Merry Christmas

A letter from Gary, the director of Farm Drive Ministries:

Hello Everyone:

Christmas is definitely upon us. It seems that it sneaks up every year, and every year it seems to come a bit sooner. Am I the only one who thinks this??? I pray that you and your family will have a joyous Christmas, remembering the true meaning of the season.

Farm Drive is still a whirlwind of activity. It often seems like it is non-stop, but that is what keeps us young, right? We just finished with the LARGEST Christmas store ever. We open up the “store” so that the kids can come and shop for their families for gifts for Christmas. We put out the need for gifts, and you responded. Thank you all so much for your generosity!!! We had so many things that I could not unload my car for about two days because we had nowhere to store things while we were waiting “Store Day.” The kids were elated because they got to shop through some pretty good items, and we kept seeing the same thing over and over----the kids couldn’t make a decision between two or three gifts!!! That sounds a lot like me!! We had many people come to help the kids shop and wrap their treasures. We couldn’t have done this without our host of volunteers. And yes……it WAS like an army of people!! At the end of the day, we opened up the store to neighborhood parents so that they could come through and pick gifts for their families. We did not have much to put away at the end of the day. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Yesterday was the first day of Christmas vacation for the kids, and we started off with a waffle breakfast for the kids. We probably had about 50 kids to feed, but we had two toasters to use----until one of them “gave up the ghost” during the first toasting cycle. Oh well, we made it, and none of the kids starved to death. Yesterday afternoon, we took a group to Santa Cruz (yes, it was raining). We went to the lighthouse and then over to the wharf. Believe it or not, most of us (including me) had never been to the lighthouse!! Thankfully, Patty was our tour guide. The kids had a great time watching the waves and looking at the sea lions.

Christmas is a time of giving and again, we have seen our friends respond. Many people are deciding to try to help out less fortunate families by spending their holiday shopping money to provide gifts and food for them. We have had several people call and ask if we knew a family that they could bless by providing Christmas for them. What a joy to be able to see people, some of whom have not had a connection to Farm Drive, eagerly “adopt” these families to help them out. Some of these Farm Drive families would not have any Christmas gifts at all, if it were not for these loving families. At last count, we have had eight families adopted out!!! (We still have a few on our list if you know of someone who is looking to bless a family…...). One of the people who delivered gifts into the neighborhood this week remarked that it is difficult for him to see people who have these life circumstances, but he was personally blessed to be part of it. I know that the blessing that he received was at least equal to the blessing that the family received. Isn’t God good???? Who else would have thought of a “double blessing”???

I do need to tell you about May Coon. May is a little bit older than I am, and is one of our strong prayer supporters. She always has a keen knowledge of what is happening at Farm Drive. A few weeks ago, she sent out a flyer to her neighbors asking them to donate items for the kids at Farm Drive. She received about six to eight boxes of some pretty good stuff that the kids were excited to get! One of our volunteers said that she wanted to be like May when she got to be May’s age. I asked her if she knew how to make chocolate chip cookies because May still blesses the kids with home-baked cookies from time-to-time!!! I get all excited when May talks about the kids from Farm Drive.

As you know, Patty spent two weeks in Africa in late November/early December. The kids missed her a whole bunch (I think Pete and Cosmo and I did, too), and they are eagerly awaiting the slide show of her trip. Patty has given them African bracelets, pictures of wild animals, etc. Thanks for praying for her, and for us, too, in her absence.

We do have a few prayer requests to voice. Would you mention them to God when you are talking to Him?? We know that He cares about the Farm Drive families and their needs………

· Pray for the Torres family. They are struggling financially right now. The father, Hector, works in construction and has not been able to work much because of the economy. He is currently going through the process to get permanent residency here in the United States. He has a court hearing coming up in 2011. A few weeks ago, they got a notice from PG&E that their power was going to be turned off, and we were able to step in and help them out with it. In the midst of all this, it was a joy to hear Maria (mom) say that they wanted to come to services at Hillside, and then she and son, Eric, showed up for the Christmas program. It was awesome to see them there!!! Pray for the kids: Hector, Ruben and Eric. Ruben is especially struggling right now and could use an extra dose of prayer. He is making some poor decisions which could be life-changing for him. Pray for God’s protection and love to be evident in his life.

