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It is realy a good chance for shopping.just grasp the opportunity,Now or never!
The web address www.vrtsw.com
Sunday, April 05, 2009
Wednesday, September 19, 2007
Engagement Photos
BEN and JESSICA are GETTING MARRIED!!!!!!
It's official! On Sunday September 2, 2007, Ben Gustafson nervously got down on his knee at Longwood Gardens after a amazing display of fireworks (Jessica's favorite thing) requesting that Jessica Barone would take his hand in marriage! She responded in surprise by giggling excitedly. Thankfully he knows her well enough to know that her laughter is a good thing. She could hardly contain her excitement and it took several minutes before she could even look at the ring. While Ben had been planning the engagement for weeks, he certainly caught his bride-to-be off guard, she was completely clueless until he was on his knee! He had to ask a second time before his surprised fiance shouted "of course!"
We are ecstatic! Our families are ecstatic! The details are starting to get underway, but we are trying to drink it all in and enjoy this exciting time together.
We hope this announcement finds you well. For some it has been awhile since we have talked. Of the many things Ben and I have in common, our diligence, or lack thereof, with keeping in touch is one of them! We would love to hear what new with you. Please do not hesitate to give a call to catch up or hear more of the details; we like to share them.
All our love,
Jessica and Ben
aka the future mr. and mrs. gustafson...ooo thats weird ;)
Moments after Ben proposed!
Another couple nearby saw our special moment and offered to take a picture
The fountain in the conservatory where Ben proposed
Picture of us earlier in the day as we walked around the gardens
The fireworks
In Rittenhouse Square the day after our engagement
Another pict (thanks Christina for putting up with our "just engagedness"!)
The ring
It's official! On Sunday September 2, 2007, Ben Gustafson nervously got down on his knee at Longwood Gardens after a amazing display of fireworks (Jessica's favorite thing) requesting that Jessica Barone would take his hand in marriage! She responded in surprise by giggling excitedly. Thankfully he knows her well enough to know that her laughter is a good thing. She could hardly contain her excitement and it took several minutes before she could even look at the ring. While Ben had been planning the engagement for weeks, he certainly caught his bride-to-be off guard, she was completely clueless until he was on his knee! He had to ask a second time before his surprised fiance shouted "of course!"
We are ecstatic! Our families are ecstatic! The details are starting to get underway, but we are trying to drink it all in and enjoy this exciting time together.
We hope this announcement finds you well. For some it has been awhile since we have talked. Of the many things Ben and I have in common, our diligence, or lack thereof, with keeping in touch is one of them! We would love to hear what new with you. Please do not hesitate to give a call to catch up or hear more of the details; we like to share them.
All our love,
Jessica and Ben
aka the future mr. and mrs. gustafson...ooo thats weird ;)
Moments after Ben proposed!
Another couple nearby saw our special moment and offered to take a picture
The fountain in the conservatory where Ben proposed
Picture of us earlier in the day as we walked around the gardens
The fireworks
In Rittenhouse Square the day after our engagement
Another pict (thanks Christina for putting up with our "just engagedness"!)
The ring
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Haiti: Chapter 4
It is an odd point in life when you realize that going to a place like Haiti has become a normal part of life. In the past, as I’ve ventured off on mission trips, there has been a sense of “I’m off to do the work of God,” as though I was leaving the normal pace of my life to serve the Lord. This year it seems that serving the Lord has become the normal pace of my life, and going to Haiti felt like a normal extension of that everyday life. Over this last year, I have started to break down the barrier in my mind between doing the things of God and living my everyday life. Serving Jesus is not a two-week trip once a year, or a Saturday morning outreach event, but it is an integral part of what it means for me to be a Christian. Every moment of every day is in honor of God. There is no distinction between holy work and normal work, no difference between the sacred realm of life and the secular realm of life. For Christ is Lord over all! This attitude in my heart as I traveled to Haiti was a fresh reminder of the work of the Holy Spirit in my life. Like watching grass grow, it never seems to move an inch until you come back a week or two later and the whole lawn is over grown, so it seems is the progressive sanctification, which God is working out in my life.
The purpose of the trip to Haiti this year was two-fold. First, I went to help prepare design documents for a gravity concrete dam. Second and more important, I went to encourage and journey alongside two engineering students from the University of Virginia, who are staying in Haiti for two months in order to begin to get their hands around what is this thing called “engineering missions.” John, Jonathan, and I stayed and worked with Bruce and Deb Robinson, the same two missionaries I have visited many times over the last three years, in the northwest sector of Haiti.
John (on the left) and Jonathan (on the right)
Deb, Bruce, Jonathan, John, and myself
It is quite an adventure to arrive in this part of Haiti. On Thursday, May 24th, I flew to Miami, where I met up with John and Jonathan. We spent the night in Miami getting to know each other and doing some last minute packing. Then early the next morning we flew from Miami to Port-au-Prince. After a short taxi ride to another airport, we took a small 21 seater plane Port-de-Paix in the north of the country. Unfortunately, our luggage did not make the voyage with us, but it did eventually arrive three days later! Bruce met us in Port-de-Paix, where we walked to the river, took a small boat across, and then hopped into the truck for the 1.5 hour drive to Passe Catabois, where we would be staying.
