Jacob's House Blog

THE SECOND ANNUAL
CHILDREN’S HOME BENEFIT AUCTION

FOR JACOB’S HOUSE @ THUNDER RANCH
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 25, 2010

LOCATION: K-Mart Parking Lot on Hwy 248
Branson, Missouri
Preview & registration: 8:00 A.M.
Auction: 10:00 A.M. – until all is sold.

WHY: Jacob’s House at Thunder Ranch is a faith – based foundation for children, whose parents cannot for various reasons, care for their children and need temporary or permanent placement for them. Your giving helps provide a loving and stable, safe haven for the children currently living at Jacob’s House and extends into the futures of other children in need of a place to call “home”.
WHAT: You can donate items from your business or Gift Certificates for your services to be auctioned on behalf of Jacob’s House at Thunder Ranch.
HOW: To have your items picked up, call: 417-850-1969  or send Gift Certificates to: Jacobs House
                                                                                                                                                            4661 State Hwy 176 E,
                                                                                                                                                               Chestnutridge, Missouri 65630
• Donations are tax deductible.
• Great advertising advantages:
Radio
           Newspaper
                            The Vacation Channel
                 Store locations
                             Posters at the Auction
                                                                                                     Your  information will be announced as items are up for auction.

♥ You will be sowing love into the lives of children to give them a better hope and future.

“Working together to inspire lives for a brilliant future.”
Penny Robichaux-Koontz
Executive Director

Becky’s story continued…   After giving my life to God, I desired to grow in my new life with Him, but after several months of hearing the negative things that the people at Church said, confused me.  They were always talking about how hard things were and how they barely got through, so I thought that being a Christian must only mean that you go to heaven when you die, so I quit going to Church and went back to my old lifestyle and started smoking marijuana in addition to drinking alcohol. 

I felt badly about turning away from God, but I didn’t know what else to do.  Once while driving down some back roads, smoking marijuana with friends, a police car came up quickly behind us with it’s lights flashing and its’ siren penetrating the airwaves.  I  was so afraid, so I silently prayed and asked God to protect me, because I didn’t want to get caught.  He didn’t tell me that He would keep me from getting caught, but I did sense Him telling me, “Becky, I love you and I have a better life for you.”  To my relief, the police car passed us at a high speed and continued on out of sight.  “Whew”, was I relieved!  And although it was a close encounter, my lifestyle didn’t change, but the words I heard from the Lord that day came back to remind me of God’s love often.

Since my Mom remarried, she didn’t have much time for me (in all fairness, though, with school, my job, and cheerleading, I probably didn’t spend much time with her either) and my Dad rarely came around.   I longed to be loved and accepted by my parents, but never felt as if I measured up to the standard of their expectations, not that they said anything much about it, but that’s the way it seemed in my mind, as a teenager.

By this time, my mom was expecting a baby and just a few weeks before the baby was born, a bad dream about my Mom dying during child birth, made me skeptical about this new baby and I didn’t want another change in the jumble of confusion in our already adjusting lives.  But one look at my little sister, and those thoughts completely dissolved.  I knew I always liked little children, but with her arrival, the love and call of God to love little children was birthed in my heart, even though I hadn’t fully came back to Him.  I didn’t know that I could love anyone as much as I did my little sister, she seemed to be the bond that God used to bring all of those jumbled, frayed ends of adjustments together and helped us come together as a family. 

The next spring, I ended up in the hospital with a fractured pelvis from a wrong move during cheerleading try-outs.  My ‘well-meaning” friends made the 30 mile drive to see me, but ended up getting “high” with another friend, who lived in the area, and couldn’t come to see me after all.  The elderly lady, who shared the room with me, the Nun/nurse, who taught me various ways to play Solitaire,  and my parents, all made comments about what a good and pleasant girl I was.  I felt like such a fake.  I thought if they really knew me, they wouldn’t think that, so because of their kind words, the innocent love of my little sister, and my friends actions, I made a decision to come back to God.  I didn’t know how, but I knew He would help me.

Several months later, someone I worked with at a local restaurant, invited me to go to a revival with him, even though he didn’t attend Church himself.  We went and that’s where I learned that having a personal relationship with God is so much more than just going to heaven when we die, that it is an awesome love-walk with the God, Who created the Universe!  From that time on, I grew in the love of God and committed my life to live for Him.  I still had my friends, but I didn’t participate in getting drunk or high with them anymore, so little by little , they went their own way…

You can contact me, becky@jacobshouse.org.

Enjoying a walk in the warm sunshine.

Chris & Cyndi

Shawna & Little Peeps

Jake's Buddy

Jake joins the peeps.

Spring is on the way……

The handiwork of God.

Hello, my name is Becky, and I want to begin by sharing about my life so you can get to know me.  I love my parents and family, their influence helped shape me into who I am today and I am so blessed to have them in my life.

As a little girl, my daddy instilled in my brothers and me  a great attraction for the outdoors.  It all started in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado, as we scrambled over every nook and cranny of large boulders, climbed mountain sides, and explored valley streams.  A few years later we moved to Missouri and Arkansas,  where we roamed the hillsides in search of edible mushrooms or squirrrel hunting, swam in the creeks, cut wood for our winter heat, or bounced around in the back of our GMC truck as each of us kids learned to drive through our back fields. 

Once I, rather reluctantly and fearfully, clung to my dad’s back , as we desended through a hole in the ground and entered into the most beautiful geode I had ever seen, with crystal lined  ceiling and walls of a large cave.  Sections of the ceiling were blackened by the smoke of previous campfires and we had to be careful of our footing so that we didn’t fall into an unseen shaft in the floor, but my fear vanished as I beheld the awesomeness of the beauty surrounding me  and when it came time to leave, I didn’t want to go.

Those kind of outdoor adventures were the times that I felt the closest to my dad, because most of the time alcohol changed him to a different man and  it was becoming difficult  for us to stay in that kind of situation.  On the last night that we were together as a family, we knew that it was over and asked our Mom, “What are we going to do now?”  About that time, a meoter sliced across that cold December sky and as we all turned our gaze upward, she answered, “God will take care of us.” 

There was a void in my life without my Dad in it on a regular basis, though I did get to see him maybe once or twice a year.  On several occasions,I locked myself in my room and  cried for him for  long  periods of time.  My oldest brother talked to me and helped me get through the hardest part of  making the adjustment.  He told me that I shouldn’t hold on to the hurt and I needed to give it to God.

My Mom remarried a few years later and because of my step-dad, we started going to Church again.  I longed to love and be loved by this caring God, Whom the pastor talked about, but I didn’t think I could because I didn’t know enough about God or Jesus or the Bible.  One day, the pastor came to me and asked me if I wanted to give my life to God.  A desperate “yes”  flew out of my mouth and at that moment it seemed as all of heaven was shining down upon me….

If you would like to contact me, you can email me; becky@jacobshouse.org.