· Pray for Elizabeth and Yesenia. They are sisters and the family dynamics aren’t all that great. Elizabeth switched to a regular school at the beginning of the school year, but was overwhelmed and subsequently switched back. We just heard that she is not currently attending. Pray that she will make wise choices about her education.

· Pray for Leonel Barajas and kids: Maria, Lesley, Erick, Marcus and Anthony. Their mom died in June and this will be the first Christmas without her. Their grandmother had been living with them to take care of the kids, but has gone back to Mexico. Outwardly, they seem to be doing pretty well. Pray for Leonel and the kids as they continue to adjust to the time without their mom.

· Pray for our Farm Drive finances. We continue to run behind our budget projections, but God has been providing for us along the way. If you are interested in making 2009 year-end giving, any gifts need to be postmarked by December 31^st, or be turned in to the Church Office by 1:00 PM on December 31^st.

In his sermon on Sunday, Pastor Joe encouraged us to enjoy the Christmas spirit, but not to be satisfied with it. We can look for significance this Christmas by sharing the joy of the season with others. Thank you for continuing to support Farm Drive, both financially and prayerfully. May God bless you and yours a whole bunch this Christmas.

Kenya Trip

One of the first things we did in Kenya is we got to go to a giraffe park. We got to feed them which was pretty fun! This guy had a huge long tongue though which was a bit creepy.

The first week we did a VBS Day Camp at RVA (Rift Valley Academy). This is a picture of the kids all singing. Every day we sang, did crafts, heard Bible stories, and had a snack. Camp was a lot of fun for the kids.

This is my awesome small group. I fell in love with these kids.

The 2nd week we took a 2 day drive to Kurungu which is where missionaries Rick and Carrie Maples live. You'll see the warriors in another blog. While there, some of us got to spend the night in a hut with a family. We also taught the men how to play baseball with gear from the San Francisco Giants. Another cool thing is one night we divided up into 3 groups and went to 3 different camps where we listened to the people sing, tell a Bible story and pray. What an amazing night for us to be a part of.

We then had 1 more day of driving to do. We were on our way to a game park when our overland rover got stuck in the mud. 11 hours later...yes 11, we got out. What a day that was! Then we drove all night dirty and hungry to the lodge/game park.

At the lodge, we all got to take a shower and eat a buffet breakfast. This elephant was across the water from our room. Too bad we didn't get to spend the night but that's ok. It all ended well.

We took a short tour of the game park before we had to leave. This giraffe was beautiful.

This picture is out of order but it is of a bunch of us girls one afternoon. Very hot that day and we had lunch in a dry hot area with lots of flies.

Beautiful Kenya!

Samburu Warriors Song and Dance #1

Patty went to Kenya to help with a conference for Missionary's in Nairobi. The team did a side trip to the bush of Kenya. This is a video of the warriors doing a song and dance. For more info go to their blog at

http://www.thekenyateam.blogspot.com/

Beautiful Day 2009

On Saturday, November 21st, all around San Jose a number of events went on called Beautiful Day. From the start of Beautiful Day we have always believed that our calling and purpose is to empower people to service and bless the very community that they live in through service, compassion, justice, and blessing.

http://www.ourbeautifulday.org/index.html

Here at Farm Drive, the city of San Jose provided 6 dumpsters with the goal of cleaning up the neighborhood but more in particular to allow the community to get rid of mattresses, furniture, couches, electronics, etc., items which are very hard to dispose of. Below is Patty and some of the kids helping with the cleanup. Gary also brought some friends from the Kiwanis club.

some of the 6 dumpsters that were provided:

Below you can see that we had lots of helps from the kids in the neighborhood. They in particular like to try and ride in the back of my truck!


