Washinton, IL Gateway Work team

The Gateway woods Volunteer coordinator called me up earlier in the week and ask if I would be able to keep 5 guys from Washington IL coming out to work at Gateway Woods for a Saturday. I willing agreed and was excited to host the guys, not knowing any of them. A group total of about 10 to 12 showed up. I still only kept 5 guys. To preface this, Friday night all of the Leo YG and volunteers already in Leo went to someones house and we ended deciding to go to a coffee shop to hang out. We went to the wrong coffee shop we intended to go to, but oddly enough the one we walked into this one and they had an open mic karaoke! It was a charity benefit for a lady who had cancer(i think). As we walked in the door we realized that it was basically the family of the lady and the karaoke people in the entire shop. so the 15-20 of us literally up the place, almost all of us ended up getting up and singing and jumping around having a blast. It made our night and theirs too. I went home late to the guys form Washington had just gotten to our house. We got a good night rest and Got up early Sat morn to go to Gateway. had a delicious breakfast made by one of the sisters on campus there. And then we worked. Our job was to cover the trails in the woods 5 inches thick with mulch. Not to mention that most places on the trail were about 7 ft wide. After a long days work, Me and the IL boys went home showered up and went right back to the Gateway Woods Campus to have a cookout with the all the residents! it was a blast! I snuck out early to go over to the church to watch a play being put on by some of the kids from the Leo church, but wasn't all AC kids in it. It was called, "The Butler Did It." The kids did a phenomenal job and it was intriguing and full of mystery. I then proceeded to my good friends house where we played a game called Settlers of Catan until about 3:30 in the morning. I drug myself home, and crashed. 8am rolls around and my and my roommate awake to cook a yummy breakfast for the IL guys. We all got to church on time, and it was a great day for Worshiping the Lord in church. After church we ran home changed clothes and went back to Gateway to play games all afternoon. Right as the fun began the IL guys had to leave for home, so we bid them depart and it was game time! we played soccer, volleyball, and frisbee and it was a blast! most of us then headed to the local ice cream shop and all had scrumptious ice cream. We ran home, showered changed and traversed to the fellowship hall for Justin Weigand and Kirsten Sauder's singing/shower. The plans were to go watch the city fireworks, but upon the rain starting we decided to mellow out at the Sauder's house instead. As I enter my house I think about the weekend I just had. The living room looks like a tornado ripped through it, the bathroom look like a marsh of wet towels, and the sink a mountain of dishes. As i snuggle in bed, I my body is thanking me for finally resting. I thank God for the busyness and blessings that He allowed me to take full advantage and jam pack my weekend with. As I started to slip off into the night, I start replaying the weekend in my mind....Dustin called me up earlier this week.... .... .... .... zzzzzzzzz....zzzzzzz....zzzzzz..... .... ...

Reynosa June 20-17th 2009

I realize that blogging and putting pictures up is going to be a real challenge as to I don't have a camera and don't take pictures either, I will have to work on that. :-) anyways this post is summarizing my trip that Brad and I lead to Reynosa Mexico. Reynosa is a border town of MX and about an hour and a half(ish) to the Gulf. Brad and I had always wanted to lead a mission trip sometime and this became that opportunity. So we split the workload, since I was a very social guy and know just about everyone I did all the inviting. He did all the finances, and travel planning. We had 24 people on the trip representing 10 different churches from across the nation. So If I tried to describe the whole week this post would be pages and pages long. The mission trip in Reynosa was absolutely phenomenal. Words can't describe how god worked in my heart so I'm not going to try. Now for the really important part. I am going to attempt to explain what Mision Isaias 55 is and what they do from my perspective. Their slogan is esperanza para los sordos, which translates "hope for the deaf". the deaf in Mexico is an unreached and often neglected people group. They have built and maintain a deaf school to teach deaf children and even their parents MSL (Mexican Sign Language). The current school currently can accommodate 30 - 40 students. They also have 2 orphanages that they support. One is government ran, the other is not. The volunteer teams that go down there get to see either of these and play with the kids for an afternoon. The project that I thought was the coolest down that Mision Isaias 55 supports and helps is called,"24-7 Prayer". I would much rather you go to Kelly's blog and see for yourself what it is. but i will give a small preview. So there is this red-light district named "BoysTown". It is basically a walled in city that is homes to drug-lords, pimps, prostitutes, and other people rougher than you could ever imagine. A uniformed police official sits at the only entrance and you have to pay them just to get into the walled-in city. Once you are in, you are on your own and your life could be a risk. Kelly Greene (now Tietsort) started her ministry by waling around BoysTown and praying for the people inside because the guards wouldn't let her in. after 15 months, she got her opportunity to go in. She takes every opportunity she can to go in and shares the love of Christ with these souls that need Jesus. for more info check out kelly's blog titled Burning Furnace of Charity.

Happy 4th of July

The 4th of July of 2009 will forever be instilled in my heart forever. I had a very exciting day and packed full of just plain fun. To start off the day, All of us brothers in the church assembled in the fellowship hall early morning to make breakfast for the sisters. It's something we do every year and this year was extra special. Instead of making them pancakes, eggs, sausage, and juice like they usually get; we made them breakfast burritos, french toast casserole, sausages, and juice. Oh, and to top it off...we gave them homemade chocolates.

After Breakfast I proceed to a buddy's house where we had mission to fulfill: to kill a 1976 Ford F150 Farm Truck.


You see, I had worked on a farm for 5 to 6 years. and during my time there they purchased this truck and we used it for work purposes. today it had no bed, no brakes and is sad shape. My old boss decided to scrap it, so a few buddies and I decided to take the truck to its grave. after roughly 3 solid hours of royally beating on it by doing doughnuts in a grass field and even jumping the truck on a 5ft high dirt hill... needless to say we got rowdy, luckily no one got hurt. the pictures are what it looked like before we tore into it and after wards. I think i should mention that after we ran the engine to the grave, we towed it back to the field, pulled out a few gun and shot it all up. In the process of feeling like in the mafia and shooting it all up, we accidentally caught it on fire and had to take some emergency procedures with fire extinguishers to prevent the fire department from coming out. All in a few hours.

The families that are good friends that i grew up with have a 4th of July tradition where the dads go fishing all day, and then that fish is fried up and we have a big yummy feast for supper. It was amazing, and the people there are always great! lifetime friends and family. I had to head out a little early from the supper though to catch up with my last activity for the night.

I drove up to Leo to meet up with a few of the Leo crew and we bought some materials for "fireworks" and then went to the miniature carnival and watched the fireworks. they were really good as usual.

I arrived at my house and literally crashed into my bed. I was exhausted and satisfied to the brim. This truly is the 4th of July i will never forget.