Let Your Hands be Strong

After Many games of Volleyball....

After a few cookies....

After more games....

After more Cookies and lots of beers....

Even after the Feet had been tenderized by the rocks in the sand....

WE WON!!!!!!


AIVB has been trying to beat its nemesis GGA for the last 3 years, finally this year GGA went down. What a great Victory it was! Our hands were strong on Saturday!

"Now therefore let your hands be strong, and be ye valiant; for Saul your lord is dead, and also the houseof Judah have anointed me king over them."

2 Samuel 2:07

Go Directly to...School

We have now met The $6 Bandit three times. The first time we met, he robbed us at gunpoint. The second time we met, he was in jail. The third time, we were all in court for a sentencing hearing. Both sides asked us for input and they got the following:


Your honor, my wife and I would like to thank you for the opportunity to be here today to make a statement. We would also like to thank the court for the opportunity we had to visit Mr. Hyman in jail. We understand that that was an opportunity not afforded to many people.

The first time we met Mr. Hyman, he made quite an impression. My wife and I and a neighbor were standing in the middle of our street, under a street light, wishing a good friend goodbye as she was headed off to Darfur to work with war refugees. Then Mr. Hyman approached us, wearing a ski mask and carrying a semi-automatic hand gun, and demanded money. When we moved to slowly, he threatened to shoot one of us. Our friend was able to find $6, which he took and walked away yelling at us not to call the police.

That evening changed the way we live. He stole $6. We now pay $36 a month for a security system. We have pepper spray on the night stand, by the front door, and on my wife’s key chain, next to the panic button, just in case we are approached in front of our house again. We carefully look at who is on the block before we stop the car and get out to go inside. I work hard to get home in the evening before my wife so she doesn’t need to come in alone. When guests ask if the neighborhood is safe, we look at each other and try and figure out what to say.

The second time we met Mr. Hyman, this time in jail, he also made quite an impression. Where he had appeared violent and demanding behind a mask and gun, he now appeared meek and uncertain. He actually seemed a bit intimidated by our presence. As we talked, it became clear that this was a person who felt very disconnected from almost everyone around him. He wanted to be more than he was, but he was having a hard time doing it. The institution, namely DCPS, that was charged with spending 12 years giving him the skills to have chance at being a productive participant in society, had managed only to bring him up to first grade reading level and a fifth grade math level. He was left to face the job market without being able to read an application, or even simple signs.

This does not excuse Mr. Hyman’s actions last March. He made some bad choices that night. It was clear to us when we met that he understood that what he did was very wrong. He seems genuinely sorry for what he did. After talking for nearly an hour and sharing our experiences, he asked us for forgiveness. As people who have been forgiven many times ourselves, we offered our forgiveness to him. But in the real world, forgiving isn’t forgetting. Actions need to have consequences …and that is obviously why we are here today.

Your honor, after a lot of reflection and many conversations…with Mr. Hyman, with counsel on both sides, and with the social worker and education representative…we would like to ask humbly, but with some urgency, that today you give Mr. Hyman a chance to make something of himself. We would like to ask that for his sake, for our sake, and for the sake of the community. For his sake, your honor, because he wants to do better. And with the right help, we think he may be able to become a productive member of society. But if he does not get help very soon, he likely won’t ever get help.

And for our sake, your honor. If he does not get help…education, vocational training, and supervision…he is likely to become less productive, not more. If he spends much time in prison around hardened criminals and gets back on the street after that, we, or our neighbors, may meet him again, but that time the gun may be something more than broken BB gun. And we don’t want to see that happen.

We would like to ask, you honor, that give him a somewhat stiffer sentence than you might otherwise. But that you would suspend that sentence upon completion of closely supervised probation, and all the specialized education and vocational training that Ms. Buckingham and her colleagues can arrange. Further, you honor, we would ask that if he completes all these programs, his record would be wiped clean so that he is able face the job market with as good a chance as he can get.

We admit that we aren’t sure if he can complete these programs. But with the people in this courtroom, including us, pulling for him, and with a prison term as his next best option, we are hopeful.

So in closing, your honor, we’d like ask that you would do everything in your power to get Mr. Hyman into school, not prison, as soon as humanly possible.