The beautiful lady who took me to the airport in Philly and then drove all the way to NYC to pick me up when i came back!
A view from the small plane we took from Port-au-Prince to Port-de-Paix
We arrived in Passe Catabois in the early afternoon. So after a quick bite for lunch, we set off to see the location where we would be designing the dam. Before going to the new dam site, we stopped by a dam which I designed a few years ago and was just built this last year. It was quite cool to see in real concrete what was once only existed as a picture in my mind and lines on paper. This dam was about 9 feet tall and was designed to reclaim farming land and to provide an emergency water source in times of drought. The Haitian construction crews had done a marvelous job building the dam, and it was functioning very well especially in reclaiming farming land. The man whose land was flooded had been able to plant a different crop which was going to yield him 4 to 5 times the profit of what he was farming before.
The 9' Dam
Another view
The resevoir behind the dam which will eventually fill up with dirt and sand and can be farmed on.
The dam we came to design is just upstream from the 9 foot dam, and is going to be quite a bit larger, around 40 feet tall at its highest point. The purpose of this dam is a different from the one previously built. Currently, when it rains in this region of Haiti, the rain rushes very fast down the slopes of the mountains and into the river, eventually dumping into the ocean miles away. In a place where water is scarce, this rain water dumping into the ocean is waste of an amazing resource. In order to take advantage of this resource, irrigation structures and canals have been built all along the river. Unfortunately when it rains, the water rushes so quickly and violently down the river that the canals are unable to capture as much water as is needed. So, this dam is designed to capture a large volume of rain water and release it slowly so that the canals have an opportunity to divert more of the water into the farm gardens over a longer period of time.
The location of the proposed 40 foot dam
The first week of my trip was spent surveying the proposed dam location. Over the course of three to four days, we collected hundreds of points of data which were used in order to create a model of the current conditions of the dam site. Sadrak, a new Haitian Engineer working with Bruce, also worked with us in this process (from survey to the design). He was a great engineer, a hard worker, and by the end of the couple weeks a good friend. Sadrak and I took time while surveying to train John, Jonathan, and Niva (another Haitian), how to use the survey instrumentation to collect data. They all learned quite quickly and were off surveying another location for a separate project a few days later.
Training Niva on the survey equipment.
Niva setting up the equipment and taking survey data
The survey team taking a break.
Sadrak (on the left) and Niva
John after taking an accidental plunge while trying to collect some points in the river. Looking good John!!
After completing the survey, we spent the second week inside the office processing the data and designing the proposed dam. Some of this time was also spent further training Sadrak, John, and Jonathan on an engineering program called AutoCAD. We were able to complete about 75% of the dam design, which is enough to send the drawings to other engineers for their advice and suggestions and to apply for grants in order to construct the dam structure. I will complete the design plans from the US when we have worked out the remaining details of the design with the help of some other engineers. From a both a technical and a teaching standpoint, the week was great success. I was able transfer some of my engineering skills, and as a team we were able to get some of the main design issues of the dam worked out.
Exciting office work with Sadrak, John, and Dustin (the guy on the far left who is another missionary in the area who we worked with)
Sadrak busting out his AutoCAD skilz
The two weeks was not all engineering work. We also had a few adventures and got out to meet and talk with people in the community. Each Sunday, we traveled to church at Poste Metier and after the worship service, we were treated to an amazing buffet of Haitian fare by the Pastor’s wife. Many afternoons when work was finished we joined a group of Haitian kids playing soccer. Jonathan also performed feats of strength for our entertainment such as eating a can of “Jack Mackeral in tomato sauce”, which is possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. One morning, John got us out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to climb on top of the construction depots to watch the sunrise. And of course, the trip would not be complete with out a journey to the gorgeous beach. It was awesome to get to know John and Jonathan through our daily interaction and our Bible studies. The honesty, openness, optimism, and adventurous spirit of these two guys were a great encouragement and source of joy to me. And wow did they learn Creole fast!! I was blessed to share with them the first two weeks of their journey in Haiti. It was also great to see good friends that I had met on my previous journeys, both Haitian (Aletude, Chrisbon, Niva, August, Jan Walter, and many others) and missionaries (Bruce and Deb, Rob and Anne Marie).
John and I in our Sunday best
At the afternoon soccer games
Another pict from the soccer field
The Famous Jack Mackerel, which Jonathan devoured, earning himself the name "Panama Jack"
The sunrise from the top of the depot
John and Jonathan's smiling faces at 5:00 am after watching the sun rise
Our precarious method of getting up and down from the depot. And no mom, it's not as dangerous as it looks, really ;)
Jonathan at the beach
John hanging out with some of the guys in the neighborhood
Panama Jack
This fourth trip to Haiti was bittersweet for me, as it will most likely be my last for some time. God brought me to Haiti for a time to teach me to use my engineering gifts for others and to benefit His Kingdom. And now, I look forward to where He leads me next in order to use the invaluable things that I learned from Bruce and Deb and from my times in Haiti. This chapter in my life is coming to a close, but it is not yet finished. I have two or three projects which I began over the last few years that I need to complete this summer. It will be good to finish strong and well for both the Haitian people and for the glory of God. Please pray for my focus and determination this summer to wrap up these projects. Also, pray for John and Jonathan as they stay in Haiti until the end of July and for Bruce and Deb as they continue to allow God to use them to bring physical and Living water to the people of Haiti.
