Farm Drive Neighborhood Center

Various Events

2011-09-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

This past summer...Dave Finkle and Jonathan Camacho took some of the Junior High School boys on a weekend trip backpacking in the Sierras. They backpacked into Spicer Meadows and did some fishing, hiking, and swimming. It was the first time for some of the boys to go backpacking and of course there was a lot of complaining!

July....After a trip to Lake Tahoe for Patty and I, we took some kids to San Francisco. Started in Daly City by taking Bart into the Civic Center and then waiting in line to take a Cable Car over to Fisherman's Wharf. After walking around the Wharf we walked down to Ghiradelli Square for some ice cream. Then we took the same route back to the car. We all loved the Cable Car! The other pictures are of our visit to The Planetarium in San Francisco, a drive up in the mountains and the Junior High girls on a beach trip.

Homework Club Kicks Off

2011-09-14T18:49:00.001-07:00

We've kicked off our new fall season of Homework Club. Another set of full groups with kids on waiting lists. Pre-Kinders started off with a new teacher this year as Margaret Coutts stepped down last Spring. We are very excited and happy to have Dawn Escobedo oversee the class!

Monday and Wednesday we have the younger kids - 1st thru 5th grade. The picture below is of the kids on their first day at Homework Club.

After we all meet together, we break into small groups by grade and work with the same leaders every week. This small group model has proved very successful as it allows us to develop deep and meaningful relationships with the kids. This is Lee and the 2nd graders. Then Gretchen with the 4th and 5th graders and lastly, the Pre-Kinders.

Hillside Fall Kick Off Picnic

2011-09-14T18:27:00.000-07:00

Sunday September 11th was the annual Hillside Church Picnic held at Oak Meadow Park in Los Gatos. It is always a fun time of sharing food, playing games, and spending time with friends. 4 of the Farm Drive kids helped with the food preparation and below you can see them cooking sausages.

The watermelon eating contest by church staff was the most popular spectator event. Below you can see our fearless director Gary sucking down the sweet red melon!

Of course going to Oak Meadow would not be complete without a ride on the small steam train that takes you around the park and the neighboring Vasona Park. Here are some of our kids enjoying the ride.

Another contest is the ever popular Kajabi Can Can. One of our younger girls is making it tough on the boys. Go Samantha!

Help Wanted, or better Help Needed!

2011-08-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

Farm Drive Neighborhood Center

The Pre-Kinders Class and Homework Club started back up the week of August 29th. We have many volunteers helping kids. This is the schedule for now but changes could be made as we see how many kids sign up. If you can help even one day a week, we can use you! We had about 65 kids between Pre-Kinders and High School that were a part of the Center last school year.

Pre-Kinders: Monday & Tuesday, 10am - 11:30am
1st-4th Grade: Monday & Wednesday, 3pm - 5pm
5th grade - High School: Tuesday & Thursday, 3pm - 5pm
All Grades evening homework help: Tuesday & Wednesday, 5pm - 7pm
We can always use volunteers to help the kids with homework, work on flashcards, learning to tell time, etc.
If you are interested in giving two hours per week, and in return, we will promise you a BIG blessing, please email patty@hillside.org or gary@hillside.org, or call Patty at 408.781.5984 or Gary at 408.807.6809.

Trip to the City

2011-08-04T21:53:00.000-07:00

Took 5 kids to San Francisco. Started in Daly City with Bart to the Civic Center. Then took a Cable car to Fisherman's Wharf. Then walked to Ghiradelli Square. Had ice cream and took the Cable Car back. Here is a little video of the day.

A RECENT UPDATE

2011-07-27T09:13:00.000-07:00


		This is a recent update to the Farm Drive Prayer Team. It gives you a very good update of the goings on around the Center:

Prayer Team, I apologize for not giving a Hume Lake report sooner. I have been really busy. Below are 2 emails I sent Gary and 1 that Pete sent to Gary and I. I know this is long but it is oh so important, esp. for those of you that know the kids that went to Hume Lake . It gives you a glimpse into what went on the day the kids got back from Hume Lake (last Saturday). Take your time and see how prayer works!

What a whirlwind. Just got back from taking 2 trips of kids home along with all their stuff. So, Jose suggested we go out and talk. What we are going to do is meet back here at 5 (Dawn, Pete and I and kids) take them out to eat (sit down…they are tired of fast type food and they want to talk) and then we are going to your house to swim. They were all surprised that you weren’t here. Sergio said he wanted to touch your bald head. Jose was disappointed too. Kinda cute. You are loved.

Tons of kids coming up and giving them hugs and it went the other way around too. Our guys were going over to cars of kids and giving them hugs, fist bumps, etc. Laney, Greg Begum, Elise, Josh, Bryan and Greg K. all said our kids are amazing. Very fun to be around. Josh did tell me he had the guys (am guessing Alan and Kevin) clean up trash because they weren’t listening in chapel. Marlene commented that they are not now “the Farm Drive kids” but they are Hillside kids. There were 2 kids that don’t even go to Hume but they knew someone at Valley so they signed up. They said (Laura and the guy...he had a nick name) that they are now going to go to Hillside . They made big-time friends with our kids. Lots of people were saying “are you going tomorrow? Brent is speaking and Mark (Stickler) is speaking in high school. All our guys said yes, they will be there.

Alan said he and Kevin were the only hispanics. Javier said pretty much the same thing. But they all said they had a blast, that there was so much to do, the speaker was so so but they loved the band. They bought CD’s.

Greg Kompelien said they did great and he loved being their cabin leader. Sounds like they really bonded with him. Greg Belgum loves those guys too. They are all chums now.

They were hugging kids like the Scianna boys, Martinez kids, etc. Rocky said they are all amazing. I told Marlene “now you see why I live where I live?” She said no, you have to let go and let them come over to our place. Great idea!!!!

I will give you another report tonite when I get home. We will try to keep the cost down but I want to do a sit-down because then I know they will talk. If we just did fast food, we wouldn’t have enough time for them to really open up.

Patty

Gary, ok…so we went to Applebees. Good time. Heard lots of stories. Then we went to your place and swam. Jose Robert and Javier stayed inside and talked with Pete and I a long time about the trip. Was good. Then we all jumped in. Nice and warm. Just got back. Alan said at dinner that he accepted Jesus into his heart. Cool. He also talked a lot about jr high things boys do. He and Kevin had fun being jr. high boys. We will follow up on Alan for sure. Need to have a one on one talk.

We asked them what they learned. At first, most were mainly silly things (at least from Alan and Kevin) but Jose said that God loves me. Javier said something about God is even with you in the bad situations. Later on at your place they got deeper. Made us think that when a bad situation happens, Javier knows God will somehow work it out. Had a little talk about that. Was good. Had a long talk about Catholics, Christians, baptism, difference between the 2, forgiving of sins, very good stuff real laid back at your place while sitting in the living room.

Someone made the comment that “we need to tell all these stories again for Gary ”. Sweet.

They kept singing (or trying to) parts of songs they heard. Christian worship songs, esp. in the pool. They baptized each other in your pool…a lot of dunking! Justine Morrow I guess was baptized in the lake at the end of the week. They liked that. They were asking about getting baptized again.

You can really tell they were away at camp. Doesn’t sound like any of them missed their phones or ipods. Robert said it was hard to use the touch pad at first. They talked about Ruben and how they need to get him out of the house. They all agree that it was a great time.

TTFN, Patty

This one is from Pete sent Monday morning all about Sunday sent to Gary and I

Busy day and I thought I would give you 2 an update on the day. Of course most of the Hume kids went to church except Kevin and Robert. I guess I was a little surprised at Javier and Anahi, actually making it to Hillside . I had to make 2 trips to get them there. (Patty one trip). Total of 14 kids!

Jose and Anahi sat in church with other highs school kids. Jose actually was "grabbed" by his new friend and taken over to their section. We did not take them to lunch - too many. Greg Belgum came by at 1:30 and he picked up Javier, Jose, Sergio, Alan and Javier's sister. He had to watch her and the only way Javier could go was if I brought her back at 4:15. Greg invited me earlier at church and I planned to go anyway. We went swimming. James Martinez showed up also. I came back at 4:15 since I was going to go to the homeless ministry anyway. They boys said that since Patty was gone if we could do a movie night and I said sure come over at 7:30.

Robbie's church was feeding the homeless so I invited him afterwards to come join the movie night. He and Jeremiah came over. When I got back from the homeless ministry the boys were downstairs in apt. 2 with James Martinez and Anahi. I found out that James came over to practice / go over some worship music with Anahi and the boys joined in. According to James he worked with Anahi who wrote a song but needed music. So James helped out. They then just played and practiced worship music together for a couple of hours!

The boys chose 2 movies they were interested in. Both were R and with Alan there I said we needed a PG13 so we watched the Prestige. Near the end of the movie - Robert showed up. Then a little later Robert Escobedo and Brandon Gross showed up. At 10:30 pm these guys were hanging out in our apartment just being guys: Jose, Sergio, Alan, Javier, Robert, Robert E., Brandon, Robbie, James, Jeremiah, Greg Belgum! (and me). Robbie pulled me aside and said it was so cool to see all these guys mixing it up!

Pete

Prayer Team, last night Dawn and Ruben Escobedo , Amanda Schader , Pete and I and I took a bunch of kids to the drive ins, a first for pretty much all of them and we invited the Gathering guys small group. A bunch of them came and we had a blast! Probably 30 of us total. Relationships. Time. Relationships. Time. Relationships. Time.

As you can see from the emails Hume Lake was life changing time for the kids. They are still talking about camp, the friends they met, the high school group on Sunday and love they felt, the staff, the music, on and on and on. People like Ruben, Dawn, Amanda, Robbie, James, Greg, Ian (don’t even all go to Hillside but are involved here at The Center) really have built relationships with the kids and that is what makes the difference…that and all your prayers! God is so so good and we are really seeing a difference in the way these kids live.

Keep praying for Sergio, Jose, Javier and Robert that we will get one on one time with them to see where each is spiritually….and of course that they will make a decision (if they haven’t already) for Christ. Anahi is a believer. Pray for Junior Highers Alan and Kevin. Alan turned his life over to Jesus and we will talk with him.

Thank you for reading this long letter and please keep praying for all we do here at Farm Drive ! We are busy. Sometimes I get a bit tired and weary and then stuff like this happens and it reenergizes me for sure!

Patty, Pete and Gary for the whole Farm Drive Team

July Update from Gary

2011-07-07T07:09:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone:

Wow………….God is so good!!! There are so many good things happening at Farm Drive. The activity is enough to keep anyone young!!! We are in the middle of summer and are having a great time with the kids. Lots of good stuff!! I want to give you a little glimpse into some “God sightings,” and some praises and prayer requests here.

· Most of you know that a few of our kids expressed an interest in going to Hume Lake. That few has blossomed into TEN kids-----five high schoolers and five junior highers. Four of the junior high kids are on the waiting list, so pray that it will be possible to get them in. I sent out an email asking for prayer for our kids and Hume Lake, and I must say, I was elated that so many of you have committed financially to making it possible for them to go. Many of you have come up to me and said, “This could be life-changing for these kids.” Thank you so much for your generosity!!! We had the kids working at the Center today to earn their deposit money. They did an awesome job!!!

· We have kids regularly going to our Hillside youth groups on Wednesday nights. This is an answer to prayer and it is so awesome to see them so eager to go!!! Tonight, as we were dropping them off, one of the kids (Jose) took a phone call from someone, and I overheard part of it. He said, “…..I’m at my church……” Wow!!! My heart soared!!!

· And speaking of Jose…………….. he and Sergio just got back from a Sports Camp put on by the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. When I picked them up, Jose asked if he could talk to me about “something personal.” Of course, I said yes, and after some prompting, he said he needed to talk to me about Jesus. On Monday morning, I met with Jose. He told me about the camp, and about the times of testimony and worship that they had. It was obvious that he was touched by what he had heard, but he said he was “confused.” He did, however, have a really good grasp on what they were talking about, and about sin, and about who Jesus Christ is, and about his need for a relationship with Jesus. I told Jose that a lot of people have been praying for him for a long, long time. After we talked, he was not ready to make a commitment just then, but we prayed that God would make Himself real to him. Please pray for Jose and for the different leaders here who minister with him.

· Two of our kids, Elian Rivera (3^rd grade) and Eric Torres (5^th grade) both prayed to receive Christ during Bible Club!! Sweet!! There are so many people who had a part in these boys’ lives, and each one has been able to let them see a piece of Jesus through them!!! I guess Paul was right when he said that some planted, some watered and some harvested. A perfect example!!

