Christmas Week

It has been a wonderful Christmas! Having a few days off made it extra nice. For the Havens, we spent Christmas eve in Turlock with my family. It was too quick, but good to see my twin 5 year old nieces who I don't see very often.

We sucked it up for the first time in many years and went to the Christmas Morning Service at Hillside at 6 am. It was a nice way to turn the focus to the reason for the season. After a relaxing morning of cinnamon rolls and opening gifts, we went to a movie together.

On Friday Patty said it would be fun to go to the movies, so we put the word out and 16 of us went to see the movie "Bedtime Stories". Gary, Ruben Escobedo, Patty and myself took 12 kids from the neighborhood.

On Saturday, Patty went with me (she walked) as I ran a couple of miles. When we came back, one of the older girls was coming to what she thought was Bible Club. Being a holiday weekend, it was a day off for the leaders. This gal was really disappointed. We asked her if she wanted to go run errands with Patty and me. She said of course! (I wish I could get that excited about running errands!) When we went to pick her up, her older sister said she was going to go too! We asked her sister if that was OK and she said it was. We spent 3 hours running various errands and ended up with lunch. These chance (if you can call them that!) getting togethers are very special to Patty and me and not taken lightly. We know that these times are relationship building and we share with these kids normalcy, hope, and love.

We spent the evening enjoying the company of the college students at the annual Christmas Gathering Party. We enjoyed a wonderful potluck dinner, exchanged homemade gifts, and then we were all off to wonderful time on the ice at Vallco Mall again spending time and developing relationships.

As we were heading off to church this morning, we had 6 boys show up wanting to go with us. This is both exciting to us but also we realize that it will be a challenge to keep them from not disturbing others too much in the service. Being a holiday weekend and only 1 service and no Sunday School, we knew that all 6 would be with us. We sometimes wonder why they want to come and do they really get anything from this experience? I have to remind myself to just be obedient and do the work and let the Holy Spirit work in the hearts of these kids.

As we were waiting for lunch at In N Out, I had walked up to get catsup and napkins. A fellow came up to a couple of the guys that were with me and started to play a card game with them. (I believe it is called 3 Card Monte.) When I walked back, he asked who I was and they told him that I was their church leader. He immediately picked up his 3 cards and left! I found that whole thing very interesting.

Patty opened up the Center as she cleaned out our locker during the afternoon. After she finished, she took a number of kids on a bike ride. It was actually a nice day with no rain or wind.

It was a fun weekend and now we can go back to work. Wait. I go back to work and Patty gets to keep getting paid to do this!

Patty now here... since I do the editing, I am going to add one thing. As I was bike riding today I was a bit anxious to get back to the Center so I could do some clean up, put Christmas stuff away and such. I kept thinking to myself though that I need to not be in such a hurry to get back to clean. The stuff will get put away all in good time...it is more important to spend time with the kids. When I got back from the bike ride, I really was glad I took the time out to play with the kids.