June 22nd

Wow its been a long time since I have been on a computer with internet. Here is my latest update.

June 12
Today was the Summer Sizzlin’Festival which we decided should have been changed to the Drizzlin’ Festival. It rained all day long. It started on Friday and continued throughout the day. Last night we came and set up everything for the garage sale and since I was the only one that had really done much with garage sales before I got put in charge of running the whole thing. We set the gym up last night as if it was going to be inside and then if for some strange reason it cleared up outside we would then move outside. Since it didn’t we did everything inside, well everything except the music/concerts. They set up many tents outside and continued on. Inside I was in charge of pricing things for people at the garage sale, there was a cotton candy machine and popcorn machine. A couple of other booths were set up as well. Chick-fil-a even brought us 100 spicy chicken sandwiches that they passed out for people to try. This was HOT! I love chick-fil-a but I think I will stick to nuggets or the original sandwich. We ended up making a little over $600 at the garage sale and all of the proceeds went to the Hill-N-Park mission for us to use for the kids this summer.

June 13
Woke up and it was still cold outside. I had to dig out my warm clothes for church. After church we took the missions team to see Karate Kid. There was 21 people all together. Mrs. Linda had to get there and save everyone’s seat. THANKS! The movie was really good. I recommend it. After the movie we had to head straight to the mission for dinner and our church service out there.

June 14
Today we had Kids Club and it was really cold. The weather was kind of yucky stick so it was hard to keep the kids all together. We did however learn a new verse for the week.
This evening was the start of our VBS at West Greeley Baptist Church. At first I was not assigned to a room and I was just kind of wandering around doing odds and ends things to get it all kicked off. At this point I was thinking to myself “God you have placed me here for a reason please show me where I need to be used. Not to much longer I was watching the older kids play games and Mrs. Sue the lady in charge came and found me and said have u been assigned anywhere cause I could use an extra set of hands. I went with her and she took me to the Kindergarten classroom. This is the room where Mrs. Joye was the teacher, the pastor’s wife. They were in the middle of there lesson so I just jumped in and started working with the kids as well. After we had helped the kids and where getting ready to rotate, Mrs. Joye decided to assign a few kids to each teacher so we had only a few to keep up with. I was put with four kiddos. Charles was also helping in the room with me and was assigned some kids. Josiah was in Charles group and he didn’t know want anyone being in charge of him. I told Josiah he needed to be in charge of Charles instead and to keep up with him. He liked that idea better. Jonathon thought that was a pretty good idea too. Jonathon was in my group and he told me he thought it was funny that he was going to be in charge of his teacher. Next we go up stairs to Crafts. When we get there everything is going good I have my kids doing what they are supposed to and I here one of the other teachers trying to get the attention of another little girl. At the same time Mrs. Joye goes to shut the door so the little girl would not leave the room. I am walking across the room to help a child and see this little girl running from someone. I just reach out my hand and grab her arm. I hold on to her hand and say Jacklyn I need you to listen to me. This little girl didn’t skip a beat and she is in my face as close as she can be. I just simply told her that her teachers where trying to get her to come help them with planting her seeds and that I needed her to go sit and her chair and she did just as I asked her. After all of the other teachers trying to do just what I did. Mrs. Joye came over to me and said I think Jacklyn will be one of yours for the rest of the time since you have more experience in this area. At this point I realized this is what God wanted me here for to use what I have been learning the past year in school and working with this child. The rest of the evening with Jaclyn was just as crazy she was running everywhere and not listening to other teachers, yelling and dancing during music instead of learning motions, she even game me a war wound (cutting me). All in all it was a fun evening and I actually enjoyed getting to work with her. This is just the type of opportunity I have been waiting for.

June 15
Today we took the youth from the mission to the swim park downtown. There were 15 of us altogether. We went intending to get to spend time with the kids and getting to know them better and this allowing them time to get away from siblings and parents. It was a really neat I had more fun that I thought we would. As a background of who and what we have been working with. Most of the youth we took with us have all either been on probation, into drugs, sex before marriage, pregnancy, stealing, etc. So going into today I was kind of worried to see how the kids would be with us. They were on there best behavior, and I was able to get to spend time with quite a few of them.

