Patty took a few kids to Happy Hollow yesterday. School is out so lots of different activities set up for the summer. I bought a Flip Video camera and she recorded some video. I took it and was able to do this little movie from the software that came with the camera.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Testimony
Below is a written testimony of someone who grew up in the Farm Drive neighborhood and just recently graduated from high school. She is going to spend her summer as a counselor at Camp MayMac. Thought it would be cool to post her testimony here:
My name is My (Mimi) Nguyen. When I was four years old, I lived in the Farm Drive neighborhood and my best friend started taking me to a Center called "Friends of Farm Drive". Every Saturday, Farm Drive would have a program called Bible Club, which is a place that allows kids to play and eat and learn about God. I am glad that I'm still able to attend Bible Club. When I was 10, through Farm Drive Center, I was able to go to a Christian camp called Camp MayMac where it gave my life to Jesus. I loved going to camp as a camper and for the last two summers , I've had the privilege of being a volunteer staff “Staff in Training”. I am graduating from Oak Grove High School in another week and plan to begin college in the fall. I am now 17 years old and I've been invited back to Camp MayMac to be a part of their summer staff. I'm writing this letter to you, asking if you could support me in becoming a summer staffer at Camp MayMac. Summer staff need to raise their own support, both prayer support and financial support. I will understand if you are not able to help me financially because everyone has their own things to take care of. I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to pray for me this summer. I sincerely thank you for just taking time to read my letter and anything that you could do is very much appreciated. I hope you have a wonderful day and may God bless you this summer.
Yours truly, My Nguyen
My name is My (Mimi) Nguyen. When I was four years old, I lived in the Farm Drive neighborhood and my best friend started taking me to a Center called "Friends of Farm Drive". Every Saturday, Farm Drive would have a program called Bible Club, which is a place that allows kids to play and eat and learn about God. I am glad that I'm still able to attend Bible Club. When I was 10, through Farm Drive Center, I was able to go to a Christian camp called Camp MayMac where it gave my life to Jesus. I loved going to camp as a camper and for the last two summers , I've had the privilege of being a volunteer staff “Staff in Training”. I am graduating from Oak Grove High School in another week and plan to begin college in the fall. I am now 17 years old and I've been invited back to Camp MayMac to be a part of their summer staff. I'm writing this letter to you, asking if you could support me in becoming a summer staffer at Camp MayMac. Summer staff need to raise their own support, both prayer support and financial support. I will understand if you are not able to help me financially because everyone has their own things to take care of. I would appreciate it if you would be so kind as to pray for me this summer. I sincerely thank you for just taking time to read my letter and anything that you could do is very much appreciated. I hope you have a wonderful day and may God bless you this summer.
Yours truly, My Nguyen
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Quilting
One of the things we did to raise money for our trip to Tanzania was to make quilts that we auctioned off at Hillside last Sunday. We had both a silent auction and a live auction. The quilts that Patty and I made ended up being auctioned off together and were purchased by a missionary family that is back from Poland on furlough. They plan to go back so our quilts will end up in Poland! Very cool. By the way the name of mine was Blood, Sweat, and Tears. If you look hard enough on it you will find all three!
Here's the Africa Team with 2 of our quilts.
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Here's the Africa Team with 2 of our quilts.
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Tanzania 2008
I kind of just realized that I have never mentioned that Patty and I along with 7 other people from the Gathering (college group) are going to Tanzania later this month. We are going to help Gil and Amy Medina with a summer camp for junior high and high school kids and also a day camp for younger kids. I will post more info later and probably be posting blogs about the trip also. I also put Gil and Amy's blog link over to the right here for you guys to go check out what is going on in their lives.
Also a link below.
http://www.gilandamy.blogspot.com/
If you would like email updates during the trip, you could email me at the following address and I will add your address and name to our contact list.
tanzania_2008@yahoo.com
Also a link below.
http://www.gilandamy.blogspot.com/
If you would like email updates during the trip, you could email me at the following address and I will add your address and name to our contact list.
tanzania_2008@yahoo.com
Never a Dull Moment
Last night (Friday), as we were settling in for the evening to watch a movie (a great classic called "Shoot Em Up") ;) some of the kids came running up to our apartment saying that a little Asian boy just got hit by a car and is bleeding pretty bad. Patty and I went out there and and a little maybe 4 year old Vietnamese boy had run out between 2 parked cars and was hit by a car driving by. He was not seriously hurt (bloody nose and bruises as far as we know) but his uncle and another man were keeping him still until the fire department and paramedics arrived. Patty recognized the driver of the car as one of the guys in our college group at church. He seemed calm to me but after talking to him I could tell he was pretty shook up.