· CRAM is going strong. This is our mentoring program for high school kids. We are probably adding five new 9^th graders to the program this fall. We were able to award our second laptop in June, when Dariela Salazar graduated from Gunderson High School. Very cool!!! There is one of our fringe kids, Elizabeth, who has all but dropped out of high school. School attendance isn’t important to mom, and so it isn’t important to Elizabeth. Enter her CRAM mentor, Paty Sayre. I saw Elizabeth a few weeks ago and she said that she was going out with Paty in the new few days. I asked how that was going. Elizabeth said, “She gives me homework.” “Homework??” I asked. “Yeah. She gave me math to do and last week she had me write an essay.” “Did you do it??” “Oh, yeah. I want to do it!!” And this is from a kid who doesn’t like school!!!! All it takes is someone who is committed to helping these kids a bit. Our end of the year reward for making grades was a trip to Six Flags up in Vallejo. The high school kids and the big kids who got to drive them had an awesome time.

· We attended four graduations in two days, handing out 20 balloons to our proud kids!!! It is so neat to be a part of these special events in the kids’ lives.

· Our Bike Ministry is still going strong. We have several committed guys----Brian Zylka, Jeff Moore, Dieter Haas and Dave Belgum, who try to get here every week to keep these kids rolling through the neighborhood. One of our ABF’s, Salt and Light, came down on a Saturday, worked on bikes, hung out with the kids and cooked them a hot dog lunch!! Very cool…………..

· We were able to get free tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium and the De Anza Planetarium this summer. Both of these trips were very educational. We had 22 kids and five leaders go to the Aquarium, and ten kids and two leaders go to the Planetarium. I still can’t see those constellations that they show………the Hunter, Orion, etc. Whatever…………I just have to believe!!! We went to see fireworks the other night and one of the kids lay down on the ground and looked up and said, “I see Orion.” Whatever………….. But I do believe!!!

· We had seven kids go to our “Reward Breakfast.” These are the kids who went to every Homework Day, from January to the end of May. This is the first year we have done this, and I already know that we will have a bunch more than seven next time. Hometown Buffet can be tempting, huh???

· Most of you know that my sister-in-law, Dona, passed away in June. She had been on our Farm Drive Prayer List for many months, and the kids would regularly ask how she was doing. The kids here showed real compassion when Dona passed away. I got hugs and many sincere “I’m sorrys” from our kids. They are sooooo cool. Dona’s death really opened the door for us to talk to the kids. Most kids don’t understand deep subjects like this. Some of them have already experienced this type of loss first-hand. We were able to talk to kids like Marcus Barajas, who lost his mom to cancer just two years ago, about such things as why some people die from cancer, and some don’t. God does open doors……..

· This weekend, we are taking two groups up to Camp MayMac to support Iglesia during their Family Camp. Our kids will be working with the younger kids from Iglesia so that the parents can be involved in the camp program. It is so neat to see them serving. This is why kids like Jose say, “I’m at MY church.” Isn’t that awesome????

Thank you for your continued support of Farm Drive. Your prayer for the kids and their families is vital to the ministry here. God is so good, and we keep seeing it over and over!!! May God bless you much!!!

Gary

Update From the Director

2011-06-24T07:17:00.001-07:00

Hello Everyone:

For a long, long time, we have been hoping and praying that our Farm Drive high schoolers would join in and become part of our Hillside High School group. This past Sunday, three of our guys went to the High School group and someone invited them to a beach party that was happening today. “Can we go,” they asked? Of course we said yes!!! This afternoon, six of our kids joined the Hillside High Schoolers on their beach trip. They had an awesome time!!!

Well, we picked the kids up at Church tonight, and got another question----“They were talking about Hume Lake. Do you think we could go??” Most of you know that our high schoolers go to Hume Lake every summer, and it is one of the most awesomely fun and spiritual times that one could attend!!! Four of our kids are drastically serious about attending. We get the feeling that at least two of these kids are on the verge of making a decision regarding salvation. Isn’t that awesome??? Do we want them to go to Hume Lake this summer?? Of course we do!!! Camp is in about three weeks. There is a minor stumbling block----the cost of the week-long camp is $495. None of these kids will be able to afford camp on their own, but I know that our God has a way to make this possibility into a reality.

Would you do me a favor??? Would you begin praying with us for Anahi, Javier, Jose and Sergio?? Pray that they will follow through with the camp applications. Pray that if it is truly God’s will, we can find a way to help these kids go to Hume Lake this year. And of course, if God lays it upon your heart to help financially, that would be awesome, too. Just let me know!!! This would be a true investment in the Kingdom!!

May God Bless you much!!!

Gary

PS: I hope to have a more complete update out to you this weekend. Watch for it!!! There is a lot going on!!

Weekend Camping Trip

2011-06-05T16:45:00.000-07:00

In May we had our annual camping trip to the coast. We have gone the last few years to Memorial Park but it was closed this year. We went back to Portola State Park near La Honda where we have been to in the past. It turned out not to be a very good weather weekend being cold with a chance of rain. We actually left Saturday night with a storm coming in. We spent the night at Gary's house and cooked breakfast there. But we did get over 24 hours of true camping. Below is Gary leading a talk around the campfire about what our fears are. Great discussion.

Some of the different things that we did were play board games.

The campsite as we prepared a meal. Everyone took part in helping cooking and clean up.

Saturday afternoon some of us went on a hike. Exploring the redwoods and the creek is always fun.

We found a rope hanging from a tree along the creek not far from our campsite. Although the water was extremely cold a few brave souls went for a "swim"! Brrrr!

This is the hiking group.

This is one of the best trips we do every year as it is a great time to build relationships and get away from the grind of every day life. The kids always love it. It always builds memories for everyone!

Comments from Mentors

2011-06-04T10:41:00.000-07:00

I have shared in the past about our CRAM program. We have just completed the 2nd school year of the program and here are a few comments about some of the work that is going on.

This first one is written by Patty (Havens) telling about a mentor, Paty S. and her relationship with a mentee:

I want to add one thing to all the mentors and that is that Elizabeth is feeling the love from Paty. They are meeting regularly, Paty is giving Elizabeth homework, and Elizabeth is actually doing the homework. Elizabeth is one of our harder to reach students. She is doing individual studies, only goes to school one day a week. We had no clue that Paty would be the perfect mentor for Elizabeth. Elizabeth feels love and care from Paty and for Elizabeth, that is huge.

The following comments are f rom Betty Watson, a mentor.

I also want to share with all of you some amazing and wonderful info about another Elizabeth, or as she prefers to be called “Eli”. Eli has had a very hard year losing a close friend about a year ago to death in a gang “drive by shooting”. She tells everyone in authority that I am her “advocate” and her Mom has actually signed papers legalizing that position for me in Eli’s life which has given me opportunity and open doors in both the school and the medical field with her doctors and counselor. It has been a long haul this year with Eli, up and down – in and out of school – meetings, appointments with doctors and counselors, school nurse, attendance personnel, etc.

But, finally in the last few weeks there has been a significant turnaround in Eli choices and attitudes. Yesterday when I picked her up after school she told me she was sorry the year was over and she was going to miss school. She also told me next year was a new opportunity for her to make good choices and have a fresh start. In the last month I am seeing a new Eli, whose attitude has changed; she smiles, talks, shares her feelings, made a cake to take to her class two weeks ago to share in a party there, took her camera to take pictures at the last Frosh pep rally, etc. All of a sudden she is coming alive in a way I have never seen before. Yesterday when she came up to my car to get in, she was glowing!! I told her she was beautiful. After school she told me others noticed and commented on how pretty she looked. I told her it was because she was smiling – even her eyes were shining with life. That her beauty was coming from inside her. (She tells me she has given her life to Jesus.

I will continue to take her to her weekly counseling appointments this summer which will keep us connected the next two months. We will do lunch along with those trips as well as some other little things. I pray God will continue to bring hope into Eli’s life as we continue to talk about what a relationship with Jesus looks like.

Also, Lupe just completed two entire years at Broadway yesterday. She just kept saying on the way home – “I can’t believe two whole years have gone by.” This is a huge accomplishment as she had only 30 credits toward her graduation requirement of 240 credits when she began at Broadway. It looks as though she may be able to graduate next February. She has also been getting special after school reading tutoring in the “Barton Program” two afternoons a week since February and this summer it will increase to 4 times a week. She is working so hard to learn to overcome her learning disabilities and to raise her son well! And she is doing it. Mikey is a bright little boy nearly 2 ½ years old. It is a joy to watch how much he is learning at school also.

I just wanted all of you to be encouraged at how God is working in these three lives. As my long time mentor always told me while at Farm Drive – “Keep pressin’ on”. God is faithful, He will use us if we show up. That is what keeps me going when I feel overwhelmed.

Have a wonderful summer in the Lord!! Blessings, Betty

Love and Faith Celebration Dinner

2011-04-02T16:59:00.000-07:00

On April 1st, Hillside Church had a Celebration Dinner starting off their Love and Faith Stewardship Campaign. They asked Ruben to cook the meal so he had some Farm Drive kids help with food preparation but more importantly, to serve the food. Below is the group getting last minute instructions.

We had two lines of people getting food.

Cristina was doing an outstanding job of serving. She was talking to everyone by name. Many were surprised that she knew their name not realizing they were wearing name tags!

Cristina and Jessica were in charge of drinks for the dessert.

Lupe and Dariela like to bake. They both would like to make a career out of baking. We asked them if they would like to bake the desserts for the Celebration. They did lots of different types of cookies, cupcakes, and cakes. They did an excellent job.

Since Farm Drive is one of the recipients of some of the money raised during this campaign, they asked if we had somebody who would share about their experiences. Jose, below, shared how the Center has made an impact on his life and on his family too!

Group picture! We had a very long and hard day with preparation, serving, and cleaning up. But it was well worth it! What a great team!

A Couple of Park Days

2011-04-02T16:15:00.000-07:00

A couple times a year the kids have a day off due to a holiday or a teacher in service day. With the kids not having much to do, we schedule different events. Even with the lousy weather this past winter, we had a couple of park days where we got fortunate with the weather. The next two pictures are from Alamaden Park.

The next group of pictures were from another day at the park. This is at Hellyer Park. Beautiful Park.

Played a little Bocce Ball. A few of our helpers - Lee, Kay, and Amanda with Michael.

The whole gang. Taking the picture is Gary's friend from Kosovo who was visiting him. He is currently in college in Texas.

Crystal's Quinceanera

2011-04-02T14:33:00.000-07:00

Crystal who is a part of the Center had her Quinceanera last week. A few of us were involved as Padrina's. Below is Crystal with Ruben and Gary. One of the things they do at a quinceanera is Crystal picks kids to be a part of a special dance. They are called chambelanes. They practice a special dance, in Crystal's case, a waltz, with the birthday girl. Below is some of the chambelanes actually performing the waltz during the ceremony. Two of the chambalenes were Sergio and Jose who are here pictured with Rocky Martinez. Lesley, Jose, Sergio, and Crystal's brother Fidel were all Chambelanes. The next little guy is Crystal's other little brother, Danny. Rocky and Crystal. Rocky is Crystal's mentor in the CRAM program at the Center. It was a fun evening down in Morgan Hill. Us American's are not used to a slow relaxing pace for an event! It is supposed to be a time of just enjoying the moment with friends and family and if it takes a long time to get through the planned events, that's ok. Just need to be out of the place by one in the morning!

Special Education Certificate

2011-03-29T14:31:00.000-07:00

I just realized that we have not posted here in about a month. Kinda get busy and forget to post some updates of the goings on around here! Last night Gary, Patty, and I (Pete) went to an awards presentation of a community Advisory Committee who started 3 years ago recognizing people and institutions who do outstanding work in the area of special needs in the San Jose Unified School District area. Someone nominated Farm Drive and we were recognized at the awards ceremony last night! Each person/group that was recognized had a short little tidbit on what they do and why they were nominated. Many were teachers from the district. It was truly an inspiring night! Below is our certificate! Good job Gary and Patty!

Update From the Director

2011-02-28T09:26:00.000-08:00

Hey Everyone:

I want to start by saying thank you for your continued support for Farm Drive. Things are happening down here. It is so neat to be part of such a vital and vibrant ministry. It is evident that God is on the move in the neighborhood. I hope that you are all doing well. I am currently in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, for a gymnastics tournament. No, no………….I am not competing!! I am a total spectator. Even trying to get up on that balance beam would be treacherous!!! We just wanted to update you on a few things happening in the neighborhood.

· In January, we took 10 of our older kids to the snow. Thanks to Mike and Terry Sodergren, we had a great place to stay. I don’t particularly like snow, but for some reason the kids love it!! We decided to “tell our stories” to the kids, and Patty, Pete and I each shared our journeys in life---all very different, but all with a consistent theme----God is in control and we can trust Him. Afterward, we gave each of the kids a time to share, and there were some very intimate moments, including broken families, families with substance abuse, split families due to deportation of a parent, etc. One of their consistent themes was that they find love and respect at the Farm Drive Neighborhood Center. No matter what our situation, God loves us and has something better in store for us. This was a highlight of my time at Farm Drive!!

