Divine Appointments

So, from reading Pete's blog (which is great by the way) it looks like all we do is play. Yes, we do a lot of playing here but we are also really seeing God at work. In the last 2 weeks I have had some great conversations with kids. Here's a few...

One 8 year boy old was telling me how hard it is to make good choices. He said "Patty, it is so hard!". We had quite a good conversation about his life. He has family members and friends that don't make good choices and that makes it real hard for him to know even what the right thing to do is.

A 9 year old girl was talking to me about the end of the world. She'd heard something strange and wanted to know if it was true. That led into a great conversation about Heaven, God and Satan.

Another older girl came to our door and wanted to talk. She had some choices to make and didn't know what to do. We talked about doing the right thing. Sometimes it's hard for these kids to do the right thing.

Some of the kids in the hood have parents that are either not around at all, living with a boy or girl friend or are in jail. That is sad to see. Pete and I had a good conversation this past week with a young guy in his teens about his home life. He has a hard home life but right now he seems to be doing well in spite of his home life. He hangs around the Center a lot.

All this to say, yes, we love to play but we see God working in kids lives too. It's a lot of work opening the Center pretty much every day, but the rewards are great!

Bible Club

On most Saturdays during the year the Center has Bible Club on Saturdays.. About 25-30 kids come and do different things. Below is some of the kids playing street hockey. In September the San Jose Sharks sponsor a street hockey tournament for inner city kids at the parking lot for the arena. So Robbie is getting them ready. Other kids play pool, air hockey, or foosball.

After breakfast they break up into small groups by age and study the Bible and talk about life.

Oh yeah, these are pictures taken by Patty and her new camera. The old one died so we bought a new Canon Power Shot. Paid the same for this 7mp camera as I did a few years back for our old 2mp camera! And this one is so much easier to use and a lot faster!

You might think that Patty and I would get worn out here in our new place. But we can wear them out too! That's Donald, one of the kids, crashed on our couch.

Trip to Oregon

Earlier this week Patty and I took a trip up to Oregon to see family and friends. It was nice to get away and relax but it rained while we were there. Go figure. But the rain was actually refreshing and I did get a little reading done. Below is Patty with her mom, sister and niece.







And her niece with one of their many pets.






I actually like kids.

This is about as little of snow as I have seen on Mount Shasta.

Sunday nite BBQ

On Sunday, August 12, we decided on fire up the BBQ and cook hotdogs and hamburgers for the neighborhood kids. We invited a few college students to come hang with us. So we opened the Center and had a great time hanging out. Below is group photo with our beloved mascot!



A few of us having dinner and the mascot Cosmo, waiting patiently for scraps to come his way.

The buffet line.

Boardwalk 2

Sorry. It's been a few weeks since I starred this. Been very busy last couple of weeks with just finishing a week of vacation. More on that later.
Here are a few more pictures. I was waiting for more pictures from someone else but they didn't turn out too good. So this is it.

Well we didn't get home til after 11 and I had to get up at 5 the next morning to go to work. I was exhauseted! Then I came down with a cold.

Trip to Boardwalk 1

On Thursday nite we took 18 older kids to the Santa Cruz Beach Boardwalk. Below are some of the pictures from the trip and I will add more later.



We broke up into groups and each group had to have a leader. It was nice to have more than 1 leader per group because not all of us wanted to go on the same rides, if you know what I mean ;).

Slip and Slide

Saturday Patty and I went out and bought a $10 Slip and Slide and put it out in the front yard. It's amazing how such a simple inexpensive thing can be so much fun! The kids had a blast!

The other day Patty took Maria and Jasmin, both 7 year olds, with her to Michaels. Maria moved into the neighborhood about 5 months ago. Jasmin has been living in the neighborhood for years and has been coming to the Center for a long time. The girls saw some crosses so Patty bought them each one. Back in the car Maria was pretending to stab someone with it because she saw that in the horror movie "Chucky". Jasmin on the other hand held the cross close to her chest and said something like... my Jesus. That opened the door to a conversation about horror movies, Satan, Jesus and the cross. Pray that Maria will come to KidTrek at the Center in the Fall. We are sure she will as she and Jasmine are the 2 girls that are over ALL THE TIME!!! (and her parents seem to like us and what we do...which is always good)