In His Image

It Finally Happened!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sun, 29 Oct 2006 21:20:00 +0000

For the last several months, I have been frustrated with the slow speed and all the hangups of Blogger. The worst being that I have no way to back up and save all my writings for my children's learning (and most likely, amusement!)

Then when Blogger went thru it's change here a few weeks ago, I was trying to help a friend design a web template and somehow, messed my own up and when I went to reinstate my saved version, Blogger refused to recognise it! Argh!

All that to say this, In His Image is moving! Come visit and I will tell you more why! (and that is where I will be from now on. :-)

Time for a Trip Again.

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sun, 17 Sep 2006 21:28:00 +0000

Greetings from the sporadic writers guild! I must confess that the author of this blog hopes that the remainder of his life does not keep speeding up as it has the last couple years and especially this last summer!

August came and went and with it the 1st anniversary of A Stitch in Time’s founding. It also held another move for the business as the old location of 160 sq. feet was insufficient for it’s growth. I now have 270 sq. feet that is contiguous space and is only three-fourths of what I was spending. I moved the last week of August and only now feel like I may be getting settled in.

We are on the move again though. It has been two years since I have been east to see Aimee’s family and with her brother-in-law needing an addition to their trailer, thought that this would be a good time to make a quick trip into Virginia. We plan to leave this Friday after work and drive through the night since that is the best time to travel with small children anyway!! We will be in Ferrum, VA. for the next week before making a quick pass-through trip up to Harrisonburg and Lancaster, PA for a few days before heading home. We plan to return about the 4th of October.

On the humorous side, I had to stay home due to an illness and kept the four oldest children with me. They LOVE having story’s told to them so I decided to tell them several from my growing up days. The one was when I accidentally shot a ring-necked pheasant because I was not using my BB gun properly. So even though my boys are several years away from that right of passage, I decided it is not too early to start instilling in them the need for proper gun safety. After explaining that you never point the gun at something you do not want to shoot, we had a dialogue that went like this.

“Should you point the gun at the dog?”
“NO!”
“Should you point the gun at Grandpa’s chickens?”
“NO!”
“Should you point the gun at the clouds?”
“NOOOO!”
“Why not, son?”
“Because Jesus lives up there!”

We had just gotten done reading the Bible story were Jesus talks about coming in the clouds of glory.

Could you help us out here?
Last night I was going through some family pictures and I found one that I am not sure where it belongs? If you can help me identify them, I would appreciate it. :-)

I let you know what I come up with a few days! :-)

What's Wrong with It?

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 10:59:00 +0000

During my growing up years, my father and I would have these discussions about whether something new was “right” or “wrong.”  I would inevitably ask, “What is wrong with it?” to which he sometimes did, or did not have an answer.  Now I have come to realize that the whole premise for the question is wrong.

To ask “what is wrong with it” is to imply that if it cannot be proven detrimental to me, then it must be ok for me.  But let’s take that premise and look at it from a different perspective.  Most of us have been to a hospital and to the pharmacy counters.  What if these doctors and nurses looked at the patient with an infection coursing through his body and then walked over to the list of medications and asked themselves, “what won’t hurt him?”  If that were the only standard for choosing the medication, there would be a host that they could prescribe!  But their goal is not just to avoid harming the patient; they are going to try their best to get the right medication that’s going to destroy the virus that is causing the patient the trouble.  With that in mind, the list of medications is much smaller, but is made up of ones that will help bring the patient to the goal of restored health!

We are all born with the infection of a sin nature.  When we accepted Christ into our lives, a terrible battle ensued between the spirit of our flesh and the implanted Spirit of Christ.  Paul talks of this so eloquently in Romans 7
19For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. 20Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. 21I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me. 22For I delight in the law of God after the inward man: 23But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. 24O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?

Paul knew that this was not a hap-hazard conflict, it was a serious infection!  Yet so often I have looked at the state of my heart, and instead of trying to do that which strengthens the Spirit of Christ and puts down the spirit of the flesh, I have simply tried to avoid damaging the Holy Spirit’s presence by asking, “what is wrong with ‘it’.”  To my shame, for many years I walked in lukewarm Christianity because I was unwilling to do that which conquered the flesh, seeking only that which “was not detrimental to my spiritual health.

Now I realize that my goal of becoming in the image of Christ will not be achieved by doing whatever I want that does not directly conflict with His spirit, but will only be reached as I look ahead to that goal and do only those things which strengthen His spirit and do the most damage to my fleshes desires.  Thus I willing take the counsel of my parents and church leaders, since God has placed them there for my spiritual growth; and I choose only those things which strengthen my relationship with Christ and those I see setting a good example.

Why?  Because 1There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. 2For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death. Romans 8

Praise God!!

Stauffer Family 2006

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 02:23:00 +0000

Time & God, Move Us On

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 02:41:00 +0000

Well, after a LONG hiatus from this blog, and a reminder from Jon, I have resolved to confine myself to this room until I get a bit of an update done to this thing! Not that I have a great affection, or a responsibility to this thing, but I realize that others have come to count on these ramblings for an idea on what is going on in the crazy, far-off world of the Stauffer’s.

