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Testimonies from Phoenix
Here are a few testimonies from families we worked with in Phoenix.
Elizabeth and Justin….
Thank you for coming out to Arizona and doing a sports camp for our kids. You did more than just help, you encouraged them by spending time with our kids and helping them to develop even more skills in baseball. My sons loved learning the drills and having a game on the last day. You also encouraged Justin to be a part of his boys lives when we move to Nebraska more. To possibly even get involved with the youth group up there. I realized what an impact we have in the lives of our kids and their friends. Thank you.
Patti Dubicki…
Thank you Trey for spending time with my son helping him with Baseball. Charles talked about it for days and loved having some one give him that much attention with baseball. He wanted to learn how to play and has not felt very confident. You helped him feel more confident with his hitting.
Kindra and Josh….
Thank you so much for coming out. Kaylee and Trevan enjoyed playing baseball with your group. The people were so nice and very encouraging. Also, we would have had nothing to do during that week. We also enjoyed watching them play and get more of a desire to play sports. Thank you for your time and giving up your spring break to come out to help us.
Mindy and Daniel….
Thank you all for coming out during your spring break to be an encouragement to the kids in our neighborhood. So many kids talked about how they now want a baseball team out here and have gotten involved in the soccer we currently have going on. The kids get together at the park and play, relationships were formed and strengthened. Relationships were started between moms who did not know each other and now are hanging out and encouraging one another. All of you made these kids feel so special and helped many of them to have a fun spring break they otherwise would not have had. We have been told this was a great sports camp for out kids - better than any we have had before. Ray even asked if Trey would come out and do a baseball camp for our group out here next year. Also, thank you for your servant heart the night of the movie. We so appreciated all of you bringing people water and popcorn. You all did a great job. Thank you for passing out flyers for both the movie night and the start of our two services. Due to your flyers going out, we ran 220 on Easter morning and run around 70-80 during the first service each week. People are coming to know the Lord and you were a part of that. Thank you.
Misc moms…
Some of the moms stopped me at church and mentioned that they loved the games the girls played with the younger kids. Usually the younger kids get left out due to not wanting to play sports. You helped them to have a good time, feel loved and put a lot of smiles on kids faces. Nobody was left out and we appreciate all the planning and time that went into this trip.
Skadoosh or Phoenix Mission Trip, pt. 1
Driving 1200 miles to Buckeye, in NW Phoenix, with 21 people in 22 seats worth of vans was a daunting task to say the least…especially when the trip began with 450 miles of rain. We finally escaped the rain about 50 miles short of our first stop in Van Horn, TX. (It will never cease to amaze me that you can drive for 10 hours from Temple and still not get out of Texas.) We spent the night in a nice Ramada Limited (shout out!) and continued our adventure on Saturday. Even with the gaining of 2 hours, we still drove all day. It is unbelievable how mountains can drain the gas tank of a 15 passenger van pulling a trailer. I lost count of how many times we stopped for gas, but we made it and capped the day with some On The Border Tex-Mex (always a good ending to a day).
Sunday we awoke to beautiful weather and the excitement of worshiping with our new friends at The Church at Sun Valley. I absolutely loved walking to church that morning with our group (even if we did freak out a few of the neighbors). Our time of church in the “gymna-cafe-torium” was a special experience. Many of our students felt more like they were at a school award assembly than church. It was definitely healthy for all to experience church in a “different than the norm” way. We sang hymns differently and choruses we had never heard. We were challenged with the truth that there is a big difference between religion and relationship. In the end religion is about me (however much you couch your language in God) and relationship is about Jesus. It was a challenging message for our team. We had lunch at the Scott’s house and then the team went throughout the neighborhood passing out reminder flyers about the movie night and sports/crafts camp.
Christie and I received a special treat that afternoon. After church, Jennifer Bledsoe Hernandez and her husband Rich (recent Arizona transplants) joined us for lunch and the afternoon activities. For you old timers, you will remember Jennifer as an active and energizing member of CCBC. It was great to catch up and spend face time with old friends. God is good!a
Later Sunday afternoon some of the guys went over to the park to play basketball with guys from the church and community. It was great…no one was injured (as I get older that is the definition of a good time playing any sport). It truly was a beautiful day to be outside.
We had dinner (Sam’s makes a great pizza!) and then went to help set up for the movie night. What a great time! Our students helped serve popcorn from the movie theater styled popcorn machine and bottles of water. Mindy and Daniel Scott (my sister and brother-in-law and one of the pastor’s at the church) met many new faces from the community and the rest of us enjoyed Kung Fu Panda (skadoosh!) on a giant screen under the stars. Something so simple, yet what a great way to build bridges in the community and meet people where they are.
After a long day and still adjusting to the two hour time difference, we had a time of sharing and looking at what the Bible says about being a servant and then went to bed…the girls down the street at BJ’s and Woody’s and the boys in the upstairs air mattress dorm created at the Scott’s house.
A great first day of serving…
I Double Dog Dare You…
Our students are headed back to school last week…many of them with renewed passion for Christ. They are going to face opposition, frustration, and even defeat. One student encountered this experience even before school started.
“Today I had a volleyball tournament, and well as me and my friends we’re having a good time… talking, and joking around, somehow we got on the subject of reading the bible. Sadly one of my friends doesnt read the bible, so the rest of us tried to explain it to her so she would be able to understand what we were talking about. All she had to say was ” dang why is the bible so bossy?” wow really makes you think about this generation, doesnt it? As the day went on i sat and watched everybody buying chocolate bars, and i was reading the labels to see the brands. My friend had got a mars brand bar. So i got the nerve to tell them ” you know.. um that chocolate isnt free trade, its slave trade” she took a bite and said ” well i think the forced labor makes its all the much better” it made me want to cry. Another friend replied saying ” ….shutup, your so depressing” im thinking to myself.. no your the depressing ones, how could you not care? your the people i thought i could talk to about this because all i ever hear from ya’ll is ” man i want to go on a mission trip to africa one day” and ” i think you should support invisible children, its the right thing to do” Ya i guess its true that people can be deceiving.”
Make it a point to begin praying for them if you don’t already. We have a great group of students. They exist in a world that most often sees things differently than you or I. They are doing their best to be light in a very dark place…to be different in the midst of indifference. What would it be like if maybe thirty or forty of our adult, seasoned church members agreed to pray daily for our students for the entire upcoming school year? In the old days this might be considered a double dog dare…so I double dog dare you… Choose to make a difference on a global scale because you never know where these students will go and who they will encounter in the coming days. And one day, they may tell stories of the 2008-2009 school year and how it lead God to use them to influence the world.
Upcoming Youth Ministry Events
Wednesday, August 13, our youth will join three other local churches in a Top Chef type event at Martha’s Kitchen to bring attention to the needs of the homeless in our area. We will meet at the church at 5:30pm and then go to Martha’s Kitchen to set up. We will be serving the food and meeting those that work and live there. We should be back to the church around 8:15pm.
Wednesday August 20, will be our annual Back to School party. It will be Olympic themed with events like Can You Eat That, Hallway Curling, Off The Wall Ping Pong, and High Score Wii Bowling. It should be a memorable night. There will be “medals” for all our champions. All the action begins at 6:30pm. We should be done around 8pm. Parents are welcome to help judge events. There will be snacks and drinks provided.