· Earlier this year, we decided to open up the Center for homework extra homework assistance on Wednesday evenings. We started slow………..one or two kids and four or five leaders. For the last several weeks, we have been having 8-10 kids show up for help. Not bad when we are dealing with 3rd and 4th grade homework. Know what these kids are learning now?? Try graphing equations, figuring out which elements have negative ions, solving quadratic equations by completing the square, etc. Remember that stuff??? I remember hearing about them!!! Math was a really easy subject for me in school, but I tell you what---a lot of that is gone from my memory now!! If you have math and science skills, we could sure use you!!! Talk to Patty or me for more details. One of our most recent attendees is Ruben T, who has kind of written school off…..it’s just not important. For the last few weeks, he has been attending and I admire him for the strides he is making!!

· Several of our kids are helping out at Hillside on Sunday mornings. For several months, Sergio and Jose have been ushering for the first service. Now Alan has joined in the usher ranks!! These three guys are also helping in the nursery when needed, and are joined by Crystal, Jessica and Inez. It’s good to see the kids in “serving roles.” Oh, talking about serving-----we have about 12 kids who are going to be serving at the Faith and Love Beyond Ourselves Celebration banquet on April 1st. Normally, our resident caterer, Ruben Escobedo HIRES the kids to work events and pays them for their service. We asked them to consider helping to serve at this event with no pay, to give back to Hillside for all of the things our Church has done for them. EVERYONE OF THE KIDS WE ASKED IS EAGER TO SERVE!!! Isn’t that neat??? Please mark your calendar----this is an event that you won’t want to miss. One of our kids will be sharing his experience with the Farm Drive Neighborhood Center. I’m eager to hear what he has to say!!!

· Our CRAM Program is moving along. We have seven kids who “made the grade” for this past grading period. This is AWESOME. Some of them are just below the mark, and are trying hard to get their grades up. Each of these kids was given a gift card to Panda Express as a reward for achieving their goal. We have a Hillside member who is contributing $5 for every “A” during a grading period, and as soon as our wandering CRAM Director (Becky Kompelien) comes back from Africa, we will be giving out $100 for “A”s. Very cool. I do have to tell you about Omar. Omar had pretty much straight “F”s at the end of the first semester in December. I had a long talk with him about the importance of education and all that. He did tell me he would try harder this semester. About a week before the end of the grading period, Omar texted me and asked if I had checked his grades. I told him that I had not had a chance and asked what his grades were. He told me he had four “A”s and two “B”s. I remember looking at Patty and saying, “I don’t know if he’s messing with me, or what.” Well, he wasn’t!!! When I asked him what changed, he said, “I gave you my word that I would try.” Talk about commitment!! Isn’t that awesome???

· We recently had a momentary slip in judgment and scheduled what we called “19 Hours of Fun”, an overnight experience lasting, duh, 19 hours!!! What were we thinking??? We had 23 kids and nine leaders (five stayed all night!!). We played in the park, we BBQed, we played Wii, Farkle and Wii, we made cookies-----and several of the braver kids even swam!! What fun these kids are. We made it through all 19 hours, and had all 23 kids at the end………….and they were even the same kids we started with!!! This is the stuff memories are made of!

· A few of our older kids have expressed an interest in participating on a short-term missions trip to Kosovo this summer. They have heard me talk about my experiences and the work we do that, and are interested in checking it out. I know it would be an eye-opener for them. It is a bit more costly than other trips we take with the kids and we will need some divine intervention to work out finances. Please pray with us about direction for this trip. If it is something that God wants us to do, He will work it out.

Thank you so much for all you do to support the ministry at Farm Drive. Kids and families are being touched on a regular basis. We could not do it without your prayers and financial support. May God Bless you as you have blessed the families in the neighborhood!!!

Gary

19 hours of fun - praying for dinner

2011-02-26T13:36:00.000-08:00

Another video shot that night. Turn up your volume...pretty cute.

19 Hours of Fun - Wii playing at Gary's

2011-02-26T13:25:00.000-08:00

During the week of February 21st, the kids were out of school for the holidays. Numerous events were planned but the first one was called 19 Hours of Fun. From 3 pm on Monday afternoon until 11 am the next day, 20 kids plus a few adults spent the time at Gary's house. From playing at the local park, to swimming, to playing different games, playing cops and robbers at the park in the dark, the time was packed with fun. Here are a few videos I took. More pictures later.

When 1000 Grandmothers Pray

2011-02-15T15:49:00.000-08:00

Gary, Patty and I went to a CCDA Regional Conference (Christian Community Development Conference) this past weekend. At lunch Gary and I met Loretta. She goes into various girls homes and foster homes and just hangs out with the girls. She has also met a lot of women like her that are older and society tells them they don't have much to offer. But she says we can pray for these girls. She started a blog and sends out emails to grandmothers who sign up for her blog to pray for different girls every week.

The blog is called When 1000 Grandmothers Pray.

She sure was inspiring to talk to. I hope and pray that I can be that focused and determined at that age!

Check it out.

Extra Homework Assistance

2011-02-07T11:13:00.000-08:00

A few of us guys who work during the afternoons but who would like to help out with homework assistance are coming to the Center on Wednesday evenings to help anyone who needs extra help. We are there from 5 to 7 pm and we are open for all neighborhood kids, which is different than Homework Club where kids are in a small group and have to sign up.

We still have about 10 kids who are on the waiting list to join Homework Club so this is a perfect time for them to get homework help. Also the older kids have a lot more homework every day so this gives them extra help since they only come 2 days a week to Homework Club. This allows them to get more time on a computer to do the reports that they need to get done.

A big thanks to Dieter Haas, Art Hori, Danny Read, Becky Kompelien, plus Gary, Patty and myself for volunteering their time to help out. Every week the kids keep us all pretty busy. We started out 2months ago with maybe 2 to 4 kids showing up but the past 3 weeks we have had 8 to 10 kids show up! If you have 2 hours on Wednesday's from 5 to 7, see Gary, Patty or I or just show up! We especially need help with Junior High and High School math, algebra, geometry
and science. Also kids are always needing the computer to write things, research and do reports. It's nice to have someone sit by them and help them out.

It's the little things that help and add up. I helped a neighborhood college gal last week by helping her with her taxes. She got her first job last year and needed help filling out the tax forms. She is going to be getting money back! Actually because of Obama's work credit program she is getting more back than she paid into the system!

Older Kids Snow Trip

2011-02-03T19:25:00.001-08:00

The last couple of years we have taken kids to the snow to play and yes, to get cold. This year we decided to divide the older kids from the younger ones so we will be going twice. Using a cabin so graciously donated by some friends, we took 10 junior high/high school kids up near Pinecrest Lake. Below is one of the car loads on the way up.

We got up early Saturday morning and headed to a spot along the river near Strawberry. We were the first ones there but the snow was like ice and it was cold. Great tube run...a bit dangerous but super fast!

Angie, Inez, Briseida, and Crystal all looking pretty... even in the cold.

Jose catching some air! Of course it hurt!

As you go through these photos notice the smiles.

Who needs a sled or tube? It was fast enough without saucers or tubes.

Here's the whole crew minus Patty who took the picture. A large crowd started to show up so we moved on over to Pinecrest Lake for lunch. They had picnic tables on the beach. Snowy, not sandy.

The lake was mostly frozen. Everybody likes to try and break the ice. Notice the rocks on the ice. A few of the kids even tried to step out onto the ice despite our protests.

We came back to the cabin for dinner and a chance to kick back.

We had some times together where we shared our "stories". Patty, Gary, and myself (Pete) each shared why we were at Farm Drive but also where God has led us over the years of our lives. We encouraged the kids to share their stories too. It was really a neat time of bonding and building of relationships.

The team

Chinese New Year Fireworks Farm Drive Neighborhood

2011-02-03T10:56:00.000-08:00

This is what it is like to live here in Farm Drive year round. We get to experience the fullness and richness of our neighbors culture! They started shooting off the fireworks around 9 pm in the evening but it really got going at midnight for almost non-stop for 30 minutes. This video is taken right out our back window looking down to the parking lot of our neighbors. They were running around with a band of fireworks, wrapped around their shoulders or their waist! It would finish and they would yell Happy New Year in English. Then start another pack. Next morning it was a wasteland of red paper/graffiti from the fireworks. Seemed to be more than in year's past. A sign that the economy is picking up?

A Nice Note From a Student

2011-01-08T07:51:00.000-08:00

Patty received this nice note from one of our High School students for Christmas:

Dear Patty,
When we barely started to go to Farm Drive, I thought you were really nice and before I thought you were just nice to us because we were new but while the coarse of the time I saw you and all the leaders were just really nice to all of us. I know I don't really go to church but I have learned to just leave all my faith to God and He will lead me to my correct path. He has taught me to believe in Him and never doubt and even though sometimes you end up with questions at why things happen He then with the coarse of time gives me the answer. Thank you soo much for all you have done for me and my family. We all enjoy having Farm Drive in our life. May you and your family have a great Christmas!
Love
Crystal Perez

Gary also received a nice note from Crystal. All of this to say we are very blessed and we are happy knowing we are exactly where God wants us to be.

Trip to Old Town Sacramento

2011-01-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

One of our trips during the Christmas break was to Old Town Sacramento. We took the kids to the State Capitol. Here is a picture of the Capitol to prove that we were there.

We came across a guy who had a pickup that just came down the from the mountains and he had fresh snow in the back. He let the kids take some and start a little snow ball fight.

And of course we had to stop and eat lunch at Fanny Ann's. We had fun outside the restrooms watching the kids go in the wrong bathroom! Look closely at the signs!

We stopped by a Russian shop. The shop worker just came from Russia a few months back and entertained the kids with a few magic tricks. They loved him. Patty got to buy some cool nesting dolls so she was happy too.

The one room school house was open so it was nice to show the kids what is was like over 100 years ago.

On the way back we had to stop by Leatherby's Ice Cream shop and stuff our faces!

A stop by the Governors office in the Capitol.

Outside the Train Museum.

A Few Other Events

2011-01-01T10:37:00.000-08:00

December had us going on more than just a few day trips. The main reason we do these activities is to build relationships. We were able to get some free tickets for the Holiday Train of Lights on the Niles Canyon Railway. We had about 20 kids that we took on the train.

Santa made a visit on the train.

Some of the group in front of our engine.
While the kids were out of school we also took a trip to the mountains to one of the Christmas tree farms and picked out and cut a tree for the Center. Everyone got to take a few cuts on the tree.

On an earlier post we showed the younger boys and a night out playing the Wii. While they were doing that the younger girls went over to Lucy's house for a night out. They wore their pajamas, played games, had pizza and watched Mary Poppins!

Yet another fun day. . . Ken Caveney loves to do Geocaching and wanted to take kids out and show them how to do it. Gary bought a GPS and they went out looking for the cache. You use a GPS loaded with locations and you use them to find the cache (treasure). Once you find the cache you sign a book that is inside the cache. Below is one of the caches they found. We will be doing more geocaching as the kids had a blast! We really like the fact that you have to use your brain to find these things.

High School Christmas Party

2010-12-28T16:25:00.000-08:00

The High School Group (the Loft) from Hillside Church threw a Christmas party for the kids of Farm Drive. We took them to the church for some games as you can see below:

Then after this we jumped into a bus for a little trip to the Sonoma Chicken Coop for some chocolate fondue.

As with all kids the fondue will end up in places it is not designed for! The kids had a blast. Thank you Hillside High School Youth Group!

Annual Farm Drive Christmas Store

2010-12-23T19:19:00.000-08:00

This week, we had one of our largest Christmas stores EVER!! The kids normally go through and pick one gift for each member of their family, and one for themselves. This year, we were able to let them each get THREE extra gifts. You could see the smiles of joy on their faces!! We had a whole bunch of volunteers and we were able to assign a “personal shopper” to each kid! The shoppers carried their gifts while they continued to shop. What a special time.

After getting their gifts, the kids went to our “Wrapping Stations”, where other volunteers helped the kids wrap the gifts for their families. What fun!! I have included a couple of pictures so that you can see what a good time the kids had.

Before pictures!

And then the customers showed up!

Thanks to the volunteers that showed up to help. We couldn't have done it without you and to all those who donated the gifts! The kids and their families really appreciated this.
Word had spread around and we had a number of first time volunteers. We even had the CFO of a large corporation (Roche) show up and helped!

Wii Night for Younger Boys

2010-12-13T21:55:00.000-08:00

While the younger ladies had a Pajama and movie night, we had some of the younger boys up to our apartment to play Wii Mario Cart. 13 boys had pizza and played a round robin tournament. Below are a few of the pictures from the night.

These guys have been bugging us for awhile to have a Wii night just for them and not with the older boys. Since Patty was going to be out with the girls this presented us with an opportunity to do it now. We only had 4 signed up to play at 4:00 but when I came home at 5, 11 guys were waiting to play! A few more showed up and game on!