I was touched this morning by the sermon from the last few verses from Hebrews. My father, (the pastor) has been working through the book for the last ten months and it has been an encouraging, though somewhat baffling at times, study and has given much food for thought. This morning the part that really stuck out to me was the plea for the ability to live with a pure conscience. It was brought out about Paul who was able to say that he has always lived with a pure conscience. Paul!! The one who persecuted the church most mercilessly, and wrought great havoc among the early believers, was able to say that he did it because, he was deceived and thought that it was right. BUT, once he found out that it was wrong, did he make excuses? Did he justify it and try to reason it “his way.” No, he made an immediate about face and strove to work just as hard for the true church, as he had destroying what he thought was a false one.
The thought came to me that I have never fought and destroyed the church the same way that Paul had, but I still cannot say that I always have walked in a pure conscience. There have been times to my shame, that I have “walked over” the Spirit and hae done what I wanted to rather than what I knew God was calling me too. Oh the weight of grief that follows such actions and what I wouldn’t give to go back in my younger teen years and get rid of so many of those actions that I am still reaping fruit from to this day. I can say that when I have walked in the truth that I know, there has been unsurpassed peace and joy that nothing else can compare with!!

On another note, we are facing another change here this week. The place that I have been housing my business in is much too small for my needs and I was struggling to know what to do. I talked to my landlord and he said that for me to have more space, I was going to have to pay more per foot than I was now and I would have to foot all the remodeling expenses myself. Along the main road that the store is on, the going rate for lease space is $15 - $18 a square foot per year. Where I am now, I would have been having to pay almost $32 per square foot. Also, I had never signed a lease due to my landlords supposed right to come and go from my stores space whenever he chose, with, or without, my permission. I was nervous about that and talked to numerous other commercial landlords and found that he had no grounds for this and it raises a lot of sticky situations. So I decided to look for a new place.

To make a long story short, we are moving the store this Friday to another building about 100 yards away and I will almost double my floor space for ¾’s of what I was paying before! God is good and with the way that sales have been going, I may b able to pay off my business contract within the year.

We also have started Lakewood Christian Academy and have enrolled our first three children in it. We are home schooling for the main reason that there is no Christian school around and even in there was, with the wide diversity of “Christians” we feel that it would be better to give them their training here and exposing them to the culture only in steps that they are mature enough to handle.

Japheth Jr is in first grade though he already is reading some simple story books. He loves to have stories read to him and we look forward to his being able to enjoy them without us having to read it for the 75th time! :-)

Jeremiah is going to be starting to learn his phonics and maybe start on math.

Loraine is going to be three next March but she doesn’t want to miss out!! We are planning to teach her the alphabet and number 1 thru 20. (and go potty where all the big people do!)

Wayne, well… let’s get him talking and then go from there eh?

Head shapes

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 12:55:00 +0000

Sunday morning, we were on the way to church and to pick up Aimee’s brother who cam to visit for a week.  Our boys had been ecstatic with anticipation of all the fun times with their Uncle Skyler.  However it had been almost two years since they would have seen him so I asked Japheth Jr. if he still knew what Skyler looked like.
     “Yes Papa, I know what he looks like!”
“What does he look like?” (I, who never misses a chance to learn better how to describe one’s looks :-)
“Oh Papa, he has a round head just like Jeremiah’s!”

Oh how the laughter rolled.

Japheth was only trying to find words to describe his uncle so he compared him to someone he knew.  The thought came to me later, what do people compare me to when they try to describe my physical features, or more importantly, my spiritual features!  Truly, “by their fruits ye shall know them.”

The Kissing Conundrum

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Tue, 23 May 2006 17:10:00 +0000

What to do? Being married has lot’s of problems. One of which is this, when you have a cold, do you still kiss your wife goodbye in the morning as you leave for work? If you don’t, you never know if you’ll get in a fatal accident and never have kissed her goodbye! On the other hand, if you kissed her, she might have a nasty cold for the funeral!!

Argh!! What to do!!!! Now I know why all single people smile all the time!

Spring's Here!!

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sat, 20 May 2006 00:31:00 +0000

We are so thankful that the weather is warmer and that summer seems just around the corner! Here in Minnesota, when the daily temp gets up into the sixties, like is has for the last few days, we realize that the winter is finally over, even if we did have snow just a week and a half ago!

This evening I was too tired to cut firewood so I decided to cut the grass in our pasture in preperation
for church campout next weekend. My four oldest children all wanted a ride with Papa. Since I will not take more than one at a time while mowing, this was going to entail a lot of switching.

So instead I hooked the wagon onto the back of the mower, made sure that the discharge was not going to hit them, and gave them all a ride. They loved it and Amiee did too as it gave her the opportunity to get some sewing done.

I Love these days!!!

On a business note, here is a picture of the machine I made for the sharpening of rotary cutter blades. It involves two spin jigs, and a cross slide table from a machinist supply cataloge, a Delta variable speed bench grinder, two Cratex wheels, and the two blade holders I manufactured on my dads lathe. It takes me about 5 minutes to sharpen a blade with nicks in it and a little less for one without. I havn't had too much call for it yet and I have yet to see if I have beaten the Stauffer stigma of being able to design and build things, but never able to market them. We shall see.

We had a major answer to prayer lately! When Wayne was born the cost of a circumcision was almost $500. This time with Jaden, I called and asked what it would be and was told $175!!! I asked why and they told me that due to some change in the State run Health care system, I no longer had to pay for all the others who weren't paying! When we got the bill, it was for $153! Praise God!

Happy Mother's Day

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sun, 14 May 2006 18:49:00 +0000

I wrote this about nine months after our first child was born.  It still is my heart and I want to bless all you mothers out there in the work you do!