Boss Aletude, one of my close Haitian friends
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support over these last few years. It has been a crazy and amazing journey. Thank you Jesus for your constant guiding hand, your unending love, and stretching me in ways I never knew possible. And now for next chapter...
The purpose of the trip to Haiti this year was two-fold. First, I went to help prepare design documents for a gravity concrete dam. Second and more important, I went to encourage and journey alongside two engineering students from the University of Virginia, who are staying in Haiti for two months in order to begin to get their hands around what is this thing called “engineering missions.” John, Jonathan, and I stayed and worked with Bruce and Deb Robinson, the same two missionaries I have visited many times over the last three years, in the northwest sector of Haiti.
John (on the left) and Jonathan (on the right)
Deb, Bruce, Jonathan, John, and myself
It is quite an adventure to arrive in this part of Haiti. On Thursday, May 24th, I flew to Miami, where I met up with John and Jonathan. We spent the night in Miami getting to know each other and doing some last minute packing. Then early the next morning we flew from Miami to Port-au-Prince. After a short taxi ride to another airport, we took a small 21 seater plane Port-de-Paix in the north of the country. Unfortunately, our luggage did not make the voyage with us, but it did eventually arrive three days later! Bruce met us in Port-de-Paix, where we walked to the river, took a small boat across, and then hopped into the truck for the 1.5 hour drive to Passe Catabois, where we would be staying.
The beautiful lady who took me to the airport in Philly and then drove all the way to NYC to pick me up when i came back!
A view from the small plane we took from Port-au-Prince to Port-de-Paix
We arrived in Passe Catabois in the early afternoon. So after a quick bite for lunch, we set off to see the location where we would be designing the dam. Before going to the new dam site, we stopped by a dam which I designed a few years ago and was just built this last year. It was quite cool to see in real concrete what was once only existed as a picture in my mind and lines on paper. This dam was about 9 feet tall and was designed to reclaim farming land and to provide an emergency water source in times of drought. The Haitian construction crews had done a marvelous job building the dam, and it was functioning very well especially in reclaiming farming land. The man whose land was flooded had been able to plant a different crop which was going to yield him 4 to 5 times the profit of what he was farming before.
The 9' Dam
Another view
The resevoir behind the dam which will eventually fill up with dirt and sand and can be farmed on.
The dam we came to design is just upstream from the 9 foot dam, and is going to be quite a bit larger, around 40 feet tall at its highest point. The purpose of this dam is a different from the one previously built. Currently, when it rains in this region of Haiti, the rain rushes very fast down the slopes of the mountains and into the river, eventually dumping into the ocean miles away. In a place where water is scarce, this rain water dumping into the ocean is waste of an amazing resource. In order to take advantage of this resource, irrigation structures and canals have been built all along the river. Unfortunately when it rains, the water rushes so quickly and violently down the river that the canals are unable to capture as much water as is needed. So, this dam is designed to capture a large volume of rain water and release it slowly so that the canals have an opportunity to divert more of the water into the farm gardens over a longer period of time.
The location of the proposed 40 foot dam
The first week of my trip was spent surveying the proposed dam location. Over the course of three to four days, we collected hundreds of points of data which were used in order to create a model of the current conditions of the dam site. Sadrak, a new Haitian Engineer working with Bruce, also worked with us in this process (from survey to the design). He was a great engineer, a hard worker, and by the end of the couple weeks a good friend. Sadrak and I took time while surveying to train John, Jonathan, and Niva (another Haitian), how to use the survey instrumentation to collect data. They all learned quite quickly and were off surveying another location for a separate project a few days later.
Training Niva on the survey equipment.
Niva setting up the equipment and taking survey data
The survey team taking a break.
Sadrak (on the left) and Niva
John after taking an accidental plunge while trying to collect some points in the river. Looking good John!!
After completing the survey, we spent the second week inside the office processing the data and designing the proposed dam. Some of this time was also spent further training Sadrak, John, and Jonathan on an engineering program called AutoCAD. We were able to complete about 75% of the dam design, which is enough to send the drawings to other engineers for their advice and suggestions and to apply for grants in order to construct the dam structure. I will complete the design plans from the US when we have worked out the remaining details of the design with the help of some other engineers. From a both a technical and a teaching standpoint, the week was great success. I was able transfer some of my engineering skills, and as a team we were able to get some of the main design issues of the dam worked out.
