The Smith Story blog has a new address: http://thesmithstory.com - please update your links, bookmarks, rss feeds, notepads, pieces of paper, etc. etc. I won't be posting to this site anymore, I have a permanent home now. You can still post comments and enjoy all the random postings.
This one will continue to live on but will be stunted at it's current state.
Thanks so much.
Ryan Smith
So a few weekends ago we began the house renovation project. After closing on the house just 4 days earlier, it was time to pull out the carpet and start priming the walls. We used an oil based primer called Kilz, we needed the strongest primer we could find, the house had been filled with cigarette smoke for years, tar in air can do some nasty things.
For 5 days we worked on the house in the time that we could, and then on Wednesday, we met there for house church. We had a time of worship and praying and writing scriptures on the walls. This house being symbolizing what we are praying to see happen in the Village (our neighborhood) going from dark to light! It was an encouraging time for me, I sense God's hand in our community calling us out and showing us the fruit that is there. It is a fun time in our house church and house churches! We multiplied recently, meaning our one house church is now three house churches that meet at three different homes. The really fun and exciting thing about it is that we are planning to do monthly celebrations in the Village starting in March. All three HCs coming together in some random place in the Village to pray, worship and contend for this neighborhood! I can't wait! More on that for sure!
back to the house - it will be a prayer house will we are fixing it up. Anyone is welcome to come, getaway and spend time with him for an hour or evening. Ok ok, more on that later too.
rjs
Favre: I learned 'it was time to hang it up'
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Well, again, I thank him for a great 18 years, wow, over half of my life! I'm glad this last season happen, gave me some time to ween myself off of watching him play every Sunday for the team I loved for the past 17 years. I agree with his decision, I did not agree with it last year, coming off of a 13-3 season, but this year, yes, I see it and am glad he is going out with his head held high.
We had a sunny day recently and Adriane took some shots of Graham outside - this is one of my favorite ones these days.
So last weekend we went up to Tulsa for a birthday party for Mallory Gumtow, she turned 2. Her mom and Graham's mom are great friends. Anyway, we let the kids loose in the back and Graham started playing with the soccer ball, he dribbled it like he knew what he was doing. It was fun. Here is his 'I just stopped you from scoring the winning point' pose.
Several months ago we were presented with a surprise offer. The house next door to ours became vacant. Several years ago an elderly lady lived there but she had sinced died. Her adult son continued to live there but he was not in a state to live on his own so his family came and took him. One afternoon another son of the lady who once lived there was up from Texas to clean out the house and to get it ready to be sold. I began to talk with him and after several conversations, and a really good deal, we became the people that he would sell it to. We are planning to close on this house next Friday, we are excited.
So no, we are not moving one house over, we are staying in ours. Our plan is to fix it up, which it needs, and then provide it with some amazing renters that we pray God will bring. Something really fun in the mean time, while we are fixing it up, painting, updating the bathrooms and kitchen and removing the popcorn ceilings, we are hoping to make it a prayer house in the Village(the name of our neighborhood). We want it to be used by our house church to meet in, and pray, and write our prayers on the wall and contend for our neighborhood for the Kingdom. Early on Adriane had said she hoped it would become a 'light' house here in our neighborhood. We are excited about having a place to meet that is solely dedicated to praying for our neighborhood. We are thinking it might take 3-4 months for us to get it ready to rent, so that's alot of good praying that can happen.
Here are a couple of pics of it. No inside ones to show just yet, but I do hope to have alot of before and after pics in the near future. I'm looking forward to learning how to do alot of this stuff, I got a book from Christmas entitled "Complete Home Improvement with 300 project & 2000 photos." That should get me started. I also have some great resources in friends, who not only love doing this kind of stuff but actually know what they are doing, pretty nice. Ok, so hopefully more after we close next week.
Graham loves music, he loves dancing, in fact he would rather watch music videos than cartoons - daddy likes that alot. Well, anyway, we grabbed our camera and captured some of his moves tonight. He is into gospel music these days, one other proud side note, a song with a piano solo came on and he looked up and said 'Pi' which means 'Piano' - proud father here.
