New Website

We've transferred to a WordPress website. Please visit us at http://ritchieramble.com !!!

From the heart of a weary traveler

Seek and ye Shall find.
Knock and the door will be opened to you.

If you ask the Lord for anything, take the time to Listen...or you may find it the hard way. The Lord has blessed my life abundantly, as he has promised in his Word. However, I had failed on my end of the deal to continue to seek his face as we are all instructed to do.

By faith, God will lead us to show the World His glory; by sight we lead ourselves to a road of disappointment. By faith, we trust in the Lords guidance throughout all of life's endeavors; by sight we take the bull by the horns and plow our own path to destruction. By faith, we thank the Lord for all that he has blessed our lives with; by sight we take the blessings and run, and run, and run, and run, and eventually grow tired. The Lord tells us that we will soar on wings like Eagles, run and not grow weiry, walk and not be faint; Our selfish pride tells us to call upon the Lord when we can't do it any more, until then do it on your own.

Right now I feel like the workers in Babelon, trying to build myself a tower all the way to Heaven. I'd spent a good time workin on this tower, acctually I hadn't done much work, but i've studied and planned a whole lot about how I'm going to build this tower. Now the good Lord has scrambled my language and trashed my plans. He's told me that the only way to Heaven is to "build your life on the Lord Jesus Christ" like the good Sunday School song teaches us.

God doesn't like fakes. He doesn't like people who call on his name, but don't trust him completely. God doesn't like people who take ownership for His incredible works. Jesus didn't have much favor for the Pharisee, but he loved them anyhow. It'd be good for me to learn the lessons of the Pharisee's taught by Jesus and Paul; I tend to be like them in so many ways. In fact most the people I know tend to be like them in so many ways. Its a shame I don't take the things Paul and Jesus said more to heart.

"more to heart"

Coming more to the heart of things, the Lord has spoken and Sara and I will be post-poning our plans for the mission field until further notice. In fact I don't even know what being called to the mission field means anymore!!! We've all be called to Jesus Christ. What more is there? Where we fulfill that calling could be anywhere in the world! But its the most important calling any human could recieve.

I'm just now learning that through our pursuit of the Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit, all things will come to the Glory of the One who sent even him, Jesus that is. We need not work all our lives to attain a result expected of great plans and preparation. We only need to know the Lord that we may attain a result greater than our expectation from a God more magnificent of our own minds.

Paul was a fool for Christ. I want to be a fool for Christ. All that I have and all that I am is only worth as much as my oneness with my Savior. My Savior is not found in my Job, my education, or my mission. My wife is not my savior, my church is not my savior, my social status is not my savior. My car is not my savior, my talents and skills are not my savior. I can not save myself, for I did not even create myself. My mother and father, whom I came from, can not save me either. For their bodies will pass as well.

My Savior is Jesus Christ, the King. None of those things I listed above can compare to a King like my Jesus. He lives in my heart, which has been sanctified by his innocent blood which that shed on a cross for all the world. Sounds crazy right? well I think Paul was pretty crazy, so I'm ok with that. In fact Jesus was even a little crazy, so I'm def. ok with that.

I'm tired of the talk, I'm tired of the advances in my own human wisdom. I dream to feel, I feel to love, I love so that I can experience the surpassing greatness of my Lord, the King of all the world. He's given me a wife and He has called us one. I've never seen two become one before. Is it really just supposed to be metaphorical? I hope to find out.

Places I've Been

create your own visited countries map

Numbers are Up!

I wish I had the patience to take the time to write about all that is going on with our team right now. We've begun having weekly meetings using Skype, that usually last about an hour and a half. That along with our daily correspondence through email has allowed us to get so much accomplished.

Last week we stated some tangible documents that we wanted to begin writing. Chris is working on a team Overview. We set an agenda for our meeting next weekend that Jill typed up for us. We also decided on 5 core values that will represent this mission in Rwanda. They are:

Humility
Compassion
Joy
Community
Submission

Over the next week we will each spend time on one of the values and be able to tell what it means to us. All the things we are working on now will be leading up to the meeting we have on the 17th.

The meeting preparation has been incredibly exciting! We have enjoyed talking and sharing with others the dream that is Rwanda. Initially we were excited hearing that about 15 others will be joining us for the meeting. However, we are now thrilled to share that almost 50 people will be in attendance at this meeting, including our team. God is faithful.

Without saying much more, please be in prayer about this meeting. Who knows what God has in mind, but our will is to do the will of He who sent us.