Exciting office work with Sadrak, John, and Dustin (the guy on the far left who is another missionary in the area who we worked with)
Sadrak busting out his AutoCAD skilz
The two weeks was not all engineering work. We also had a few adventures and got out to meet and talk with people in the community. Each Sunday, we traveled to church at Poste Metier and after the worship service, we were treated to an amazing buffet of Haitian fare by the Pastor’s wife. Many afternoons when work was finished we joined a group of Haitian kids playing soccer. Jonathan also performed feats of strength for our entertainment such as eating a can of “Jack Mackeral in tomato sauce”, which is possibly the most disgusting thing I have ever seen. One morning, John got us out of bed at 4:30 in the morning to climb on top of the construction depots to watch the sunrise. And of course, the trip would not be complete with out a journey to the gorgeous beach. It was awesome to get to know John and Jonathan through our daily interaction and our Bible studies. The honesty, openness, optimism, and adventurous spirit of these two guys were a great encouragement and source of joy to me. And wow did they learn Creole fast!! I was blessed to share with them the first two weeks of their journey in Haiti. It was also great to see good friends that I had met on my previous journeys, both Haitian (Aletude, Chrisbon, Niva, August, Jan Walter, and many others) and missionaries (Bruce and Deb, Rob and Anne Marie).
John and I in our Sunday best
At the afternoon soccer games
Another pict from the soccer field
The Famous Jack Mackerel, which Jonathan devoured, earning himself the name "Panama Jack"
The sunrise from the top of the depot
John and Jonathan's smiling faces at 5:00 am after watching the sun rise
Our precarious method of getting up and down from the depot. And no mom, it's not as dangerous as it looks, really ;)
Jonathan at the beach
John hanging out with some of the guys in the neighborhood
Panama Jack
This fourth trip to Haiti was bittersweet for me, as it will most likely be my last for some time. God brought me to Haiti for a time to teach me to use my engineering gifts for others and to benefit His Kingdom. And now, I look forward to where He leads me next in order to use the invaluable things that I learned from Bruce and Deb and from my times in Haiti. This chapter in my life is coming to a close, but it is not yet finished. I have two or three projects which I began over the last few years that I need to complete this summer. It will be good to finish strong and well for both the Haitian people and for the glory of God. Please pray for my focus and determination this summer to wrap up these projects. Also, pray for John and Jonathan as they stay in Haiti until the end of July and for Bruce and Deb as they continue to allow God to use them to bring physical and Living water to the people of Haiti.
Boss Aletude, one of my close Haitian friends
Thank you all so much for your prayers and support over these last few years. It has been a crazy and amazing journey. Thank you Jesus for your constant guiding hand, your unending love, and stretching me in ways I never knew possible. And now for next chapter...
Saturday, July 22, 2006
Journey to Slidell- The Background
Wow, two posts in two days! All I can say is that I'm feeling motivated :)
A week after I returned home from Haiti, I had the priviledge to travel to Slidell, Louisiana with a team of six other people from Church of the Saviour. It was a little crazy going from trip to trip, but as God said to Paul, "My power is made perfect in your weakness." And boy did I see God's power on this trip. Before I jump too much into what happened while we were in Slidell, I need to cover some background...
In March, I was asked by Pete, a leader at my church, if over the 4th of July week I would be willing to lead a group from "Quest" (people at my church between the ages of 18-25) down to Slidell, Louisiana to help out with a Vacation Bible School at Faith Bible Church. I was a little hesitant accepting, since I would be traveling to Haiti just a few weeks before. But it seemed as though most of my responsibility would be just getting people down there and making sure no one sustained a serious injury, also I'd been wanting to get down to LA sometime to help in the relief effort there. So I prayed about it and felt at peace with accepting. Over the next month and a half, we waited for the droves of people to sign up for this awesome opportunity. In the middle of May I started receiving emails from Faith Bible Church saying that they'd reserved us space for 15 to 20 and wanted to get a final count on how many would be coming. We only had one person sign up, Kristin, and she wasn't even in Quest! Kristin had been to Slidell numerous times before, so she knew the ins and outs of planning transportation and communicating with the church there (she is the first huge blessing that God gave this trip). Pete told Kristin and I, "If you guys can find anyone to go, then go, otherwise, we'll cancel the trip." So seven weeks before we are suppose to leave, Kristin and I send out an APB to the whole church that anyone who would be interested in going needed to commit to it within two weeks. Two weeks later after a good bit of time on our knees in prayer, God provided us with a team of 9, which later got boiled down to a team of 7. That was huge blessing number 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6! We went from two to 7 in two weeks!!
So now we are less than 5 weeks from leaving (and I leave for Haiti in a week and half) and we are over the big hurdle. We have our team, Kristin has put together a good transportation plan, and everything seems to be great. Then bomb number 2 drops. With 4 1/2 weeks to go, Kristin and I receive an email that makes it clear: we are not going down to help Faith Bible Church put on their VBS, but we are expected to plan and implement the whole thing ourselves! And we should expect up to 80 kids! Kristin and I freak out a little bit, tore our clothes, and put dust on our heads, and cried "this is not what we signed up for!!!" When we picked ourselves up off the floor, we realized that this came as no suprise to God and that if it was truly His work, He would give us the strength and ability to complete it. After all, he gave us a team of people just a few weeks before we were leaving. So we started to get to planning.
Now as a leader, my typical MO is to be a control freak, take as much responsibility as I can, and then micro-manage the rest. But I was leaving for Haiti in just days, so that was not a possibility. Instead God began to teach me what it really means to be a leader, a servant-leader. At this point, I began to see how God had hand-picked each person that was on this team. These were not just 7 bodies that were filling up space on a team, but God had brought together 7 specific people with specific abilities, gifts, and experiences.