This evening we had VBS again. From the beginning this time I was with my friend jacklyn. The one thing I ask from her is that she has to hold my hand when we switch classes so tonight she started by asking if she could hold her own hands. Which was fine for a little while but the point of her holding my hand is so she can’t run away. Tonight she started to make new friends and first was holding Naveas hand. This little girl was ok with it for a little while and then didn’t want to anymore. When we went to play games outside with the youth she then became attached to one of the guys named Eric. At this point I left her and went to play tag with all my other little friends. I don’t know if anyone has ever played tag with a bunch of kindergarten kids but man my little friend hector he is fast. I am thinking next time we play he is not IT. Since Jacklyn found a new friend I still had to work with her a little bit because they didn’t understand what to do with her or how to get her to come and listen. I got her inside and with her snack and told her to go sit at a table. She found where Eric was sitting and joined him. When we get done with snack I tell her she will need to throw her trash away and grab somebody’s hand. Jacklyn said, “Can I hold his hand?” and so for the rest of the night she held Eric’s hand and he went with us to the next room and then back to the sanctuary.

This is Perla and Hector two of my kids in the kindergarten classroom.

After VBS Tiffany and I stayed at the church and hung out with all of the youth from Kansas City, Missouri. They decided they were gonna come out and play with us as kids club tomorrow. I can’t wait the kids are going to be soo excited.

June 16
Today has been a great day. This morning we got to the mission early so we could get ready for the mission team to join us. At first there were only like 5 kids so we had to send them all to find their friends. Having the missions team from Kansas City was good because it helped to add to our number and make it fun for the children. In our tribes (teams) we all came up with chants and practiced our two bible verses, then did a relay race with our new bible verse. The younger kids have really surprised me with how quickly they have been learning the verses. One of the students came and told us today where the ipod was and is going to try to get it back for us. Tamika came to Tiffany today as well and told her that she wanted to talk to her. She was really concerned for the mission and knowing that Chris is going to be leaving she was wondering what would happen to the church. Tiffany assured her that only God knew who was going to take Chris’ place and that the church will remain their. As an updated for everyone Chris my supervisor has been working at the mission for 13 years now I believe and the mission is being defunded at the end of the summer so his family had been looking for a new job. They will be moving to California at the end of the summer when we leave. This does leave the mission up in the air for now. However, God will provide someone to take over the place. There is just so much stablished already and the children are all worried of what might happen. For example, lets go back to Tamika. She is a very talented girl. She love basketball and is wonderful. However, she doesn’t do her school work and so she doesn’t always get to play. She has also been really involved with drugs, in a gang, just about anything you can think of. When she came to tiffany today she told her that she knew what she had been doing was wrong and she wanted to change her lifestyle. As the first step her gang members have already agreed to let her out. Tamika is a tough girl if you couldn’t already tell. This girl was in tears today when she was talking to tiffany because she could remember growing up in this neighborhood and having this church here. Please pray for Tamika as God is working in her life as well as for the mission and who God is going to place there to help continue to run the place.

This evening we had VBS again at the church. The children are so sweet and I love being with this class. Some of them do however wear me out. A few don’t mind Mrs. Joye very well and I have to become the disciplinarian. Thank goodness they listen to me. We played tag again tonight as well. This time it was a less intense game.

After VBS was over I stayed at the church and hung out with the youth again. I have really enjoyed spending time with them the past week. I love being here serving for the summer and having groups come in as well it makes me feel even more important because they all look up to me. Mikaela is my friend that I hung out with most of the time. While we were just all sitting around talking Eric decided it would be a good idea to scare the kids that were watching the scary movie. He went outside to try to sneak up on their window. The church they are staying at is pretty old and Eric barely tapped at the glass and SPPPPPSH the glass shattered. We got the mess cleaned up and covered the window. Now Eric has to talk to pastor Frank tomorrow. :/

June 17
Today we took the mission team up to Estes Park and into Rocky Mountain National Park all the way up to the top. It was a lot of fun. However, it was super windy. The youth and I tried to take some pictures and it was freezing and are hair was everywhere. This made for a fun time though. We took our lunch with us and once we got to the top we decided to just eat in the car where it would be warmer and we wouldn't blow away. We had to get back to the mission in time to open for a couple of hours. Then we went back to VBS for the last night with the kids.

