In Responce to the Duck Dynasty Wine Company

Here is the news that fired so many up:
http://www.realitytea.com/2013/11/08/duck-dynastys-willie-robertson-announces-duck-commander-wines-coming-this-month/

Social media is blowing up about it!  Recently Willie Robertson was "uninvited" to speak for the Free Will Baptist Ministries, because of his companies decision to sell wine.  This is misleading, he was dis-invited because Free Will Baptist Ministries are a ministry that helps adolescences who are struggling with Drug & Alcohol problems.  For this reason I agree it was best to uninvite Robertson, so not to cause these brothers and sisters to stumble (Romans 14:2).

But don't be legalistic people, listen to what the word says about wine:

Psalm 104:15a: "wine to gladden the heart of man"
Ecclesiastes 10:19b: "wine gladdens life"
Judges 9:13: "But the vine said to them, ‘Shall I leave my wine that cheers God and men and go hold sway over the trees?"
John 2:1-11 Story of Jesus turning water in to wine, for a wedding!

Do not confuse me, I am by no means advocating under aged drinking or drunkenness, the Bible speaks clearly that we're to be of Sober mind:
Ephesians 5:18
Proverbs 20:1
1 Peter 5:8
1 Corinthians 6:10
Romans 14:21

So be mindful to not get drunk or cause a brother to stumble, but do not be legalistic.  Stop wasting time on petty arguments, this is what the world see's about Christians, and through us God.  God is not petty!

Here is a link to the controversial article of Robertson being uninvited to speak for FWBM:
http://freepatriot.org/2013/11/13/duck-dynasty-star-uninvited-by-free-will-baptist-family-ministries/

Words from a fellow amputee

Before you see the lengthiness of this post hear me out!  I didn't write it (yay, for you), this is all my Dad's writing.  It is a small portion of His testimony regarding His leg amputation.  I recently heard news of a gentleman who is awaiting an amputation and I asked my Dad to write him a letter and I was so moved that I couldn't refrain from posting it.  I realize this will not resonate with many of you, but some will find it inspirational, informative, and helpful.  Sometimes we forget that our parents aren't invincible, but God works and I am incredibly inspired by people who are not defined by their "disabilities."  So I hope you enjoy and any feedback would be lovingly accepted.  

Dear __________,

My son Mikey Tribbie asked me to write you a quick a letter so I could relay some personal information about my amputation.  It started out about six, almost seven years ago when I had dry skin on the bottoms of my feet that I would pick off.  At that point I had been a diabetic for over 20 years.  Once, I ended up pulling off a piece of dead skin that didn't break off like all the others did and ended up pulling a big chunk of skin out of the bottom on my foot right around the ball part, just below the big toe.  I applied first aid and thought I had it all taken care, but due to being a diabetic, it just wasn't healing.  I kept thinking I could take care of myself but it just wouldn't heal.  Between the diabetes and constantly walking on it, even though I always had some type of dressing on it except to take a bath or shower, it just wouldn't heal.  I finally decided to go see my Dr. At the VA.  They performed all kinds of treatments from a weekly cast to just about anything else you can think of.  They would cut the old dead skin off from around it, patch it up, and try something new the next week.  This went on for a total of five years.  Finally my podiatrist here in Ohio (this started in Ca.) could see the that my foot was never going to heal as long as those two bones, that support the ball of the foot, were still in there.  He sent me to Pittsburgh VA to have them operate but all they did was scrape off the dead skin and put different kinds of cushions in my shoe so I wouldn't put any pressure on the bones.  After several treatments it didn't show any improvement.  So my local podiatrist recommended that I go outside of the VA and have a local podiatrist look at it and see what he thought, and if so, do the operation.(Removing the two bones) The day of the operation was scheduled and I went in to get the two bones removed.  Complications set in and somehow my foot got infected.  I looked at my foot the next day when they were changing the dressing and noticed several large cuts around my foot with tubes coming out of them trying to drain the infection out of my foot.  The Dr. That did the operation was getting concerned and referred me to another Dr. Who decided to give me a cat scan to see what was going on.  The cat scan showed I had gangrene gases up to my knee.  The new Dr. Said he was going to have to amputate my leg before the gangrene got into my abdomen and chest which would have killed me for sure.  He didn't know if he could do it, but he said he would try to save my knee if at all possible.  The reason being, amputations of below the knee are much easier to learn to walk again with a prosthetic limb. 