After seeing the video on TV the previous night where a pedestrian was hit and the car did not stop, nor did anyone stop to help the pedestrian, nor did anyone call 911, it made me feel better about mankind when I saw that the driver stopped, 2 men were helping the boy, 911 was called almost instantly, and lots of other neighbors came out to see and help if necessary. I was very proud to be apart of this neighborhood.
I had the chance to pray with 3 boys for the kid, his family, and the driver of the car. (That was really cool) I talked and tried to comfort the driver. Patty talked with him also and she also talked to and comforted the mom. The boys and the mom have all been to the Center and are known in the neighborhood.
The driver said to me that he hopes that this accident can become a tool. A tool to be used to tell the kids about running out into the street and be careful and look both ways. I told him it would be but also they would learn about helping others in time of need. Hopefully they'd also learn that prayer is needed in these types of situations. Too often we hang around to see the blood of a victim but forget to seek intervention to help the victim.
UPDATE
The little boy (Alex) who was hit by the car showed up at Bible Club this morning with his brother and mom. He was OK except he had a fat lip and his face was scraped up. He was bouncing all over the place. I found out that he came to Bible Club for the first time last week. He came over for breakfast and was hanging around and the leaders invited him to come in. He came back today with his brother and his mom also came by. Mimi was able to talk to both the boys and the mom in Vietnamese which was cool even though they speak fairly good English. The mom said things like she was thankful for the people here (adults) that can help her with her boys. A problem she has is they both like to hit people, for no reason at all. They do not obey her and hopefully we can help teach them about obeying their mom and making good choices. God is using different people in different ways to reach out to this family. Hopefully this family will be more a part of the Center and we can introduce Jesus to them.
Cool.
After seeing the video on TV the previous night where a pedestrian was hit and the car did not stop, nor did anyone stop to help the pedestrian, nor did anyone call 911, it made me feel better about mankind when I saw that the driver stopped, 2 men were helping the boy, 911 was called almost instantly, and lots of other neighbors came out to see and help if necessary. I was very proud to be apart of this neighborhood.
I had the chance to pray with 3 boys for the kid, his family, and the driver of the car. (That was really cool) I talked and tried to comfort the driver. Patty talked with him also and she also talked to and comforted the mom. The boys and the mom have all been to the Center and are known in the neighborhood.
The driver said to me that he hopes that this accident can become a tool. A tool to be used to tell the kids about running out into the street and be careful and look both ways. I told him it would be but also they would learn about helping others in time of need. Hopefully they'd also learn that prayer is needed in these types of situations. Too often we hang around to see the blood of a victim but forget to seek intervention to help the victim.
UPDATE
The little boy (Alex) who was hit by the car showed up at Bible Club this morning with his brother and mom. He was OK except he had a fat lip and his face was scraped up. He was bouncing all over the place. I found out that he came to Bible Club for the first time last week. He came over for breakfast and was hanging around and the leaders invited him to come in. He came back today with his brother and his mom also came by. Mimi was able to talk to both the boys and the mom in Vietnamese which was cool even though they speak fairly good English. The mom said things like she was thankful for the people here (adults) that can help her with her boys. A problem she has is they both like to hit people, for no reason at all. They do not obey her and hopefully we can help teach them about obeying their mom and making good choices. God is using different people in different ways to reach out to this family. Hopefully this family will be more a part of the Center and we can introduce Jesus to them.
Cool.
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Stories
A friend and I were talking the other day about some things that had happened to the both of us. We both had heard and then we responded to what we all call "that little voice inside our heads". I told him my story. He told me his story. Then my friend said "you need to write these stories down". So what better place than here under "An Elder Moment"!
First his story:
Recently a homeless person came up to him when he was helping out at a place that feeds the homeless on Sundays and asked him for a dollar to take the bus back to where his camp was. My friend didn't have any money on him so he went back to his car to get his cash. He felt God tell him to give the homeless person the dollar but also give him more. So he handed him a dollar and the guy wanted his name so he could pay him back. He told him this was no loan but a gift. He gave him more money because he felt God told him to give more than the dollar to help this man out. The homeless guy immediately took the dollar he had asked for, put it away, and then he took the rest of the extra money to the pastor that is in charge of the program that does the feeding. This guy gets generosity.