June 18

Today was a very long day. We had prepared a water day for the kids at the mission and the missouri kids came back out to join us again. I was having a really rough day and I needed to get away for a little while so I called Mrs. Linda, a lady in our church that I have been getting to know, and she came to pick me up. I went with her and just tried to chill for a little while and then went to a funeral. It really is an awesome thing to be able to go to a funeral and just see everyone happy. There was some grieving but for the most part it was a big celebration because "Cooney" was an amazing godly man. Getting to hear all the wonderful stories about him makes me wish I really got to know this man. He did the best he could trying to make sure everyone had a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Man I hope that this will be the testimonies at my funeral some day.

This evening was the family night at VBS. The parents came to eat dinner and see the kids preform there songs they learned throughout the week. It has been an awesome week. We had 100 kids total through out the week and of that 10 kids accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior

June 19

O where to begin with today. Today has been a wonderful day but at the same time very eventful. We started out getting up and leaving Greeley at 6am to drive to Longmont to help with the 9 Cares Colorado Shares food drive for the mission in Longmont. For the most part people were very generous and brought lots of food out for us to take. As well as bringing clothing and stuff from their home that they no longer needed.

Here is where the crazy part begins. My ear had been itching and so I took out my hearing aid, scratched my ear and noticed that there was a small tear in it. Put it back in my ear. A little while later I did the same thing only this time it is broken and I cant find the end piece. At first I try not to freak out but look on the ground everywhere, ask Charles and someone else to see if they see it in my ear still. Nope nothing. So I continued on with my work and put the rest of my hearing aid up. Then a while later my ear starts hurting and not knowing where the other part is made me nervous.

After Charles and I were done with our shift we left to go find something to eat. As we are driving around I see a Five Guys. (This is probably one of the BEST restaurants ever) One of my favorites so I asked charles if he was up for a burger. He had never been here before and I was sooo excited. This was just to make my day better. We ate five guys and then started to head back to Greeley to go see Toy Story 3. Well by the time we get back to Greeley, my ear is really hurting and so when we get to the pastors house (where charles is staying) I had Mrs. Joye look. She saw nothing in my ear but I told her it had to be so Pastor Frank took me to the Urgent Care. At this point I am nervous first of all because anything to do with my ears scare me, as well as being in another state where I don't know the doctors or what to do. I end up working myself up and when I get to see the nurse she was very good at just listening to me and calming me back down. She immediately noticed that there was more than just an ear problem that was stressing me out and so she began to question me. I ended up spilling everything to her which was really neat because I was having trouble trying to decided who would be best to talk to the past couple of days. She kept telling me to just lift it all up to God and that He would take care of it. Man was this what I needed or what. Just never would of expected it from a random stranger. After I had calmed down she went and got the doctor to come look at my ear. At this point I still wasn't positive if it was even in my ear. She had me lay on my side where she could look in and there it was she saw it. A few minutes later this is what she pulled out.

Charles was amazed that something this big could be in my ear canal and he couldn't see it. When she took the piece out it didn't hurt at all but when I sat up I immediately felt something in my ear and I asked her if there was any liquid. She told me that I had a small scrape on my ear canal and that she wanted to give me some ear drops so that I could take some extra precautions to keep it from getting infected. When I was done and leaving the office at this point feeling MUCH better. I told the doctor and nurse Thank you. The nurse looked at me and smiled and said if you need anything you know where to find me. ;) This almost made me cry again. This was like my angel God had sent to take care of me today.

Now to make my day better once again. Charles and I went to see TOY STORY 3!!!! It is super amazing. definitely made my day along with removing the hearing aid, and five guys.