A Tribute to My Mother

     In my life as I grew up, Mother was always something of a fixture and that is how I often saw her.  Just as you get light by turning on a light switch, so when you would get a skinned knee, Mother was there.  When I would wake up in the middle of the night with a bad dream, or get hurt feelings when someone at school said something that wounded me, Mother was always there.  It never occurred to me to wonder if she would have liked to be somewhere else, or if she would like to work at the job she used to.  I never questioned why she always had breakfast ready when I got up, or supper ready when Daddy came home from work, that was what mothers were supposed to do!  I felt that God must have given my mother to me instead of the other way around.  Now that I am a new father and am watching the making of a mother before my eyes, I have a greater understanding and a much greater appreciation for all that is wrapped up in the word mother.
     It had never occurred to me that it was a real chore to get up in the middle of the night with me and that the only reason was because you loved me.  I never realized the choice you made when you had us children instead of holding on to the world’s idea of a nice figure.  I never considered that maybe you would have liked to have a career outside of our home but you chose instead to do with a little less and in some cases to do without so that you could spend our childhood’s with us.  I never realized that headaches can hurt so badly and that you can’t just stop when you have one.  I never realized how scary it must have been to teach us children at home when you didn’t know some of the subjects that well.  I never realized that naps were just as much for mothers as for children, and often you needed more than we would allow.  I never realized that you don’t know everything and that you can’t be everywhere at once.  I never knew about late nights praying for your children and for your wandering son to come home.  I never realized the powerful example you set for us children, by your willingness to submit to your husband.   I didn’t know that you were setting the groundwork for us to submit to Daddy as well as to our heavenly Father.  I didn’t know about the weight of responsibility laid on you and Daddy, to teach us the ways of God.  You would always hug me so tight, and I didn’t know it was because you didn’t want me to grow up too fast, or that you knew all too soon, I would be gone.  Mother was always someone we came home too; I never thought what it must be like for her to see her brood grow up and go away.  I never thought about these things, they just were!  Now as I face the daunting task of father hood, there are times that I wish I could go back and be snuggled into Mommy’s lap, to hear her soft words of encouragement, and know that it will be OK.
     But now I am a Father, and am watching with new appreciation, the transformation of a young lady into a mother.  Not just a woman that bore a child but a mother, and all the bittersweet love that goes into the name.   And so I would like to thank the two mothers in my life; the one who bore me, and the one who bears my children, for all these things that you have done to take this cold and heartless world and turn it into a warm and loving home.  To me, heaven will be a greater version of the home Mother helped make for me.  Where Jesus is always there to comfort us, to wipe away our tears, and soothe our bleeding hearts.  He’ll hold us in His lap and let us listen to His beating heart.  Then, all the pain of life, the parts that even mothers can’t soothe away, will disappear as Jesus holds us close and echoes what all mothers have whispered, “It’s OK, your safe at home now, and I’ll always love you”!

Happy Mothers Day!

Basin and the Towel

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sat, 29 Apr 2006 02:29:00 +0000

This morning as I was traveling to Fosston to drop off some machines, I was listening to some of my favorite songs and one of them was by Michael Card entitled, Basin and the Towel.  One phrase really stood out to me this time though, “one will kneel, and one will yield.  Our Savior servant must show them how, through the will of the water and the tenderness of the towel.”

It started me thinking.  A few months ago, my good friend Keith, told me, “Japheth, you are a really hard person to be a blessing too.  You almost never want to accept the gift or help from a brother.”  It made me wonder, why?  Why do I find it so hard to accept the kindness of others?  Why do I always have to be the giver and not the receiver?

This weekend we have communion again and since we still practice the Biblical ordinance of feet washing, I thought of the dialogue between our Lord and Peter.  Jesus didn’t rebuke Peter because he had been going too far in his service to the brotherhood.  No, Jesus didn’t even infer that.  Jesus simply stated that if Peter was unwilling to accept the gift of service to, Jesus said that he could have no part with him.  Then Peter went all out and wanted everything but Jesus balanced him out on that issue as well.

It just made me think that maybe I am the one in Peter’s shoes more than I thought.  I often have too much pride to “receive help from ‘that person,’” and thus I have missed a real blessing meant for me from God.  It also is a warning that once again, God cannot stand pride between His children and He even went so far as to state that if I am unwilling to humble myself in the brotherhood and accept the help that He has sent for me, my pride will keep me out of God’s kingdom.
Just some thoughts.

Otherwise, my life has been made up of too things, work and family!  When I am not at home eating or playing with the children, I am at the store working on sewing machines.  If you remember, I was so concerned when I started if I would have enough sewing machine repairs to pay for the place.  The words in Malachi ring in my ears, “see if I am able to open the windows of heaven and pour out such a blessing that there is not room enough to receive it.”  I have been SWAMPED with work!!  This past week I had sewing machines sitting on the floor because my shelves were too full to hold all of them!  I was hoping for 8-10 sewing machines a week, I have been getting 12-16!

It makes a man feel pretty small to feel the trust that God places in you who has failed Him so many times!  I am grateful and humbled that so many people trust me and have given of their hard earned dough to have me work on their machines!  Truly, God does not give us what we deserve; He instead has blessed us beyond belief!!

He's HERE!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Wed, 05 Apr 2006 10:06:00 +0000

We praise the Lord that He saw fit to bless us with another son. After weeks of unrest in the fact of not knowing when we were due and several false starts of labor, today was a God-send!

Jaden Scott Stauffer
was born at 3:17 am on April 5th, 2006.
He weighed in at 9 lbs even, and was 20 3/8" long.