Here is one of the dumpsters filled.

An area all cleaned up.
Afterwards, we had a barbecue for the entire neighborhood. We had hotdogs and hamburgers, chips and sodas. It was truly a beautiful day!

Followup to previous post

We ended up driving 4 neighbor girls to Hera’s funeral. It started late so we got to talk while waiting outside the church. The funeral itself was all in Spanish so it was hard to understand. It was sad and the whole thing felt so senseless. 20 year old young men should not be dying of shootings. Our girls were crying off and on. They knew Hera way better than I. There were a lot of people from the neighborhood there, even some older kids that have not been around at the Center for several years so it was great to see them and give them a hug. It was good to see and talk to Hera’s brothers and even his dad as well. I am sure as time passes the girls will open up more about their feelings. Today it was just a day to cry.

Tonite I was out in the neighborhood hanging with kids and got to talk more about what happened. It is all the buzz in the hood. We talked about how sad it was, how Hera’s family has lost so much, about gangs, choices, and more. One girl Ellie said she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep tonite.

So it was a hard day but in the end, a cool thing happened. All the Barajas kids walked down to our apt. and they invited Pete and I to their house to have cake and celebrate Maria’s birthday. It was mainly the family and a couple friends. We had a wonderful and fun time. Enclosed is a picture of Maria and her dad and as you can see Maria was all smiles. That was so good to see. Her mom Elizabeth died June 28^th, not even 5 months ago. So, God turned our sad day into a very happy day.

Thank you for your prayers. God is so good! Patty

Part of What We Do:

Here is a prayer request Patty sent out today - an example of how important it is to just being here:

This morning at 10am Gary and I are going to a funeral for a young man that used to live in the neighborhood. His family (7 kids) moved away around 2 years ago. 3 of the 6 kids (Jose, Junior and Victor) were involved at the Center. The funeral is for the oldest 20 year old son Hera who was shot and killed outside his house last Tuesday. Could be gang related, we don’t know. Hera had been in a lot of trouble in the past. He had just come from the Farm Drive neighborhood where he visited so a bunch of neighbor kids had just seen him so his death came as a shock.

Yesterday afternoon Pete and I drove 5 of our older neighborhood girls to Hera’s house where they had the rosary and Hera’s body. A very sad and hopeless sight. Lots of people there, all in black, crying and praying the rosary. The girls all got to see and touch Hera’s body. We got to see Hera’s 3 brothers that used to be involved at the Center and that was nice. The sad news is that Jose who was the oldest of those 3 has changed a lot and seems headed down a dangerous path, just like his older brother. A lot of anger there.

Pray today for Gary and I as we go to the funeral. We want to support the family and we want to be available to the kids that go to the funeral that live in the neighborhood now like those 5 girls that we took to Hera’s yesterday. Maybe we will have time to take them to lunch after. We know it is important to the kids to show them we care for Hera and his family. This has shaken up some of the older kids and it has opened up some great opportunities to talk about choices, gangs etc.

Thanks. Patty

Halloween week at Farm Drive

On Halloween morning at Bible Club the Junior High girls and Rosa and I decorated cupkakes and then we gave them to the older girls and all the leaders. We had a great time. This is Briseida, Jessica, Rosa and Angie.


This is Zareli who came over Halloween day in the afternoon to show us her vampire costume. She lives right across the driveway from us.


Halloween night we had a party and opened the Center. We bbq'd hamburgers and hotdogs and then played and later we made s'mores out on the patio on the fire pit. A fun night. Kids came in and out all night and we got to see lots of fun costumes. This is the view from our apt. balcony.


Making s'mores and enjoying the fire with neighbors

The week of Halloween we took the younger kids to a pumpkin patch. They played on bounce houses and got a pumpkin to take home. This slide was a favorite! Samantha and Alexis sure seemed to think so.

A bunch of kids showing their pumpkins.

