was coming to my small group and a friendship was born.  I love it when God uses one thing, one blessing met for someone else, and blesses you more in the process.  David and his wife Anna were two of those great blessings!  Below is a video of us stuffing our kids in a trash can full of water.  Hey, what do you expect from a bunch of little kids and two dads with kid like hearts! They loved it and had fun.  We had a great time at their house hanging out and talking about God stories.  They provided dinner for us and it was so awesome!  

 David built the greatest backyard awesomeness for kids in the history of backyard awesomeness! He made a monstrous playground built kid tough from large lumber and will provide decades of enjoyment even centuries.  When were long gone, that playground will still be getting used because it's not going anywhere.  In the second video you can see it in the background.  I think it took him three months to build.  This man is really devoted to his kids, and he loves to build stuff.