There's more at the Ricketts Website

I keep adding to the website of everybody's favorite hometown that is SO nice, they named it after a vitamin deficiency-

Please check it out. The more hits it gets, the more likely search engines like Google are to list it.

http://rickettsiowa.blogspot.com/

 

If you have any stories or pictures to add, please email them to me!
And if you know anyone else in or from Ricketts and the area who might get a kick out of it, please forward it to them. While you're at it, feel free to link to it from your own website too.

 

Thanks, (sorry to "spam" you like this)

_____________________________
Pirate Prayers at:
http://malloryprayer.blogspot.com

Ted's cartoons, artworks, photos, and commentary at:
http://tmal.multiply.com

"The gospel is meant to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable." ~Garrison Keillor

For once Heaven's gain is not our loss

Lucky for him we're saved by grace through faith, not by works, lest anyone should boast (Eph. 2:8-9) Not something he necessarily preached or practiced during his tenure down here.

Abbey Nous

Abbey Nous

Abbey Nous: "Exploring a spirituality based on the Lord's prayer. 'Praying the Pattern, the Lord's prayer as framework for prayer and life' gave perspectives on the Lord's prayer and examples to encourage the prayer to be used as a fuller part of our spiritual lives. This blog is for friends and waysharers following Lord's prayer paradigms in their spiritual journeying."

This is a British blogger who linked to one of my posts about the Lord's Prayer.-

A model prayer

I love the attempt to do this and I generally like the way they've gone about it: it's always good to see people attempting to take the Disciples' prayer seriously as a way of praying more generally.

How to use it as a pattern to follow when praying for others

I'd want to ask a few questions to reflect a bit further on how we do this... it's a great wrestling with using the prayer.
Prophet, Priest and Pirate... ARGH!!!: Praying the Lord's Prayer FOR SOMEONE ELSE

Luther on war

"War is the greatest plague that can affect humanity; it destroys religion, it destroys states, it destroys families. Any scourge is preferable to it."

~Martin Luther

Congratulations Seniors!

I guess this is the end. I'm done being the Lutheran Youth Fellowship (LYF) counselor. I was really blessed to work with these three awesome officers and their amazing parents for the past 4 years. Jeremiah 29:11 guys! Take Jesus with you to college and He'll always get you through anything!

here's an oldy but a goody

Praying the Lord's Prayer FOR SOMEONE ELSE

Luke 11 (mostly)
Jesus' Teaching on Prayer
AND How to use it as a pattern to follow when praying for others.

1One day Jesus was praying in a certain place. When he finished, one of his disciples said to him, "Lord, teach us to pray, just as John taught his disciples."

2He said to them, "When you pray, say:
" 'Father,
hallowed be your name,

Lord, what a blessing to be able to call You "Father!"
I don't know if my friends knows You as a loving father. In fact, I understand that their earthly father may have abused them as a small child. Lord, let my friend come to know you and trust you as a kind and loving parent. And whatever happens to them, may they someday bring You glory and may they come to treasure You.

your kingdom come. Thy Will be done (Matthew 6)

Lord, please take control of my friend's life. Bring them under Your influence and dominion. Please don't let the devil have any say or any sway in their lives.

3Give us each day our daily bread.

God, grant them what they need- physically, financially and materially, emotionally, socially, and spiritually- provide for their needs in every way.

4Forgive us our sins,

Jesus, I know that my friend has hurt some people and let them down lately- Holy Spirit, gently convict my friend in their heart and help them to turn and behave differently. Don't hold their mistakes against them.

as we also forgive everyone who sins against us.

Lord, I also know that there have been many, many people who have hurt, wounded, and betrayed my friend. Help them to be able to move on and cope in spite of their pain, and to be released from their hurt and their resentment.

And lead us not into temptation.' "
but deliver us from the evil one. (Matt 6:13)

Oh dear Jesus, please don't test them more than they can handle. Put Your holy hand upon them, surround them with Your angels and Your saints. Guide them, heal them, lead them, and protect them.

For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever and ever. (1 Chronicles 29:11)

You're the only one who can help them in the ways that they need, You are the only one who can save them. Please, Jesus, please rescue my friend. In Your name, I pray.

Amen. Let it be so.

5Then he said to them, "Suppose one of you has a friend, and he goes to him at midnight and says, 'Friend, lend me three loaves of bread, 6because a friend of mine on a journey has come to me, and I have nothing to set before him.'

7"Then the one inside answers, 'Don't bother me. The door is already locked, and my children are with me in bed. I can't get up and give you anything.' 8I tell you, though he will not get up and give him the bread because he is his friend, yet because of the man's boldness he will get up and give him as much as he needs.

9"So I say to you: Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. 10For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened.

11"Which of you fathers, if your son asks fora fish, will give him a snake instead? 12Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? 13If you then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give the Holy Spirit to those who ask him!"

National Day of Prayer

It doesn't matter if you're on the left or the right- we're all on the same level ground at the foot of the cross, and we should all pause to pray for our nation. God help us!

From Sojourner's

We are treated as impostors, and yet are true; as unknown, and yet are well known; as dying, and see—we are alive; as punished, and yet not killed; as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing everything.

- 2 Corinthians 6:8-10

Living God, you want us to have hearts that are completely simple, to the point that the complicated things in life do not bring us to a halt. Through the Holy Spirit, the spirit of the Risen Christ, you come to open a way for us, a way that is possible; on it we understand that you love us first, before we loved you.
(In Jesus' Name, Amen)

- Brother Roger of Taize

Ricketts Reunion

Hi there,

My name's Ted. I live in a little town in Western Iowa called Charter Oak. By little, I mean in the neighborhood of 500. Quaint, huh? It is.

I write a weekly column in the Charter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper,
a publication that we obviously share with a neighboring town across the county line. Living in a small town is a wonderful way of life.

Recently someone who's a native of another town asked me about creating a website for a group of friends who try to get together every year and want to be able to keep up on their home town. The town is Ricketts, Iowa. I like to think of it a a suburb of Charter Oak. It's a burgeoning metropolis of say 150 people.

Here it is http://rickettsiowa.blogspot.com

Their annual "Ricketts Kids Reunion" is always the 3rd Saturday in July. This year it will be 7-21-2007

While I like to poke fun at it, I appreciate- no, I ADMIRE the affection that folks from Ricketts have for their town, and for each other. You gotta love a town that's this small and yet SO German Lutheran, that it has THREE churches! (all LCMS).

If they like what they see, I hope they'll adopt this little website. No doubt it will grow and improve, especially as they themselves contribute to it. If they aren't crazy about, I'll just delete it- more roadkill on the information superhighway.