A RECENT UPDATE

		This is a recent update to the Farm Drive Prayer Team. It gives you a very good update of the goings on around the Center:

Prayer Team, I apologize for not giving a Hume Lake report sooner. I have been really busy. Below are 2 emails I sent Gary and 1 that Pete sent to Gary and I. I know this is long but it is oh so important, esp. for those of you that know the kids that went to Hume Lake . It gives you a glimpse into what went on the day the kids got back from Hume Lake (last Saturday). Take your time and see how prayer works!

What a whirlwind. Just got back from taking 2 trips of kids home along with all their stuff. So, Jose suggested we go out and talk. What we are going to do is meet back here at 5 (Dawn, Pete and I and kids) take them out to eat (sit down…they are tired of fast type food and they want to talk) and then we are going to your house to swim. They were all surprised that you weren’t here. Sergio said he wanted to touch your bald head. Jose was disappointed too. Kinda cute. You are loved.

Tons of kids coming up and giving them hugs and it went the other way around too. Our guys were going over to cars of kids and giving them hugs, fist bumps, etc. Laney, Greg Begum, Elise, Josh, Bryan and Greg K. all said our kids are amazing. Very fun to be around. Josh did tell me he had the guys (am guessing Alan and Kevin) clean up trash because they weren’t listening in chapel. Marlene commented that they are not now “the Farm Drive kids” but they are Hillside kids. There were 2 kids that don’t even go to Hume but they knew someone at Valley so they signed up. They said (Laura and the guy...he had a nick name) that they are now going to go to Hillside . They made big-time friends with our kids. Lots of people were saying “are you going tomorrow? Brent is speaking and Mark (Stickler) is speaking in high school. All our guys said yes, they will be there.

Alan said he and Kevin were the only hispanics. Javier said pretty much the same thing. But they all said they had a blast, that there was so much to do, the speaker was so so but they loved the band. They bought CD’s.

Greg Kompelien said they did great and he loved being their cabin leader. Sounds like they really bonded with him. Greg Belgum loves those guys too. They are all chums now.

They were hugging kids like the Scianna boys, Martinez kids, etc. Rocky said they are all amazing. I told Marlene “now you see why I live where I live?” She said no, you have to let go and let them come over to our place. Great idea!!!!

I will give you another report tonite when I get home. We will try to keep the cost down but I want to do a sit-down because then I know they will talk. If we just did fast food, we wouldn’t have enough time for them to really open up.

Patty

Gary, ok…so we went to Applebees. Good time. Heard lots of stories. Then we went to your place and swam. Jose Robert and Javier stayed inside and talked with Pete and I a long time about the trip. Was good. Then we all jumped in. Nice and warm. Just got back. Alan said at dinner that he accepted Jesus into his heart. Cool. He also talked a lot about jr high things boys do. He and Kevin had fun being jr. high boys. We will follow up on Alan for sure. Need to have a one on one talk.

We asked them what they learned. At first, most were mainly silly things (at least from Alan and Kevin) but Jose said that God loves me. Javier said something about God is even with you in the bad situations. Later on at your place they got deeper. Made us think that when a bad situation happens, Javier knows God will somehow work it out. Had a little talk about that. Was good. Had a long talk about Catholics, Christians, baptism, difference between the 2, forgiving of sins, very good stuff real laid back at your place while sitting in the living room.

Someone made the comment that “we need to tell all these stories again for Gary ”. Sweet.

They kept singing (or trying to) parts of songs they heard. Christian worship songs, esp. in the pool. They baptized each other in your pool…a lot of dunking! Justine Morrow I guess was baptized in the lake at the end of the week. They liked that. They were asking about getting baptized again.

You can really tell they were away at camp. Doesn’t sound like any of them missed their phones or ipods. Robert said it was hard to use the touch pad at first. They talked about Ruben and how they need to get him out of the house. They all agree that it was a great time.

TTFN, Patty

This one is from Pete sent Monday morning all about Sunday sent to Gary and I

Busy day and I thought I would give you 2 an update on the day. Of course most of the Hume kids went to church except Kevin and Robert. I guess I was a little surprised at Javier and Anahi, actually making it to Hillside . I had to make 2 trips to get them there. (Patty one trip). Total of 14 kids!