The challenge was that only 4 guys can play at a time. So what to do with the other 8 guys? Fortunately the games are not very long so they can switch off. One thing they learned is patience because they have to take turns so everyone gets a chance.

Gary has never played Mario Cart before so we had some kids teach him how to drive! I was able to record it for all to see!

Ice Skating in Downtown San Jose

2010-11-26T09:28:00.001-08:00

Last Sunday we took some of the kids to the ice skating rink which is downtown. It is near Christmas in the Park. We got some discount tickets through Groupon but we had to use them by Thanksgiving. Most had not ice skated before but a few of them have experience with roller blades which helps a lot with balance!

Of course, those without much experience landed on the ice quite a few times!

But they all had a lot of fun. You can tell by their smiles.

Here is the entire group that went ice skating. Patty, Gary and Ruben observed. They were not as adventurous as Pete. Afterwards we went to the Spaghetti Factory for a nice big lunch.

A Typical Thursday

2010-11-20T09:09:00.000-08:00

What did we do at Farm Drive this past Thursday?

* Went to 2^nd Harvest to pick up our weekly food order

* 3 families, just moved in to the neighborhood came to the Center and got 3 boxes of food, 4 bikes, 4 jackets from a Hillside person, and a bookcase from Hillside

* One person (know them well) needed to borrow $40 till pay day

* Went to the ladies club at Colonial Manor to talk to the ladies and received pennies they have been collecting all year

* One person came over needing to borrow $10 for gas till Saturday

* Went to the store to buy milk for Saturday Bible Club and 6 bags hot cheetos (reward for kids doing flash cards)

* Handed out 260 pounds of food throughout the day (got at 2^nd Harvest) to kids and families

* Dick Shore, our bike man was here for several hours working on bikes so it was fun actually finding homes for some that day

* Kids come to Homework Club arriving at 2:30 (anxious to get here) and are here till 5

* Kids played street hockey after Homework Club with guy leaders

A busy but blessed Thursday! Thanks for keeping us in prayer.

CRAM

2010-11-13T08:44:00.000-08:00

Last year we started a program called CRAM. Committed. Relational. Accountable. Motivated.

This is the Vision Statement:

That all willing and able students in the Farm Drive Neighborhood would graduate from High School and continue on to higher education or vocational/job skill training

Mentor relationships would be built through a sponsorship program between volunteers and students from the Farm Drive Neighborhood
CRAM would have significant positive impact on the broader sociological disadvantages which young people in the Farm Drive neighborhood face

Last year we had 7 students in the program and this year we have 17 students matched up with various mentors. One of the rewards for graduating High School is being given a laptop. Below is Cristina our first student to graduate as part of the program. Gary and Patty are presenting her laptop to her. She is continuing in the CRAM program as a college student.

Some exciting things are happening with our CRAM students. After the first grading period we awarded 9 students with $10 gift cards to McDonalds. The second grading period is complete and two sets of rewards will be awarded on Tuesday, Nov. 16 at the Center at 3:00 - 7 students will get $10 gift cards to Starbucks and we will begin our "Money for A's". A generous friend of FD is paying CRAM kids $5 for any A they get. We will be handing out $85 on Tuesday! We have invited all the CRAM kids to come even if they are not receiving a reward.

We are very proud of these kids for doing so well and we are very proud of their mentors too...for loving these students!

A Couple of Events

2010-11-06T08:41:00.000-07:00

Some other things have been going on this fall. I will briefly share them here. Patty was asked to be a "Nina" for Ellie's Quinceanera. This meant she helped with putting on the event meaning she bought the invitations that went out. It also meant that she was to be a part of a dance when all of the helpers are called out to dance with either the honoree or Chambelán, the escort for the gal. Below is Ellie with her escort, Ronnie. Both of them live in the neighborhood and have been a part of the Center.

The rest of her court entering the celebration with the dance procession:

Patty with Ellie and Cristina. It was a fun party and a great time to hang out with many friends and family that are a part of the neighborhood.

Another event: A blue whale washed up on shore near Pescadero a few weeks back. It appears that it was killed by a ship, getting cut up by the propeller. It was also pregant since they found a fetus nearby. We wanted to take some of the kids to see it since it is rare to see a blue whale that close. After church we took them over to Santa Cruz for lunch and then up the coast to see the 80' whale.

It already had been 2 weeks since it was found and so already was decomposing and smelling pretty bad.
Below is the group playing in the surf. Something about water and waves attracts kids!

Event #3: While I was away one day, Patty took some kids on a bike ride. They went from the Center and rode down to Alamden Park. Here is the group.

Street Hockey

2010-10-25T20:10:00.000-07:00

We recently had our annual Street Hockey Tournament which is put on by Sharks in the Park, a program run by the San Jose Sharks to provide street hockey training, gear, and an annual Street Hockey Tournament. We had 2 teams this year and they did very well. Below are some pictures of the tournament. Later that evening we were provided tickets by the Sharks to attend their exhibition game. Kids always look forward to that!

The older team:

Sharkie showed up and the kids always like getting their picture taken with him!

The younger team:

Older team again:

Group picture of the older team before the tournament. It was a warm day and this is not what they looked like at the end of the day! Robbie Ernst was their coach.

Younger group photo with Sarah Hale as coach:

Thanks so much to the coaches for their long hours put in for practice and games!

Cooking Classes

2010-10-23T15:43:00.000-07:00

One of the Adult Bible Fellowship classes at Hillside started a cooking class once a month for the boys and one for the girls. Their goal is to teach them how to cook basic items and just hang out. This class is a young married's class called Kallao. Take a look at one of the boys classes below. You can tell they had a great time.

Below are some of the girls making pie crusts from scratch. They then made pumpkin pie and apple crisp.

Group photo.

Another Saturday class where they learned to make pizza.

Their finished pies! And they were tasty. Thanks Kallao! The kids love these classes.

Vicki's Wedding

2010-10-16T21:56:00.000-07:00

A friend of Farm Drive and a frequent volunteer/mentor got married recently. She invited 11 kids that meant a lot to her Patty, Gary, and myself drove them to the wedding which was on the baseball field at Venture Church. Here are Vichy and Rigo reciting their vows:

It was a very warm afternoon but we got some nice seats in the back near the aisle.

After the wedding a picture with Anahi.

The entire group after the wedding.

Rigo with Alan.

The reception was at a local Community Cabana Club. Here is the group at their table in the back. The very far back!

Pumpkin Patch and Corn Maze

2010-10-16T15:21:00.000-07:00

Recently when the kids were out of school for a week for a furlough, we took the older kids to a corn maze in Hollister and the younger kids to a local pumpkin patch. The picture below is of the entrance to the corn maze. A field of tall corn that has a maze going through it.

At the maze they also had a huge air pillow that you could jump on. This was a huge hit.

Eventually they got Gary out on the pillow.

Here is the older group for a group picture.

The younger kids had fun on the bounce houses at the pumpkin patch.

Homework Center Update

2010-09-09T11:29:00.000-07:00

An update on the Homework Center needs:

Let me update you on what we still need as far as workers here at the Farm Drive Neighborhood Center . I sent out a plea 2 weeks ago and we did get some new volunteers. Yesterday I was helping Kay and Ruben with the 1^st/2^nd grade boys. 2 of those boys need one on one help. Carlos barely knows his letters!

Please be praying that we still get some more volunteers. I hate to see little kids like Carlos not get the help they need and basically some of them need one on one help. It’s not hard work…they just need one on one help…someone to sit by them and walk them thru their homework.

Here is what we still need in the way of helpers to help kids with their homework. . .

1 helper for Kinders (Kinder Kids) on Mondays from 3 to 4

2 helpers for 1^st/2^nd grade boys (Kays Kool Kids, Carlos’ group) on Monday and 2 helpers for Wednesday from 3 to 5

1 helper for 3^rd/4^th grade boys (The Sharks) on Wednesday from 3 to 5

1 helper for 3^rd/4^th grade girls (The Stars) on Monday and 1 helper for Wednesday from 3 to 5

1 helper for 7^th/8^th grade girls (The 49ers Got Skittles) on Thursday from 3 to 5

As you can see, we are filling spots but we still need help. Please pray for the workers to come forward. It may be YOU that God is calling. If you are not sure, then all we ask is that you give us a call and at least come one time and check us out. Doesn’t hurt to come by. I can guarantee that you will be blessed!

I enclosed Kays Kool Kids group picture. What a great group!

Patty y Gary

Update from the Director

2010-08-28T06:55:00.000-07:00

Hey Everyone:

Ever had one of those WOW MOMENTS?? We have been having a WOW MONTH!!! Things are hopping at Farm Drive. The kids are just finishing up their second week of school, and we get daily visits from many of them, just to tell us how school is going. It is soooooo cute!!

We have had over 80 kids register for Homework Club. About half of them are new---never been to Homework Club before. That is so awesome. Unfortunately, we don’t have room for all 80 kids. We are exploring ways to make it work, including maybe adding an evening session. Isn’t that cool??? Pray for wisdom for us as we wrestle with these decisions.

Last night was the first night of our Family Wellness/Parenting classes, hosted by our Hispanic congregation, Iglesia Libre. This is a ten (or so) week class taught in Spanish by Arturo and Anna Velarde, members of Iglesia. They came to the Center during National Night Out in August, and 17 people signed up. That was very encouraging, but last night when the classes were to start, there were only two people there. As my faith started to wane, people started to show up, and by the time things really got rolling, there were 16 people in the class!!! Many of those people brought their small children, and we provided childcare for 22 kids!! Thanks, Margaret and Patty, for stepping in and taking charge. We had kids inside, we had kids outside, we had kids inside-out……well, you get the picture!!! I got to do jump rope and the limbo with the mid-range kids. I had it made!! The reports back from Arturo and Anna were outstanding!! God truly answers our prayers, doesn’t he??

I just wanted to give you a glimpse into the Farm Drive Ministry, so that you can get a flavor of what is going on…..

Our Kollao ABF is teaching cooking to our older kids. A few weeks ago, we had five boys learning to make spaghetti. They made the sauce from scratch, including chopping onions, smashing garlic, and seasoning to taste. I contributed the method to test when the noodles are done. Yeah, that’s right, you throw them against the wall and if they stick, they are done….. OK, maybe it’s a guy thing…… And then, last weekend, nine of our girls made pizza from scratch. They got to make their own creations and then eat them. What fun we have had with these classes. Oh, did I mention?? This is going to be a monthly thing!!!

Several of our older boys have started attending Church with us on Sundays. A few months ago, one of them had told me, “I’m never going to Church.” Imagine my surprise when he showed up to go one Sunday morning!! God moves, even when we can’t!! Only a God like ours!!! Ruben Escobedo has pressed some of the boys into service ushering on Sunday morning. It provides a sense of belonging for them. Very cool…………

CRAM, our mentoring program, is already in full swing. We had nine high schoolers commit to being in the program last year. This year, we identified 11 more and had a meeting to gauge interest. Almost all of them showed up and voiced an interest in being involved. CRAM is a great program where we assign an individual mentor to each kid----someone who will monitor the kid’s attendance and performance in high school, and hopefully encourage them to some higher learning after high school. We do need mentors for these kids, too. If you are interested in giving some time back to this great program, please contact Becky Kompelien. We would love to have you. Also, please pray for these kids----for encouragement, for academic stamina, and for the commitment to follow through in CRAM.

Last weekend, Dave Finkle took seven of our older boys to Henry Coe State Park on a work project. Did you know that Coe Park is the largest State Park in California? I didn’t until one of the boys told me!! See Dave? They were listening!!! They worked, they hiked, they slept outdoors, they had fun………..and Dave had the opportunity to spend some quality time with them!! We are really seeing a difference in behaviors and attitudes!! God is on the move at Farm Drive!!

We are still in need of some volunteers for Homework Club. If you have one afternoon free each week, for just 2 hours, we would love to have you!! The places we really, really need help are Mondays ( 3^rd and 4^th grade boys), Mondays (2^nd and 3^rd grade girls) and Thursdays (7^th and 8^th grade girls). God will really bless you through these kids whom He loves sooooo much.

Thank you so much for your continued support----for your financial support, for you support in donating school supplies for the kids and most of all, for your prayer support. May God bless you in ways you cannot imagine!!

Gary

Read and Swim

2010-08-21T13:24:00.000-07:00

Kids don't like to read. Especially during the summer. But they like to swim. Over the years we have had many read and swim events. They spend some time reading to a leader and their reward is getting to swim for a few hours. this year we had 4 such events as this at Pinehurst (a local neighborhood swimming park) and also at Gary's house. Below Marcus reads to Rich.

Below is one of Read and Swim at Pinehurst. Pinehurst is a private club but we have a few members who attend Hillside and get us access a few times a year.

