Tanzania and E-Waste

I am tired this morning. My body aches, my legs are tired, my back is sore, and I have a headache.

Why?

Last night Patty, 12 kids from the hood (ranging from 1st grade through 7 grade) and myself went and distributed a bunch of flyers for an E-Waste collection this coming Saturday. (more on that later) We walked about 4 different neighborhoods over a 2 hour period all around where we live. Must have distributed about 400 flyers. That was a lot of walking. Most of that time I had at least one kid hanging on me especially at the end as they were tired of walking! But I was real proud of them. I know of a lot of kids that would be excessively whining about the walking and maybe even sit down and give up. Maybe even expect me to carry them. But we all had a blast hanging out and taking Cosmo with us. Hopefully it will pay off with a few more people bringing their electronic waste this Saturday to Hillside Church.

So now to the details.

About 1o of us from the college group at Hillside are going to Tanzania next June to do a week long camp for Junior High and High School age students from Dar es Salaam. This trip will be expensive and we need to raise funds. So this Saturday the 13th of October we will have a bin available for people to bring their electronic junk to get recycled. We get a percentage based on the weight of what is brought in. We are also having a car wash at the same time...hot dogs too.

Patty and I have struggled about going on this trip. That's a lot of money to travel to the other side of the world. This trip will be 3 weeks and we struggle with leaving what we are doing here. But we feel God leading us to do this. We love taking people to other parts of the world to expose them to what else is going on in different cultures. We love to see what God is doing elsewhere and we can share with the kids at Farm Drive what we are doing and why.

Halloween

I was recently asked my opinion of Halloween and how Christians should handle this day that some refer to as a day that belongs to Satan. Here was my response:

To me Halloween comes down to preference. What and why are you involved in celebrating Halloween? It is harmless in most cases. But appearances are important. If other Christians see you and can't believe you are celebrating it, then you should think twice about being involved. You don't want to start an argument or cause someone to "stumble". Since so many Christians have "problems" with Halloween, we at church or at Farm Drive avoid doing anything except a "harvest party" alternative.

Personally the last couple of years we (Patty and I) have been out in our driveway with a firepit and candy, hot chocolate, hot cider, and we enjoy seeing our neighbors and talking with them. We even ask them to sit and chat awhile, relax on their walks with their kids for a bit. They are usually very happy to see us and think what a great idea! We don't dress up but what a statement that makes versus us sitting inside the house with the door locked and a sign on the door saying sorry no candy!
If I had younguns I would walk the neighborhood but keep away from the creepy outfits. I think we always did. Nightmares aren't worth it. I think Jon still has nightmares. Oh that's right, I was carrying an ax. Jessica doesn't care for clowns. Actually both our kids hate clowns!

Street Hockey Tournement

The San Jose Sharks have a program called Sharks and Parks NHL Street Hockey Program. This is set up for schools in the area as well as community programs like Farm Drive and the YMCA . They have not had a tournament in a few years and this year they had one on Saturday the 29th of October. They do this in the parking lot of the HP Pavillion Arena and Sharkie makes an appearance. The kids have a lot of fun and but they didn't do too well since they did not have a lot of practice time and the team was spread out age wise. Below are a few pics of the tournament.

And here is a team picture of the Farm Drive Street Hawks! A big thank you to Robbie and Sarah for their help in coaching this years team!

That night most of the team was able to go to the San Jose Sharks exhibition game against the Calgary Flames. It's amazing we didn't lose anyone!

Patty was gone for the weekend as she went with a friend to Disneyland. I opened the Center by myself on Sunday nite and it was a small group of kids playing pool. Betty brought over some 4 foot long sandwichs which were left over from another church's get together. We cut them up and gave them to different families in the hood. Also some of the sandwiches we gave to the kids that were there at the Center. Then about an hour later a group of junior high age kids came by to play street hockey. Most are not a part of the Center and some don't even live in the area. But I was glad to have them come by and play hockey. A few had to be reminded very quickly to watch their language. But before a game could be organized a couple of them started getting in an argument and the language was out of control. So I sent the two packing which meant the whole group left. I was sad as were a few of the kids who wanted to play hockey! They don't come around often so it was a wonderful opportunity to be able to hang out and build relationships but that kind of behavior is not acceptable and they know it.

Oh well.