He wasn't able to save my knee, so now my prosthetic limb has a knee joint, which makes learning to walk a lot more difficult.  I still haven't mastered walking without a walker and I still spend a lot of time in a wheelchair.  The only thing I can do with any confidence is just stand. Mikey told me he thought your Dr. Was talking about amputating your foot due to poor circulation or neuropathy.  Neuropathy, as you probably know, is when the nerves in your hands, feet, legs or arms, basically shut down.  Neuropathy is something you can live with, I have it in both in my hands and my other foot and about 2/3 way up my leg.  My hands hurt most of the time and I have that tingling feeling like when you're hand falls asleep and it's waking up, like when it feels like needles and pins sticking in it all the time.  My problem with my hands and feet are that I have no feeling in them, especially with my foot, I have to be extra careful and have some kind of a shoe on most of the time because I have been known to scratch my foot on something and not know it.  Actually, I could have somebody drive a nail through my foot and I wouldn't feel it.  I still have blood flow to my hands and foot, my problem is the nerves.  I am assuming that if your left Dr. Wants to amputate your foot you are having circulation problems.  That is what happened to my father.  He lost circulation in his legs and they tried transplanting arteries in his legs to increase the blood flow.  It worked for a little while but eventually his toes and foot began to turn black and die.  They ended up amputating his foot and lower part of the shin.  It didn't take him long to get use to his new leg.  This is back in the days when all they had for a foot was a piece wood shaped like a foot. Now a days they have all kinds of attachments that can be used for standing, walking, and even running.  I am sure you have seen the Olympics and other running sports with a runner who had no feet at all.  As long as you can take care of your feet and legs and they only have to remove parts below the knee, your recovery and rehabilitation should be quite a short time, maybe even shorter than you would think.

I'm not one of those people who tell you, I know what you are going through, and have both their own feet.  I am speaking from experience, I know what you are going through, and I know what you're going to go through.  The thought of losing a limb is scary as all get out.  The fear of the unknown is not fun.  As far as advice, I would suggest visiting a local rehab center/hospital and ask someone there what type of exercises you can do to help you in your preparation for recovery and rehabilitation.  Depending on where you go, they may have a prosthetics department were you can go and see what sort of devices are available.  Since I went straight from my foot operation, to a cat scan, to my amputation, I did not have the luxury or time to investigate anything ahead of time.

If you're anything like me, I am a big baby when it comes to pain.  I don't like it and I try to stay away from it the best I can.  I was really surprised, the hospital did a very good job of keeping me out of pain.  My big problem was learning how to transfer from the bed to a wheelchair.  Most hospitals use a wooden board that is about 3 foot long, 8 to 10 inches wide, 3/4 inch thick, and tapered on both ends so you can kind of lean to one side, slide it underneath you, sit back up, then scoot across the board to the wheelchair or back into your bed.  Once you get good at it, you will eventually not need the board anymore.  I was in a hospital a little over four weeks total.  The reason being, one was the foot operation, and the rest of the time my Dr. wanted the staples in my leg to be in for four weeks.  Once they took the staples out, which I barely even felt, they sent me home.  I still had to come back every other day for dialysis and then down the hall to rehabilitation. 

The hardest part I had with rehabilitation was using a walker and hopping.  They want you to be able to get around even if you didn't have a prosthetic limb.  Since I had been in a wheelchair for almost five years, trying to keep weight off of my foot so it would heal, I had lost a lot of muscle mass making the hopping, standing and sitting, and lifting weights and other exercises with my good leg of a little on the hard side.  I'm gonna go out on a limb here and assume you're still walking.  If so, you're rehabilitation should go pretty quick.  You'll be back out playing with your kids sooner than you think.  You may use a walker or a came in the beginning but you'll soon be putting them in the corner.