Some of the boys swimming at Gary's pool.

National Night Out

2010-08-21T13:02:00.000-07:00

Every year in August, the police association sponsors with local communities what is called National Night Out. It is an evening of food and coming together as a community to develop better ties between the police and the local community. We have done this the last 3 years but this year we really focused on having our neighbors bring the food. Below Erika from Iglesia Libre meets with some of our neighbors.

As usual we had some great food! And it kept coming all during the evening. We counted at one point over 125 people!

We are also partnering with Iglesis Libre (hispanic church that meets at Hillside) to offer a parenting class on Thursday nights this fall. A number of their members came this night to meet our neighbors and invite them to come to the class. We had 17 people express interest in the class! Below is our friend Jaime with Gary and myself.

5th Grade Girls

2010-08-18T21:34:00.000-07:00

Back in July, Patty and Kathy's small group went to the beach. Afterward they went to the Boardwalk and went on a ride. Went to dinner after that.

The cool thing is that they found out that Jackie has never been to the beach before! She just kept walking out in the water with her arms out. They asked her why and she just felt like doing it!

Boardwalk for Younger Kids

2010-08-17T19:54:00.000-07:00

Last Tuesday we took 10 kids to the Boardwalk. They had a great time albeit a very cold one!

Before we leave it is always a treat to buy a few funnel cakes! It is always a gastronomical delight! In more ways than one.

Below is a picture of the group. This trip and food was courtesy of Ron Whiting. Thanks Ron!

Update from the Director

2010-08-16T20:04:00.000-07:00

School is definitely upon us!!! Today was the first of three days of registrations for fall classes and Homework Club at the Neighborhood Center. We will be having groups for PreKinders, Kinders and kids from 1st thru 10th grades. We had a total of 39 sign up just today! We have over 20 new kids that have never registered to attend before. We can already tell that there will be kids on waiting lists, since some of our “regulars” haven’t even signed up yet. This is a good problem to have. Please pray that we get many new leaders so that every group will be staffed with at least two leaders. Groups will have no more than six kids and we like to have at least two leaders in every group. (Know anyone??? Send them our way!)

We have finished off our summer activities. This past week, we took two groups to the Boardwalk for some real old-fashioned fun. This was all courtesy of Ron and Serena Whiting, members of Santa Cruz Bible Church!! Thanks Ron and Serena!!! A couple of the older guys coerced me into a ride on the Double Shot, a ride that shoots you almost to the moon at breakneck speeds. When you get to the top, you free fall, and then, it’s up again!! Somewhere near the top, I think my tummy caught up with my body. What was I thinking??? Tamer rides like the Giant Dipper and the Hurricane are favorites of many of the kids. Have you ever had a deep fried Twinkie or funnel cake?? Wow!!!

August 3rd was National Night Out. Early in the evening, I counted about 112 people moving around the Center. Our friends from Iglesia Libre showed up and I would guess that, in total, we had between 150-175 people. It was a good time, with good food provided by our neighbors. One of the kids now calls me abuelo, which is Spanish for grandfather, but that’s another story!! On August 26th, Iglesia Libre will be starting a Family Wellness and Parenting class (in Spanish!!!) for the neighbors. About 17 of our neighbors signed up to attend!!! Praise God!!

We got to spend some quality time with the kids this summer. Well worth it!!! Our prayer is that they got to see Jesus in the times that we had together. They are a neat bunch of kids and relationships are truly being developed.

Please continue to pray for the ministry here. Pray for Pete and Patty, who live in the neighborhood. Pray for encouragement and stamina for them as the minister here 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Incarnational ministry isn’t always easy!! Pray for our kids, as they start school on Monday. Pray that they go back with good attitudes, and eager to learn. Pray for our CRAM program---this is our mentoring program. Last year, we had nine high schoolers sign up, and we identified seven more who will enter high school on Monday. And, we just thought of TWO MORE today!! We will be needing more mentors!!

May God Bless you for your continued support of the Farm Drive ministry. Thank you for keeping us in your prayers!!

Gary

gary's double shot

2010-08-14T08:40:00.000-07:00

We took some of the older kids from the neighborhood to the Boardwalk on Thursday the 12th of August. A great time of fun on rides and some "great" food!

Update from the Director

2010-07-02T09:19:00.000-07:00

Hello Everyone:

God has been so good to us here at Farm Drive!! We finished the school year strong, and blended right into summer. The kids have been awesome and are so much fun. Thank you so much for your continued support of the ministry. When we see kids making progress it reminds me how much God cares for each of them.

We recently kicked off our CRAM Program. This is our mentoring program, where we assign a mentor to each of our students. We started “small” with just our active high schoolers. There are nine of them!!! Praise God that each of them has a mentor!! The mentors have had a chance to get to know the kids, and we look forward to seeing how things develop. But guess what? Soon after we kicked off the program, our 8^th graders became 9^th graders. We now have four more students who are going to need mentors. Want to know more? Contact Becky Kompelien, our CRAM Director, or Patty or me. We would love to have you on board.

Last week, I was at the Kiwanis International Convention and the keynote speaker was Colin Powell. He has started an organization called America’s Promise, targeting at-risk youth. America’s Promise has a component called Grad Nation------and it’s much like our CRAM Program. Talk about reaffirming!!! Please pray for Lupe, Michelle, Anahi, Cristina, Dariela, Sergio, Jose, Hector and Ruben.

Our summer program is in full swing. We are spending a lot of time with the kids. We have been swimming several times, camping for a weekend, hiking at the Pinnacles, and most recently (today) to the Jelly Belly Factory. We are getting a lot of quality time with these kids---and it shows. One of our middle school girls told Patty today that her brother is a lot nicer since he has been involved at the Center. We always knew him as a gentleman, but I guess I was always nicer in public, too!!! His mom remarked that he has added the word “please” to his vocabulary!!! Pray for us, that we continue to model positive, Christ-like traits with the kids.

Dick Shore has been fixing the kids’ bikes for many months. I don’t think he will ever work himself out of a job. Some of the kids are even beginning to donate the bikes they have outgrown, so that another kid in the neighborhood can use them. They are learning to share!!!

A few things that we have coming up:

National Night Out is Tuesday, August 3^rd. It will be in the evening, from 5:00 PM to 9:00 PM. This is a nationwide crime prevention program, aimed at getting people out of their homes and spending time with their neighbors. This year, one of our neighborhood moms is taking the responsibility for organizing the food. Empowering the neighborhood!!! Please feel free to stop by and see what your Farm Drive ministry is doing.

This fall, Iglesia, our Spanish-speaking congregation, will begin a Parenting/Wellness class for the parents in the neighborhood. The classes will be taught by Arturo and Anna, using the Farm Drive Center as the venue. We look forward to seeing great things coming from these classes.

On July 7^th, I will be leaving for a short-term missions trip to Kosovo. This is my 11^th trip over there. It appears that, among other things, we will be teaching English at the International Center for Public Safety Training. These classes have given the missionaries an entry into a previously-untapped group. Pray for Richard Anselm and me as we go. Some people have asked if there is going to be a duck race this year. My answer to that is “OF COURSE!!!” So, look for news from the Resnick’s Third Annual Duck Race!!

God Bless you for your continued support. We are running somewhat behind budget, but God has been good to us----through you. We appreciate your financial support, but most of all, your prayer support for the kids and the ministry here. When you talk to God, please mention Farm Drive and the kids to Him. They are very special to us, but so much more to Him. Please pray that we continue to show God’s love to them in the things we do and say.

Gary

3rd Anniversary

2010-06-30T07:06:00.000-07:00

It was 3 years ago today that we moved from our "comfortable" 3 bedroom house into our 2 bedroom apartment on Dakan Ct. It was a little hard to adapt at first but it has been a wonderful ride so far! It is so exciting to have God use you and others to impact the lives of others in such amazing ways.

I was just reading this morning the story of Hosea and how God wanted him to marry a prostitute named Gomer. Crazy huh? They get married and after awhile she takes off and goes back to her old lifestyle. It would be very easy for Hosea to just forget about her. But he was in love. He pursued her. This is a wonderful example of the love God has for us. He will do whatever it takes to pursue us because He loves us so much.

The start of our blog and our journey:
Go here.

It has been amazing so far and we don't know where it will end or if it will. Just taking it a day at a time. Here's a pic of our recent camping trip with 20 kids.

Update Camping trip

2010-06-23T13:57:00.000-07:00

Have not blogged much and one of the reasons is Patty takes most of her time dealing with pictures on Facebook. So here is a link to our recent Trip:

Patty's pics

Cosmo....we miss you!

2010-04-15T19:10:00.000-07:00

After 11 years of great fun, our bestest dog ever, Cosmo had to be put down. Below are some pictures of Cosmo over the years. It's been almost 2 weeks and we still miss him terribly but it is getting better. Time I know will heal.

This is a picture frame I did for the kids at the Center. It is hanging downstairs in apt. 2. They miss Cosmo a lot! He was the neighborhood mascot and everyone loved him.

Cosmo and our cats loved each other and cuddled frequently.

Snow Trip March 2010

2010-04-15T18:55:00.000-07:00

We took 14 kids to the snow for a weekend. We left early on Friday and came home Sunday afternoon. Many of them had never even felt the snow. They inner tubed, made a snow man, had snowball fights and had a blast! We will make this an annual weekend. The hard part was deciding who would go. We have so many kids that would love to go.

Hawaii January 2010

2010-02-15T19:40:00.001-08:00

Last year for my birthday the family went out to eat at Gordon Biersch and we all entered a Hawaii sweepstakes. Well, I actually won. Trip for 2. Included air fare and a hotel (Sheraton Waikiki) and an hour helicopter ride around the island. We went to Oahu in January for 5 days. A short but very fun vacation.

This is the view from our hotel room...spectacular!

Went snorkeling at Hanauma Bay

One morning we walked up to the top of Diamond Head. This is the gorgeous view from the top.

This is Hanauma Bay taken on our helicopter ride.

Pete and I went on a whale watching/snorkeling trip. We got to swim close to turtles...very cool!

Snorkeling trip...was a catamaran.

One of our many dinners on the beach.

The night before we left we walked down Waikiki Beach. it was a beautiful sunset.

We rented a brand new Mustang. So fun!

Turtle Beach. Great photo opportunity.

Update from the Director

2010-02-04T09:31:00.001-08:00

Hey Everyone:

I just wanted to update you on a few happenings in the Farm Drive Neighborhood. God is certainly active in the lives of people who live, work and volunteer there!!! We are seeing it!

CRAM (Our mentoring program for kids who are in high school, and approaching college age): Becky Kompelien, Patty and I had a meeting on Monday night with eight neighborhood kids who have expressed an interest in finding out about the program. We were able to meet all of the kids and share our vision with them. They seem eager to explore the possibilities. Pray for Anahi, Cristina, Dariela, Hector, Jose, Michelle, Ruben and Sergio as they are deciding whether to be involved. Pray for our potential mentors as we begin teaming them up. Our dream is to be able to give each participant their own laptop upon graduation. Ask God to show you where you fit in.

Homework Center Leaders: A few weeks ago, I sent out an urgent prayer request for leaders for our Homework Center. As always, God took care of each need, and we have a full staff once again!! One of our new volunteers commented that her heart was moved as she heard Kay Patterson share her story and her love for the kids during our Annual Meeting. Ain’t God good???

Michelle W’s New Car: Last week, Patty sent out an email asking you to pray about a car for one of our single neighborhood moms. A few days ago, Michelle called us and told us that she had been given a car, and the person who gave it to her even put new tires on it!! Patty and I saw the car, and it’s nice!!! Thanks for praying!!

Michelle F is going back to school!!! Michelle has been out of school since September 2007, and because of the input of a lot of people (including Betty Watson and Ruben Escobedo), she is taking all of the necessary steps to re-enroll. Pray for Michelle, as she has a really big decision to deal with in the next several days. Pray for strength and encouragement for her to follow through.

Bike Ministry: Many of the kids in the neighborhood haven’t had bikes of their own. Some of our Middle School kids have been WALKING to John Muir, since they don’t have other transportation. Over the past year or so, we have been given numerous bikes to give to the kids. Many of these have been outgrown by the owners, and some were even destined for the junk pile. We rescued them, and Dick Shore spends numerous hours each week making sure the bikes are safe for the kids to ride. We are guessing that we have given out at least 50 bikes in the past year!!! Last week, Patty was approached by another Hillside member who would like to get involved in this hands-on ministry!!!

Family Needs a Printer: Do you have a printer that you aren’t using anymore? The Valadez family is in desperate need of a working printer for their High School and Middle School daughters. We were able to get them a flash drive, but they really need a printer!! Please let Patty or me know.

God is so good. Thank you for praying for the kids in the neighborhood. It really makes a difference!! God Bless you much!!

Gary

We Love Living in the Hood!