Each person on this team humbly and diligently gave of their time over those last 4 weeks to plan, organize, and aquire supplies for this trip. When I came back from Haiti, 90% of the planning for the VBS was done! I want to give special props to Kristin, who organized all the trip logistics (transportation, housing, food, etc.), and Kim, who was in charge of the overall direction and planning of the VBS. While the whole team poured their hearts and souls in to getting this all together, those two took on an especially large chunk of responsibility and both did an amazing job. Thank you!! I also want to thank Danielle, who wasn't able to go with us to LA but helped out with a lot of the planning, and Ellie Greenhalgh at COS who helped us with general direction and really gave us great encouragement in the beginning of our planning when we were feeling very overwhelmed.
God did many other amazing things during the preparation of this trip. To quote St. John, "If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." To just mention a couple, ask Al how we received over a hundred beanie babies for FREE and ask Kristin how we were able to build parts for 80 tool boxes in just days before we left (that meant 640 cut pieces of wood and over 2000 holes drilled). All in all, God used the preparation time to really build our faith in Him. He gave us exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it. Not too much or too little, neither too soon nor too late. It was much like the experience that Gideon went through in chapter 7 of the book of Judges.
I hope you've seen a glimpse of the way God worked before we even left for this trip. Join us in praising Him and thanking Him for His faithfulness. Now let's talk about what happened on our journey to and through Slidell, Louisiana...
Our Group (from left to right): Kristin, Kim, Jess, Me (Ben), Al, Paul, and Mike
A week after I returned home from Haiti, I had the priviledge to travel to Slidell, Louisiana with a team of six other people from Church of the Saviour. It was a little crazy going from trip to trip, but as God said to Paul, "My power is made perfect in your weakness." And boy did I see God's power on this trip. Before I jump too much into what happened while we were in Slidell, I need to cover some background...
In March, I was asked by Pete, a leader at my church, if over the 4th of July week I would be willing to lead a group from "Quest" (people at my church between the ages of 18-25) down to Slidell, Louisiana to help out with a Vacation Bible School at Faith Bible Church. I was a little hesitant accepting, since I would be traveling to Haiti just a few weeks before. But it seemed as though most of my responsibility would be just getting people down there and making sure no one sustained a serious injury, also I'd been wanting to get down to LA sometime to help in the relief effort there. So I prayed about it and felt at peace with accepting. Over the next month and a half, we waited for the droves of people to sign up for this awesome opportunity. In the middle of May I started receiving emails from Faith Bible Church saying that they'd reserved us space for 15 to 20 and wanted to get a final count on how many would be coming. We only had one person sign up, Kristin, and she wasn't even in Quest! Kristin had been to Slidell numerous times before, so she knew the ins and outs of planning transportation and communicating with the church there (she is the first huge blessing that God gave this trip). Pete told Kristin and I, "If you guys can find anyone to go, then go, otherwise, we'll cancel the trip." So seven weeks before we are suppose to leave, Kristin and I send out an APB to the whole church that anyone who would be interested in going needed to commit to it within two weeks. Two weeks later after a good bit of time on our knees in prayer, God provided us with a team of 9, which later got boiled down to a team of 7. That was huge blessing number 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6! We went from two to 7 in two weeks!!
So now we are less than 5 weeks from leaving (and I leave for Haiti in a week and half) and we are over the big hurdle. We have our team, Kristin has put together a good transportation plan, and everything seems to be great. Then bomb number 2 drops. With 4 1/2 weeks to go, Kristin and I receive an email that makes it clear: we are not going down to help Faith Bible Church put on their VBS, but we are expected to plan and implement the whole thing ourselves! And we should expect up to 80 kids! Kristin and I freak out a little bit, tore our clothes, and put dust on our heads, and cried "this is not what we signed up for!!!" When we picked ourselves up off the floor, we realized that this came as no suprise to God and that if it was truly His work, He would give us the strength and ability to complete it. After all, he gave us a team of people just a few weeks before we were leaving. So we started to get to planning.
Now as a leader, my typical MO is to be a control freak, take as much responsibility as I can, and then micro-manage the rest. But I was leaving for Haiti in just days, so that was not a possibility. Instead God began to teach me what it really means to be a leader, a servant-leader. At this point, I began to see how God had hand-picked each person that was on this team. These were not just 7 bodies that were filling up space on a team, but God had brought together 7 specific people with specific abilities, gifts, and experiences.
Each person on this team humbly and diligently gave of their time over those last 4 weeks to plan, organize, and aquire supplies for this trip. When I came back from Haiti, 90% of the planning for the VBS was done! I want to give special props to Kristin, who organized all the trip logistics (transportation, housing, food, etc.), and Kim, who was in charge of the overall direction and planning of the VBS. While the whole team poured their hearts and souls in to getting this all together, those two took on an especially large chunk of responsibility and both did an amazing job. Thank you!! I also want to thank Danielle, who wasn't able to go with us to LA but helped out with a lot of the planning, and Ellie Greenhalgh at COS who helped us with general direction and really gave us great encouragement in the beginning of our planning when we were feeling very overwhelmed.