The labor was hard to get started but once Aimee's water broke at 2:05 am, things kicked in high gear and Jaden was born 72 minutes later. Both Aimee and Jaden are doing very well. Aimee had no complications and is recovering quickly. Truly God answered our prayers for safety and as quick a birth as possible.

Thank YOU for all the prayers you have offered up for us the last week or so. We have felt them and feel very blessed by all the friends we have out there.

Now it is 5:21 and I have not slept yet so since Aimee and the little one are sleeping, I shall try to get a few winks in before I have to get up with the rest of the children.

Another Week, No Baby

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Mon, 03 Apr 2006 12:49:00 +0000

Yesterday I had my friend Jason, came up to me and said;

“Japheth, I never heard if your new little one is a little boy or a little girl?” (he had not seen us for two weeks since the previous week we had been home from church thinking we were going to have the baby.)

(Me) “Well, it would have to be one or the other I supposed, eh?”

“Yes Japheth, that is how it works! So… (about this time my wife, who he has not seen yet this morning, walks past us, still looking like she has imbibed too much on the watermelon patch. He looks down and sees her) OH….”

The poor fellow! He got red and started stammering around and if I hadn’t felt sorry for him, it would have been quite hilarious!

The new store is up and running and I have been busier than I thought possible! I have been getting at least 5-6 customers a day with some days as many as 15! Thanks to a dear brother who gave us the needed money to mail flyers to 930 sewers in the area, I have been getting quite a few machines in for servicing. I have been so blessed by the Lord and my close friends that I feel that this store is hardly mine, but God’s since he is the one who prompted all these hearts and so bountifully provided everything that was needed.

This picture is of the out side of the building where I have two offices inside. I currently lease about 180 square feet and am using every square inch of it!! However, the main business, Search Resources, may not be staying there much longer and then I would have first dibs on their space (almost 500 square feet) and the bigger sign you see out front. For the time though, I am very content with the space I have and am grateful to the Lord for His leading in getting me there. (see previous post for that saga)

No baby yet though we rechecked all our dates and figures and the EDD could be as late as April 6. So we still wait!!

Proverbs 13:12

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Mon, 27 Mar 2006 12:59:00 +0000

Prov. 13:12 Hope deferred maketh the heart sick: but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life.

Sometimes we wonder at the hand of God.  Yesterday morning we woke up with Aimee having strong contractions close together and various other signs that this was the time.  Yet, after a few hours, they started to slow down.  We consulted with our midwife and after prayer, decided to try and help things along.  Aimee’s due date is the 27th as close as we can figure, but do to a faulty pregnancy test, it could be anytime in the last two weeks.

Thus the midwife and I were starting to get concerned that this baby was too slow in coming and thus would be huge, may be too large for Aimee to handle.  Yet by late afternoon, the contractions had stopped completely.  Her water had not broken, but that is nothing unusual.  We spent some time again in prayer and decided to just stop all things that we were doing to help the contractions along and let nature (God) move things along.

Aimee had several more contractions thru the evening and then we went to bed and she had a wonderful night of sleep, one of the best in weeks, as her bones hardly ached at all.  So this morning I am emptying out the pool and wondering why God chose to not have our baby born yesterday.

Late yesterday evening, we got the call that a friend of ours up here in MN, who was also expecting a baby the same time, had gone into the hospital for an emergency C-section.  We prayed for them and then I realized that we could have been doing that.  God may have foreseen a problem yesterday and knew that a few more days would take care of the problem and chose to make us wait.

Thus the words in Proverbs this morning.  We are a little saddened to not have our little one in our arms yet and for the fact that Aimee will have to carry this added weight around for a few more days.  Yet we rejoice in the Lord that He is in control and when this desire comes, it will be full of life!

Thank you for all your prayers!!!!  I am sorry for the false alarm but we would still appreciate your prayers for the child and for Aimee over the next few days.  May God’s will be done.

D Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sun, 26 Mar 2006 20:52:00 +0000

We woke up this morning to the realization that today is likely going to be the day of delivery. However, we would sure appreciate your prayers as it is going very slow and
Aimee's feeling discouraged.

Please pray with us that God would draw this young life forth both safely and quickly! Thank you!!

A Store to Call God's Own

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sat, 18 Mar 2006 04:10:00 +0000

A lot has happened in our lives the past few weeks. My inattentiveness to this blog is the by-product of a very hurried and harried life and it looks like it won’t change for a while.

As you may have read back a ways, I was struggling to make ends meet with just the income from my own sewing machine repair shop in our basement. This was due in a large part to the large fee I had to pay to my former employer for them allowing people to drop-off and pick up machines in their store. Just before I took my son to Thailand for his eye surgery, I had started a part time job with another sewing store in town. When I returned from the three weeks, my new boss told me that she was selling the store. She also stated that the new owner did not want to handle the Janome Sewing Machines and was going to have just a fabric and patterns, quilt store. Did I want to buy the dealership with all stock?

This was a huge question for me. I had wanted to do something like this in the future say, three or four years, but is now the time? We explored several options which included me just managing the line for someone else, and the possibility of opening a store in Bemidji.

