Broken Femur

Yesterday I took my dog, Kona, to the dog park to walk and play.  It is about a five acre forested plot of land totally fenced in, so that dogs can go off-leash.  It's a beautiful place right along the Mississippi River that allows dogs to not only run among the trees but take a dip in the water.  Obviously, Kona loves going to play fetch and swim in the river, she's a free dog!  

So as I said, yesterday after being there for about an hour and a half we were making our way out walking up a hill.  As we walked the hill started to plane out into a cliff and my plan was to continue walking up and out when I turned around and Kona took a full leap off the cliff about 30 feet off the ground.  I couldn't believe what I had just seen!

As soon as she hit the ground she began to yelp and to my surprise she survived the fall.  I almost killed myself running down to check on her and see what I could do.  Immediately I knew her leg was broken, it was just hanging and swinging from side to side.  I scooped her into my arms and carried her out of the park and drove her immediately to the animal clinic.

X-rays(above) and hours later it was confirmed that she had a serious femur fracture and will be having surgery on Wednesday.  As you can imagine this whole incident is and will cause our pocket book to take a huge hit.  It's a little disheartening, but I realize I'm more attached to this dog than I thought I was.  It was  pretty traumatic experience for me and I've always taken the approach that she is a dog and I will not treat her like a human.  I still believe that but after some serious thought we know that we should and will do the surgery.

Inside there is the battle of knowing that in America we take better care of our dogs than the homeless on the corner.  The realization that after this we will have spent more on Kona's medical bills than families in some countries make in an entire year.  When I look at the families I work with and what this money could do for them it makes me shutter a little.  But maybe to make myself feel better, I've come to the conclusion that many people spend much more on cars that last less time than Kona will and bring way less pleasure.  I'm still not completely settled in my heart about it all but Amy and I have decided, and I think it's the right choice!  

All this to say tomorrow is her surgery and it has been a long couple of days.  Kona lays on the ground and moans constantly.  I slept maybe 2-3 hours last night.  Please pray for the whole situation.  Thank you! 

Christmas Tree Lots

(email me at Tcryer@treehouseyouth.org if you want a coupon)

Free

Tree Bag- plus

$3 OFF Tree

($5 Value)

Friday, November 28th - Saturday, December 22, 2008

Lot Hours: Mon-Fri Noon-8:00pm ~ Sat 9:00am - 9:00pm ~ Sun 9:00am - 7:00pm

Trees and Wreaths will be sold at the following:

Plymouth - Cub Foods on Vicksburg Lane (Hwy 55 and Vicksburg)

Plymouth - Pilgrim United Methodist Church (Co Rd 9, Rockford Road & Zachary Lane)

Minnetonka - Westwind Plaza (Hwy 7 and Co Rd 101)

Net Proceeds go to TreeHouse

A program for hurting teens and families

www.treehouseyouth.org

952-238-1010

Dating Panel

Last Thursday night we had four people come to TreeHouse to have a dating panel.  Many of our kids are facing the hard struggle of dating relationships and often making the poor choice to jump in bed with the guy or girl they like.  This has caused multiple girls in our programs to have abortions which in turn has caused deep sorrow and heartache.  We had one of our girls give birth about four months ago and right now we have two girls that we know of that are pregnant.  

Along with these heart breaking realities something like 75% of the families involved at Plymouth TreeHouse are either divorced or are single parents.  Many of those families have kids from multiple fathers.  On Thursday we asked everyone that has experienced a broken family to raise their hand and almost the whole room had their hand raised.  It made my heart sink!

Our goal with the dating panel was to let them know that they are worthy of a meaningful relationship based on more than physical intimacy.  We wanted them to know what is appropriate when dating and how to set their standards high.  We told them that they could be the first person in their family to break the cycle.  The most important thing we told them was that if they don't put God first they are walking down a dangerous road that will most likely lead to a place of hurt and destruction.

Pray that the messages that were sent out were received and that maybe one or two kids go the message to not settle and to realize they were created as precious children, worthy to be loved.

Vikings Game

Last Sunday 3M donated 10 Minnesota Vikings vs. Greenbay Packers box seats to TreeHouse.  Not only that but one of the staff at TreeHouse has a brother that works for the Packers and was able to get us on field VIP passes for before the game.  If you don't know, the Packers and Vikings are one the greatest rivalries in the NFL and tickets sell out weeks before the game.

It was an amazing opportunity and I was able to bring three youth to experience something they would never forget.  Two of them had never been to a game and none of them had ever sat in box seats.  It was an amazing game that went to the last minute where Greenbay missed a game winning field goal by inches.

The kids loved every minute of it.  They felt like royalty walking into the bottom level of the Metrodome and having a box with unending food to themselves.  I loved being there but most of all I loved watching as the kids had a day to forget about all the worries and just enjoy an amazing day of football and stuffing their faces!

P.S. If you get the chance buy an extra pad of post-it notes to thank 3M for being so generous!! 

Starting Off

So I guess I am now a blogger.  It's kind of funny, because when I think of blogging I think of someone wearing really tight jeans, a black turtle neck, and drinking a latte.  I don't exactly fit this description but I'm going to try it out anyways. I hope that this blog will allow you to see more of what day to day ministry looks like at TreeHouse and be able to pray more specifically.  Please feel free to comment on anything I write, thank you for your desire to be involved in my life and what God is doing at TreeHouse.