God did many other amazing things during the preparation of this trip. To quote St. John, "If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written." To just mention a couple, ask Al how we received over a hundred beanie babies for FREE and ask Kristin how we were able to build parts for 80 tool boxes in just days before we left (that meant 640 cut pieces of wood and over 2000 holes drilled). All in all, God used the preparation time to really build our faith in Him. He gave us exactly what we needed, exactly when we needed it. Not too much or too little, neither too soon nor too late. It was much like the experience that Gideon went through in chapter 7 of the book of Judges.
I hope you've seen a glimpse of the way God worked before we even left for this trip. Join us in praising Him and thanking Him for His faithfulness. Now let's talk about what happened on our journey to and through Slidell, Louisiana...
Our Group (from left to right): Kristin, Kim, Jess, Me (Ben), Al, Paul, and Mike
Journey to Slidell- The Adventure
While I know it's long, I hope you were able to read "The Background," but if not, here are the highlights. Seven of us crazy people went down to Slidell, Louisiana to do a Vacation Bible School as a part of the community outreach of Faith Bible Church (faithbibleslidell.com). In the preparation for the trip, we saw God work in a number of ways that strengthened our faith and trust in Him and brought us closer together as a group. Praise God!
A photo of our group on July 4th, from left to right: First row is Kristin and Jess, Second row is Myself, Al, Kim, and Paul, and in the back is Mike.
To get to Louisiana, three people flew and four drove (including me). The drive went great and was a good time for Mike, Kristin, Paul, and me to get to know each other. And even though we kept it near the speed limit, it only took us 18 hours to go over 1,200 miles! That's four and a half hours quicker than what Mapquest said it would take!! Another little known fact about that stretch of road, it contains the most words with the letter "J" than any other stretch of road in the entire world (sorry, it's an inside joke). Thank you all for your prayers as we traveled, and thank you God for your constant protection. When we arrived in Louisiana, we took a jaunt over to Gulfport, Mississippi to pick up the other three from the airport. On the way back we took a tour of some of the damage along the shore. It was unbelievable. Where entire subdivisions of houses had been, there was nothing. Most of the debris had been cleaned up by this time, so it street after street of just foundations of houses. The emptiness of it all was eerie. Then every now and then you would see a random boat on the side of the road thousands of feet from the ocean. The hurricane had literally just picked them up and plopped them down in the most random of places. We even saw one that had landed on somebody's house. And then every now and then there was a house that was untouched, as though the hurricane went right around it. I didn't take any pictures; they wouldn't have done it justice anyways. It was a lot to take in, and we were still pretty tired from driving through the night before, so after dinner at a good Mexican restaurant, we headed back to the church and went to sleep. Well, actually we were planning on going to sleep, but a bunch of us went crabbing instead! Yeah, real down on the bayou crabbing. It was a good time and Kristin caught one monster of a crab.
See how excited Jess is to go crabbing!
Sunday we had an awesome time of worship at Faith Bible, and then at night we went out to the neighborhood where we would be doing our VBS and handed out fliers and invited kids to come the next morning. It was cool to see the park where we would be working and to get an idea of the neighborhood we would be serving. The neighborhood is middle class and underwent severe flood damage during the hurricane. Flood waters filled the first 8 feet of the whole subdivision for over 3 days. Since most of the houses where one-story, these families had lost everything, and when we arrived they were almost all still living in FEMA trailers that had been installed on their front lawns. After seeing all this damage, we knew that kids that we would be working with would need a lot of love and attention. But how would we provide the one-on-one time they needed if we had 80 kids and there were only 7 of us?
The park where we held VBS
Kristin cleaning out the port-a-potty where someone had left us a special suprise. Kristin rocks!
Well, on Monday morning, we saw God's faithful provision again. We had only 6 kids come for VBS! At first that seems a bit disappointing, but God knew that these kids needed extra special attention. Most of their parent's time is spent working on their houses and other tasks, so their time with an good adult influence is limited. By God's gracious plan, the seven of us were able to spend an enormous amount of time one-on-one with the kids. The most kids we had at any time that week was 15. The week before a team of 60 people had come down to do another VBS at Faith Bible in a different area; can you imagine if they only had 6 to 15 kids come each day? It was just another example of God working out His plan in His way. And what a blessing it was for us to spend so much time with these kids. Each day we would sing songs, have a skit, do some crafts, and play some great games. We were also able to share the gospel with them through a time of Bible teaching and through the love we showed them every minute of the day.
Tyler and I building tool boxes, where we put our "tools" like a children's bible, a prayer journal, and a gospel bracelet.
The awesome skit team, from left to right: Hammerinski,
Plierson, Wrencher, Jigsaw (who really loves jumping jacks!), and Coach Parking Lot (aka Mike) who did an awesome job preparing and leading the skits!
Our morning ralley where we sang songs, had a skit, and did our Bible teaching
The best part of the week was getting to know our kids. It was such a blessing to get to know them and to see their personalities come out over the week. These were the most respectful and fun kids I have ever met. Let me introduce you to some of them:
Monica. This was the cutist girl. The first day, when her mom came to pick her up, she exclaimed, "Mom, this is the best camp you've ever taken me to!!" Her mom replied, "Honey, this is the only camp I've ever taken you to."