"A person who is obsessed with Jesus is more concerned with his or her character than comfort. Obsessed people know that true joy doesn't depend on circumstances or environment; it is a gift that must be chosen and cultivated, a gift that ultimately comes from God (James 1:2-4)"
Adriane bought me this book for Christmas, and I started it last week, it felt so good to make time to read a book, something I want to do more of this year, '08 found me starting many books but not finishing a one, I want to finish those I start this year and I am on my way with the first one. Crazy Love is written by Francis Chan, a pastor in Cali. Adriane and I got to hear him speak a few years ago in Atlanta at the Catalyst conference, our good friend Jeremie Kubicek oversees the company that puts on Catalyst - the reason we went out there. Anyway, I became an instant fan of Francis Chan. I could tell while he was speaking that he was just letting us in on his journey with Jesus. Nothing fancy, speaking of what he has seen and heard in Jesus and what he wants to experience in Him. This book is a continuation of that journey.
It has warmed my heart again for the important things that find themselves on the back burners of our hearts, where the burner is on low. It is a book of passionate simplicity & truth about always being obsessed with Jesus. And it causes me to respond to Jesus with praise and to ask for a deeper obsession with this one that loves me with an unfailing love! If you are someone tired or are just feeling numb, I recommend this book. Let Jesus speak to you through it. As Chan talks about the greatness and vastness of God, let it sink in. He is truly a God that our tiny minds cannot even begin to grasp, and since he is nothing but good, that is such an exciting thing.
Another cool bonus with the book is that there are video clips, that if you choose, you can watch online as you read each chapter. I did a few, not necessary but does help you to digest the truth you are reading.
Enjoy.
I believe that today was Favre's last day to play in the NFL. I will miss him. Since '95, I have been enjoying my fall Sundays with him and the Pack. It was a hard transition this season moving to the Jets. They made me frustrated alot, poor coaching all around, but I was still grateful to get one more season with the player that I have great memories with.
I have loved every minute of watching one of the greatest players to ever play the game.
Have I blogged lately about how much I love my son? Well, I should, because if i did it would say that he was so much fun on Christmas day. He laughed, played and enjoyed all his presents and all his family. I would say that God has given him such a sweet light hearted personality, and one that loves to love on people. If I were to blog, I would also say that his mother is such a great woman and loves on him really well. I would also say that this beautiful women loves on me really well too. Anyway, if I were to blog today, these are the things I would say...I love my family.
Some pictures from this past weekend of fly fishing with friends. It is an annual trip we have taken 3 years in a row. When we started there were no kids, now there are two! Who knows what next year could look like. I am so thankful for our friends, it is always a good time of getting way, doing a little bit of fishing, eating way to much good food and laughing alot, as well as watching some college football. It always goes way to fast but we always make great memories each year. This year's memories will have to do with Pete losing his iphone, finally we found it right before we left in the strangest spot in the recliner, of course it was on vibrate. I know that doesn't sound that fun, but we were looking through the leaves, trash, couches (multiple times) and every other odd spot in that cabin, for some reason I thought it was funny after the fact of finding it. Anyway, here are some pics of the trip, lots of Graham because we always take lots of pics of him.
Hey a couple of shout outs here. Our good friend Quincy and his wife had a little baby boy named Ezra Mason, I can't wait to see pics. Also, our other friends, the Audis, had a baby boy over the weekend, named Josiah Daniel, I had guessed the middle name before he was born so that is kinda like I helped name him, pretty cool!
A little over 5 years ago I moved back to Oklahoma, a little over 5 years ago not only a new chapter in my life began but a whole new book, a sequel to the first 28 years of my life. 5 years ago I met this beautiful girl in the backyard of a friend's house, where just 20 minutes before I had prayed a simple prayer of 'Lord, I love these people, if you were to give me a wife, I pray it would be from these people?' and then He graciously did! You see, I had been praying in the year of the desert for community, a church, to go deeper with the Lord and to be known. When I stepped into this house church in this backyard, I felt it, I knew that the Lord has heard my prayers and I would find out soon how much he loved to answer those prayers. Not only did I fall madley in love with that beautiful girl I met there, but she even fell in love with me and we were married within a year. The community? I really couldn't ask for more, I feel so blessed and have seen the goodness of God over the past 5 years, more than I can imagine.