Rich and Samantha, Briseida nd Eveline

One other night we took the older kids to a corn maze. The corn was so high! We all had a blast getting lost in the maze. Here we are getting our wristbands.

A typical scene in the maze. Which way to go? The sunset was beautiful that night.

The kids got to feed this cow. What a great week of being with the kids. And that's what it is all about.

Kids Club at Canoas Elementary

For the past 4 years I have been a part of Kids Club at the local elementary school where most of the kids in the Farm Drive neighborhood attend. Every Tuesday from 12:15 till 2:15 we play games, have a snack, hear a Bible Story and get to know our small group.

I love 5th grade girls so I have them again this year. I have 7 girls and that is a handful but we have a lot of fun and I am already getting to know them. They are an awesome group of girls.

My prayer is that they would learn more about who God is and they would take what they learn on to middle school next year and it would make a difference in their lives.

Giselle, Itzayana, Gaby, Jacky, Jazmen, Zobeida and Tiffany.

Disneyland with family

Pete, Jessica and I went to Disneyland last week for my brother-in-laws 50th birthday. My sister Mel, her hubby Mike (birthday boy) and their 2 girls and their kids all went. We had a great time. This is Pete and I right outside Disney California.




Princess Pete...so very pretty!



Jessica and her cousin Cherlyn's little boy Bobby.

Think this was on the Matterhorn

Patty's Trip to Scio, Oregon

My sister Mel and I met up in Scio, Oregon where my mom and dad live, for 5 days of relaxing and seeing our family. This is a picture of us 3 girls (my sister Becky lives in Corvallis which is close by) with our 94 year old grandma. We love visiting her every time we visit.

Mom and grandma.



My dad mowing the lawn. They have a huge lawn so he uses a riding mower. That is a great place to just sit and talk and relax. They have a porch swing out there and one morning we all sat out there for almost 3 hours and just talked. That was a treat!


This is my mom and dad's garden. Even at 75 they still have a huge garden and like to can things like tomatoes, pears, apples, etc.

Dad on his mower listening to his ipod.

Us 3 girls on that swing I was talking about.

Mom and dad.

All of us with the dogs of course.

Small Groups Fall 09

In order to have a successful Homework Club, we feel small groups are the best way to go. The kids get help with their homework from their leader and the leaders build relationships with their kids as well. We don't have more than 5 kids in a group. Each group has a name that they give themselves. They do their homework together, they go to our "store" together, and have snack together. Every group has the same age kids in it and same sex too (at least for the older kids).
Our older guys group call themselves "The Jackson 5"



Our older girls call themselves. . . The Purple and Green Butterflies

Las Mariachis for the younger girls


Here's The Great Green Party Sharks (anything having to do with Sharks)

My younger girls group is called "Cosmo's Chicas" (after Cosmo our dog)

We have11 small groups for the elementary age kids. That's the most we've every had. My group on Monday's and Wednesday's meets upstairs in my apt. The kids love coming here and we love having them!

Pete and Patty's 28th Anniversary

For our 28th anniversary Pete and I went to Napa. We treated ourselves and stayed at a B and B. That was nice. We spent the weekend wine tasting and drove all over Napa Valley taking beautiful pictures. What a fun weekend.

One of the wineries we went to is a castle built by some guy that had a lot of money to spend. He went all over Europe getting ideas and put all those ideas into this castle. It was a beautiful place and I felt like I was in France. Think it was called Castile de Amorosa.

A New Start for Homework Club

Here are some pictures from the first day of our Kinders Class and Homework Club older kids). Below is Rich and Eunise with their Kinder Class.



Ruben and some of the kids.

Gary and more of the kids.

Of course, it would not be complete without the unofficial mascot, Cosmo!

A very good picture of Eunise and some of her fans.

Look at all those excited faces!

Gary making announcements
Lucy, Kay, and Natalie with their group.

Ruben with Javier in their group.

Our largest group ever this fall. It's exciting to see all the kids and all the people who help them with their homework.