Mac n Cheese Night

On Friday night, the 2nd of October, Patty and I and a few of our friends opened up the Center but also cooked up boxes of Macaroni and Cheese. We even had a special pot that contained chopped up hot dogs in it! What a gastronomical delight! Yum-Yum! Some of the kids helped by cooking and setting things up for serving. (Kind of like at home, boy do we miss our free slave laborers!) When we do this, it is open to anyone who comes by, wants to play at the Center and we offer them a deliciouis meal. Of course there are those that turn it down. (don't understand why!) The next 2 pictures are some of the kids enjoying their meal.

Since the San Jose Sharks were sponsoring a street hockey tournament the next day that was the activity of choice for the night. Cosmo likes to play that sport as you can see below. He makes the puck (ball) a little slippery though. But he helps the kids improve their ball handling skills.

You don't want to play pool with this shark!

Sky High

On the 26th of September we took 17 Farm Drive neighborhood kids and 11 leaders to Sky High which is a trampoline paradise. Patty and I forgot to take our cameras so we have no pictures. Sorry. We could have taken a lot of great pictures but then again we were so busy running and jumping around we would have forgot! So from the picture above you can see it is an area of solid trampolines... even walls of trampolines. They also have an area for dodgeball and another area where you can jump into a pit of foam squares. It was a lot of sweaty fun!

Afterwards we went to McDonalds and had ice cream. That was a lot of fun too, just hanging with the kids.

p.s. This was a group of "mixed" kids. Those that attend activities in the Center on a regular basis and those who don't but just live in the hood. To me as one who lives here and really didn't pay attention to that fact, I really didn't notice anything different. But someone who helped with us noticed the difference in behavior. Those that attend the Center were better behaved and had better language. Is the Center making that kind of difference or are these kids well behaved anyway because of their upbringing? I'm pretty sure I know the answer but it did make me think.

Children, God's Gift

Our daughter moved this pass weekend to Los Angeles. Obviouisly it was hard emotionally as a chapter of our lives justed ended after 22 years. So we are officially now "empty nesters" as both of our children are living on their own.



Jessica moved into a brand new apartment on Wilshire Blvd. On the way we we drove by Hollywood and Vine. Below is pictures looking out her 4th floor window. Notice in the 2nd picture is a Bob's Big Boy restuarant. They closed down in San Jose a few years ago and excited (?) that there was one there. (You may have to click on the photo to enlarge it to see it).

We moved Jessica in on Friday and then went shopping for stuff for the apartment on Saturday. It poured on Saturday and were we thankful it did not do that on Friday. For dinner on Friday we went out do dinner with a nephew and his wife and his brother and son. (that would make him a nephew too.) It was good to see them.

Yes, children are a gift from God. They are a real joy and blessing. We will miss not having them around every day.

The other day a customer at work asked me if I had any children. I told him I have 2 plus another 50-70? He of course looked at me funny as I then explained what Patty and I are doing. That is how Patty and I feel about those we come in contact with at Farm Drive. We are not their parents but we love them as if they were.

We opened the Center (Patty wants me to capitlize Center) on Sunday evening and one of the kids came by and asked for help with homework. Not my speciality this day and age. I almost said come back on Monday for homework assistance but I thought better. Fortunately it was on the metric system of measuring and I could help. But I had to spend some time trying to figure out what she knew and what the teacher had taught them so far. I know how I would figure the problem but it might not help the student. She went from not really having a clue to "oh yeah, now I remember". I felt good that I was able to help her and I'm sure she felt good understanding and getting her homework done. It would have been easier to do it for her or said good luck with that! But that is not the best for her.

Are we not really empty nesters!?

Open House

On sunday, a busy weekend, we opened up the Center and invited both friends and neighbors in for an open house. It was more for our move to the new apartment but provided an opportunity to show what we are doing here and what Farm Drive is all about. Below are Daniel and Ruben cooking up the dogs.
An old friend of ours showed up, Goyo. He probably wouldn't like the old part. He used to be a teacher at Terrel Elementary School which is where the kids used to go to school before rezoning. Some of the kids who used to go there recognized him.

As you can see below we have quite a few bikes (13!) that have been donated from Hillside people. Along with some inline blades, they will be giving them away to kids involved in the KidTrek program in a drawing this next week. I'll have more pics on this in a later post. A very big thank you to those who donated bikes and skates. They are very much appreciated and the kids will be extemely excited to receive them.

Sarah and our new pastor's wife Tricia and their kids enjoying our patio. We like it too.

A couple of pictures of people enjoying the open house.

And we just found out that Robbie and Stacy have found an apartment in the hood and will be moving in in October! This is great news as we will have someone to partner with us! They found an apartment down the street from us. This is a God-thing for sure!