2010-01-03T19:39:00.000-08:00

Dorky Havens Christmas morning showing off our goodies!
On Christmas Eve we were blessed by several neighbors. One brought homemade barbacoa...a delicious meat that goes great in a tortilla. It tastes wonderful!

3 different neighbors brought over tamales. We had so many I brought them to the church one day and the church staff enjoyed them. With some sour cream and salsa....yum.

Christmas cookies

2010-01-03T19:24:00.001-08:00

During Christmas vacation we had the kids over to play and they also made sugar cookies in apt. 2. They had a blast!

Field Trip to the Santa Cruz Lighthouse

2010-01-03T19:14:00.000-08:00

The kids first week of Christmas vacation, Gary and I took a bunch of kids for a drive to Santa Cruz to check out the Lighthouse. We watched the surfers, went into the Lighthouse, and then drove to the Santa Cruz pier where we got friendly with the pelicans, watched the sea lions and ended off the day with a cheesburger lunch ordered from the stand at the end of the pier. Yum! Here's the whole gang. Kevin being tougher than the pelican.

Watching the sea lions

Eating cheeseburgers and fish and chips

Merry Christmas

2009-12-25T08:19:00.000-08:00

A letter from Gary, the director of Farm Drive Ministries:

Hello Everyone:

Christmas is definitely upon us. It seems that it sneaks up every year, and every year it seems to come a bit sooner. Am I the only one who thinks this??? I pray that you and your family will have a joyous Christmas, remembering the true meaning of the season.

Farm Drive is still a whirlwind of activity. It often seems like it is non-stop, but that is what keeps us young, right? We just finished with the LARGEST Christmas store ever. We open up the “store” so that the kids can come and shop for their families for gifts for Christmas. We put out the need for gifts, and you responded. Thank you all so much for your generosity!!! We had so many things that I could not unload my car for about two days because we had nowhere to store things while we were waiting “Store Day.” The kids were elated because they got to shop through some pretty good items, and we kept seeing the same thing over and over----the kids couldn’t make a decision between two or three gifts!!! That sounds a lot like me!! We had many people come to help the kids shop and wrap their treasures. We couldn’t have done this without our host of volunteers. And yes……it WAS like an army of people!! At the end of the day, we opened up the store to neighborhood parents so that they could come through and pick gifts for their families. We did not have much to put away at the end of the day. THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!

Yesterday was the first day of Christmas vacation for the kids, and we started off with a waffle breakfast for the kids. We probably had about 50 kids to feed, but we had two toasters to use----until one of them “gave up the ghost” during the first toasting cycle. Oh well, we made it, and none of the kids starved to death. Yesterday afternoon, we took a group to Santa Cruz (yes, it was raining). We went to the lighthouse and then over to the wharf. Believe it or not, most of us (including me) had never been to the lighthouse!! Thankfully, Patty was our tour guide. The kids had a great time watching the waves and looking at the sea lions.

Christmas is a time of giving and again, we have seen our friends respond. Many people are deciding to try to help out less fortunate families by spending their holiday shopping money to provide gifts and food for them. We have had several people call and ask if we knew a family that they could bless by providing Christmas for them. What a joy to be able to see people, some of whom have not had a connection to Farm Drive, eagerly “adopt” these families to help them out. Some of these Farm Drive families would not have any Christmas gifts at all, if it were not for these loving families. At last count, we have had eight families adopted out!!! (We still have a few on our list if you know of someone who is looking to bless a family…...). One of the people who delivered gifts into the neighborhood this week remarked that it is difficult for him to see people who have these life circumstances, but he was personally blessed to be part of it. I know that the blessing that he received was at least equal to the blessing that the family received. Isn’t God good???? Who else would have thought of a “double blessing”???

I do need to tell you about May Coon. May is a little bit older than I am, and is one of our strong prayer supporters. She always has a keen knowledge of what is happening at Farm Drive. A few weeks ago, she sent out a flyer to her neighbors asking them to donate items for the kids at Farm Drive. She received about six to eight boxes of some pretty good stuff that the kids were excited to get! One of our volunteers said that she wanted to be like May when she got to be May’s age. I asked her if she knew how to make chocolate chip cookies because May still blesses the kids with home-baked cookies from time-to-time!!! I get all excited when May talks about the kids from Farm Drive.

As you know, Patty spent two weeks in Africa in late November/early December. The kids missed her a whole bunch (I think Pete and Cosmo and I did, too), and they are eagerly awaiting the slide show of her trip. Patty has given them African bracelets, pictures of wild animals, etc. Thanks for praying for her, and for us, too, in her absence.

We do have a few prayer requests to voice. Would you mention them to God when you are talking to Him?? We know that He cares about the Farm Drive families and their needs………

· Pray for the Torres family. They are struggling financially right now. The father, Hector, works in construction and has not been able to work much because of the economy. He is currently going through the process to get permanent residency here in the United States. He has a court hearing coming up in 2011. A few weeks ago, they got a notice from PG&E that their power was going to be turned off, and we were able to step in and help them out with it. In the midst of all this, it was a joy to hear Maria (mom) say that they wanted to come to services at Hillside, and then she and son, Eric, showed up for the Christmas program. It was awesome to see them there!!! Pray for the kids: Hector, Ruben and Eric. Ruben is especially struggling right now and could use an extra dose of prayer. He is making some poor decisions which could be life-changing for him. Pray for God’s protection and love to be evident in his life.

· Pray for Elizabeth and Yesenia. They are sisters and the family dynamics aren’t all that great. Elizabeth switched to a regular school at the beginning of the school year, but was overwhelmed and subsequently switched back. We just heard that she is not currently attending. Pray that she will make wise choices about her education.

· Pray for Leonel Barajas and kids: Maria, Lesley, Erick, Marcus and Anthony. Their mom died in June and this will be the first Christmas without her. Their grandmother had been living with them to take care of the kids, but has gone back to Mexico. Outwardly, they seem to be doing pretty well. Pray for Leonel and the kids as they continue to adjust to the time without their mom.

· Pray for our Farm Drive finances. We continue to run behind our budget projections, but God has been providing for us along the way. If you are interested in making 2009 year-end giving, any gifts need to be postmarked by December 31^st, or be turned in to the Church Office by 1:00 PM on December 31^st.

In his sermon on Sunday, Pastor Joe encouraged us to enjoy the Christmas spirit, but not to be satisfied with it. We can look for significance this Christmas by sharing the joy of the season with others. Thank you for continuing to support Farm Drive, both financially and prayerfully. May God bless you and yours a whole bunch this Christmas.

Kenya Trip

2009-12-23T19:10:00.000-08:00

One of the first things we did in Kenya is we got to go to a giraffe park. We got to feed them which was pretty fun! This guy had a huge long tongue though which was a bit creepy.

The first week we did a VBS Day Camp at RVA (Rift Valley Academy). This is a picture of the kids all singing. Every day we sang, did crafts, heard Bible stories, and had a snack. Camp was a lot of fun for the kids.

This is my awesome small group. I fell in love with these kids.

The 2nd week we took a 2 day drive to Kurungu which is where missionaries Rick and Carrie Maples live. You'll see the warriors in another blog. While there, some of us got to spend the night in a hut with a family. We also taught the men how to play baseball with gear from the San Francisco Giants. Another cool thing is one night we divided up into 3 groups and went to 3 different camps where we listened to the people sing, tell a Bible story and pray. What an amazing night for us to be a part of.

We then had 1 more day of driving to do. We were on our way to a game park when our overland rover got stuck in the mud. 11 hours later...yes 11, we got out. What a day that was! Then we drove all night dirty and hungry to the lodge/game park.

At the lodge, we all got to take a shower and eat a buffet breakfast. This elephant was across the water from our room. Too bad we didn't get to spend the night but that's ok. It all ended well.

We took a short tour of the game park before we had to leave. This giraffe was beautiful.

This picture is out of order but it is of a bunch of us girls one afternoon. Very hot that day and we had lunch in a dry hot area with lots of flies.

Beautiful Kenya!

Samburu Warriors Song and Dance #1

2009-12-12T14:40:00.001-08:00

Patty went to Kenya to help with a conference for Missionary's in Nairobi. The team did a side trip to the bush of Kenya. This is a video of the warriors doing a song and dance. For more info go to their blog at

http://www.thekenyateam.blogspot.com/

Beautiful Day 2009

2009-11-29T17:25:00.001-08:00

On Saturday, November 21st, all around San Jose a number of events went on called Beautiful Day. From the start of Beautiful Day we have always believed that our calling and purpose is to empower people to service and bless the very community that they live in through service, compassion, justice, and blessing.

http://www.ourbeautifulday.org/index.html

Here at Farm Drive, the city of San Jose provided 6 dumpsters with the goal of cleaning up the neighborhood but more in particular to allow the community to get rid of mattresses, furniture, couches, electronics, etc., items which are very hard to dispose of. Below is Patty and some of the kids helping with the cleanup. Gary also brought some friends from the Kiwanis club.

some of the 6 dumpsters that were provided:

Below you can see that we had lots of helps from the kids in the neighborhood. They in particular like to try and ride in the back of my truck!

Here is one of the dumpsters filled.

An area all cleaned up.
Afterwards, we had a barbecue for the entire neighborhood. We had hotdogs and hamburgers, chips and sodas. It was truly a beautiful day!

Followup to previous post

2009-11-10T09:27:00.000-08:00

We ended up driving 4 neighbor girls to Hera’s funeral. It started late so we got to talk while waiting outside the church. The funeral itself was all in Spanish so it was hard to understand. It was sad and the whole thing felt so senseless. 20 year old young men should not be dying of shootings. Our girls were crying off and on. They knew Hera way better than I. There were a lot of people from the neighborhood there, even some older kids that have not been around at the Center for several years so it was great to see them and give them a hug. It was good to see and talk to Hera’s brothers and even his dad as well. I am sure as time passes the girls will open up more about their feelings. Today it was just a day to cry.

Tonite I was out in the neighborhood hanging with kids and got to talk more about what happened. It is all the buzz in the hood. We talked about how sad it was, how Hera’s family has lost so much, about gangs, choices, and more. One girl Ellie said she didn’t think she’d be able to sleep tonite.

So it was a hard day but in the end, a cool thing happened. All the Barajas kids walked down to our apt. and they invited Pete and I to their house to have cake and celebrate Maria’s birthday. It was mainly the family and a couple friends. We had a wonderful and fun time. Enclosed is a picture of Maria and her dad and as you can see Maria was all smiles. That was so good to see. Her mom Elizabeth died June 28^th, not even 5 months ago. So, God turned our sad day into a very happy day.

Thank you for your prayers. God is so good! Patty

Part of What We Do:

2009-11-09T09:21:00.000-08:00

Here is a prayer request Patty sent out today - an example of how important it is to just being here:

This morning at 10am Gary and I are going to a funeral for a young man that used to live in the neighborhood. His family (7 kids) moved away around 2 years ago. 3 of the 6 kids (Jose, Junior and Victor) were involved at the Center. The funeral is for the oldest 20 year old son Hera who was shot and killed outside his house last Tuesday. Could be gang related, we don’t know. Hera had been in a lot of trouble in the past. He had just come from the Farm Drive neighborhood where he visited so a bunch of neighbor kids had just seen him so his death came as a shock.

Yesterday afternoon Pete and I drove 5 of our older neighborhood girls to Hera’s house where they had the rosary and Hera’s body. A very sad and hopeless sight. Lots of people there, all in black, crying and praying the rosary. The girls all got to see and touch Hera’s body. We got to see Hera’s 3 brothers that used to be involved at the Center and that was nice. The sad news is that Jose who was the oldest of those 3 has changed a lot and seems headed down a dangerous path, just like his older brother. A lot of anger there.

Pray today for Gary and I as we go to the funeral. We want to support the family and we want to be available to the kids that go to the funeral that live in the neighborhood now like those 5 girls that we took to Hera’s yesterday. Maybe we will have time to take them to lunch after. We know it is important to the kids to show them we care for Hera and his family. This has shaken up some of the older kids and it has opened up some great opportunities to talk about choices, gangs etc.

Thanks. Patty

Halloween week at Farm Drive

2009-11-04T08:33:00.001-08:00

On Halloween morning at Bible Club the Junior High girls and Rosa and I decorated cupkakes and then we gave them to the older girls and all the leaders. We had a great time. This is Briseida, Jessica, Rosa and Angie.

This is Zareli who came over Halloween day in the afternoon to show us her vampire costume. She lives right across the driveway from us.

Halloween night we had a party and opened the Center. We bbq'd hamburgers and hotdogs and then played and later we made s'mores out on the patio on the fire pit. A fun night. Kids came in and out all night and we got to see lots of fun costumes. This is the view from our apt. balcony.

Making s'mores and enjoying the fire with neighbors

The week of Halloween we took the younger kids to a pumpkin patch. They played on bounce houses and got a pumpkin to take home. This slide was a favorite! Samantha and Alexis sure seemed to think so.