What has happened in the last two weeks is something I never want to forget. After much talk with my father, and hearing his caution over this opportune time to allow pride to rear it’s ugly head in a fresh way, he encouraged me to slowly pursue this opportunity. The big difference with this was that the owner was willing to do contract for deed, and was not making me make a lump sum payment. That Saturday, Aimee and I went into town to look at properties and found one that would work however the rent was right at the MAX of what we could afford. We felt led to pray about it and take the weekend to think about it. That afternoon, as we were sitting in the living room, I was ticking off all the things we would need to have to open the store, ie; vacuum, credit card terminal, cash drawer, lumber for workbench, ect. Aimee suggested that we pray to ask God for His hand in providing these things for us. Now I am so much a hands on guy that to simply sit back and wait for God to provide something that Discover Card could right now, difficult for me. But I knew how easy it was for me barge ahead of God and run smack into a closed door, so I agreed and remember thinking that this was a time to stand back and allow the Lord to open the doors first before pounding on them.

As we were praying, I felt the prompting to talk to my neighbor who has a construction company, to see if he had any scraps of lumber around that I could use for building my bench. After we finished, I went over and talked to him and he very willingly gave me enough to build my bench!

Now in all my years in the vacuum store, no one has ever given me a vacuum. (except my boss for a wedding present) The next afternoon a young lady from our church calls up and wondered if I want a Dirt Devil vacuum. It was given them by a lady they clean for and they had no use for it and thought of me. Hallelujah!!!

On Monday I went into the store to work and my boss asked me if I wanted to purchase their till, and or credit card terminal. She would even be willing to add the amount on to the Contract for deed price!! WOW!!

Now, what about a place? Over the weekend, Aimee and I felt that maybe we should look around a bit more to make sure that this was the right place for us. So that morning I had found a space that was coming up for vacancy and might fit our needs and budget. The owner said that he needed to think about it and would get back to us the end of the week. We waited all week and on Friday he called to say that no, he couldn’t fit it into our budget. So what do we do. We climbed back into the van and headed for town. Now Aimee was hoping for something that had a reddish carpet in it but was not demanding it. She also had not seen the inside of the first place we had inquired about. After we had expanded all other possibilities, we went back to our very first option. It had reddish carpet, two rooms so that Aimee could spend some time with me, and enough space for years to come. Only two hang ups. One was the $900 rent a month, and two, we would have to sign a three year lease.

After praying about it, we felt that God wanted us to tell the owner we would take it. He was glad and said that he would try to get the lease papers drawn up over the weekend and we could sign Monday. Well Monday rolled around and I showed up at his place of business about the time they opened and he stated that he had not had time to draw up the lease and that his wife would try to get it done before noon. At 11:30 he called to say that it was ready. I was meeting Keith at the store for lunch to show him around and figured I would sign the lease on the way down. However, God had me get busy and when I next looked at my watch, it was noon. I had to rush right down to the shop to meet Keith in time and since the carpet cleaners were coming, the doors were unlocked and we strolled around and talked for awhile. When we left I almost turned right to go sign the lease but I figured I could do that on the way back from downtown where I had to drop some sewing machines off at my old employers place. (almost 80% of my sewing machine repairs were coming from them, a major source of funds in my business plan!) When I talked to my former boss, I asked her if she was willing to refer people to me for a small dollar amount per customer. She stated that she was not sure, she just might start up her own repair shop again and hire a sewing machine technician to do all the machines!

I felt blown out of the water. She had stated over the previous months that she was tired of the sewing machines and was probably going to get rid of them completely, now this! I went back to the landlord and explained that almost half the income that I was expecting to take in was all of a sudden up for grabs. He understood and said that I could think on it for a few more days. I had come SO CLOSE to signing a contract that I would likely not have been able to keep!

I struggled with attitudes that afternoon. But thru it all, I felt that “God, you have led so distinctly over the last few months and strengthened my faith as I saw you move the ‘un-movables,’ I can’t wait to see what your going to do here.” I was facing the pressure of a deadline for changing my $500 ad in the yellow pages for the next year, the store that sold the sewing machines was changing hands within 7 days, yet I felt such a peace that God was in control. Oh the peace that that knowledge brings in the midst of the storm! I went home and slept soundly that night!

(Wow this is getting loooong!)

Tuesday afternoon, I saw an ad for some office space in a good part of town. I called them and it sounded promising and Daddy and I jumped in the van to go take a look. It would have worked for us but the landlord was not so sure. He did refer us to a friend that had some space and might fit our needs. We drove down to it and thought it had a lot of promise. It had plenty of parking, right on the main road with over 11,000 cars going past each day, with a sign out front, and two entrances. The owner lived 45 miles away and was not coming in till Thursday, would we like to see it then? We readily agreed and yesterday I met with him. It has two tenants in it now and thus the options were either two small rooms upstairs, or one big room in the basement. I was not keen on having all the ladies carrying their machines down the stairs, so I asked what he wanted for rent for the two small rooms. (less than 200 square feet :-) The price he said was less than half what we would have been paying at the other place!! We would only need to sign a one year lease, and we can move in this weekend. I said we would take it. It is tiny, yet there will be room to grow since the other tenants are only there month-by-month and may move out at any time and with the lower rent, we will be able to pay of the former owner much faster than before.

On Tuesday, the owner of the store I was buying, said that I could use her mailing list of all the sewers in the area and send them a notice of were I was at. Her list was over 800 long. I had been keeping a data base of my own customers so I had about 200 more. I made up a flyer and photocopied 1000 pages, bought envelopes and stamps, and this past afternoon and evening, my family help stuff, stamp, and label over 900 envelopes.

I am just awestruck at God’s leading and it is going to be fun to watch what He does in the future. Please pray for me though. I find that it is so easy to push God aside when we become to busy and I DON”T want to do that. Especially after we have become so close again through this time of testing.

