Create! Arts and Sports Camp 2017

Things are finally starting to calm down after a very busy summer, so it's time to get caught up on the blog!  You can expect several new entries over the next few weeks as we recap all that has happened.  

Create! Arts and Sports Camp was the first big event to happen this summer.  At Gold Avenue Church it's our version of Vacation Bible School and is intended to be an evangelistic reach into the neighborhood.  It took place the week after school got out for the summer.  We invited children and youth from the local schools and handed out fliers while we were prayer walking in the weeks ahead of camp.  Around 50 kids came throughout the week to learn about God through arts and sports.  

This is just one of the many pieces of art that reflect what the kids learned!

Each evening we started with a meal since the camp took place over dinner time.  We are very thankful that people from Caledonia CRC and The Gathering were willing to put together and donate these meals.  Kids ate dinner with their class while watching pictures from the day before; afterwards each class went to their place.  The children were able to pick and one class for the first two days and one class for the last two days so that they could experience a couple different things.

Here is a glimpse of the different classes, or studios as we called them:

Cooking was a highly sought after class, because there's food to eat!  They made cupcakes, yogurt parfait, worms and dirt, and more.  They also had fun learning about eating healthy.

They even shared some with me, in fact, they were eager to make me a parfait.  It was delicious!

Next was Sculpting, where they made Papier-mâché bowls and decorated them with special paper.

Next was Drawing, where they learned how to make an underwater seascape like the one you saw at the beginning of this post.

In all of these classes we got to enjoy seeing the natural talent that the kids had.  It was fun to encourage them and to build them up as they learned how to do new things.

Next up was Painting, where they were able to learn some cool watercolor techniques.  They used wax to create big stars on their galaxy, salt to create little stars, and a hair dryer to blend it all in.

Next was the Music class, where they learned how to play different instruments and how to create some cool beats.  A few of them had enough courage to perform at the gallery on Friday and they did a great job!

This year sports were an addition to camp to make it more appealing to all kids, and it seemed like this worked out well.  Soccer was a big hit as were the other sports classes.

Basketball class taught shooting technique and they played through lots of drills.

Volleyball class was a big hit (punny)!  They focused on learning the basics, which included lots of chasing after volleyballs!

We were blessed to have this aweseome camp photographer too, his photos really help to tell the story of camp! (I took a few too but I need a nicer camera like that!)

After the classes were over everyone returned to the large group for the lesson.  Each night we were blessed to have a different person or group share about God through their form of art.

We had Master Art Theater come and do a fun drama performance for us of different tales and stories that taught important principles from the Bible.  They were really fun!

Sharon from our church told the story of Lazarus using some beautiful story boards.  Then she explained the gospel with the help of some volunteers.

We got to hear from Julie about her paintings and what they mean to her.  They represent her prayers and were very beautiful.  We also heard some singing on another evening and learned of the inspiration behind it.  It was a real blessing to be able to hear the different ways that God has created us and how he can use different ways to share his gospel message.

At the end of the evening, after the lessons were done, we enjoyed eating what the cooking class produced!

On Friday night we had a special art gallery to show off the artwork and pictures from the camp.  We invited families of the kids who came.

We enjoyed an extended performance by Master Art Theater where they performed Bible stories about Jesus and how he seeks us out, inviting us to faith in Him as we accept his love.

It was a great opportunity to share the gospel again and to show the love of Jesus to all that attended.  

Create! went so well, it was a lot of work planning it but I had a lot of help.  Many people were in prayer before and during this camp.  Thank you!  Many people from our church and the community helped with different areas of the camp, from being teachers, helping with setup/teardown, helping with transportation, making signs, food, supplies, etc.  In addition Bridge Street House of Prayer (BSHOP) helped with some of the planning, helpers, and materials, it was great to have a wonderful neighborhood organization involved.  I was so blessed by everyone and so were all of the children and youth that came.  I praise God for making it all work and for blessing the camp, and I ask that we would all continue praying for those that came, that the seeds that were planted will grow into faith in Jesus!  Thank you!

May 2017

May was a month to get outside and enjoy the really nice spring weather.   We did a LOT this month and really enjoyed ourselves.  R continued to grow and she got a couple of teeth.  She has loved being outside, hanging out with people, and being the center of attention everywhere she goes.  