D'Sean. She is possible the most athletically talented young girl I've ever met. She also was extremely giving and thoughtful. One of my personal favorites :)
Tyler. He was a bit of trouble some times, but with a bit of extra attention and positive reinforcement, we saw the best come out of him.
Robbie. This one was all smiles. And he loved to show people his "huntin' hat
James. He lived across the street, and after some coaxing joined us in the VBS fun.
Kyle. This little fella was full of energy, and while at first very shy, he became very attached to Mike.
Hadi. His family is from Syria, and while he only spent about a half hour with us before he ran home, we later learned that it was the first half-hour he had ever spent away from his mom and dad.
D'Lane. As you can tell from that smile, this was one awesome kid. He loved to play ball-tag and was always willing to help out.
When we weren't hanging out with these great kids, we were helping to prepare a site where another group would come the following week and do VBS for a different neighborhood. Also, on the fourth of July we were able to take the afternoon and night off and enjoy a great time of fellowship and fun. A family from Faith Bible, the Benoir's, invited us to a BBQ at their home complete with swimming in their pool! that was an extra special treat since it was so hot. Then that night, we traveled to downtown New Orleans to catch the fireworks and to see some of the city.
The very generous Benoir Family
New Orleans
Jess and Kim watching the fireworks.
Ohhh!
Ahhh!
To cap off the week, we held a big block party bash on Friday night at the park. Many people from the neighborhood came out and we celebrated with music, cotton candy, sno cones, and a big bouncy blow up thingy (you know what I mean). Also the kids that attended the VBS sang the songs they learned and we presented the park benches that we built and the kids painted. It was a great time to meet more people from the community, especially the families of the kids we'd been with the whole week.
The kids singing
One of the benches we built and the kids painted
As you can see, the week was an amazing blessing from God. He provided in so many ways. One of the most obvious was the weather. We had no back-up plan if it rained, so if the weather did not cooperate, VBS would be canceled. And until this point, there had been no rain for over 40 days, but the week we showed up it was suppose to rain everyday! So we prayed and we prayed and we prayed. We claimed the promise from James 5, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years." Relying on the righteousness that Christ has given to us, we prayed in faith and God answered. It rained everyday and nearly all the time, but never during our VBS. And on friday it was suppose to pour all night, so we prayed. not even a drop fell. It was amazing. I could write on and on, but I won't, so if you want to hear more awesome God-size stories, please grab me and ask!
I hope from what I wrote above you've gathered about 100 different things to praise God for. Some things to pray for are:
1. The seeds of the Gospel that were planted in these kids. That they would make Jesus their foundations.
2. For the encouragment and the salvation of their parents.
3. For the reconstruction effort and sustained work of the church in the Louisiana and Mississippi area.
4. For God's blessing and continued direction with Faith Bible Church.
I would like to give a huge thanks to the team for an awesome week. The unity we had was amazing and the times of fellowship and service we had together were an enourmous encouragment to me. Thank you to all those who supported us through prayer and financial giving, especially my family and Church of the Saviour. Lastly, thank you God for seeing it fit within your plan to use us in this way and for loving us so much that you sent your Son to redeem this world from destruction and death.
A photo of our group on July 4th, from left to right: First row is Kristin and Jess, Second row is Myself, Al, Kim, and Paul, and in the back is Mike.
To get to Louisiana, three people flew and four drove (including me). The drive went great and was a good time for Mike, Kristin, Paul, and me to get to know each other. And even though we kept it near the speed limit, it only took us 18 hours to go over 1,200 miles! That's four and a half hours quicker than what Mapquest said it would take!! Another little known fact about that stretch of road, it contains the most words with the letter "J" than any other stretch of road in the entire world (sorry, it's an inside joke). Thank you all for your prayers as we traveled, and thank you God for your constant protection. When we arrived in Louisiana, we took a jaunt over to Gulfport, Mississippi to pick up the other three from the airport. On the way back we took a tour of some of the damage along the shore. It was unbelievable. Where entire subdivisions of houses had been, there was nothing. Most of the debris had been cleaned up by this time, so it street after street of just foundations of houses. The emptiness of it all was eerie. Then every now and then you would see a random boat on the side of the road thousands of feet from the ocean. The hurricane had literally just picked them up and plopped them down in the most random of places. We even saw one that had landed on somebody's house. And then every now and then there was a house that was untouched, as though the hurricane went right around it. I didn't take any pictures; they wouldn't have done it justice anyways. It was a lot to take in, and we were still pretty tired from driving through the night before, so after dinner at a good Mexican restaurant, we headed back to the church and went to sleep. Well, actually we were planning on going to sleep, but a bunch of us went crabbing instead! Yeah, real down on the bayou crabbing. It was a good time and Kristin caught one monster of a crab.
See how excited Jess is to go crabbing!
Sunday we had an awesome time of worship at Faith Bible, and then at night we went out to the neighborhood where we would be doing our VBS and handed out fliers and invited kids to come the next morning. It was cool to see the park where we would be working and to get an idea of the neighborhood we would be serving. The neighborhood is middle class and underwent severe flood damage during the hurricane. Flood waters filled the first 8 feet of the whole subdivision for over 3 days. Since most of the houses where one-story, these families had lost everything, and when we arrived they were almost all still living in FEMA trailers that had been installed on their front lawns. After seeing all this damage, we knew that kids that we would be working with would need a lot of love and attention. But how would we provide the one-on-one time they needed if we had 80 kids and there were only 7 of us?