A bunch of kids showing their pumpkins.

Rich and Samantha, Briseida nd Eveline

One other night we took the older kids to a corn maze. The corn was so high! We all had a blast getting lost in the maze. Here we are getting our wristbands.

A typical scene in the maze. Which way to go? The sunset was beautiful that night.

The kids got to feed this cow. What a great week of being with the kids. And that's what it is all about.

Kids Club at Canoas Elementary

2009-10-23T20:11:00.000-07:00

For the past 4 years I have been a part of Kids Club at the local elementary school where most of the kids in the Farm Drive neighborhood attend. Every Tuesday from 12:15 till 2:15 we play games, have a snack, hear a Bible Story and get to know our small group.

I love 5th grade girls so I have them again this year. I have 7 girls and that is a handful but we have a lot of fun and I am already getting to know them. They are an awesome group of girls.

My prayer is that they would learn more about who God is and they would take what they learn on to middle school next year and it would make a difference in their lives.

Giselle, Itzayana, Gaby, Jacky, Jazmen, Zobeida and Tiffany.

Disneyland with family

2009-10-23T19:58:00.000-07:00

Pete, Jessica and I went to Disneyland last week for my brother-in-laws 50th birthday. My sister Mel, her hubby Mike (birthday boy) and their 2 girls and their kids all went. We had a great time. This is Pete and I right outside Disney California.

Princess Pete...so very pretty!

Jessica and her cousin Cherlyn's little boy Bobby.

Think this was on the Matterhorn

Patty's Trip to Scio, Oregon

2009-10-01T19:46:00.001-07:00

My sister Mel and I met up in Scio, Oregon where my mom and dad live, for 5 days of relaxing and seeing our family. This is a picture of us 3 girls (my sister Becky lives in Corvallis which is close by) with our 94 year old grandma. We love visiting her every time we visit.

Mom and grandma.

My dad mowing the lawn. They have a huge lawn so he uses a riding mower. That is a great place to just sit and talk and relax. They have a porch swing out there and one morning we all sat out there for almost 3 hours and just talked. That was a treat!

This is my mom and dad's garden. Even at 75 they still have a huge garden and like to can things like tomatoes, pears, apples, etc.

Dad on his mower listening to his ipod.

Us 3 girls on that swing I was talking about.

Mom and dad.

All of us with the dogs of course.

Small Groups Fall 09

2009-10-01T19:22:00.000-07:00

In order to have a successful Homework Club, we feel small groups are the best way to go. The kids get help with their homework from their leader and the leaders build relationships with their kids as well. We don't have more than 5 kids in a group. Each group has a name that they give themselves. They do their homework together, they go to our "store" together, and have snack together. Every group has the same age kids in it and same sex too (at least for the older kids).
Our older guys group call themselves "The Jackson 5"

Our older girls call themselves. . . The Purple and Green Butterflies

Las Mariachis for the younger girls

Here's The Great Green Party Sharks (anything having to do with Sharks)

My younger girls group is called "Cosmo's Chicas" (after Cosmo our dog)

We have11 small groups for the elementary age kids. That's the most we've every had. My group on Monday's and Wednesday's meets upstairs in my apt. The kids love coming here and we love having them!

Pete and Patty's 28th Anniversary

2009-09-30T09:18:00.001-07:00

For our 28th anniversary Pete and I went to Napa. We treated ourselves and stayed at a B and B. That was nice. We spent the weekend wine tasting and drove all over Napa Valley taking beautiful pictures. What a fun weekend.

One of the wineries we went to is a castle built by some guy that had a lot of money to spend. He went all over Europe getting ideas and put all those ideas into this castle. It was a beautiful place and I felt like I was in France. Think it was called Castile de Amorosa.

A New Start for Homework Club

2009-09-01T14:18:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the first day of our Kinders Class and Homework Club older kids). Below is Rich and Eunise with their Kinder Class.

Ruben and some of the kids.

Gary and more of the kids.

Of course, it would not be complete without the unofficial mascot, Cosmo!

A very good picture of Eunise and some of her fans.

Look at all those excited faces!

Gary making announcements
Lucy, Kay, and Natalie with their group.

Ruben with Javier in their group.

Our largest group ever this fall. It's exciting to see all the kids and all the people who help them with their homework.

Beach and Boardwalk Summer Fun

2009-07-21T22:52:00.000-07:00

Last week we took a bunch of the older kids to Santa Cruz Beach and then we went to the Boardwalk to go on rides that night. The kids built a moat, buried each other in the sand, played in the water and then we all got cleaned up and spent the night on the Boardwalk going on all the rides.

Here's Angie, Javier and Raymon digging.

They buried Angie and Elizabeth.

Yesenia, Elizabeth (sisters) and Cristina. Cute and great girls.

Angie was right next to me (Patty) on this ride. It was pretty high up so I was kinda freaked out. I don't like heights but I do love rides. Look at the people below. Glad I got a good picture though!

Lesley, Inez and Angie having fun.

Summer is in full swing...

2009-07-21T22:39:00.000-07:00

Gary and I have planned many different things for the kids this summer. Every summer they used to go to Camp MayMac but because of the economy that is not an option this summer. So, we are doing lots of day trips. One thing we did a few weeks ago was a trip to the San Francisco Zoo. The pictures are self-explanatory. In the zoo they also have an area where the kids can feed sheep and goats and they love that part of the zoo. It was a very fun day.

A Funeral and a Blessing

2009-07-21T22:20:00.001-07:00

One sad thing that has happened this summer is the death of a mom in the neighborhood. Elizabeth Barajas fought cancer for 2 long years. She was only 36. She had a husband and 5 kids ranging from 6 to 12 years old. The kids are all involved here at the Center. Pete and I went to her funeral. It was sad, especially seeing the kids say goodbye to their mom. This funeral was different from ones that we usually go to in that it was an open casket and pretty much everybody comes up to the body to say goodbye. It was very touching watching the kids say goodbye to their mom, through their tears. We felt honored to be able to go and be a part.

This picture was a slide in a powerpoint presentation shown at the funeral. Yes, Leonel and Elizabeth just got married just last year but have been together for many many years.

One cool thing that has happened since Elizabeth's death is that many people have wanted to help out. People from the elementary school where the kids go, to church people to neighbors. In the hispanic culture when someone dies, a friend or neighbor will get a shoebox and put the deceased persons picture on it and walk door to door or take the box to work asking for donations for the family. Several neighbors did this and they collected quite a bit of money for the family.

The kids now all have new bunk beds and new mattresses thanks to many people! This is Anthony proud of his new bed.

This picture was taken at the buriel site. It is the Barajas family plus Elizabeth's mom Maria and Elizabeth's wonderful brother Freddie. What a wonderful family! They all know they will be reunited with Elizabeth in heaven one day and that is something they all look forward to.

Summer has begun at Farm Drive!

2009-06-18T20:49:00.000-07:00

The last week of school Gary (Johnson, Farm Drive's Director) and I hit 6 graduations. Here's some pictures of us with some of the kids. This is Inez and I at Canoas' graduation. I have a special place in my heart for 5th grade girls as this is the age group I had both at the Center for Homework and also at Canoas School for Kids Club every week.

Here's Pete and Gary with Johnny and Sergio, 2 boys that graduated from John Muir Middle School. We are of course hoping they both come back to Homework Club in the Fall.

Cristina is loved by so many. These are her 3 leaders (Rachel, Sarah and Stacy) from Bible Club (meets every Saturday). She graduated from Gunderson High School and is going to go to West Valley Junior College in the Fall. We are all very proud!

Another high school graduate is Michelle. She graduated from Oak Grove. This picture is filled with people involved with Farm Drive in one way or another. Michelle has moved out of the neighborhood but still comes by and keeps in touch. She started to come to the Center when she was very little, so we all know her well. A large group of us all went to see her graduate. Fun!

The first week the kids were out Gary and I rewarded kids with good grades by having a swim party at Gary's house. The 16 kids that went had a blast! Here's Jayro doing a cannonball.

4 girls all jumping in at the same time. . . . Can't believe I actually got that shot!

What can I say but FUN!

2 days after we had the swim party we took 15 kids to Alcatraz Island in San Francisco. We asked each to pay $5 (people at Hillside give generously so that's how we can afford to only ask for $5 from the kids) and they had to be in 3rd grade...that was it. We all had a great time. At Pier 39 we saw all these sea lions. They create quite a crowd of onlookers. Pretty fun to watch them fight over spaces on the dock.

Group shot at the Pier before boarding the ferry.

Waving hi on the boat.

Alcatraz Island

Fidel and Eric are quite a pair. Very good friends.

San Francisco skyline...beautiful

Vegetable Garden

2009-05-31T20:53:00.000-07:00

Last week Patty and I finally got around to purchasing some vegetable plants and vegetable seeds for our new planter bed. Of course we were able to easily obtain some help in the planting efforts! They had fun and a great time and will enjoy seeing the plants come up and grow and produce fruit!
Of course their is a downside. Too many seeds in a small area! Hopefully I will able to thin them out and move them around!
We planted quite a hodgepodge of items. Corn, 4 tomato plants, zucchini, cucumber, pepper, basil, radishes, cilantro. I may have forgot something!

I was able to hook up a sprinkler type tube system to the water hose bib and connect a little timer to it so the watering is automatic. This gives the plants a chance instead of relying on us inconsistent humans!

The Picture Above

2009-05-21T19:02:00.000-07:00

What and where is that picture above from? It is from the Hippo Pond in Mikumi Wildlife Preserve park in Tanzania. It was dusk and I was waiting for a beautiful sunset to happen in order to add to my collection of beautiful sunsets from all over the world. The clouds were lining up just right to get a beautiful sunset.
It was quiet, only a handful of us people around. The only thing you could hear were a few birds and the occasional breath of a hippo as they came up from below the surface of the water. It was peaceful. To me it was a glimpse of the Creator of the Universe and some of His best work. This picture is a reminder of that moment. Every time I see this picture I smile. It is a image of the Creator that reminds me of my new birth and the hope I have that I now can share with others.

Random Musings and Thoughts

2009-05-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

One day recently when Patty was helping out at Kids Club at Canoas Elementary School, a girl she didn't know came up and asked Patty if she knew Cosmo (our Golden Retriever)! Our dog is more known around the neighborhood than we are. We can be walking Cosmo down the street and the kids will yell his name out and not say anything to us! We recognize he opens doors for us. He is a lovable, very gentle dog and the kids love him. Below is a picture of our neighbor Mario enjoying Cosmo. This little boy used to be afraid of Cosmo but not anymore.

One of the things that Patty does is sell soda and chips from our apartment. We found this to be a great way to keep the kids in contact with us. Some are no longer involved with the Center but they still come by to buy chips or soda and say hello. (Hot Cheetos is our biggest seller by the way!) I also found out today that there is another lady in the neighborhood who also sells sodas but she is more expensive. So does that make us the Walmart of the community?

For Patty's birthday I bought her a Wii game console. We thought that it would be fun for us older people to be able to enjoy some gaming that is at our level. Over the almost 2 months we have had it, Patty and I seldom have played it! Not much time but as you can see below the kids love it and are over often to play. (there is actually a kid here now playing while I am writing this! He doesn't want me to play with him since I am so bad.)

To help raise some money to go on various trips, we have been invited to help at the snack shop at the Saratoga Little League. It is run by a local Kiwanis Club and when the kids work there, the Center gets a portion of the profits. Its a lot of fun and and exciting to watch the kids learn how to sell. (I am writing this portion on another day and just got interupted to do some first aid on a cut! never boring around here!) Below are a few of the kids at the snack shack with Gary.

To get to the Saratoga park where the games are played you have to drive through some of the really nice neigborhoods of Saratoga. Patty was commenting to the kids how nice the houses were. One kid responded that he wouldn't want to live there. There was nobody outside. It would be boring compared to Farm Drive where there are always lots of people out and about!

One of the exciting things/changes we have seen happen recently is in a teenage girl. She would have been described as a person you don't really want to have around. She was very disrespectful, used bad langauge, was loud, was always getting in trouble and helped incite others to get into trouble... just not a very pleasant person.
She has dramatically changed recently. She says she wants to change and no longer live the way she has. She now is a very pleasant person to have around. It is like night and day. God got ahold of her heart and is forming her into a new image! Wow, God is performing a miracle right before our eyes!

One of the things that Patty and I are learning to do is use every moment and opportunity that comes by. How can each encounter with another person be used to show the love of Jesus?

Younger kids Swim Party

2009-05-16T15:52:00.000-07:00

Last Friday night we rewarded all the Homework Club kids (1st-4th grades) with a swim party at Gary's. These kids have been so faithful at coming to homework all year that we feel they deserved some fun! We brought 18 kids plus several leaders for 5 hours of fun and homemade pizza. All I can say is.......those kids never get tired!