ALSO... I have begun another blog about a new chapter in Sara and I's life. the site is
knownbyGod.blogspot.com

Counting the Cost

This past week, a brother in the missionary community was laid to rest. Adam Langford was a missionary to the Busoga people of Western Uganda. Adam's life represents one of true calling and passion for the work of the Lord. Prior to leaving the mission field Adam was a very successful business man in the North West. It wasn't but a few years into his career that he realized his money wasn't getting him very far. Adam dropped what he had going for him, and used his wealth to take himself to Uganda.

In Uganda he joined up with his brother Ben Langford and Ben's family. While I was visiting there in January of 2006, the third brother Johnny was also there visiting. Being able to spend time with the three of them was real special to me. They lived out true brotherhood among them, their dedication to the calling was real, their ministry was real, and their faith was real.

The sudden loss of Adam was not expected by many of us. There's a paradox of intention about missions I believe. It may go something like this...

Missionaries are willing to Sacrifice their lives for the cause of Christ, but few expect to lose their lives doing it.

I'm not sure if thats a paradox or not, but it's something I've realized over the past years. I think that's evident in the types of places we choose to minister. Most missionaries do a lot of necessary work to be sure the places they are going are reasonably safe. However, it is always understood that no matter how much preparation we do, our lives are always in God's hands. With that being understood, I pose the question in the subject...

Q: What is the cost of discipleship?

A: Far less than the cost of not being a disciple.

Praise God for Adam Langford, for he counted the cost of not following the Lord's calling, he ran the race of perseverance, and now he is resting in the House of our Lord.


"For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will save it."
-Jesus Christ

Its COLD!

The new semester has gotten off to a Very chilly start. Since Monday afternoon when the temperature spiked at 36 degree's, it was not gotten above freezing. But it's winter, so the cold weather is welcomed. So far we have not seen any of the white stuff, but im hopin to see the snow before the season is over! Hope everyone is staying warm!!!

Classes have started out very well. A lot of the material from each class will tie in to both curriculum's. Both of my professors are also very good at what they do. They are encouraging me to find material from outside the classroom to research on for projects in the class. I hope to find some great material on educational systems and curriculum of African schools to learn about.
Let me know if You know of anything.

Hit the ground raining

Well, the crowds are back in town after a long winter break and Searcy is once again a happening place. Sara and I enjoyed welcoming people back this weekend have dinner with the Miller's, Amy and Lauren Greek, Travis Trull, and Dana Bielfeld. We enjoyed a big pot of Chili that was totally gone before the dinner was over.

Sunday night we enjoyed the old time favorite English Muffin Pizza's! We invited John White and Jessie Griffin over for that feast. It's so great to connect with our friends again. The weather has catered to indoor activities. It started raining Friday morning and come today, Monday, its still coming down pretty good. Many might not make it to class today due to the nasty Ice storm North and west of Arkansas. We'll see how that works out.

I start my first class of the semester today. Secondary Curriculum is the name, the textbook tells me that I'm going to learn how to be a good teacher, Psychology Applied to Learning. We'll see how it all works out for me. I really hoping that Education will sit a lot easier for me than psychology, time will tell!

Sara and I's weekend schedule is filling up quick. I hope to get an online schedule posted sometime soon for you to follow our journey. Next week we head to Dallas, then we'll be in Searcy two weekends before heading to Kentucky, then Dallas in February. Other stops this semester include Dallas a few more times; Tulsa, OK; and Pioneer, TN.

Gotta share this story ...

At 4:30 I get a call from Sara on her way home from work. “Joan(Jo-ann) called and said that her ride to go pick up Savita from the airport fell through and they needed help.”

Joan and Savita are both Cross-Country runners for Harding from Eldoret, Kenya. Sara has established a great friendship with them over the years and I’ve gotten to know them through her. Earlier in the Day I had seen Joan with an Kenyan friend named Matthew. He is transfering to Harding from a college in Austin, TX. On with the story…

After Sara delivered the news, I said “Great lets do it, I haven’t had a good Drive in a while!” Our house is about 100 yards from my office, so the commute is not very thrilling. Plus I love to drive, so I knew a quick trip to the airport in Little Rock would be pleasant.

Sara told me that Savita’s flight comes in at 6PM and that we’d pick Joan up at her apartment at 5. I by-passed eating dinner because I wasn’t so hungry and I figured Savita would want to grab something after her flight from Amsterdam. So at 5:15 we left our house to get Joan right on time, African time that is. We pulled up and Sara went to knock on Joan’s door. When they began walking back to the car, I noticed Matthew was walking with them. “They said they’d squeeze in when we pick up Savita” Sara said. I grined and shook my head thinking, of course the only way to travel is shoulder-to-shoulder in Africa! So in our small 4-door sedan we took a turn out of the apartments to go to Little Rock. After a turning down a block to go South, Joan speaks up,
“Where are we going?”
“To the Airport.” Sara said.
“In Memphis?” Joan replied.
“No, are we supposed to go to Memphis?” Sara answered.
“Yes, Savita is flying into Memphis.” Joan said

Two blocks from their apartment I slammed the brakes and said, “Oh I’m sorry, thats too far for me to drive.” And I let them out.