The park where we held VBS
Kristin cleaning out the port-a-potty where someone had left us a special suprise. Kristin rocks!
Well, on Monday morning, we saw God's faithful provision again. We had only 6 kids come for VBS! At first that seems a bit disappointing, but God knew that these kids needed extra special attention. Most of their parent's time is spent working on their houses and other tasks, so their time with an good adult influence is limited. By God's gracious plan, the seven of us were able to spend an enormous amount of time one-on-one with the kids. The most kids we had at any time that week was 15. The week before a team of 60 people had come down to do another VBS at Faith Bible in a different area; can you imagine if they only had 6 to 15 kids come each day? It was just another example of God working out His plan in His way. And what a blessing it was for us to spend so much time with these kids. Each day we would sing songs, have a skit, do some crafts, and play some great games. We were also able to share the gospel with them through a time of Bible teaching and through the love we showed them every minute of the day.
Tyler and I building tool boxes, where we put our "tools" like a children's bible, a prayer journal, and a gospel bracelet.
The awesome skit team, from left to right: Hammerinski,
Plierson, Wrencher, Jigsaw (who really loves jumping jacks!), and Coach Parking Lot (aka Mike) who did an awesome job preparing and leading the skits!
Our morning ralley where we sang songs, had a skit, and did our Bible teaching
The best part of the week was getting to know our kids. It was such a blessing to get to know them and to see their personalities come out over the week. These were the most respectful and fun kids I have ever met. Let me introduce you to some of them:
Monica. This was the cutist girl. The first day, when her mom came to pick her up, she exclaimed, "Mom, this is the best camp you've ever taken me to!!" Her mom replied, "Honey, this is the only camp I've ever taken you to."
D'Sean. She is possible the most athletically talented young girl I've ever met. She also was extremely giving and thoughtful. One of my personal favorites :)
Tyler. He was a bit of trouble some times, but with a bit of extra attention and positive reinforcement, we saw the best come out of him.
Robbie. This one was all smiles. And he loved to show people his "huntin' hat
James. He lived across the street, and after some coaxing joined us in the VBS fun.
Kyle. This little fella was full of energy, and while at first very shy, he became very attached to Mike.
Hadi. His family is from Syria, and while he only spent about a half hour with us before he ran home, we later learned that it was the first half-hour he had ever spent away from his mom and dad.
D'Lane. As you can tell from that smile, this was one awesome kid. He loved to play ball-tag and was always willing to help out.
When we weren't hanging out with these great kids, we were helping to prepare a site where another group would come the following week and do VBS for a different neighborhood. Also, on the fourth of July we were able to take the afternoon and night off and enjoy a great time of fellowship and fun. A family from Faith Bible, the Benoir's, invited us to a BBQ at their home complete with swimming in their pool! that was an extra special treat since it was so hot. Then that night, we traveled to downtown New Orleans to catch the fireworks and to see some of the city.
The very generous Benoir Family
New Orleans
Jess and Kim watching the fireworks.
Ohhh!
Ahhh!
To cap off the week, we held a big block party bash on Friday night at the park. Many people from the neighborhood came out and we celebrated with music, cotton candy, sno cones, and a big bouncy blow up thingy (you know what I mean). Also the kids that attended the VBS sang the songs they learned and we presented the park benches that we built and the kids painted. It was a great time to meet more people from the community, especially the families of the kids we'd been with the whole week.
The kids singing
One of the benches we built and the kids painted
As you can see, the week was an amazing blessing from God. He provided in so many ways. One of the most obvious was the weather. We had no back-up plan if it rained, so if the weather did not cooperate, VBS would be canceled. And until this point, there had been no rain for over 40 days, but the week we showed up it was suppose to rain everyday! So we prayed and we prayed and we prayed. We claimed the promise from James 5, "The prayer of a righteous man is powerful and effective. 17 Elijah was a man just like us. He prayed earnestly that it would not rain, and it did not rain on the land for three and a half years." Relying on the righteousness that Christ has given to us, we prayed in faith and God answered. It rained everyday and nearly all the time, but never during our VBS. And on friday it was suppose to pour all night, so we prayed. not even a drop fell. It was amazing. I could write on and on, but I won't, so if you want to hear more awesome God-size stories, please grab me and ask!
I hope from what I wrote above you've gathered about 100 different things to praise God for. Some things to pray for are:
1. The seeds of the Gospel that were planted in these kids. That they would make Jesus their foundations.
2. For the encouragment and the salvation of their parents.
3. For the reconstruction effort and sustained work of the church in the Louisiana and Mississippi area.
4. For God's blessing and continued direction with Faith Bible Church.
I would like to give a huge thanks to the team for an awesome week. The unity we had was amazing and the times of fellowship and service we had together were an enourmous encouragment to me. Thank you to all those who supported us through prayer and financial giving, especially my family and Church of the Saviour. Lastly, thank you God for seeing it fit within your plan to use us in this way and for loving us so much that you sent your Son to redeem this world from destruction and death.
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