Add to all this, the baby can come at any day! (just not Monday, please?) :-)

The Life Within the Rose

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Wed, 22 Feb 2006 12:10:00 +0000

I have no words of wisdom,
or thoughts of great repose.
Just some simple, humble, earthly thoughts,
of the life within a rose.

How great the beauty of the rose
as it blooms within this sphere.
Yet its petals drop so quickly,
in it’s short-lived life down here.

Roses take so much work,
to keep them healthy every day.
We’re always pruning, tilling dusting,
to try and keep their diseases at bay.

Yet we would think it odd,
to give all our thoughts to petals
And forget its roots beneath the sod.
Or would we?

Yet her life’s not held within,
the lovely blossoms of bright red,
but lies deep within the earth,
the root’s by which she’s fed.

Our lives are but a vapor here,
like the petals of the rose.
We bloom so quickly, and are gone,
while the heart within still grows.

So when our loved one passes
from this life to their rest,
they’ve only ceased to live with us,
but still blossom at their best.

For the Master Gardener plans
his flower beds with care,
and moves His flowers from time to time,
to fit His plan up there.

For the lovely rose’s petals
are decomposing in the sod,
yet her heart, her life within her,
is transplanted home with God.

-Japheth Stauffer
God gave me these verses the day of Krystal’s funeral.

Enough to Make a Daddy Cry

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 13:13:00 +0000

This is one of those before and after shots. Can you see why my heart was stirred when they took the bandages off the first time? We took the large picture this morning as that is when he most readily pulls the eyes together. This should continue to get better each day.

Return of the Travelers

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sat, 18 Feb 2006 05:39:00 +0000

Greetings from a tired, globe-trotting father! It is now 11:00 at night and thanks to jet lag, I am wide awake! Oh well, I have acquired a precious 6 hours of sleep over the last 52 hours so if this seems a little dis-jointed, you’ll know why! :-) We arrived home here at 1:30am this morning.

I want to thank all of you for your prayers! I felt so buoyed up these last two and a half weeks that I could hardly believe it! We praise God that the surgery was a success and we were very grateful we went. The doctors and staff were beyond my expectations and we were very blessed with their knowledge, skill and tender loving care! As far as the surgery, it took about a little over an hour from the time they put him under till I could go to the recovery room to see him wake up. I was so thankful that I was allowed into the operating room and hold my son as he “fell asleep.” I was the last face he saw and the first when he awoke and that meant a lot to me. I tell you, it goes thru the heart of a father to watch your frightened son go from crying to his eyes rolling back and as limp as a dish rag in the space of ten seconds. I went out into the waiting room and wept while asking all the questions that a father asks at those times. “Why did we do this? Couldn’t we have done it another way? Do they know what they are doing and did they give him to much anesthesia?” I know these questions are irrational but when you are on the other side of the world from your wife and family, it’s different. I had my Bible with me and spent the time reading portions of scripture about the eye and then turned to Isaiah 40. God really touched my heart again as I read the promise He made to his children Israel, to shepherd their hearts and gently carry those with young. Oh that lifted up my spirit as I realized that I was “with young.” Not in a reproductive way of course, but I was alone with a young child that I was responsible for and God was saying that He would gently carry me! Oh how I rejoiced!

When they called me into the recovery room, Wayne was just beginning to wake up and was still very groggy and VERY hungry since this growing boy had had nothing to eat or drink since almost 8 hours earlier! After he was able to swallow water fine, they let me give him a bottle of milk and then he was a little better able to cope with the fact that his one eye was sore and he could not open it or rub it. We were able to then go back to our room though he had to keep the IV in for a few hours more. Speaking of our room! We were able to pick what kind of room we wanted. When was the last time that you got to do that in a hospital?! We got the second best kind of room which had a balcony, sofa sleeper, soft, padded chairs, table, and private bath with a shower, refrigerator, wardrobe, and all the patients’ meals, for the royal price of about $70 a day! We didn’t get to much sleep that night though because the nursing staff had not every had a white baby in before and couldn’t get over seeing a baby with such long eye lashes, blond hair, and such a ready smile. They had to keep peeking in to see if he was awake yet and since the surgery had gone so well and Wayne was so happy, I didn’t care a bit!

The next morning they came and changed the bandages and Wayne’s was clean and his eyes briefly looked straight at me…I almost wept for joy! The surgeon moved the muscle back as far as is possible and it brought Wayne’s eye into a close enough alignment that his brain should now be able to see the two images and pull them together. Wayne still does not always focus on you due to the fact that he still has stitches in there and it makes it slightly uncomfortable to move the eye very far. They sutures will disappear within three weeks and after that is when we should see the greatest improvement. The doctor told us that it may take up to six months for his brain to learn to pull that eye consistently into alignment and “fuse” them together like yours and mine. If it doesn’t do it by then, we may have to tweak the other eye a little to get them to line up. We will be seeing the local doctor here to see what he thinks and to keep up to date with his progress.

While in Thailand, we visited several different places, the highlight being our weekend trip to Chiang Mai to see Deaniel Yoder and the rest of the staff at GTO. The weather was quite warm over there with the daily high being in the 90’s and getting down to 75 at night. Thank God for A/C!!!! Now, last night when we arrived home, it was 120 degrees colder that what we had left in Bangkok, -26! Yowsers, was it COLD!!!

I now have my work cut out for me as I have 30 sewing machines waiting for me and jet lag to conquer! It is great to be working at home this time since if I wake up at 3:00 in the morning again, I can get up and head to the basement to work on the machines.

I will probably post more tidbits in the days to come but for now this will have to do since I am starting to get slightly sleepy and that is a good feeling. Thanks again for all your support for me and my wife during this time!

God Speeds up Life

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sun, 29 Jan 2006 13:38:00 +0000

Ok, it’s my fault I haven’t posted in a while, but let me fill you in. We had about 600 people at the funeral and ended up feeding about 500 of them. It was a moving service with her brother Dawson leading the singing and her other brother, Nolan, giving a short synopsis of her life. A good friend of our church, Keith Yates or affectionately known as “Bear,” shared two songs. Bear is blind and was rejected by his family as a baby and grew up in a bunch of homes. It was so neat, to see the joy on his face when he came to the last verse of looking forward to heaven, even after he struggled so much with his emotions the first few verses. My father brought a message on the fact the “Precious in the eyes of the Lord are the death of His saints!”
Click in the picture for a larger view.
Afterwards, the pall bearers loaded the casket into the back of our van for the trip out to the cemetery. It was a drive of almost 30 miles since we had to use the largest church in the area. We had contacted the police and they blocked traffic for the processional and the line was about a mile and a half long when we were all close together. I already shared about what our grave side services are like and won’t bored you with that again, but one thing that thrilled my heart, was to sing as a group, “Lift Your Glad Voices!” To see Val with his hand raised to heaven and singing with all his might was so overwhelming.

After Krystal’s passing, we had a week of recovery and rest. Then things kicked into high gear again. I had come to the realization that I needed a little more income to continue to meet our needs and plan for the future, so I started looking for a part time job. The Lord opened one up at a local quilt shop where I can work there two days a week and do the same things I have done for the last 8 years, talk to people and sell sewing machines.

Then to speed it up some more, we got our taxes done and thanked God that there was $2000 there to get our youngest sons eye fixed. For the last two months I have been looking into options for the surgery to move the muscle back on our sons eye. Here in Bemidji, they want $6000 to do the simple, out-patient surgery. I knew we would not have that much money so what do we do? First we prayed that God would give us wisdom to know what to do, and had an anointing. We contacted various hospitals around the area and found the price all about the same, so we tried Canada. They wouldn’t even touch him because we Americans can now sue Canadian doctors for malpractice and thus it is too expensive for them to have the insurance. I stated that we would be willing to sign a paper stating that we would not hold them liable, but he stated that it is our son they worry about. He, (the doctor) would have to carry American malpractice insurance until our ten-month-old son, turned 21. He asked why we didn’t do it in our area and when I told him the cost, he was shocked, “Why so much!!!!”

So we looked elsewhere. A few years ago we had been in Thailand and knew friends there and started looking into going there. There are a bunch of hospitals all set up to work with English speaking people who come there for the same reason, cheaper medical care. These hospitals are equipped just as good as and sometimes even better than our own, and the doctors are often trained here in America. The cost, $1000 - $1800. Add a $900 round trip plane ticket and you are looking at still saving over half the price. And so, after much prayer and talking with the hospital staff and a friend who also had eye surgery done there, we decided to go have it done in Thailand.

That brings me to today, the tickets are bought, plans are made, and Wayne and I leave tomorrow with another couple in our church for the trip over. We will be gone a little over two weeks and would appreciate you prayers for both me and Aimee as she takes care of the other children here at home.

I will be taking lots of pictures and might share some when I get back.

Tomorrow

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sat, 14 Jan 2006 01:15:00 +0000

This evening as we had the viewing for Krystal, Val told me that he almost feels bad cause here we are weeping our eyes out and he is just so drained from all the crying he’s done that he has no tears left.  I assured him that we understood and felt no hard feelings whatsoever.

In some ways it is so tough to have two funerals.  Yet this one is sure to be the harder of the two because of tomorrow.  Here at Kitchi, the graveside service is different than any other service I was ever at before moving here.  First of all, we dig the grave by hand.  Then when the casket is lowered into its wooden vault, the lid is screwed or nailed down and then they fill the grave back in by hand.  A few years ago when Krystal’s daughter Kayla was buried there, each of the children and Val helped to fill in the grave.  They were not told to do this, it was simply done by them.

I watched as the family struggled with their emotions and wondered if this wasn’t a little to rough.  Yet I wonder, does not the final reality of the grave close the door on the past and bring to an end the time that our loved one was with us?

I wrote in the previous post about my hearts desire to cling to the past, to want Krystal to still be with us, to refuse to accept that fact that only her body remains, her spirit is home with God.  Yet by physically placing her in the earth’s bosom, with each shovel full of dirt, we loose the hold on the past and look forward to the reunion of the future.  Does it remove the pain?  By all means NO!  Yet it does a more subtle work of helping our hearts to accept what our eyes and spirits know, she is dead here but the future reunion is to be looked for and anticipated.

Quote of the Day;
     “Krystal loved symbolism.  She was going to a wedding for someone else.  She didn’t know she would be going to her own wedding to her Lord.”
-Dale Ropp, Deacon at Kitchi Pines, MN

The Earthly Grave

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Wed, 11 Jan 2006 00:12:00 +0000

Today was a little different for me, I did something that I had never done before, I helped dig a grave by hand.  A lot of thoughts go through your mind when you do work like that.  And no, I am not superstitious and feel all creepy and crawly, but it really makes you think.