No, No, No. I couldn’t do that.

I thought to myself, well we’ve already committed to this one, and I do like to drive so, “Well I suppose we are going to Memphis then!”

Sara and I just looked at each other thinking, “Oh well, I guess we’re going to Memphis.” I thought more about having the three of them in the back with luggage in the trunk for a two hour drive home. This could only be more African if I could find a roof rack for the top.

After a half hour or so, the car was truly smelling like Africa, or maybe its more accurate to say it was smelling like Africans. It’s God’s humor that I associate the smell of African’s with some of the most memorable times of my life, thus the smell was welcomed in an odd sort of way. As were driving along managing our way through conversation in broken English, I asked them, “Did you guys eat dinner yet?”
“Uhhh, Dinner? oh no, its too early for dinner, we’ll eat when we get back.”
“Isn’t that late?” I replied as my stomach started to feel empty
“No,” they kinda laughed, “I usually wont eat until 9 or sometimes 10” Matthew responded.
My stomach began to tighten as I looked at Sara thinking, I can’t wait til then!
We quized them on this eating schedule. Sara asked
“When do you eat?”
Matthew responded “Breakfast at 9 or 10, then lunch at noon or so, tea and bread at 4, and then dinner at 9 or 10.”
So this is an everyday thing, I thought to myself.

Well the rest of the trip was fairly uneventful. We got Savita only 40 minutes after she had picked up her luggage. I was afraid the whole Africa experience would have intensified with the gift of a live animal to take back from Memphis with us, but that never happened. We stopped at Captain D’s on the way home and I got some fries to hold me over till we got back to the house. The three stooges in the back chttered in Calingen almost the entire way home as if they hadn’t seen each other in years. It made us smile to hear the sweet sounds of Africa in our own back seat.

So that’s my story on how Africans are Africans no matter where they are. Chris and Jill, we can’t wait till you get your taste of Africa.

Moving Along

Since coming off the break, a lot has been stirring in me. Someone mentioned during our retreat that when we trust God and we take one step closer to His plan for us, the other steps start coming shortly there after. Since the retreat, things have been rolling. There has been so much action on the Team side of things that I'd love to share with you all.

We all left the retreat extremely exhausted. From the 28th through the 1st we spent about 18 hours a day with our teammates. 14 of those hours were spent in discussion. after four solid days of that, Monday night Sara and I were dead in our bed before 9pm and continued to sleep for about 10 hours. The weekend of discussion filled my mind with all kinds of suggestions and possibilities. There were many things accomplished however, above all was the forming of strong friendship with each other

We decided to push back the planned time of our Survey trip to December of this year rather than trying to squeeze it in right before School starts in August. Despite this change, we don't plan on pushing back our date of departure for full-time work, which is still August of 2008. After changing that date, the Shelby's launched a new plan for their family. The have decided that they will spend about 4-6 months in Rwanda after our 2 week survey trip in December.

We've all supported them in this to help get a clearer picture of what Africa is like. Along with that, this would be a great time for their son Fred to get a taste of his home for the next few years! Although we would miss them here in the states, we'll have plenty of time with them after their trip.

The other great step taken since the break was the Full commitment of the Amos's to our team. They took a few months to truly discern God's plans for them on this team. We have all been blessed by their decision to join us. Amy Greek also expressed her desire to continue to work with our team, however she feels its best not to be fully committed just yet. We are praying for others who may be interested in our team! We are planning our next meeting to be a meet and greet for those who have not come to a meeting yet. If anyone is interested in this, we are hoping to plan this meeting in February.

Monday I start a new semester. I'm excited about all that this next semester will teach me. Be praying for God to teach me that which i really need to know. This is only the beginning of a really exciting 2007. I hope to keep everyone up to date as more of God's plan is revealed to Sara and I!

Talking, dreaming, and Praying

The Winter Break was packed full of family and Rwanda. After a few days in Garland, TX with Sara's mother, step-father, and half brothers we took off for Camp Deer Run. There we met with our teammates!

The Lord was hard at work twisting our minds and hearts as we discover some of the plans He has for us. I can't hardly sum up all that we talked about, but it all grew us closer to each other and to the Father. We spent about 13 hours a day in discussion about the future. In the end we finally had the right questions to ask.

I would love to spell out more concrete points from our meeting, but i haven't been able to summarize much yet. Thanks for following!