Thank you for the opportunity to speak today.
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After our statement, the judge gave him a pretty good lecture, then sentenced him to five years in prison. But he then suspended the sentence upon completion of a long list; education, training, numerous evaluations and various other programs. We're hopeful that he'll be in school soon. And that if we meet him again, he won't be wearing a ski mask or an orange jumpsuit!

Puppet Master for President!

Today the Puppet Master reached that fine age where he is eligible for being the President of the United States of America. Now that would be a fun administration!

The PM was a long-time resident of 207 and now is back for a number of weeks. He blessed us this morning with some breakfast bread he made yesterday. We added a candle and did a little singing when we discovered the import of the day.

When people live in the same house for years, they get to see all the ups and downs of each others' lives. The Lord has been doing some exalting in The PM's life in recent times, and it has been a joy to watch. And today, to the extent of our humble ability, we exalt The PM too!

1 Samuel 2:07
The LORD sends poverty and wealth;
he humbles and he exalts.

The Big Dig

The good news about the plumbing at 207 (if plumbing and good news can be used together in a sentence) is that it has almost all been replaced. The bad news is that the remaining old plumbing is almost all under several feet of dirt.

Over the past number of years, Mr. has snaked out the shared kitchen sink and washing machine drain close to a dozen times...and never once was this accompanied by the thought, "boy, that was a convenient time to drop everything, find the snake and the drill, and get black grime all over." Since we need to replace a big chunck of the basement floor soon as part of the basement renovation, the time for digging arrived.


Mr. D starts off the The Big Dig (TBD) with an 8-pound sledge. The floor wasn't too impressed at first, but Mr. D (aka 'Stick' to his friends) kept at it until the floor gave him a little more respect.



After much digging, it turns out the 4" sewer main was right about where we expected it to be...deep down.



It wasn't hard to see why it clogged all the time...looks like the artery of an elephant that ate bacon and donuts its whole life.



Mrs. applied the cake batter mixing technique and improved mixing time dramatically! I think she could have given Ruth a run for her money in the field...and I bet Ruth didn't know a thing about mixing concrete!:

"She said, 'Please let me glean and gather among the sheaves behind the harvesters.' She went into the field and has worked steadily from morning till now, except for a short rest in the shelter."
Ruth 2:07



A few dozen plumbing parts and a thousand pounds of concrete later, voila!, stage 1 of the TBD is done.

Mr. D Rolls...into 12

Family Vacation

"The people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders who survived Joshua, who had seen all the great work of the LORD which He had done for Israel."

Judges 2:07

We were just with Mr's family- and we did see how the Lord is being passed down from one generation to the next. It was a great week of kids, food, conversations, and rest- the great work of the Lord.

Go Directly to Jail...

We went to jail twice last week to meet the young guy who robbed us at gunpoint in March. The first time we got turned away after an hour of standing in a 100 degree line , even though our robber and his attorney did everything they could to let it be know that they wanted us to come for a visit. The reaons for being turned away?: "this is HIGHLY unusual...we can't allow this." A judge's order and 7 days later, we actually got into the jail (barely, due to an overly inquisitive guard) and spent 45 minutes talking to our robber and his lawyer. It was a very helpful thing to do. As we told him, we wanted to help put this robbery behind all of us. He asked for forgiveness and we each offered it. We all seemed to feel a little bit better afterwards.

The visit, though, wasn't entirely satisfying. I wish we could say he robbed us so he could pay for reading classes (he has a learning disability and can't read)...but we can't. No, he wanted money because he was "geeking for a girl" and thus wanted to get a prostitute and a hotel room. Not that he even fully owned that..."some guy" had "put" that idea in his head and he couldn't get it out. I'm not sure the $6 he stole helped him out much. He did at least seem genuinely sorry for, and ashamed about, the entire incident.

Our basic takeaway was that The $6 Bandit (our name for him henceforth) genuinely wanted to be more than he was, but that like many of us, he was having a hard time finding the wherewithall to actually do it. Given where he lives, who his friends and acquaintances seem to be, and his apparent inability to fend off really bad ideas, we aren't hopeful that he will do well back on the street. But the catch, of course, is that if he spends a whole lot more time on a cell block populated by men charged with violent felonies, he is going to have a lot more bad ideas in his head to fend off. We are not the judge doing the sentencing, but we have been asked to make a statement to the judge in regards to sentencing. The $6 Bandit could likely benfit from any good ideas floating around out there...what is the best path forward for him and for the community?