7th grade

Reid has finals this week..there are no stressors that seem to affect him. We are in a carpool with three other families...the other kids are girls. So here is Reid in the front seat of the car this morning on the way to school for his science final, as calm as could be. In the back seat three girls, 12 years old in a full panic. What a difference a gender makes. :)

Taste and see that the LORD is good. Psalm 34:8
This is what I shared with Anthony. I remember I would say, "just give him a try
he will not disappoint you!"
It was four years ago about this time, in the fall, at Camp Routh -

So fast track to May of this year and I get this phone call from jail...I don't take it (collect, to much $$$) But I wonder and ask God,
"Who
is calling me? Who
is in?"
I pray and wait.
Then after New Orleans I receive another call,
this time 3-way, and hear a sweet familar voice (he used to call me mom)
it's Anthony, he is in.
He memorized my number and after years back on the street and alot of drugs, he remembered my number. But more important than that after a very touching visit with him he told he has not forgotten that verse........

The LORD is good.

Pray for Anthony

New Orleans

I wanted to post some pics of New Orleans...there were a ton a great shots but here are a few pics.







Here is a pic inside a few house's that have never been touched since Hurricane Katrina. There are still many houses that are ready to be condemned because they pose a health hazard and no one has so much has touched them. You can see where the water level was, due to the mold on the wall. It is sad to see the devatation of almost 2 years has continued to eat away at many communities in that city. It was like you walked out of a first world country and into a third. As of today 40% of the city has never returned, leaving many neighborhoods only slightly rebuilt and the rest destroyed.




Here is Bobby, he worked hard. He is 13 and I didn't expect to see him rise up to the work level he did. He really surprised us all and he liked it! He was not a Christian when we left, but shortly after our return he made the decision to give his life to Jesus, right here on our base! We had heard from God we were to sow into his life and bring him in as on of the team. It is a first for the Freedom Project to have an outreach like this, but with this kind of fruit I know it will not be the last! Bobby is a youth we initially made contact with @ the LAPD gang prevention program - Jeopardy.



The team praying..thank you for food!




Jose worked hard...this is before the pedicure!



Reid working hard...look he's sweating!





We visited the projects in New Orleans and spent 2 days with about 40 kids...they would constantly jump all over the guys. Nearly every one of them had no dads and were being raised my mom or grandma. Here Barry is getting his share!



Reid's turn.






Ok..here is the pedicure, Jose getting his nails painted??? Look close that gang member has a blue fingernail! These kids had told him they hated Mexicans, but he pressed in, instead of hating back. It was an incredible time of race reconciliation that day and God was destroy the walls of hatred and lies. Not just doing our fingernails!



A few of the kids watching a clown skit about sin and the progression of it! We wanted to teach them that it was like a trap and it may start with something small but it always gets bigger and bigger! We also showed them the way out...Jesus. It was fun to hear the response afterwards and know that they got it!




Isela - she attended church, and working for the Bible book store. However, when we met her she was involved in an abusive relationship and addicted to text messaging to the point she couldn't sleep at night! She said she has had the most peace she could remember being on this "working" outreach. I couldn't believe it. Since we arrived home, she has cut her relationship completely off with the boyfriend and is now planning to do DTS to see what God's will for her life is!





Chris is one of the most hardworking youth's I know - in the middle of this ourteach he told me he has never worked this hard! He gave it everything he had, physically and spiritually! He served that city well! What an example and privilege to work alongside such a wide array of youth for Los Angeles...Jose is now ready to do a DTS too! From the 18th street gang in South Central LA - to a DTS...I think that is a good move for him!

Carne Asada!

Here our some pics of the Carne Asada dinner we had last week at the YWAM base. It was so good to get people here from the community to eat with the YWAM staff and the food was amazing. The money raised help pay for the youth going to New Orleans with the Freedom Project.




Who doesn't want to eat with this warm and welcome face! Ywamer's are so friendly!




Here is Ryan's family and Chris's family - they are both going on the trip. You can see them at the back of the table - Chris has been on the Freedom Project for 3 years. He is a solid young man of God! We asked him to pray about who to bring on the trip to disciple and he knew right away - it was Ryan. So we have been praying for Ryan's family to let him go and on Friday we finally got the YES! Below is another pic of Chris w/Ila the Freedom Project's leader.





