In His Image

If you are just entering this story, you may find it beneficial for your comprehension to read the first 3 parts. I will try to finish this for all you who just can’t wait for the end of the story when you already know the outcome!  :-) I warn you it’s long! I broke out in a cold sweat!! “Ah, this is Japheth Stauffer from Blackduck MN, and I would like to talk to you about what has been happening this past week.  You see, ………” (laughing) ”I told Aimee that she should give me a list of those guys that are acceptable and who isn’t before she leaves.  That’s why I almost said, ‘Let me see if your on the list!’” (I had known prior to the call that I was not the first to ask for Aimee’s friendship!) We talked for about 15 minutes and I shared my heart and its desire to be a support to Aimee and the love that I had for her.  I also shared that if he gave his blessing and I won her heart, I would marry her and not defraud her by leading her on and then d...

Most of you folks remember the school shootings at Red Lake High School here in Minnesota. That is only about 45 minutes away from where we live and I had been in that school several times before the shooting. One of the boys that was seriously wounded in that shooting had to go through a bunch of serious surgeries. All the time his mother was at his side. Then about a month after the shootings, she had a stroke and has been and invalid ever since. She is currently staying in a Rehab place and is very lonely. A Native Christian who has befriended her, asked for some people to sing for her. She is not a Christian but has been very open to the things of the Lord every since her stroke. Please pray for us as we try to share some light and His love with her this afternoon.

If you are just joining in the story, please read Parts 1 & 2 first for the context. Over these last few days, I had been talking with my parents about Aimee and what I was feeling in my heart for her. They also thought that she was a Godly young lady and a very eligible candidate for marriage. In fact, Wednesday evening, Aimee wore a white dress with a small white print on it and after she headed downstairs for bed that night, Daddy turns to me and says “She sure looks good in white, eh?” ARGHHHH!! “Yes.” I think it was about Thursday morning that I asked my parents if I could ask her out, after her father of course! My parents felt that maybe she was too worn out right now and that might affect my chances and make her worse with the added strain of no sleep. Yet at the same time, they like I saw that Aimee communicated with her eyes as much as with her words and understood that I wanted to be able to “see” what she was saying. My sisters also had to put their two cents wo...

If you are just checking in, please read Part 1 first to get the context. I turned and started walking back the path to my house and I prayed “Lord, What is this? Some kind of practical joke?!” I went to prayer meeting that night very much confused and nervous about what the next few days might bring. July 6, 2000 I arrived home from work to find that “she” would not be arriving until after supper time. I was as nervous as a June bug on a hot skillet! My sisters went downstairs to sew while I prepared for our young men’s accountability meeting that night. About 7:00 I heard the dogs putting up an awful ruckus and since the girls were downstairs sewing, I figured I would be the gentleman and “call them off.” I went outside about the same time as Aimee got out of the car. I know that this sounds like fiction but something flipped inside!! I quick went back in the house just as my sisters came barreling out the door, squealing and hugging as only girls do. I was so shook up that I stood i...

Well I’ve decided to take the time to put our love story into words. WRITTEN! A friend, Glen, over at Random Pitches, told me to that I am allowed to do it in installments and since I have his permission, and not 2-3 hours to type it out in one shot, you get the first one now and the next, well… when it’s published! J To start with, I am one of those weird guys that thinks it is right and proper to ask a girls father first before making any intentions known to her. After all, he is her protector and God ordained, legal guardian. I believe very much in being under your God given authority so if in this story you wonder why I do some of these things, this is the reason. June, Second Week, 2000 For the last two years I had been building my house as the funds came in and as it neared completion, I began to get antsy about who was to live in it with me. Living in a small church with a youth group you could count on one hand, minus a few fingers, the number of gals close to my age, I di...

This morning we had a sermon by my best friend, Keith, who’s also the husband of Destination Glory land . Once again I am impressed that you need not be ordained to hear God’s voice and then share a sermon. What he spoke on was TIME. (Not the magazine either!) We all are different in so many ways. Some are wealthy, some are not, some have had tough childhoods, and others have had glorious ones. We cannot choose what nation we were born in, who are parents are, how we look, what we inherit, the times we live in, all of these were chosen by God for us. The only thing that we ALL have in common is this; we all have the same amount of time in a day. What am I going to do with it? Do I spend my time pursuing those things and really matter? Or do I more often, get so caught up in the “cares of life,” that I forget whose time I’m using. We so often think that if we do a few “big things” for God, we are the same as those doing a lot of little things. I don’t know. God wants us to be op...

We just got word from our son’s eye surgeon that after conferring with his college, he thinks it is ok for us to wait for six months or so to do the surgery.  Praise the Lord!!  This has been an answer to prayer because I hope in that amount of time to be able to pay for it! I know it was something little but to me, it was a “God” thing!!

Ok, so I told you I wouldn’t be here for a while! Now I have returned but don’t know what to say or more like it, where to start. Last month we went to a family camp for a week and what a blessing it was to not have to think about anything other than being together as a family and listening to some very inspired speakers, giving insight in how better to train our children and work together as husband and wife. Sadly, I realized that I have woefully failed at both many times. But it was good to here from God in that quiet setting and start to make some of the changes that were long overdue. We arrived home to a mess of sewing parts in the basement, between 150-200 ears of sweet corn waiting for the freezer, and about 10 sewing machines waiting to be picked up. My new business venture has started out well though it has had its bumps that I still ponder at. But God has been gracious!! I was granted the contract to service two schools sewing machines but they both needed to be done ...