Ministry at Gold Ave Church also went well.  God answered prayers by calling more people to help with Children's Worship this summer, and lots of people signed up to help with our upcoming Arts & Sports camp.  I have been busy planning for that, we are hoping for many children to be blessed by it.  We have lots of exciting things happening at the camp, please pray that many kids (we are shooting for 100) come and are blessed to know Jesus!  Please pray for me as I continue to work on planning, lots of details need to come together now as there are only two weeks to go.

We started the month of May by celebrating my birthday early with our friends Scott & Kayleen.  We went downtown and ate at our favorite place - San Chez - we tried out lots of new tapas and had some of our favorites.  We also had a new dessert which was amazing! (Flan de Naranja - blood orange flan, vanilla bean wafer, lemon basil mint sorbet, blood orange sauce)  We would go there way more often if it wasn't so pricy, it is a place to save up and splurge on.  It is always fun to go with friends!

It was a nice brisk night, and we enjoyed a beautiful sunset over the river.

We had brunch on my birthday with our friends Neil & Annah.  We had mini-quiches, cinnamon rolls, bacon, pineapple, and pancakes.  Afterwards we went to look at some houses with them as they are looking for a house in the neighborhood.  Later in the day we went to the park so I could fly my kite.  We met up with my Mom and Step Dad and then afterwards I went to dinner with some friends.  It was a really nice day!

The next weekend we did lots of different fun things too.  We started off by going to watch the Riverbank Run with our friends Andrew & Lindsay.  We went to cheer on Annah as she raced.  R really enjoyed waving at the runners and they smiled at her as they passed by.  On Mother's Day we went to have ice cream with my mom, step dad, brother, sister & brother in law.  We were amazed by the size of the scoops at Get The Scoop!  After that we went to celebrate Mother's day with some of Rebecca's extended family... a busy but fun day!

The next weekend we went to visit my Dad & Stepmom and then we went to the kite festival in Grand Haven.  It was so cool!  There were lots of kites in the air, I was inspired!

We watched some kite teams flying synchronized shows.  They were so good, we just wished that we could have been there for longer time.  The weather wasn't good for the first day of the festival so we waited until Sunday, when the clouds broke and it ended up being beautiful.

Memorial Day weekend we worked on planting our garden.  I so wish I could put pictures of R on here, she loved going to Fruitbasket Flowerland, she was smiling and sniffing everything with a big scrunched up face!  

We composted our fruit and vegetable waste in a bin that I made last year.  I was skeptical whether it would work, but it did!  We had lots of nice fresh compost to put under each plant to give them a boost of nutrients.  I was excited about that!

We planted lots of different veggies, here Rebecca is planting peas.  We also planted seeds for carrots, beans, beets, herbs, winter and summer squash and cucumber.  

We normally start plants inside from seed in the early spring, but it didn't work out so well last year.  Instead we bought plants - here you see broccoli, napa cabbage, eggplant, peppers, and tomatoes.  We just love fresh produce from the garden, especially tomatoes!

We also got together with our family on Memorial Day and then went to Grand Haven to fly the kite.  Yes, Grand Haven is the perfect place to fly and I am maybe a little obsessed with flying.  It is kind of my hobby at this point, now I am starting to learn some tricks with the kite, they take lots of practice.

  We always appreciate your prayers; our lives and ministry are really blessed by God's answers to prayers that he constantly provides.  Thanks for keeping up with us!

Spring 2017 Update

How is it that May is here already?  It is so nice now that flowers are in full bloom and we can see that the sun still does exist.  Like always life has been full in these last few months, and we invite you to read on as we tell about some of the highlights.

Baby R has been growing fast and is very healthy.  She started eating solid food in mid-April and really enjoyed it!  We joke that she is on a seafood diet, she sees food and she eats it!  For a while she really protested drinking her bottles because all she wanted was baby food, but now she enjoys both.  She is very strong, she can stand up with help balancing, and she can plank when held up in the air, which she loves to do.  She screams for joy and talks and babbles a lot.  She also knows what she wants and when she doesn't get it she screams, she has some great lungs.  She still struggles with reflux but not as much as she did in December and January.  She is also finally beginning to sleep for a good chunk of the night, and now we are just waiting for teeth to pop through to undo all of this sleep progress.  She also got the go ahead to be in public so she has been able to come to church and other get togethers.  This has made things a lot easier on us; she loves being with people and being the center of attention.  We love her lots and she is a joy to everyone she meets as she smiles and squeals and looks super cute.