Now my story. About a year ago I was traveling up near Sacramento on business. I stopped off at a gas station on the way and as I pulled into the station I noticed a guy with a sign that said "Need Gas". As I was filling up my truck with gas I heard that voice inside my head saying go give him some gas. So after I filled up my truck I went over and asked him where his vehicle was. (Of course I was thinking he was just wanting money because he probably didn't even have a vehicle there). He pointed to a car and I said pull it up to the pumps and I will fill his tank. (All along I was thinking he was just scamming me). As I was filling his tank I asked what was his story. He told me that he was in San Diego and things kind of turned bad there and he needed to get away. A friend said he could come up to Seattle and he would give a place to stay. So he took off and stopped here at this area when he ran out of money. (Of course in my head I guessed he was a local that came out here to the freeway for free gas). But I plowed ahead and said that this gas was a gift from God to help him on his way. I asked him for his name and said I will pray for his journey.
As I left on my journey I kept saying "Lord, I was obedient to you but I sure feel like I was taken". That voice kept saying "Your 1 of 20." I felt very sure that I was one of twenty people that God was going to bring into this guys life to help out like I did in some form. I will probably never see this guy again, but I was obedient to help. Some day that 20th person will step in and that guy will realize that God is speaking to him. I was obedient to be one of the 20.
I got another story I need to share. I just heard this one today on a podcast. The speaker was stopping at a gas station (must be a special place for God to work!) in the middle of the night. (I don't remember why he was there in the middle of the night.) But he noticed an older guy filling his car up at the same time. He heard that voice in his head say to go over to him and tell him that tomorrow everything will be OK. Of course he thought this was crazy but he eventually went over to the guy and said to the guy "I know this is going to sound weird and I normally don't do this, but I follow the ways of Jesus and he told me to come over to you and tell you that tomorrow everything will be OK." The guy just stood there. The speaker thought the guy didn't hear him so he repeated the same line. The guy started tearing up in his eyes, he reached over and tapped on the window and asked his wife to come over to them. She did and he asked the speaker to repeat to her what he told him. So he repeated everything again. The lady broke down in tears. The man said that he was going to have surgery tomorrow on both his knees to remove blood clots. If they don't remove them properly he doesn't have very long to live. They couldn't sleep and since surgery was only 6 hours away, they decided to stay up all night driving around possibly spending their last night together. The wife went back into the car and the man said I don't know who you are and this is pretty crazy but I know you have given me and my wife an unbelievable amount of peace right now. Through tears he said thank you. The speaker left never knowing what happened after that.
I do know that God passionately loves us and uses us to share that with others. We need to be ready to hear that voice and respond obediently.
I hope these stories encourage you as they encourage me. God is alive and working through His people to reach others.
First his story:
Recently a homeless person came up to him when he was helping out at a place that feeds the homeless on Sundays and asked him for a dollar to take the bus back to where his camp was. My friend didn't have any money on him so he went back to his car to get his cash. He felt God tell him to give the homeless person the dollar but also give him more. So he handed him a dollar and the guy wanted his name so he could pay him back. He told him this was no loan but a gift. He gave him more money because he felt God told him to give more than the dollar to help this man out. The homeless guy immediately took the dollar he had asked for, put it away, and then he took the rest of the extra money to the pastor that is in charge of the program that does the feeding. This guy gets generosity.
Now my story. About a year ago I was traveling up near Sacramento on business. I stopped off at a gas station on the way and as I pulled into the station I noticed a guy with a sign that said "Need Gas". As I was filling up my truck with gas I heard that voice inside my head saying go give him some gas. So after I filled up my truck I went over and asked him where his vehicle was. (Of course I was thinking he was just wanting money because he probably didn't even have a vehicle there). He pointed to a car and I said pull it up to the pumps and I will fill his tank. (All along I was thinking he was just scamming me). As I was filling his tank I asked what was his story. He told me that he was in San Diego and things kind of turned bad there and he needed to get away. A friend said he could come up to Seattle and he would give a place to stay. So he took off and stopped here at this area when he ran out of money. (Of course in my head I guessed he was a local that came out here to the freeway for free gas). But I plowed ahead and said that this gas was a gift from God to help him on his way. I asked him for his name and said I will pray for his journey.