Yup, that's me, Patty in the pool. We bought 40 water blasters at the dollar strore. We had a major water fight which was really fun. Even though I look like I am hiding, I am not. I kept up with the best of them and was pretty darn fast at loading that gun. Next Friday we have the same exact party but with the older kids.

Heres Gary with Eric and Marcus. Notice all the water guns the boys have.

New Planter Bed and Retaining Wall

2009-05-16T14:59:00.000-07:00

A Men's small group at church asked if there were any small projects they could do for us at Farm Drive. Gary and Patty had been talking about doing a planter bed so the kids can learn how to grow vegetables and flowers. Next to where they wanted a planter bed, there is a tree they thought would be a perfect place for a nice bench. The guys came last Saturday with materials and plenty of workers. They enlisted some of their sons to help. Below is the early stages of digging in the hard ground and moving the soil.

The finished project!

They even put a bench on this area for more people to sit on the edge!

Our new raised planter bed. I brought home some soil mix and so we are ready to have some kids plant some vegetables next week!

Below is some of the team. A few left before I could take a picture of them. Below is Colin, Conner, Tony, and Brad. The rest of team was Matthew, Mike and Steve. Thanks guys!

SJ Sharkie

2009-05-09T08:50:00.000-07:00

Fun! Fun! Fun! The San Jose Sharks put on a hockey clinic at the Center recently. The best part of all was that Sharkie the mascot came. All the kids got to play some hockey with Sharkie and then they all got pictures of Sharkie and cards of the players. There is a link at the bottom of this blog where you can see a video of Sharkie and the kids.

Here is a link to a video he did and posted on his facebook page:

http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?sid=d7e4812aaea4f9bac5bdf14c475a33f2&id=1340162384&hiq=uy%2Cut&ref=search#/video/video.php?v=1133283618818

Galveston Trip

2009-05-02T12:28:00.001-07:00

During Spring Break, April 12th thru 18th, a team of 9 of us from Hillside Church went to Galveston, Texas to help the cleanup and rebuilding from Hurricane Ike (September 08). Four people from our team were from the Farm Drive Center, 3 middle school boys and 1 high school girl. Hurricane Ike hit the area in September and did quite a bit of damage but the EFCA Crisis Response is still busy helping rebuild homes and lives. Below is a picture of an apartment complex that has been abandoned and nobody has touched it since the hurricane hit. We worked right down the street from this apt. complex.

Galveston is an island on the coast of Texas about 40 miles south of Houston. The island has a seawall that is about 20-30 feet high which was not enough for the 60 or so foot sea surge from the hurricane. Most of the flooding actually came from the other side of the island, from the bay side. Here is a pier that is on the Gulf of Mexico side. Note the truck. That was crazy!

This is one home that the owner had called about, asking help to have it demolished. This is going to be a hard job for someone since the flood waters pushed the house off it's foundation and right next to the house next to it.

A lot of work has been done already and there are a lot of beatiful homes in
Galveston. Here is one completed.

Some of the worst damage was to the Bolivar Pennisula which is directly east of Galveston. We spent part of a day looking around there. We took a ferry from Galveston across the bay to reach the pennisula. We found this house driving around. We guessed it was maybe 1/2 mile from it's original foundation but we have no idea. The original house can be found on Google maps and you can see how far it is away since it blew across the highway and landed near a cemetary! Not in Kansas anymore!

Most of the houses in this area were beach houses and most were on stilts. Did not help much. Notice the rooms upstairs still have furniture in them.

We were planning to gut houses like we did in New Orleans. When we got there we found out that there was not much gutting left to do. The gutting left to do was with rentals and until the owner requests help, we couldn't help. There still is a lot of work to be done rebuilding and skill is not required. We were sent to a house that the previous team had hung new dry wall and now needed to be taped and mudded. We put our expert tapers to work, Chuck and Julie while the rest of us mudded over the tape and then sanded it down and repeated the process 3 times. Below are our FD kids actively working over Gary. They were awesome, hard workers.

Taking a Cal Trans break!

One of our best mudders!

Helping cut dry wall to do some last minute patch work. These guys really were hoping to do some demo work. Near the end of the week, the owner decided to gut one of the bathrooms so they got their wish. I will post a video of that work later.

Our FD kids with the owner of the house, Rose.

Our Team! It was a great week of working on this house and spending time together traveling, sleeping, and eating together in Galeston Texas! We'd all love to go back!

Boys Dress up

2009-05-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

Here at The Center I, Patty have a huge assortment of dress up clothes. Here's a few pictures of the kids dressing up. The guy that is not a kid is Gary Johnson the Director here. He is amazing and has lots of fun with the kids.

Angie, Inez and Lesley, my 5th grade girls

Marcus and Gary
Marcus, Eric, Fidel and Angel

Eric and Marcus

Eric (gotta love that face!)

Farm Drive Video History

2009-03-08T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here is a video that was made to give a little history of the ministry of Farm Drive and a little of the impact it has had on people.

Video of kids dancing at Gary's

2009-02-17T22:15:00.000-08:00

Overnighter at Gary's

2009-02-15T17:53:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago Patty and Gary invited some of the younger kids for an overnight party at Gary's house. It started by a few of the braver kids going for a mid winters dip in the pool! Then it was time for homemade pizza!

Since it was an overnighter, casual attire was a must!

Various activities went on all night. A movie was playing on Gary's big flat screen TV. (Goonies and Snow Buddies.) Also, various board games were also going on all over the house.

Around midnight, Gary put on the karaoke channel and there was a lot of singing and dancing going on! As you can see this was a big hit by the smiles on their faces! Everybody is a musical dance and singing star....or wanna-bes.

And finally they began to wind down for a "little" sleep!

The kids had been bugging us to have an overnighter for months. This was a great night of memories. The kids loved being with their friends. For some this was their first time spending an entire night away from their families. A great night was had by all.

Whales Breaching in Maui

2009-01-30T08:35:00.000-08:00

While we were in Maui, Patty and I went on a snorkeling trip out to Molokini. On the journey,
we came across some humpback whales. We witnessed what the ship captain called the home run of whale watching - the breach. We actually saw it happen 4 or 5 times and here are 3 caught on video.

More video later!

Junior Highers at Farm Drive

2009-01-22T09:27:00.000-08:00

Last night, the 21st of January, the Junior High group from Hillside Church came over to the Center to just hang out and play with the kids. That's quite a group all together! It was a lot of fun and the kids mixed better than I thought. Below is a video from some of the street hockey. (Gotta love the gear for the goalies! which is donated by the San Jose Sharks, Go Sharks!)

One of the reasons for doing this is to expose the Junior Highers to the ministry that occurs here at Farm Drive. Hopefully some of them will want to come help at the Homework Center.

I'll have pictures later.

Friday Night and Angels Rejoiced

2009-01-18T15:39:00.000-08:00

On Friday's there are no activities "scheduled" at Farm Drive Neighborhood Center. Patty let the word out that she was going to open the Center around 3 for a few hours for a time of play. She came home around 2 and noticed no kids around. So she called the apartment where Jasmin (a regular) lived and left a message for her to come over if she wanted. Within 1/2 hour Jasmin came over and helped Patty around our apartment putting up pictures on the walls.

After awhile, Jasmin asked if anyone could be a Christian. Patty asked her "do you remember what it means to be a Christian?" and Jasmin remembered. Then Jasmin said but I sometimes do bad things. So Patty told her of course she did too and that's called sin and we all sin. They had a good good conversation with more questions. Jasmin finally said I want to be a Christian. Patty explained that Jasmin could go home and be alone and pray to Jesus or she could pray with Jasmin. Jasmin said she wanted to pray with Patty. Jasmine was introduced to the King! (and Patty was honored to be a part!) Patty and Jasmin then went out and walked up and down the street telling kids that the Center was open.

When I came home there were quite a number of kids at the Center and Patty was heating up frozen french toast sticks and serving them to the kids. (They had received about 40 boxes from Second Harvest). We kept the Center open til about 7:30.

Patty and I went upstairs to settle down for a relaxing evening of dinner and a movie. 5 of the older kids were still hanging out down below at the picnic tables. After a while, Patty went down and asked them if they wanted to come up and hang out with us. They said an emphatic yes!

Same night but 1/2 hour or so later, a neighbor brought by homemade enchiladas, chicken and potatoes! They were so good and we all enjoyed them. We watched a Spanish novella and then played a game of Pirate Bingo. Lots of laughter with Pirate Bingo! The kids finally left at 10pm. A night that was supposed to be a night of just the 2 of us relaxing and watching a movie, turned into an even better night....a night of developing relationships.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-01T13:44:00.000-08:00

Boy, were we the popular party animals last night. Started off with hanging out with some old friends from church and playing pirate bingo. Then moved on to a poker party at a friend's house in our old neighborhood. The poker games were well under way so I got to save my money! Then we brought in the New Year with some college age friends!

Last week for Christmas day, we got up early and went to church at 6. After opening gifts and having breakfast, it was still only 9 am and we had lots of day still ahead of us. We had a nice lunch and saw Yes Man in the afternoon. A nice leisurely day it was for sure!

Today, getting to bed late last night, we got up at 9. Before I knew it, it was 11:30. Not much day left. I went for a run over at at the local high school track. As I was running, there was a fella there that gave me a rock handshake. There was a family there that was running and walking around the track and I noticed they stopped and talked to him for awhile. When I was done running, I happened to walk by the guy. We started a conversation. His name was John. Then he added his name was Jesus Christ. We talked (well he mostly talked!) about all sorts of stuff!

I remember a New Year's message I heard a couple of year's ago about making it a goal for the new year to make friends with a crazy person. (he really meant a person who was different than you). I guess I was starting off my new year by meeting and making friends with John. Was there any depth to our conversation? Not really. But we now are on a first name basis and who knows if and when we will meet again.

As I do with all people I meet, I take their name to God and ask Him to bless them and that other followers of Jesus would be able to make a connection with the person and speak into his life. I pray that happens with John.

Christmas Week

2008-12-28T17:14:00.000-08:00

It has been a wonderful Christmas! Having a few days off made it extra nice. For the Havens, we spent Christmas eve in Turlock with my family. It was too quick, but good to see my twin 5 year old nieces who I don't see very often.

We sucked it up for the first time in many years and went to the Christmas Morning Service at Hillside at 6 am. It was a nice way to turn the focus to the reason for the season. After a relaxing morning of cinnamon rolls and opening gifts, we went to a movie together.

On Friday Patty said it would be fun to go to the movies, so we put the word out and 16 of us went to see the movie "Bedtime Stories". Gary, Ruben Escobedo, Patty and myself took 12 kids from the neighborhood.

On Saturday, Patty went with me (she walked) as I ran a couple of miles. When we came back, one of the older girls was coming to what she thought was Bible Club. Being a holiday weekend, it was a day off for the leaders. This gal was really disappointed. We asked her if she wanted to go run errands with Patty and me. She said of course! (I wish I could get that excited about running errands!) When we went to pick her up, her older sister said she was going to go too! We asked her sister if that was OK and she said it was. We spent 3 hours running various errands and ended up with lunch. These chance (if you can call them that!) getting togethers are very special to Patty and me and not taken lightly. We know that these times are relationship building and we share with these kids normalcy, hope, and love.

We spent the evening enjoying the company of the college students at the annual Christmas Gathering Party. We enjoyed a wonderful potluck dinner, exchanged homemade gifts, and then we were all off to wonderful time on the ice at Vallco Mall again spending time and developing relationships.

As we were heading off to church this morning, we had 6 boys show up wanting to go with us. This is both exciting to us but also we realize that it will be a challenge to keep them from not disturbing others too much in the service. Being a holiday weekend and only 1 service and no Sunday School, we knew that all 6 would be with us. We sometimes wonder why they want to come and do they really get anything from this experience? I have to remind myself to just be obedient and do the work and let the Holy Spirit work in the hearts of these kids.

As we were waiting for lunch at In N Out, I had walked up to get catsup and napkins. A fellow came up to a couple of the guys that were with me and started to play a card game with them. (I believe it is called 3 Card Monte.) When I walked back, he asked who I was and they told him that I was their church leader. He immediately picked up his 3 cards and left! I found that whole thing very interesting.

Patty opened up the Center as she cleaned out our locker during the afternoon. After she finished, she took a number of kids on a bike ride. It was actually a nice day with no rain or wind.

It was a fun weekend and now we can go back to work. Wait. I go back to work and Patty gets to keep getting paid to do this!

Patty now here... since I do the editing, I am going to add one thing. As I was bike riding today I was a bit anxious to get back to the Center so I could do some clean up, put Christmas stuff away and such. I kept thinking to myself though that I need to not be in such a hurry to get back to clean. The stuff will get put away all in good time...it is more important to spend time with the kids. When I got back from the bike ride, I really was glad I took the time out to play with the kids.