Update by Hannah

So I feel there is a lot to catch all of you up on. so I'll go date by date.

May 24th
Mooseheart Graduation. Oregon home had one graduate this year. Her fun personality has been missed by all and we are excited to see where her future takes her.

That afternoon our home entertained Oregon Moose members for lunch. The girls did a great job expressing their appreciation to the Moose members and all that they provide us to keep our house up and running. The Moose members presented the house with and their state flag.

This is the whole gang except for our graduate and one other girl who went home for the weekend, this particular weekend.

May 27th

We had a new addition to our house this day. Some of you may remember that we asked for prayer as our house adjusted to a new youth in the home. She put forth a good effort and we look forward to her return this fall as she is visiting with her grandmother this summer.

June 13th

RANDY'S 27th BIRTHDAY! We enjoyed a Friday night celebration with few friends at Mooseheart at the Roundhouse in Aurora, http://www.walterpaytonsroundhouse.com/ . We had a great evening having dinner, watching a stand up act and then enjoyed some live music in their outdoor garden/patio.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY RANDY!

June 14th
Batavia Moose lodge put on a fishing clinic for all the youth at Mooseheart at our lake. So we took all the girls to go fishing for the day and believe it or not ALL girls fished and caught a fish; multiple times! All the girls got to keep the fishing poles so you can trust we will make many more trips across campus to the lake so Randy can get in his man activity as he's dominated by much girly time.

Whose Role Is It?

Great posts from the last discussion. Continue with those thoughts!
I think the question of "Does Faith affect our politics?" has been answered pretty clearly and our goal will be to define exactly what that looks like for followers of Christ.
Several different topics have been mentioned and we will get to all of them eventually. Right now I would like to focus on one in particular.
Much has been mentioned about the role of government, specifically when it comes to caring for the poor and oppressed. As followers of Christ we are called to care for and love those who are seen to be "in the margins" of society. It was mentioned in one post that "we are all children of God no matter what our status, race, gender, nationality, etc." We are to follow the example of Christ in loving and caring for all people. However, when it comes to "government programs" and subsidies to help those less fortunate in society, we find that many evangelical christians would line up against these programs. Is this contrary to the bible? Another post mentioned that although we are called to care for the less fortunate the bible does not say that it needs to be provided by government. I think this point will define our discussion. We know that the early church had a practice of caring for each others needs. They sold posessions and goods and pooled their resources to give to whoever might have a need. (Acts 2:44,45) For the next two thousand years the church continued to care for those who had needs, and not until the last century did the government get involved. Is the "church" still capable of caring for those with needs or has this problem become too big? Did the government step in because needs weren't being met?
Does our biblical calling push us to support a candidate who will create larger and more effective programs to care for the poor and oppressed in our country? Or does it call us to reject government involvement and stand up as followers of Christ to support those with needs both in our country and around the world? What say you?
-Randy-

Wanted: Honest Opinions

I've heard my whole life that the two things that you don't dare discuss are politics and religion. Well, I've never really been one to steer clear of controversy so why start now?
Last night I had the thought for this post while I was lying in bed. I honestly could not go to sleep because my mind wouldn't stop racing. Here's what I want to do. I want to have an honest and open conversation about the two forbidden topics. I would like to have discussion on some of the following questions:
Should our faith or lack of faith have an impact on our politics? Should followers of Christ be concerned with political powers? - As a follower of Christ what are your hot-button issues? What would make you vote for one presidential candidate over the other? As a person who is not a follower of Christ, what are your hot button issues? I'm sure there will be many other questions that arise as we begin this discussion.
I would like to start with having anyone who reads this post to comment with either a specific issue or a list of top issues that you feel are important when deciding who to vote for in the presidential election. I will use these comments to drive the topics of future posts. We have five months before the election, I'm sure we can cover quite a bit during that time. haha.
Note: if you are reading this on facebook notes you can join the discussion by going to www.lifewiththeriggs.blogspot.com
Let's do this!
-Randy-