Every Fall season, I reflect on my move to Oklahoma, on how this life began just 5 years ago but how rich it has been. Rich in love, family, community, God, the Holy Spirit - rich, rich! My heart is full of His richness and I love it. Now the last 5 years have not been without it challenges too, but that is life in a fallen world, where we have been hurt and have hurt others. But through the challenges we still get to get closer to Him, the one who loves us in every moment of every circumstance. One consistent challenge has been the health of my ears. When I arrived to Oklahoma in 2003, I began to experience tinnitus in my ears, tinnitus is a constant ringing in one's ears. And it began in both of mine. At first it was really hard to deal with, I felt like I was even battling depression, but over time God gave me so much grace to handle it, I began to live with it but continued to pray for healing from it. This past 10 months I felt like I needed to rise up and battle it again. I did alot the first year but nothing changed. It seemed to be getting worse this year and I did not want this to defeat me. So I began seeing more doctors, praying so much more and trying anything that promised relief. A month ago I went to an ENT that I had first seen 5 years ago. He found a cyst on my left ear drum, called Cholesteatoma. He recommended for me to get a tube, with the hope that he could clean it out and that the tube would allow air to bring healing to it. Now understand, this could easily be related to the ringing but the cyst is also a symptom of something else wrong, not the main problem. The main problem being with my Eustachian tubes not working properly. So this morning I went and got a CT Scan of my head, mainly my ears. The doctor needs to see how big the cyst is on the inside of the ear drum, in the middle ear. Then surgery to remove it. I am sitting at Starbucks, about to cross the street to the hospital to find out the prognosis. yes, I am nervous, no i do not want surgery. Yes, Lord, Jesus, I want healing! But as I sit here waiting, I am encouraged by the goodness of God, He has not left me alone. I have felt his presence and nearness even more over the past few months. His grace and his mercy to me. I have felt his love through the people who have prayed weepingly for me. I have felt his realness in my life as I wake up to ringing yet feel joyful about the day.
The Fall brings many things. This Fall I am remembering and seeing how much I really need Him...I am so thankful He responses and fills my need.
Ok, off to the doctor.
RJS
and washing his hands.
almost like a foreign city...almost.
"Hey Dad, I love the animals!"So I have really been getting into this new add-on software for your music sharing experience. It is called SimplifyMedia - found here. After you download the small program, it installs itself and can be used through whatever music program you use, I choose itunes. So what happens is that if a friend signs up and downloads it as well, we swap user names and then whenever my friend is online, I can listen to his itunes and he can listen to mine. You can have up to 30 friends you are sharing music with. You do not download their music, that would be illegal, all you can do is click on it and listen to it. If they are not online it will not show up in your itunes. Already I have several friends here that are signed up and I found a few screen names online who have similar taste in music as I do and I am sharing their music, crazy, I don't even know these people but it is fun to listen to their music. Check it out and do it if you like. Once you are signed up, invite me, you will see how to do it, real user friendly. My screen name is: jayfavre
A few weeks ago 5 of us guys went to the Sangre de Christo Mountains in Colorado. We hiked, camped & fly fished for the weekend. It was so great and refreshing. The hike was pretty tough but way worth it once we arrived. I filmed a little bit and then threw some music to it. Also, check out Pete's blog for more great pics - (his link is on the right side, over there, look to your right, see it? Yeah, yeah, that's it, click on it, you will like it.)
Enjoy.
I am so far behind in posts, I really do have ones I want to post on here. But I can't miss my little boy turning one- it happened on the 18th. I can't believe it.
He is such a joy and blessing to me. I can't wait to see all the things Jesus has in store for this little boy who will becoming a bigger boy and then one day be a full grown man. I pray that he will be more than just a man but a man who fears, loves and enjoys the Lord. A man who leads & loves with the joy and strength of Jesus and is crazy about the Holy Spirit in him. This is my prayer for this man one day, this is my prayer for this boy now. I am quite fond of him.
rjs
We had a great time on our California PCH vacation. We took over 450 pictures, not enough room on this blog to post them all, I did put a few online, so here is a slideshow of them. We had a great time on our first family vacation:
