Monday, August 21, 2006

A Hot trip to a Windy city!

After 5 weeks of camp we took a break to travel with our youth ministry team to Chicago where we helped conduct a week of Vacation Bible School and an evening park ministry. Our fellow missionary Ron Kooyman works in Chicago and is presently the interim pastor at Cicero Bible church. This is the church that founded the IFCA denomination. Presently there are about 175 people meeting in a church that seats about 1500. Ron is working hard to help the church reach out to the hispanic community that has grown up around it. We were there to help and had a great time. It was extremely hot (In the 100's) and the humidity was about 90%. God really blessed and the intercultural experience was invaluable for all! We want to thank all the churches who housed us and all who helped make the trip possible through hard work and financial support!

The Puppet team arrives in Chicago - the windy city! Posted by Picasa

Cicero Bible Church is where we ministered with Pastor Ron Kooyman in Chicago. Last year the church had a Vacation Bible School with only 16 kids. This year there were 120! Posted by Picasa

Attacked at VBS by a booty stealing Pirate! Posted by Picasa

A hard day balloon sculpting! Posted by Picasa

Sharing God's love in the Park! Posted by Picasa

Working hard at VBS! Posted by Picasa

Ron taught the older kids with some help from Carl. The boy in the middle is flashing a gang sign. Posted by Picasa

Each night we had a park ministry presentation with the puppets. Here we are setting up. Posted by Picasa

Go Puppets! Posted by Picasa

We had a great group of people watch the puppets in the park! In the back left corner at the basketball hoops are several gang members who watch the whole show! Posted by Picasa

Ron had promised that if they brought 120 kids to VBS that he would take a pie in the face. I got to do the honors! Posted by Picasa

Thanks Ron for the opportunity to serve with you in Cicero! Posted by Picasa

It was a long trip both ways but we're glad we went! Posted by Picasa

The Summer Continues!

Well it took another four weeks for me to update this blog! You would think we had been on the road all summer! Since the last post we had returned to Camp Lewtana to fill in for a speaker who could not make it to basketball camp. We had a great time but we don't have any pictures of that camp - sorry! However if you are in camping ministry we would highly recommend running a week of basketball camp. Lewtana did a great job with their camp and reached many non-Christian kids! We are posting here our next camp. Camp Shiloh in Wyoming. Many of you know that this is the camp that my parents have run for the last 30 years. It was their last year of camp as they are retiring in January. It was a great week and I know it was very emotional for them and for us! Enjoy these photos!

Brandee teaches us to walk through an index card! Posted by Picasa

Preparing for a long week of camp! Posted by Picasa

Watch out! It's the pesky "Pirates who don't know anything"! Posted by Picasa

Cup stacking was very popular at all our camps this summer! (as it should be!) Posted by Picasa

Servin' up the vittles! Posted by Picasa

Melanie learns to walk in the light! Posted by Picasa

Slime war veterans! Posted by Picasa

What do you mean we scrape our own dishes?!? Posted by Picasa

Taking a break from a hard day of counseling! This was Sam's first year as a counselor in training! Posted by Picasa

Hangin' out at Camp Shiloh learning about Jesus! Posted by Picasa