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
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