June 20

Father's Day

Since none of us were with our Father's today we went to Pastor Frank's house and spent the day with him. One of his children came and brought his grand kids. We had a cookout and the kids played in the slip in slide. This made for a chill and relaxed day. Then we went out to the mission for our evening Church Service.

June 21

At kids Club today our numbers were a little lower but we continued on anyway. This week theme is Hope and Joy. We taught the kids today from James 1. We talked about trials and how we will be tested but we are supposed to persevere and then one day we will receive our crown of life. The kids were good listeners today and we had good discussions with them. We had graham crackers with peanut butter and m&ms as a snack. The kids love to make food crafts.

June 22

Today was our day off so we decided that we wanted to go for a bike ride. We all loaded up our bikes and packed a lunch and took off for a trail. We ended up biking 18 miles round trip. Went half way stopped and ate lunch at a park and then turned around and rode back. This was really fun we all went at our own pace and just enjoyed ourselves. There was one part however that I was in front of everyone just strolling and I saw a yellow sign to show there were going to be curves up ahead and when I saw the sign I thought that looks kinda like a snake. A few minutes later I SCREAMED. There was a snake spread out across the path in front of me. I waited for someone else to come so I could worn them. Charles passed me next and then Lee. We were all ahead of the other 3 though and Lee stopped and ran over it. We then decided since it was nearly dead we would keep going ahead a little ways and then stop and watch the others come by and get scared. Sure enough a few minutes later Tiffany went right next to it and Screamed as well. :) At least I wasn't the only one.

After we got back to the truck we were all hot and sweaty and wanted to go jump in a pool so we took our bikes back and put on bathing suits to go for a swim. After all of this was over I was feeling a little warm. I got quite a bit of sun today thank goodness for sunscreen.

Prayer Request:

Pray for our team

Chris and Colleen as they start packing to move to California

The hearts of the children we are working with.

New mission team coming in next week

June 11th

I have had limited access to internet so I will try my best to keep this updated at least once a week if I get a chance to do so more often I will. Also the mailing address that I have given out is the one to the mission. The kids that are in this neighborhood are bad about stealing things so if you are going to mail me something I can give you a new address or my mom has them as well. I just didn’t want to post them for security reasons. Thanks

Where has the time gone. I have already been in Colorado 2 weeks. It has been amazing and I have already been through many challenges and adventures. Let me get you caught up.

June 2nd
Last Wednesday we started Kids Club and we had 30 kids on the first day. We just played some games with the kids to try to get to know them and allow them to open up to us. After we were done for the day we went home for a short break and then went bowling as a team. I think this maybe a regular thing. Wednesday night is cheap bowling night here.

June 3rd
Thursday is our mission day. We got a new shipment of food in today so we had to restock the food pantry. I sorted through thing and organized it all by the type of food. When I came on this trip I didn't know I was going to be elected to be the cook for the summer. However I am not too worried about it. I am a person of many skills. I actually love to cook and after I had been in the food pantry Chris asked me to find something to make for dinner. The only thing I could really find that would feed enough people was some hamburger helper. A fact most people know about me is I HATE cheese. Most hamburger helper has cheese in it and this one did. Knowing this was the case I didn't try the meal and I was actually a little worried that I didn't fix it right...but after I put it on the table it didn't last very long. The dishes came back to me pretty clean.

June 4th
Kids Club was again today and we started with our theme of survival today. We made dirt cups with the kids as our activity. (chocolate pudding with gummy worms and crushed up Oreo cookies) I think the crushing up of the cookies was the kids favorite part well besides eating it.