There have been and will continue to be lots of emotional ups and downs too as we deal with the realities and unknowns of foster care.  It can be very difficult and gut wrenching to think of all of the possible outcomes for R, but we have to rely on God to protect her above all.

We enjoyed dinner with some friends who just recently moved to our neighborhood.  We love spending time with our friends and family, and we especially enjoy playing games.

Rebecca loves to make desserts, and here she was eating some fresh cookies with our friend Rachel.

We enjoy eating good food.  Here you can see a plate of Chinese food from PF Changs.  They are one of the few places that has gluten free Chinese food.  We also ate Thai, Indian and sushi a few times and had many great meals with family and friends.

We went to Grand Haven to see the ice buildup by the pier and to go for a walk on a nice day in February.

We enjoyed the walk and the sunshine and afterwards we went an got some gluten free cupcakes from a bakery in Muskegon.  It was a nice date, thanks to Oma and Opa for babysitting!  We have been very blessed with many people who are willing to babysit for us, for the price of getting to spend time with cute little R! 

Each time we had a nice day we tried to make the most of it by going outside.  Too bad you can't see R all bundled up in her fleece jacket that looks like a lamb, complete with little ears on the hood!

We were excited to find out that my (Mark's) sister is pregnant with twins!  We went to her gender reveal party and I was the first one to guess that they are both girls!  This is so awesome, we'll be an uncle and aunt for the first and second time!

We enjoyed a nice plate of sushi before I left for half a week to go to North Carolina for more prayer training.

The one on the top is my favorite - spicy tuna!  Yum!  We really like Sushi Yama right in downtown GR, because as unassuming of a place it is, the sushi is top notch, well priced, and they are very gluten conscious.  

I went to Black Mountain, North Carolina for the second of three prayer trainings that are part of a class I am taking.  There are around 10 people from our church and another 5 from the area.  We are learning how to pray for inner healing and deliverance, and have already started doing this in teams at church.  It is exciting to see how God is working already!

The setting here is beautiful!  September will be graduation weekend.

We got together with many of our good friends for Scott's birthday.  We went to Downtown Market and were able to try a sampling of the food there.  We really enjoyed the company and afterwards we went downtown to get fro-yo.  Like I said earlier, we loving being here, even though we miss the sun in the winter, but being near to so many friends and family is awesome!

These were some of the first flowers we saw this spring!

I had the awesome privilege of preaching my first English sermon at the end of April.  Since one of our pastors is on sabbatical, I was asked if I would be willing to preach two sermons, to help others but also to work on growing my own giftings.  I was mentored by Pastor Gina and our intern Pastor Jaleesa as I wrote the sermon, I practiced in front of them and they reviewed my transcript.  It was a lot of work but I am thankful for the message that God gave me to give to the church.  You can listen to it here: The Great Commission - Modeling Jesus' Love to the World

With the return of good weather we got busy working outside.  The tulips we planted last fall came up beautifully!  We have lots of outdoor projects, including reseeding the back yard and doing something so that the rain doesn't leak into the basement

We enjoyed participating in a few baby showers for Sandi, Rebecca won a game at each one of them.  The guys and I all came at the end with R to hang out a bit and to let everyone meet R.  She hammed it up at both of them, it seems that no matter how sleepy she is she can wake up to wow a crowd. 

We had a busy spring at church too, with Pastor Dave going on sabbatical and us ramping up prayer ministry.  Our middle school youth group started really going well and we experienced lots of fruit - one youth accepted Jesus, another wants to be baptized, and another was healed of an addiction.  As we have continued to pray for God to send more workers to Gold Ave Church, he as answered and we have seen exciting growth in our church family, ministries and our capability to spread the love of Jesus to others.  Now we are planning for the summer - Arts and Sports camp is in June and in July our youth group will go to camp.  In the fall we are hoping to start a high school youth group so we continue to pray for God to place calls in hearts.  

We are very thankful for all of the prayer and support that we receive, both personally and in our ministries at church.  Please continue to pray for us and those we minister to!  We love you all!