Hey guys! Check out these links for some news stories on our work building houses in Reedley.
Fresno Bee news article
Fresno ABC affiliate's news video
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
summer trip pictures
to see all of the AMAZING pictures taken during the week, go here:
http://hatter.smugmug.com/
and when you see Tim Hatlestad next, make sure to thank him for running around with a camera all week and capturing those beautiful moments so we can relive them now that we're home!
http://hatter.smugmug.com/
and when you see Tim Hatlestad next, make sure to thank him for running around with a camera all week and capturing those beautiful moments so we can relive them now that we're home!
Friday, June 26, 2009
friday morning... where has the time gone?!
Blog readers,
It's me, Amy! First of all, we are so sorry for not keeping you more up to date! We have definitely been missing the Leutwylers, who kept tabs of the blog for us last year! However-- we literally have had no time to grab kids and sit down and let them write! We have been so busy with so many GREAT things.
On Wednesday, the kids headed out to work as usual, came back for lunch, showered, and then we all headed over to a place called Adventure Park-- which is similar to Crackerjax. They had SO much fun running around and playing mini golf, bumper boats, laser tag, and go carts. And I think they probably almost ran out of tickets in the video games! It is really fun for Neil and I to watch the kids just run around and play together. They have so much joy and it is definitely contagious. Wednesday evening, we headed over to a different church to worship together. Our friend Aisea came to lead us in some awesome songs, and Neil talked to the kids about letting go of the past and asking for God's forgiveness in their lives. At the end of the evening, the kids had the opportunity for Neil, Pastor Garman, and I -- or any of the other leaders -- to pray for them. Let me tell you-- I wish you had been in that Sanctuary with us! Talk about a powerful experience!! Ask your kids about it when they get home!
Thursday morning, Neil and I, as well as Pastor Garman and the kitchen crew, were able to head out to the worksites to see the finished work the kids had done. Wait until you see the pictures! It was INCREDIBLE to see what had been built on the cement slabs that started the week. Our kids are hard workers! We were also blessed by Self Help, the organization we were working with, as they provided lunch for us and some of of the families who will be living in the houses when they're finished. After a great morning, we let them run around and shop at the outlet mall for a couple of hours. We ended up back at the church for the blessing of our graduates. It was inspiring to see just how affected all of the younger students have been by our amazing class of graduates this year. I'd write more about how much we love them and we'll miss them-- but I don't want to start crying again!
This morning we woke up, showered, cleaned up the campus we have been staying at, and gathered the kids in the youth worship center for our big surprise announcement. We always have a surprise on the trip, and this year was no different... except that I don't think that this kind of a surprise has ever been announced on summer trip before.
Well? Do you want to know what it is??
The big surprise was that-- Brian and I are going to be parents for the first time in January! We are SO excited and we absolutely could not wait to share it with the kids! Their reaction was priceless, and they immediately surrounded us with their love and prayers. What a great morning!!
Now we're at Magic Mountain, and the kids are all over the place, riding rides together and building their friendships even stronger than before. I can hardly believe that tomorrow is Saturday and we'll be home. We have missed all of you, but we have had a GREAT time!
If you have a child on the trip, please make sure to ask them about their devotions, their worship time, and how they grew in their relationship with God. We would love it if awesome conversations came out of this trip in your families! We love you-- thank you for all your prayers and support! See you tomorrow afternoon!
grace,
amy anderson
It's me, Amy! First of all, we are so sorry for not keeping you more up to date! We have definitely been missing the Leutwylers, who kept tabs of the blog for us last year! However-- we literally have had no time to grab kids and sit down and let them write! We have been so busy with so many GREAT things.
On Wednesday, the kids headed out to work as usual, came back for lunch, showered, and then we all headed over to a place called Adventure Park-- which is similar to Crackerjax. They had SO much fun running around and playing mini golf, bumper boats, laser tag, and go carts. And I think they probably almost ran out of tickets in the video games! It is really fun for Neil and I to watch the kids just run around and play together. They have so much joy and it is definitely contagious. Wednesday evening, we headed over to a different church to worship together. Our friend Aisea came to lead us in some awesome songs, and Neil talked to the kids about letting go of the past and asking for God's forgiveness in their lives. At the end of the evening, the kids had the opportunity for Neil, Pastor Garman, and I -- or any of the other leaders -- to pray for them. Let me tell you-- I wish you had been in that Sanctuary with us! Talk about a powerful experience!! Ask your kids about it when they get home!
Thursday morning, Neil and I, as well as Pastor Garman and the kitchen crew, were able to head out to the worksites to see the finished work the kids had done. Wait until you see the pictures! It was INCREDIBLE to see what had been built on the cement slabs that started the week. Our kids are hard workers! We were also blessed by Self Help, the organization we were working with, as they provided lunch for us and some of of the families who will be living in the houses when they're finished. After a great morning, we let them run around and shop at the outlet mall for a couple of hours. We ended up back at the church for the blessing of our graduates. It was inspiring to see just how affected all of the younger students have been by our amazing class of graduates this year. I'd write more about how much we love them and we'll miss them-- but I don't want to start crying again!