June 5th
We got up early this morning because we had to drive to Longmont. There is another mission in longmont called the Good News Center and they were having a fundraiser at the applebees there so we went to help them out. I don't know if you have ever been apart of a Saturday morning at applebees but its super fun. As a fundraiser you have to presale tickets to get people to come eat a pancake breakfast at Applebees. Then you have to have people come in to help serve as the "employees" you need some waiters, waitress, and hostess. The four people on my team got to be the waiters and waitress. It was sooo much fun. I have never worked at a restaurant before and never been behind the scenes at applebees either. We got to take orders, go to the back and place orders, make drinks, take orders out to customers, get refills, take plates back to kitchen and where they belong, and then clean the tables and start over. When we got done and we were getting ready to leave I was talking to the manager for a second and he asked me if I had ever waited on tables before and I told him I hadn't and he asked if I wanted a part time job. Haha I had to tell him I was only there for the summer and I was doing missions. It was a really neat experience and a great way to make money. After we left applebees we went to horsetooth falls. This was a beautiful hike. When we got to the top there was running water. We spent some time just relaxing and taking in the beauty. On the way back down, well parts of it were up too, I decided I wanted to try to get some running in. After I was done and back to the car I was worn out and done for the day. Waiting tables and then hiking the mountains and running that's a lot.
I napped on the way home and then we all went to pastor Frank's house for dinner. He did some barbecuing on the grill for us. While we were waiting we played washers. Lee and I won! We both even got a ringer.

June 6th
Sunday is our church day. We went to West Greeley Baptist Church. Pastor Frank had us all do some introductions for the church telling where we were from and what school we attend. Surprisingly there were a couple people that had heard of Salado and even Nacogdoches. It really is a small world. My Sunday school teacher told me he had family in Lufkin and Diboll (Diboll is where Andrew's family is from) and after church there was a lady that told me here and her husband lived in Georgetown for 7 years til his job moved him to Greeley. The lady that played piano asked which church I went to in Nacogdoches because her husband had been talking to a pastor of a church and was trying to get a music ministry job there. I didn't get to finish talking to her because she had to go find her husband but I am almost positive it was the church in Nacogdoches I went to for 2 years.

June 7th
After Kids Club everyone came over to my house and again I cooked dinner. Lee cooked the steaks and hamburgers on the grill and I made the rice-a-roni (that charles wanted), french fries, and baked a confetti cake (our favorite).

June 8th
Today was our free day so we went in to Denver and went down to 16th street mall. We rode the bus down the strip a couple of times and then got our exercise walking back. This evening my team wanted to watch the big basketball game so I took kermie by myself, without the rearview mirror still, to Windsor, CO. for a bonfire. I got to see some of my fellow texans. Jarred and Amber :D and makes some smores.

June 9
Kids Club today was amazing I lead the bible study and we talked about the Great Commission. We read from Mark 16:15. “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.” After we discussed how important it was for us to go and share the gospel with our family and friends, I taught the kids how to make a salvation bracelet and how to use it to share the good news with others. The kids were more attentive then I expected them to be. All of the children were able to make two necklaces or bracelets so they could keep one and then share the other with someone else. After we all had lunch it was time to start the lesson with the older kids, we did the same lesson with the older kids. This time Charles led the Bible study and then I walked the youth through the salvation bracelets as well except with the older kids I taught them how to make a square knot with hemp string. They did an awesome job and were very attentive as well. I know God is really at work in the lives of the children and I can see this more so in some children than others.

Ok so there is usually something bad that happened sometime through out the day and today Lee’s iPod got stolen. He left it out on the table and then we were all outside with the children and there was no one supervising the mission when two boys walked in and after they walked out they went straight home. Lee went to look for the iPod and it was gone. We are pretty positive that we know who it was since there were only the two boys. Lee has taken this pretty hard. Please pray that he doesn’t let this hurt his ministry in worrying about the iPod.

Usually kids club is over about 2:30 but today since the kids were enjoying the bracelet making we didn’t leave the mission until closer to 4. Tiffany and I went back to my house and crashed. The kids wore us out.

At 5:45 we went and picked up Jonathon and Caleb (Chris’ kids) and took them to get some dinner at McDonalds before heading up to the bowling alley for bowling night. There were about 15 people there all together so this made it fun. We had children everywhere. After I left the bowling alley I went home and packed my stuff and was able to move into my new home for the summer. :D Praise the Lord for the wonderful opportunity.