As I left on my journey I kept saying "Lord, I was obedient to you but I sure feel like I was taken". That voice kept saying "Your 1 of 20." I felt very sure that I was one of twenty people that God was going to bring into this guys life to help out like I did in some form. I will probably never see this guy again, but I was obedient to help. Some day that 20th person will step in and that guy will realize that God is speaking to him. I was obedient to be one of the 20.
I got another story I need to share. I just heard this one today on a podcast. The speaker was stopping at a gas station (must be a special place for God to work!) in the middle of the night. (I don't remember why he was there in the middle of the night.) But he noticed an older guy filling his car up at the same time. He heard that voice in his head say to go over to him and tell him that tomorrow everything will be OK. Of course he thought this was crazy but he eventually went over to the guy and said to the guy "I know this is going to sound weird and I normally don't do this, but I follow the ways of Jesus and he told me to come over to you and tell you that tomorrow everything will be OK." The guy just stood there. The speaker thought the guy didn't hear him so he repeated the same line. The guy started tearing up in his eyes, he reached over and tapped on the window and asked his wife to come over to them. She did and he asked the speaker to repeat to her what he told him. So he repeated everything again. The lady broke down in tears. The man said that he was going to have surgery tomorrow on both his knees to remove blood clots. If they don't remove them properly he doesn't have very long to live. They couldn't sleep and since surgery was only 6 hours away, they decided to stay up all night driving around possibly spending their last night together. The wife went back into the car and the man said I don't know who you are and this is pretty crazy but I know you have given me and my wife an unbelievable amount of peace right now. Through tears he said thank you. The speaker left never knowing what happened after that.
I do know that God passionately loves us and uses us to share that with others. We need to be ready to hear that voice and respond obediently.
I hope these stories encourage you as they encourage me. God is alive and working through His people to reach others.
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
Silly Man Dancing with his Daughter
Last weekend Pete and I went to 2 very fun weddings. At Matt and Danielle's I happened to think ahead and actually videotape Pete and Jessica swing dancing using my litle camera. They are quite good dancers. Pete can be quite silly. Guess that's why I love him so much. Enjoy the fun video.
Video - Pastors on Bull (Mechanical)
On the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend our church (Hillside) had a BBQ. A couple of times a year we have a church service with Iglesia Libre, the spanish congregation, and then we all have a BBQ together after church. We have great food, inflatables (bounce houses) and the famous mechanical bull.
Enjoy the video of the Pastors riding the mechanical bull.
Are We Making a Difference?
Friends often ask me if we have noticed a difference in the neighborhood since we have moved here. I usually ask them to talk to people who have been here much longer than me such as Patty or workers from Bible Club or other workers from Kid Trek or ask Betty. I am kind of emersed here so I don't really notice it as much as those that have a longer history than me.
Something happened this weekend that may give more insight into that question, especially the overall impact Farm Drive Neighborhood Center has. During Saturday Bible Club a high school girl came by with 2 of her friends. She lives around the corner from us and we knew that she was making some poor choices lately. She confided to one of the leaders that she and her friends knew they were making bad choices and they wanted to stop and make a change in their lives. We need to pray for these girls. They need to get away from some of their friends that are not a good influence. This is a big decision and a huge challenge for them. Satan of course wants them right where they are now.
Later as I was thinking about all of this, I realized the girls knew where to go to get help. They knew where they could get support to make a change. They knew where they could open up and confide in someone that would love them unconditionally. If the Center was not here, then where would they go? We are here to develop those relationships so that when there is a time and a need, we are here to help. This gives me hope. This encourages me. This is what it is all about.
Something happened this weekend that may give more insight into that question, especially the overall impact Farm Drive Neighborhood Center has. During Saturday Bible Club a high school girl came by with 2 of her friends. She lives around the corner from us and we knew that she was making some poor choices lately. She confided to one of the leaders that she and her friends knew they were making bad choices and they wanted to stop and make a change in their lives. We need to pray for these girls. They need to get away from some of their friends that are not a good influence. This is a big decision and a huge challenge for them. Satan of course wants them right where they are now.
Later as I was thinking about all of this, I realized the girls knew where to go to get help. They knew where they could get support to make a change. They knew where they could open up and confide in someone that would love them unconditionally. If the Center was not here, then where would they go? We are here to develop those relationships so that when there is a time and a need, we are here to help. This gives me hope. This encourages me. This is what it is all about.
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