Summer Recap 2017

We hope to someday get to the point of being caught up on this blog, so that we can post things closer to when they happen.  I think that would be better than trying to play catch up all the time.  This post is an attempt to get us there, since we only wrote a couple ministry updates during the summer, this is a recap of what else we did over the summer months.

Of course our little one is growing so fast, she started crawling in the early summer and she hasn't looked back since.  Once she was able to crawl her next goal was to pull herself up on the closest piece of furniture, next was achieving the balance she needed to walk along the furniture.  

Amidst the busyness of the summer we were still able to fit in many fun things to do.  We went to the zoo and played with the penguins.

We went to the Asian festival where R loved all of the action, especially the break dancing music!

We joyfully welcomed our new nieces Anna and Clara into the world.

We were reminded just how fast time flies when we remembered that R was that small once but not any more!

We took a week off to go on vacation in the Manistee National Forest.  We stayed in a little cottage on a small lake.  We enjoyed the quiet and being away from the hustle and bustle of the city.  

We also enjoyed mostly sunny and beautiful weather while we were on our vacation.

While we spent lots of time relaxing at the cottage we did go on some excursions.  We went to Manistee and had a nice time on the beach.  R hasn't been too sure about sand but she seemed to tolerate it after a while.

We went on several hikes through the forest, this was one of R's favorite parts.  She had a seat in my hiking backpack, and she loved every minute.  She surprised us by roaring loudly for quite a while after we started, we think she was calling the bears!  We did actually see one at a very far distance, I was hoping to get close enough to take a picture but it was gone before we got to the spot.

We saw lots of deer, and many of them weren't too bashful.

We enjoyed some beautiful sunsets as well.  This was such a blessing of a vacation!

We also hung out with family and friends whenever we could.  I went kayaking with my dad while Rebecca and R stayed with step mom Julie.

We saw my mom for her birthday along with my step dad Herb, we enjoyed some nice weather in our shaded back yard.

We celebrated Rebecca's Dad's birthday at a restaurant where R enjoyed people watching and getting lots of attention from everyone. 

We went sailing for a day with our friends John and Karen.  We were able to enjoy more beautiful weather and a fun cookout on the water.

R loves to play with other children which is so great!

We also enjoyed a bumper crop in our garden this year, with some of the biggest heads of broccoli we've ever grown, massive tomato plants that produced dozens of pounds of tomatoes, and beans that kept on producing.

We made batch upon batch of tomato soup, paste, and sauce, so we have enough for the year.  We will miss the fresh tomatoes though, there's nothing like a BLT with fresh tomatoes from the garden!

This was a summer full fun, lots of ministry opportunities and many ups and downs of the foster care process.  We are grateful for how we saw God working and for all of the prayers and encouragement that came our way.  Thank you for reading and see you next time! 

Upward Challenge 2017

This summer I had the awesome privilege of taking some of our youth group kids to a camp called Upward Challenge.  This was a weeklong camp in North Carolina at the same location that I've been to several times this year for my inner healing and deliverance ministry class.  It was a great experience for myself and the youth and I can't wait to share about it with you!

On the way down we stayed at a friend's house in Kentucky in order to break up the long 12 hour drive.  The kids enjoyed banana splits (some for the first time) and pancakes made by Al.

We were very excited to finally make it to North Carolina, especially me because my back was really out and stiff from all the driving (I'll talk more about that in the next post).

The Community of the Cross is PRMI's headquarters, it is beautiful and on 25 acres of mountain land.

Around 50 campers came from youth groups all around the country. 

At the beginning of camp most of my youth were feeling well out of their element.  They hardly leave the city and only one had ever been out of state.  We found out that there would only be one shower available the whole week, that we had to use outhouses, and that there were bears on the property (and of course our girls saw one right away!).  I thought there was going to be a revolt, a mutiny of epic proportions.  But I urged them to give it a chance and to be open to trying new things.  I am thankful that God made it possible for them to do just that, and he worked in their lives in amazing ways.

Each day we had a large group gathering in the morning and evening.  As a leadership team we felt that there was a great need for sharing the father heart of God for the youth as many were questioning if God exists and if so why it would matter.  So we focused a lot on this and sprinkled in some of the original topics having to do with how God works through the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts that He has for us.

Many testimonies were given by young leaders and their stories really connected with the campers.  The testimonies reminded us that we aren't the only ones who have experienced pain and brokenness in our lives and that it is God who wants to heal us from those things and set us free in Christ. 

There was a lot of healing that took place in these group settings.  Truth is powerful when coupled with the love of Jesus.  Having these experiences during the large group prompted many to seek to have a prayer appointment.  These are a time spent with 2-3 leaders where Jesus is invited to speak and work in the life of the one receiving prayer.  I will talk more about this in a future post as we have been working on launching this type of prayer ministry at Gold Avenue Church, and this is what the training I have been going to in NC is all about.  

Several of our youth had wonderful experiences in their prayer appointment.  One accepted Jesus for the first time.  Another felt burdens lifted from her and has been much lighter and joyful since.  One was able to let go of anger and anxiety when Jesus showed up in a vision and showed her that he is with her.  In the same vision he also gave her a glimpse of her mom, who had died unexpectedly a couple years prior.  He let her know that her mom is ok and that she doesn't have to worry about her any longer.  These are significant encounters that will help shape their faith and their walk with God.  This is what we yearn to see happening in our youth group on a regular basis here at Gold!

Worship was a wonderful piece of the large group meetings.  On our way home a couple of the girls looked up the songs on their phone and were singing along.  This is another thing we'd like to incorporate back into youth group at home, and are praying for the right opportunity.

We also had small group time where one of the students was the leader.  Then there was a young adult leader and an older wiser leader - guess who that was :-)  These were good times for us to process what happened in the group and to pray together.  This is my group here.  In addition to helping lead this group, I also participated in early morning prayer, helped lead prayer appointments, and was the official camp photographer.  In addition to sleeping in a tent with the boys it made for a very busy and exhausting week.  God got me through though and I am thankful for his grace!

I was very fortunate and thankful that our friend Jaci came with us.  She is a leader in our youth group and wanted to come to experience this with the youth.  It was also great to have a helper for driving especially because I was having back issues on the way down and I was beat on the way back.  We all had a really great time together.

We also enjoyed free time and games each day - swimming in the river was fun...  

Joking around and laughing a lot was fun...

Arts and crafts were fun...

And, well, I didn't experience this one, but I heard that nail painting was fun too!  This is our friend Stephanie who was one of the co-directors of the camp.  She has been a part of our Gold Ave Church family for almost a year since she moved up here from Florida to do ministry here.

Games were fun too, this was sock wars, basically capture the flag but to get people out they had to be hit with a sock full of dirt.

Here is the whole group of campers and leaders, it was a great group!

At the end we prayed for each group that left and blessed them for the trip back home.

On the way back we were able to stop at Chick-fil-a, one of our favorite stops along the way.

This was an amazing camp experience for me and I know it was for many others.  Many people were praying for this for quite some time and I believe those prayers were answered!  Now we move to continue discipleship for our youth.  I appreciate prayers for this and for protection, because the evil one would like to steal away this progress!

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!