Jose and Anahi sat in church with other highs school kids. Jose actually was "grabbed" by his new friend and taken over to their section. We did not take them to lunch - too many. Greg Belgum came by at 1:30 and he picked up Javier, Jose, Sergio, Alan and Javier's sister. He had to watch her and the only way Javier could go was if I brought her back at 4:15. Greg invited me earlier at church and I planned to go anyway. We went swimming. James Martinez showed up also. I came back at 4:15 since I was going to go to the homeless ministry anyway. They boys said that since Patty was gone if we could do a movie night and I said sure come over at 7:30.

Robbie's church was feeding the homeless so I invited him afterwards to come join the movie night. He and Jeremiah came over. When I got back from the homeless ministry the boys were downstairs in apt. 2 with James Martinez and Anahi. I found out that James came over to practice / go over some worship music with Anahi and the boys joined in. According to James he worked with Anahi who wrote a song but needed music. So James helped out. They then just played and practiced worship music together for a couple of hours!

The boys chose 2 movies they were interested in. Both were R and with Alan there I said we needed a PG13 so we watched the Prestige. Near the end of the movie - Robert showed up. Then a little later Robert Escobedo and Brandon Gross showed up. At 10:30 pm these guys were hanging out in our apartment just being guys: Jose, Sergio, Alan, Javier, Robert, Robert E., Brandon, Robbie, James, Jeremiah, Greg Belgum! (and me). Robbie pulled me aside and said it was so cool to see all these guys mixing it up!

Pete

Prayer Team, last night Dawn and Ruben Escobedo , Amanda Schader , Pete and I and I took a bunch of kids to the drive ins, a first for pretty much all of them and we invited the Gathering guys small group. A bunch of them came and we had a blast! Probably 30 of us total. Relationships. Time. Relationships. Time. Relationships. Time.

As you can see from the emails Hume Lake was life changing time for the kids. They are still talking about camp, the friends they met, the high school group on Sunday and love they felt, the staff, the music, on and on and on. People like Ruben, Dawn, Amanda, Robbie, James, Greg, Ian (don’t even all go to Hillside but are involved here at The Center) really have built relationships with the kids and that is what makes the difference…that and all your prayers! God is so so good and we are really seeing a difference in the way these kids live.

Keep praying for Sergio, Jose, Javier and Robert that we will get one on one time with them to see where each is spiritually….and of course that they will make a decision (if they haven’t already) for Christ. Anahi is a believer. Pray for Junior Highers Alan and Kevin. Alan turned his life over to Jesus and we will talk with him.

Thank you for reading this long letter and please keep praying for all we do here at Farm Drive ! We are busy. Sometimes I get a bit tired and weary and then stuff like this happens and it reenergizes me for sure!

Patty, Pete and Gary for the whole Farm Drive Team

July Update from Gary

Hey Everyone:

Wow………….God is so good!!! There are so many good things happening at Farm Drive. The activity is enough to keep anyone young!!! We are in the middle of summer and are having a great time with the kids. Lots of good stuff!! I want to give you a little glimpse into some “God sightings,” and some praises and prayer requests here.

· Most of you know that a few of our kids expressed an interest in going to Hume Lake. That few has blossomed into TEN kids-----five high schoolers and five junior highers. Four of the junior high kids are on the waiting list, so pray that it will be possible to get them in. I sent out an email asking for prayer for our kids and Hume Lake, and I must say, I was elated that so many of you have committed financially to making it possible for them to go. Many of you have come up to me and said, “This could be life-changing for these kids.” Thank you so much for your generosity!!! We had the kids working at the Center today to earn their deposit money. They did an awesome job!!!

· We have kids regularly going to our Hillside youth groups on Wednesday nights. This is an answer to prayer and it is so awesome to see them so eager to go!!! Tonight, as we were dropping them off, one of the kids (Jose) took a phone call from someone, and I overheard part of it. He said, “…..I’m at my church……” Wow!!! My heart soared!!!

· And speaking of Jose…………….. he and Sergio just got back from a Sports Camp put on by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. When I picked them up, Jose asked if he could talk to me about “something personal.” Of course, I said yes, and after some prompting, he said he needed to talk to me about Jesus. On Monday morning, I met with Jose. He told me about the camp, and about the times of testimony and worship that they had. It was obvious that he was touched by what he had heard, but he said he was “confused.” He did, however, have a really good grasp on what they were talking about, and about sin, and about who Jesus Christ is, and about his need for a relationship with Jesus. I told Jose that a lot of people have been praying for him for a long, long time. After we talked, he was not ready to make a commitment just then, but we prayed that God would make Himself real to him. Please pray for Jose and for the different leaders here who minister with him.

· Two of our kids, Elian Rivera (3^rd grade) and Eric Torres (5^th grade) both prayed to receive Christ during Bible Club!! Sweet!! There are so many people who had a part in these boys’ lives, and each one has been able to let them see a piece of Jesus through them!!! I guess Paul was right when he said that some planted, some watered and some harvested. A perfect example!!

· CRAM is going strong. This is our mentoring program for high school kids. We are probably adding five new 9^th graders to the program this fall. We were able to award our second laptop in June, when Dariela Salazar graduated from Gunderson High School. Very cool!!! There is one of our fringe kids, Elizabeth, who has all but dropped out of high school. School attendance isn’t important to mom, and so it isn’t important to Elizabeth. Enter her CRAM mentor, Paty Sayre. I saw Elizabeth a few weeks ago and she said that she was going out with Paty in the new few days. I asked how that was going. Elizabeth said, “She gives me homework.” “Homework??” I asked. “Yeah. She gave me math to do and last week she had me write an essay.” “Did you do it??” “Oh, yeah. I want to do it!!” And this is from a kid who doesn’t like school!!!! All it takes is someone who is committed to helping these kids a bit. Our end of the year reward for making grades was a trip to Six Flags up in Vallejo. The high school kids and the big kids who got to drive them had an awesome time.

· We attended four graduations in two days, handing out 20 balloons to our proud kids!!! It is so neat to be a part of these special events in the kids’ lives.

· Our Bike Ministry is still going strong. We have several committed guys----Brian Zylka, Jeff Moore, Dieter Haas and Dave Belgum, who try to get here every week to keep these kids rolling through the neighborhood. One of our ABF’s, Salt and Light, came down on a Saturday, worked on bikes, hung out with the kids and cooked them a hot dog lunch!! Very cool…………..

· We were able to get free tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the De Anza Planetarium this summer. Both of these trips were very educational. We had 22 kids and five leaders go to the Aquarium, and ten kids and two leaders go to the Planetarium. I still can’t see those constellations that they show………the Hunter, Orion, etc. Whatever…………I just have to believe!!! We went to see fireworks the other night and one of the kids lay down on the ground and looked up and said, “I see Orion.” Whatever………….. But I do believe!!!

· We had seven kids go to our “Reward Breakfast.” These are the kids who went to every Homework Day, from January to the end of May. This is the first year we have done this, and I already know that we will have a bunch more than seven next time. Hometown Buffet can be tempting, huh???

· Most of you know that my sister-in-law, Dona, passed away in June. She had been on our Farm Drive Prayer List for many months, and the kids would regularly ask how she was doing. The kids here showed real compassion when Dona passed away. I got hugs and many sincere “I’m sorrys” from our kids. They are sooooo cool. Dona’s death really opened the door for us to talk to the kids. Most kids don’t understand deep subjects like this. Some of them have already experienced this type of loss first-hand. We were able to talk to kids like Marcus Barajas, who lost his mom to cancer just two years ago, about such things as why some people die from cancer, and some don’t. God does open doors……..

· This weekend, we are taking two groups up to Camp MayMac to support Iglesia during their Family Camp. Our kids will be working with the younger kids from Iglesia so that the parents can be involved in the camp program. It is so neat to see them serving. This is why kids like Jose say, “I’m at MY church.” Isn’t that awesome????

Thank you for your continued support of Farm Drive. Your prayer for the kids and their families is vital to the ministry here. God is so good, and we keep seeing it over and over!!! May God bless you much!!!

Gary