I hope this helps answer a few of your questions that I'm sure you have and fill in a few of the blanks that most people won't tell you.  I will have my e-mail at the end of this letter in case you have any other questions or concerns about your upcoming procedure.  Trust me, God will be with you and Jesus will be there for your every request. If you have any questions or concerns, before, during, or after, feel free to shoot me an e-mail, ask me on Facebook, or call me on Skype.

Your new friend,

Mike Tribbie

Forgiveness.

In my other blog I mentioned how I was adopted.  It weighed on me for 19 years, knowing that someone would give me up.  I was bitter, angry and held on these feelings all of my young adult life and only have just opened that part of my life to the public if you will.  I didn't mind talking about it on the surface but going into depth always caused a little bit of pain inside.  My biological mother abused drugs during her pregnancy with me, and at birth I was taken away (seemingly without a fight) it was a miracle I even survived.  I always acknowledged I was blessed to have survived and to be adopted by the two most wonderful parents I have ever known.  My adopted mother and father made countless amounts of sacrifices for my brothers (also adopted) and I, and that was a huge blessing and one of the greatest examples of love I have ever known. I'm also blessed to have countless amounts of parental figures in my life, people at church who have opened their homes, hearts, and families to me.  Too many to name, but I thank God for them and encourage you to take that type of  interest in peoples lives.

Over summer I was  talking to a dear friend who will remain nameless and we were just shooting the breeze and somehow got into our personal lives.  She commended me on the growth that I had made since my pre-teen "wild" years, and I instantly felt guilty.  During my internship this summer I worked with my youth group of great group of kids who I have grown close to and  love so much, I mentored and taught them.  I felt like the biggest hypocrite in the world when I would speak to them about forgiveness for the obvious fact that I was holding onto feelings of resentment towards my biological mother.  I do not hate her, I may have at one point, but I got over that and it turned more into indifference; she could have died and I would have felt nothing, which sounds horrible I can hear everyone saying: "Mikey, that's your mother whether you like it or not she is a person and a child of God," I realize this now but you would have been speaking to an angsty teenager.  My relationship with my biological mom was a joke, there was none, the way I saw it she was my ticket into this world, and a poor one at that since I barely survived being born.  Back to my discussion with my friend, she told me that my feelings of resentment and anger were understandable but not justifiable.  I had been justifying my anger and rage to the fact that she left me, lied to me, and was never there.  But as my friend explained my mother did right by me for the simple fact that she didn't abort me, and that was something I didn't want to hear but needed to.  In the case of my friend, when she was 17 became pregnant and in her youth made a decision to abort her unborn child, a decision she explained to me that pained her and I saw this as she teared up and as I began to feel for her it was at that moment  I realized my mother had done right by me in that way.  But how do you justify leaving a child, using drugs while you're pregnant with him, and lying.  As a teen those things fueled my negative feelings toward Kim (my mother) and if I may be blunt the way the Devil obscured my focus on God.  See I know that we are commanded to forgive (Matthew 18:22; Luke 17:4) and as we should follow the example of our Messiah when he was on the cross he asked God to forgive those who were crucifying Him.  So no matter how you swing it we need to forgive those who have done wrong by us.  But as I've said: Kim did not wrong me, after all she gave me life (by the grace of God) she gave me up and I was adopted by the two most wonderful people I could ever ask for.  After my talk with this friend I was encouraged to write my mother, and I did just that.  I wrote a sizeable letter explaining all the thoughts and emotions going through me, not intended to hurt her but to bring her up to speed on 19 years of issues she caused.  

She saw the letter and was pretty torn up by it, which I regret, but at the end I explained that I am tired of being angry and allowing the Devil to work through me.  For years when my mother got out of prison (the first time since I had met her) she had been pursuing a relationship with me, but not too long after that she was back into prison.  She has since cleaned up her act, settled down and got married, moved up to be close to the rest of my biological family, been baptised, and is apart of a women's ministry that goes and uplifts shut-ins.  I expressed to her that I am ready to have a relationship with her because time is limited: she is HIV positive and tomorrow is promised, so without waiting another day I needed her to know that I forgive her, and I needed you all to know as well.  