Here is Jose's family - his dad and two of his brothers. His brother was drunk. It was'nt like falling down drunk, but there were signs and Jose knew for sure. He was embarassed. But we didn't care at all - God can speak to anyone, anywhere in any condition!





Here is April w/Joey's mom and a pic of Joey's sister Destiny. If you recall Joey was shot and killed last Christmas, but the girls keep a close relationship with his family, still ministering to them.







Here is a pic of Isela and her parents. Her Dad cooked the carne asada that had everyone asking for more! It really was good. Isela met some Ywamers at a local starbucks. One thing led to another and now she is involved with the Freedom Project and also going on the outreach. This is her first ever mission's trip.

I said I would post about Bobby, so here it is. Bobby is going to New Orleans with us on the 13th. We first met him at the Jeopardy After School program. April & Ila (urban staff) have been praying and asking God who to bring on this trip from that program. When all the praying was over, we received Bobby. So he's been hanging out with all the YWAMer's (big big difference from the group that hangs out at Jeopardy) He has been learning to serve through car washes and a fundraising carne asada dinner. We have held 3 car washes and the dinner to raise money for all the youth going on the trip. When I first met him, I was a little "concerned", but he is coming around with each team adventure he has taken steps forward. I know this outreach is going to change his life!





I can't help it..I must post this pic of my cute little grand-daughter Lily @ the car wash, hey is that a Mercedez?

It was back in court this week and this time it was for Palma. He hit the ground running upon his release. Being overwhelmed with the loss of his sister. It is cultural for the family to show video's of the funeral and so they did. It was to difficult for him and he ran to all the familar things. The gang. By the time he made it into counseling he felt like he had messed up so bad he needed to go back to jail and try again. He shared with me there is no peace with the gang, yet he goes there, making plans to kill. He is so far from where he was when he first walked out of camp last February. And now, as a result, he's back in jail. He called last Sunday to tell me that God had met him in his holding cell. He's back in the place where he could face some time for a new charge and his life is no longer "in his hands". So he cried out to God. It looks like the charge will carry a small amount of time, but now he is in the adult system. I spent the morning with his family, mostly divided about who is to blame for Palma's trouble, none seemingly given the credit to Palma himself. His mom is holding out for salvation, I pray it truely comes and Palma will surrender completely to Jesus.

Hi here are some pictures from the Freedom Project car wash..we have devoted staff, SOMD interns from our base that have been on an urban track as part of the school requirements and lastly we will point out Bobby and Jose. These are two young people will be taking on a 2 week trip to New Orleans with a dual purpose - to see transformation in thier lives and to serve and transform the places we go by the love and power of God. I wanted to share a little about each of these guys so you would get to meet the people we are getting to bless because of YOU!




Jose (group pic above, 2nd one in) has been out of incarceration since December. His dad is 72, his mom elderly and blind. He has a deaf brother who still lives at home. He signs in English and the mom only speaks Spanish? The house is in very bad shape because she is unable to do much. She is still adapting to this condition since it was a loss of sight, not something she was born with. The dad takes fulltime care of a daughter in a wheelchair, both severely mentally and physically handicapped from a botched surgery as a child. They also have a younger daughter who lives in the home, is age 6 and seems to be lost in the shuffle of all this. To pay a visit to the home is nothing short of overwhelming. They were given the home they live in as part of a settlement for the sick girl, but it is right in the middle of poverty, crime and gang territory. Jose joined the gang as a child amidst pressure and promises of being protected. He said he was bullied and teased as a young boy and they promised to be there. He has been stabbed three separate times and survived. Now he still lives where you can hear the sounds of other youth being brought in one by one to the gang that surrounds him - fists pounding away at innocence and feet kicking the life out leaving what is seemingly just an empty shell that will carry this now hardened heart. They jump him in as he is looking for protection, acceptance and an escape from what may be a home full of overwhelming circumstances like Jose's. This is a sound heard in the alley behind his window. An enemy of his lurks in what feels like darkness even in midday, he lives across the street and is a lingering threat of death and destruction not only threatening Jose but his family. He stays away from his homies, but they come looking for him and warn him if he doesn't get back on the job he will pay. This is NOT to big for God - his ear not too dull to hear the cry of this man's heart. Forgive me and deliver me. He is so tender and is trying so hard to fight off the anger he feels from this prison he is in. So we want to get him out of there and allow him to get a glimpse of something new - so a missions trip? It changes people as they see God provide, pure relationships develop and he will find there are others who suffer alongside him. Maybe from different circumstances, but suffering all the same. Below are a few pics of his birthday party we had for him here at his new "second" home he comes to serve here often, weekly just about. He likes the presence of God he feels here and we are teaching him it goes with him wherever he is. He has alot of new friends that are much different than any he has had in the past. But is a difficult thing to see a new pattern established in a life like this - it requires love, patience, power of God, grace and more love and more power. I am so glad to know Jose and be on this journey with him - he recently said about the program at Camp we provide that it was the highlight of his entire week. It was the only place he knew he could come and not be yelled at and called names. I am so glad to have this ministry.....
posting of Bobby to come!

Lately it has been windy and cold :(
But a few weeks ago, oh my gosh it was so nice! I found the urban staff working hard on the mission field with Jose. Jose has been out of Probation Camp since December and he keeps coming to the YWAM base serving, getting counseling and on this afternoon getting ready to do Bible Study. Please pray for him as even a few Sunday's ago after church he shared that his brother had been jumped by a gang and had his arm broken. Jose confessed that he had been armed (literally) for revenge, which is not uncommon. This is a learned way of life for many of the guys we work with and we are helping him to see that revenge does not need to come from his hands. Jose continues to do really good despite what seems to be every single circumstance set up against him. He spoke on a gang panel for us just after the incident I just wrote about and now he is really under alot of pressure! He told many middle and high school students about joining a gang when he was young and how it has brought him nothing but trouble.
As of today, he has an enemy across the street who recently was released from jail that wants to kill him. So everytime he goes outside this guys gestures to him that he is going to "smoke" him. Plus, he has gang members going to his house telling his brother that Jose better come back and hang with them or else. And not to mention, someone is calling him and threatening his brother. Jose says to leave his gang officially he will have 18 seconds to run down an alley and avoid the bullets that his "homies" will fire at him. If he lives than he can leave. These are just a few of the things this young man is facing to change his life today. As we prayed with him last time and shared with him different verses God had given us it was so cool because he realized that God is not just with him here, but God really does go with him each time he goes home. This was huge for Jose, God is always with him. Jose also said that "he realizes he has to change the way he thinks"...he left that day feeling very confident and went right out and got himself a job at a place we had talked about him going to ...doing tiling. It was a good day. Ministering to Jose is so much fun because he is so open. Here is a picture of him as he did the gang panel for the career day at a local hospital.





update: Jose has slipped, both used and gone out with the gang. So please pray that he would hear God and be strong enough in Jesus to fight this very difficult battle.

goodbyes.hellos.deep.borders

It was Palma's last night and it was tough to see him go. You get attached to the hearts and lives you invest in so much. It was hard, he liked the word of God being ministered to him. I know because he told me so. Soft words for a tough gangster with an anger problem, how I praise God for the gentle spirit this man has received. But once in the free world would he be pulled from it? Can't worry about tomorrow, each days has enough worries of it's own. I just pray he will hunger for a meeting place with Jesus. Be that on his knees, in a park, at a church, please Palma, just meet with Jesus! It's a very scary time for these. As a a spiritual parent, I cry as I let them go. But I know that God has planted much of his word into his life. Palma grabbed my hands and asked me to pray one more time, so I did. As I looked up to my right was another young man by the same first name as Palma, with a spark of hope in his eyes. He asked me, "Ma'am will you pray for me too?", we bowed our heads and God took over and gave me a prayer for this young man. It was good, God threw his arms around this young man and welcomed him home, he just gave me a prayer of prescence and love unconditional - he told this young man that he could be certain he was right there with him as certain as he was that he knew the very number of the hairs on his head. And as he raised his head up and I looked into his eyes they were filled with tears, streaming down his face. It is rare to see this much emotion in front of thier peers,
I must admit my selfish heart was so comforted to know that I can go on because when I say goodbye to one I love so deeply I go on to the next because God has faithfully shown me my love is deep because his is deep and yes I can go on because it is what I do - his love brings hope and life to so many..including me!
I was in Mexico this weekend and so many of the guys we work with have a daddy somewhere in that country that they never see - all I could really think about and pray for is that they would come to know a Father not from another country who can't cross the border but one who is here - not one who can't be embraced or touched, but one who is present, here is the one who will never leave them, one who is not across the border, He is thier Hero who longs to save them.