This wooden casket holds a body and someday will be indistinguishable from the ground around it which we are digging out now.  The wood will rot and man will return to the form that he had at the beginning of time, dirt.

I asked myself why?  Why didn’t God make us to disappear completely, body and all when we die?  Why the cruel and harsh reality of how disposable we are?  And the only thing I can come up with is this.  God uses death to remind us that this life is only for here.  We came into this world with nothing and we most assuredly will take nothing with us when we leave.  Life here is final.  There is no changing anything once our body has given up it’s breath.  Yet, what we have done to touch the lives around us is the only thing that will last.  These are the only things we “take with us.”

Everything we see will one day disappear. Everything we can’t see, will last forever!

Krystal walked with God in such a real way that we want to hold onto something of her.  It seems too…finale or something to put her in the cold ground.  Yet when you know her and watched her life and struggles, the best thing of her that I can hold onto is not tangible, but eternal.  It is her unquenchable love for her precious Savior.  If I can latch onto that, then I have a “piece” of Krystal.

Please pray for us here at Kitchi Pines.  I for one, find myself steeling my emotions against any sign of sorrow lest I loose it and fail in all the responsibilities that lay on us for this weekend’s funeral.  I know that I shouldn’t do it but it is the best way for me to cope right now.

But more than that, pray for Val’s family as they have far more questions and grief than I do.  I just hope that we can bear as much of the load as possible so that their weekend can be as free of decisions and responsibilities as possible.

Service Schedule

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Mon, 09 Jan 2006 03:04:00 +0000

The service in east is going to be held at
Gateway Minitries
11017 Kemps Mill Rd,
Williamsport, MD 21795
at 10:30 Wednesday, January 11

Here is a mapMap of 11017 Kemps Mill Rd
Williamsport, MD 21795-3129, US

For the service here in Minnesota, there will be a viewing Friday evening from 4-6 and from 7-9. We are not absolutly sure where yet but we will know tommorrow.

The funeral service will be held at 10:00 am on Saturday, January 14, at the Evengilical Covenant Church in Bemidji. The doors will open 1 hour prior to the service for early arrivals. There will be a meal following in the church's fellowship hall. There is a lot of food being brought but if you want to bring a dish for the meal, or for the family in the days to follow, that is fine.
The church is located just west of Bemidji on Highway 2, past the Bemidji Airport and beside Dave Walters Mobile homes.

Services for Krystal

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sun, 08 Jan 2006 19:11:00 +0000

We have some news as far as the dates for the services in memory of Krystal Yoder.
In Pennsylvania, they are planning a service for Wednesday, January 11. They do not know the time or place yet as people have been hard to get a hold of. I will post it here on my blog with directions, once we find it out.

Here in Minnesota, we will be having a service on Saturday, January 14 around 10 am.Internment will follow the service.
We also do not know the place but I will send it out once we know.

Please pray for the family and the host of people traveling for these services.

As of this morning, Krystal's mother and step-father, Ron & Fannie Mae, Krystal's brother, Dawson, and Val's mother Clara Mae, have started driving towards Pennsylvania with the casket and with the snow, I know they would appreciate your prayers.

Another Gem for God's Crown

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Sat, 07 Jan 2006 21:26:00 +0000

Today God Saw fit to take another of His gems home. We received word this afternoon that Krystal Yoder, wife of Val Yoder, was ushered into the presence of her beloved Savior.

She has had a long battle with her heart and today it gave out on her while attending a wedding in Lancaster Pennsylvania. Her brother who is a medical doctor was there with her and said that she could not have been revived even if she had been at the best hospital. It was her time to go.

Please pray for their family! Their oldest son is in Thailand doing prep work for the whole family to move there next year. This also happened at the same time that Val was attending a meeting to plan the development of a Bible school for Asians in Thailand. Pray for the family’s strength in all of this!!

Calling all Dull Quilters!

noreply@blogger.com (Japheth) — Fri, 30 Dec 2005 18:50:00 +0000

Due to us trying desperately to save money for our sons eye surgery, I am stooping to advertising on my blog for work. Here's the scoop

Quilters love these very sharp rotary cutters and use them all the time. However the blades go dull, or get little nicks in them and need to be replaced. The standard size ones (45mm) cost about $6.50 or if you buy them in a ten-pack, about $5.00 apiece.

I have built a machine that I can sharpen these blades now. Even take out the small nicks! It is not one of these little blue plastic sandpaper jobs, it involves a bench grinder, two machinist spin jigs, two clamps that I turn out myself on my dad's lathe, and special wheels for the grinder. I have been working with the local quilt shop to perfect the technique and am ready for all takers.

I charge $2.50 per blade for the 45mm blade and $3.00 per blade for the 60mm blades.
Since these blades are so thin and easy to mail, people can mail them to me and combine shipping with their friends. If they send me 10 or more at one time, I will pay the shipping back. If they send 20 or more, I will reduce the price by $.50 per blade. I do reserve the right to say that a blade is not able to be sharpened because the nick is too large. If that happens, you will not be charged for that blade, and it will be disposed of here.

All blades must be sent in a case of some sort, preferably the original one. Some of the cases enable you to stick up to 10 blades in them and thus save on shipping.

If you would be so kind as to pass this on to your sewing friends, I would greatly appreciate it. Also if you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to let me know as well. Here's my address;

A Stitch In Time
28957 Birchmont Beach Rd. NE
Pennington, MN 56663

Or if you wan to call me, CLICK HERE and an email will open up with my phone number in the subject line. Thanks and have a great Day!