This morning we woke up, showered, cleaned up the campus we have been staying at, and gathered the kids in the youth worship center for our big surprise announcement. We always have a surprise on the trip, and this year was no different... except that I don't think that this kind of a surprise has ever been announced on summer trip before.
Well? Do you want to know what it is??
The big surprise was that-- Brian and I are going to be parents for the first time in January! We are SO excited and we absolutely could not wait to share it with the kids! Their reaction was priceless, and they immediately surrounded us with their love and prayers. What a great morning!!
Now we're at Magic Mountain, and the kids are all over the place, riding rides together and building their friendships even stronger than before. I can hardly believe that tomorrow is Saturday and we'll be home. We have missed all of you, but we have had a GREAT time!
If you have a child on the trip, please make sure to ask them about their devotions, their worship time, and how they grew in their relationship with God. We would love it if awesome conversations came out of this trip in your families! We love you-- thank you for all your prayers and support! See you tomorrow afternoon!
grace,
amy anderson
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
tuesday evening
Dear people of La Casa,
The summer trip so far has been an amazing experience! As a freshman, everything is all new to me but still it is so awesome. Like our work projects, when we got there the first day all they had was cement and a couple of 2 x 4s, but as I was walking back to the van today, I looked at all the lots and they all had about six or seven walls up! In two days you could already see the form of a house! It's amazing to watch all the houses grow. Today I walked up to the owner of the house I was working and introduced myself and they all are SO grateful that we are there to help! I'm so excited for the rest of the week!
Jordan Powell (freshmen)
The summer trip so far has been an amazing experience! As a freshman, everything is all new to me but still it is so awesome. Like our work projects, when we got there the first day all they had was cement and a couple of 2 x 4s, but as I was walking back to the van today, I looked at all the lots and they all had about six or seven walls up! In two days you could already see the form of a house! It's amazing to watch all the houses grow. Today I walked up to the owner of the house I was working and introduced myself and they all are SO grateful that we are there to help! I'm so excited for the rest of the week!
Jordan Powell (freshmen)
tuesday afternoon
Today has been an amazing day to say the least. It started out with one of my favorite things, devotions. We were given a booklet that we write in each morning that have questions dealing with what Neil has been speaking about each night, which is the book of Nehemiah. It's one of my favorite parts of the day because we get the opportunity to spend time by ourselves with God praying, answering questions, and writing about whatever we feel. Not only is it amazing because we are with God alone, but also because we get to go wherever we want on campus and take in the beauty of Visalia. After devotions, we headed off to our work projects where I had an awesome experience working with my small group to put up 3 more walls of our home. It was incredible. Once we left and took showers, we went bowling! It was possibly one of the most hilarious times I've had here -- especially witnessing Pastor Ruby dancing to "Fergalicious" by Fergie. Hopefully a video will be posted of it because I was lucky enough to catch it on my camera. All in all the day has been a blast and I can't wait for tonight when we get to worship. We had such an amazing worship time last night where Neil spoke to us about never giving up on our dreams, just like Nehemiah stayed true to building his wall in Nehemiah 4. I can't wait to see what God has in store for us for the rest of the week and hopefully my video will make it up here because we love Pastor Ruby dancing!!
Love, Jessey Cooper (graduate)
Love, Jessey Cooper (graduate)
Monday, June 22, 2009
monday afternoon
Last night and today have been a blast! After the river we had our small groups and dessert. In the morning we woke up at an obnoxiously ridiculous and early time, by Pastor Garman yelling and banging pots and pans! We tried to fall back asleep but the fire alarm decided to go off. It was nothing like the fire alarms in Arizona, it talked to us! No worries -- it only was our food burning (everyone is okay!), not Pastor trying to annoy us. :) Work projects are a lot of work, definitely worth the time and effort though. May we say, my (Kaitlyn's) group was the first to put up a wall!! This is by far the best work project we have had because we can watch people benefit from our hard work and we get to meet some amazing people. After work projects we finally got to shower from being in the river! It was wonderful even though the shower heads are very short, I (Alaina) hated it, and I (Kaitlyn) loved it! Straight from showers we went roller skating and a LOT of people fell, it's much more difficult than actual roller blading. Now we are having free time and can't wait for what is to come later tonight!!!!!! :D
Love,
Kaitlyn Propp! (junior) (I love you Becca :))
Alaina Belzner! (senior) (I love you Lorren!)
Love,
Kaitlyn Propp! (junior) (I love you Becca :))
Alaina Belzner! (senior) (I love you Lorren!)
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