June 10
Today was a chill day we didn’t have to be at the mission until 4 to help prepare food boxes and clean up the clothing closet. I met Jane today she is a teacher in Greeley. Well she actually just lost her job this year because they were cutting back on teachers. She felt like she needed to do some missions work and she had been asking around for a place to do so. She came up the mission today and Chris sent her to work in the food pantry with me. Since it was just the two of us, I really got to talk to her and get to know her a little bit. She was telling me since she didn’t have a job she wanted to try to a little missions work because it helped her to keep it off her mind and she felt like that was something God had been laying on her heart. This was a blessing for us because we can always use volunteers at the mission especially on the days when we have kids club and my team has to lead the kids program outside so that leaves the inside work to be done by volunteers. If there are none then one of us has to go work inside. Jane said she would love to come in again on Friday (tomorrow) and she might even try to get her daughter to come help too.

June 11
This morning when I got to the mission Jane came to help again. She even stayed and joined us during the youth time. Today for the youth time we had the biggest group we have had during that time yet this summer. The Kids even stayed after and just shared a little of their lives with us. After we left the mission we had to go up to West Greeley Baptist Church to help set up the garage sale for tomorrow. We are having a Summer Sizzlin' Festival with activities for the children and families as well as a garage sale. This is the kickoff party for VBS that starts this next week.

Prayer request
-Veronica 13 yr old girl
-Kayli and her interest to ask questions and know more about God
-Pray for Jane and that she will find a job and/or continue to help out at the mission
-Lee’s Ipod that was stolen
-Communication between the group

Praise
-Housing
-Veronica for continuing to come to kids club and then staying for the youth time

June 1

Since Monday was Memorial Day we had the day off so we all loaded up along with Chris' family and went up towards the mountains. We stopped along the way at a park and had a picnic, played some games, and spent time resting. In the afternoon, when our team left (the four of us) we went up into the mountains. God is absolutely wonderful. I am in awe of His creation every single day. As Charles said today, "Going into the mountains was another team building day". We navigated our way to the top of the mountains. Traveling on Trail Ridge Road up to the highest road traveled in the US. (I think that is the fact don't quote me though). There was snow piled high on the side of the road and once we started on our way back down we started to see elk. There was one point where they were on the side of the road right next to our car. When we got into town we were able to pull over on the side of the road where we could get out and get about 15 ft away from them. Our day had been wonderful and we had made it back to Estes Park just in time to eat dinner. After dinner we headed back home through the mountains. There was a part where the traffic had come to a complete stop and there were people walking around so 3 of us got out and started to walk to see if we could see what the problem was and we walked for a little while til we heard there was a wreck. We ended up waiting for an hour and a half for traffic to clear up and to be able to head home. The only thing we were able to see was one ambulance that drove away and a car that was on a tow truck that was totaled. The front end of the car was torn up really bad. We said a prayer for them hoping whoever was in the car was not hurt too badly and thankful they didn't roll down the side of the cliff. After our adventure filled day we finally made it home to rest.

Today we started planning for our summer and the schedule of Kids Camp that starts tomorrow! We made it up to the mission about noon and did some brain storming on the theme of survival. For the month of June we are going to come up with lessons, crafts, games, bible verses, and other activities that have to do with survival. After we planned for this week. We went out into the neighborhood and started canvasing the trailer park with flyers about the summers kids camp. As we started walking through the streets children started joining us to help us figure out which houses had kids in them and where to go. We ended up having so much help that we split into two different groups. Today seemed to be a very productive day and I can't wait to see what God has in store for us tomorrow.

My blessing of the day: I went to Best Buy because my computer battery is going bad and the cord is frayed so it will no longer charge or hold a charge so I went to purchase a new charger. I get to the store and the guy finds a charger for me but then checked to see if I still had warranty on my computer...and I DID! so now I will be able to get both of the items replaced for free bc my warranty is until August of this year. I was excited to hear this. It really was a blessing.

Prayer Request:
Kids Club -pray for lots of children
Wisdom-in planning for the future days to come
Words-that they will be His words that I am the mouth He uses