It was the most difficult decision I probably have ever made, I allowed hatred, anger, angst, and a false-justification to rule my life.  I was a wreck emotionally and finally fell to my knees and pleaded for strength, I asked you all for prayers and only through Gods strength did I have the courage to face my past and to forgive my mother.  Let me tell you, I was liberated and have no problem talking about anymore.  So thank you for the prayers, and encouragement.  I apologize for the lengthiness of this post and the many grammatical errors.  I just needed to express what I felt and couldn't get the point across in under 250 words.

Here is a link to my friends blog and her account of what I vaguely shared: http://godsheart-heart2heart.blogspot.com/2009/05/tough-call.html

Longing

Being an adopted child I grew up longing to know where I came from.  I knew my adoptive parents, and they are great people but the curiosity of wanting to know my birth mother and father was always in the back of my mind.  I was always seeking acceptance

Making the wrong friends in Junior High and High School seemed to be easy for me.  I clung to those who were unpleasant and lost because I could relate, I was one of them.  I was always seeking identity.

I partied as often as possible for a young man and did all the things that are commonly related (drugs, sex, drinking). It was the simplest way I knew to numb the pain of my reality. Life didn't need to make sense if I was hooking-up, black-out drunk, or so high that I couldn't move.  I was always seeking meaning.

I sought purpose, meaning, love, and identity in all of the wrong places.  Subconsciously I longed for something far greater than the life I was living.  Physically, I was happy with my worldly living because I was untouchable. That was, until, God worked in my life and changed everything.

 I attribute my "turn-around" to a combination of things:
     First, loss.  I believe God didn't take these particular people from me.  I think that in the world we live in today we have free will and because of this we make choices that God allows to happen.  Fair or unfair, harmless or painful, safe or dangerous.  So when someone decides to mix drinking and driving and kills a 16 year old girl, whether it was her time or not He used that experience in my life as an awakening.
     Second, people.  Good people can make a change, though some may never live to see the result.  Sadly this is the case in my story.  I thank those who are alive for the difference they made in my life.  Whether it was being nice, building me up, offering advice, or smiling through such physical or emotional hardship.  Those who are gone have a special place in my heart and I pray that they knew the effect they had on me.  People took an interest in my life and reached out to me even when I was cruel, mean, and figuratively spat in their faces. Remind you of anyone?
     Lastly, God himself.  As I mentioned before, God is very active in the world today.  Atheist, agnostic, christian, catholic, (insert denomination/religion), or not He is very much alive and working.  Last semester at school God revealed himself to me and a friend of mine on a very special night, not physically but he showed us something miraculous during a trying time.  Growing up people told me believing in a creator was weakness and the reason God existed was to strike fear into the hearts of man and then give them hope so they would comply. In essence making it all a ploy to encourage people to live morally "appropriate" lives.  I believed this for a while and lived my life around the principle that I wasn't afraid.  But without God or Christ I had no hope, and that is a scary thought. Anyway, I witnessed God working, he worked in the life of my family.  He didn't fix everything, matter of fact I'd almost say they got worse by the worlds standards, for my family and I it was just the wake-up call.

I found acceptance: Within the family of God even with all of my faults, sins, and baggage.

I found identity: I am Mikey Tribbie, adopted son of Mike & Pam Tribbie, Christian and child of the greatest father of all.

I found meaning: I am to share my experiences and my story to those who are where I was, those riding the fence of a worldly life and a godly life, and  those who are in a dark place and see no light.
My purpose is to be a light on the hill, just a glimmer of what Jesus Christ shines like.

I titled this longing because I sought and yearned for purpose, identity, acceptance, and love.  I no longer yearn or long for these things, however, I yearn for God and to live a Godly life.  What are you longing for?  Leave me some feedback, this is my first blog.