encouraged

Reid is practicing encouragment... if you feel like you can't go on anymore remember breathe and swim. soon enough someone will come and clean your tank.

moving

last fall I met a young man named Palma, a gang member. It was an easy connection, right away his story unfolded, and my heart began to break. No matter how many young men I meet, how many times I go, it's like the first time I have been. His sister died of brain cancer while he was locked up. It had only been about a month. He was not permitted to attend the funeral. Palma grew up going to church. His whole family did, in fact, his sister believed she would be healed. So when I met him, he shared that God had let them all down. He was angry at God and wouldn't even take a few scriptures - he wouldn't open a Bible himself. I told him that God had an answer to his questions about his sister. I told Palma that God himself wanted to speak personally with him! Something shifted as soon as I told him that, he said he would think about that. As we met the Holy Spirit gave wonderful counsel for Palma and God revealed himself in amazing ways to this young man. Then I left. I wondered, how would he do? He seemed to have stopped receiving, he became angry and you could see the battle within as you looked at this young man. I heard from staff that he wasn't really willing to have any counsel in my abscence. I waited to see what would happen when I got back and last week he showed up. the anger had lifted and he had done business with God. He moved into a place of peace with his sister's passing and he needed to see God's hand once again. So as he prayed for God to reveal himself, he did. God showed up and Palma got it. He may not understand every detail about his sister's disease and the details of her death, but he has trust that God knew what was best. Last fall, I pushed for him to leave his gang and he declared he would not. I checked in with him on Friday - he did. It is finished - this battle.

I just flew back home from Virginia on Friday. I was gone for 7 weeks. I missed being home. I missed my bed. I missed my coffee maker (it's European, you know) I missed my car. I missed my pillow. You get it by now, I just missed my space that I call home. But now that I am here, I miss my litte girl Krysta and my grandbaby Emily. What a mess I am. So sad. :(

A hip harness

I have had some of you ask what Emily's little harness looks like. So I asked her and she said she didn't mind taking a cute little picture so you could all see how it fits...(at least she seemed agreeable) it's main purpose is to keep her legs pointed at a 90 degree angle outward. It's funny when you take it off for a bath she spends about 5 minutes stretching her legs over and over. Very cute. She gets it off in a few more weeks and has a very good attitude as you can see!

A time to die

Ecclesiastes 3:1-2 says " There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven: a time to be born and a time to die," For Joey Sandoval his time was December 14th. As the news article read, "15-year old shot and killed. A gang related murder occurred in broad daylight".
Joey is pictured here on the far right, he was only 15. This pic was taken just a month before at the YWAM base. For the past year urban staff had been reaching out to Joey, he was a tough. He had been through alot, his life story heartbreaking. But God was at work in Joey's life. There was a reason for the season we had with Joey, he needed to hear. So he did. He heard because there were those who were willing to press in, no matter what. Joey met Jesus through the amazing staff I am blessed to have, and Jesus met Joey in an amazing personal way that day, in broad daylight, because it was time. I believe.
Ecclesiastes 3:8 says there is "a time for love and time for hate, a time for war and a time for peace." Joey was in a battle, like most of the youth we are working with. He had experienced his share of hate and that is what drove him. God spoke and said this past year, it was Joey's time. Joey's time for love. That is what we do. We bring love. In a city where there is a terrible war, a war that is causing kids to kill kids, we pray for a time for peace. For Joey, that time is now. May he rest in peace.