Fun in the snow

Cold weather and snow tend to shut down most of the activity at the North Grand Villas. As a result, Quinn and her brother Ben were the only two kids who trudged through the snow to come to our bible study yesterday. Ben and I decided we’d take advantage of the small crowd and all the snow to go out and build a snowman.

It was rather cold out, especially considering I had to let Ben use my gloves. But the snowman turned out pretty good. We used some of the wood mulch from the playground for the eyes, nose and mouth. All things considered, we were quite proud of our work. Small crowd, but a good, fun day.

Here’s the snowman and a self portrait of our work.

Rock People

Some crafts are far more fun than others.  This was definitely one of the fun ones.  On Monday at Rose Plaza, we talked about Jesus telling Simon his name was now Peter, which means Rock.  The cool thing about that story is that Jesus saw Peter not for who he was at the time, but who he was going to become.  Jesus knew this because he happened, of course, to also be Peter’s creator. 

We talked about that, and then had the chance to create something fun – rock people.  The kids were super creative and had lots of fun.  Maybe it was all the pent-up energy of being snowed in for several days, but the kids’ creative juices were flowing.  It was lots of fun, and the rock people look really funny photographed for some reason, or maybe Suzanne (who took the pictures) and I just have a weird sense of humor.

Cecillia and her creation.

Brandi

Tori (I think Suzanne decided to get kind of artsy, huh?)

Jose with his four-eyed rock monster along with his Uncle Hilario’s wild-haired rock.

Again, for some reason these things lend themselves to some quality humorous photographs.

Anybody Have a Bunkbed?

There’s a single mom at Rose Plaza in need of two single beds, preferrably in the form of bunkbeds. Two of her daughters attend school in Boys Ranch. But they come home to visit on occasional weekends and have to sleep on the floor. If you have some you might be able to either donate or loan out, please let me know!

Comment below or email brooks@mission2540.org.

Let me brag on my kid…

Number 30 in the picture above is Dalvin (it’s not the best picture – I took it with my phone, but it will do).  He’s playing for Palo Duro’s JV basket ball team this year.  I just wanted to show the picture and brag a little bit, because Dalvin has been playing great this year. 

In his first two years of basketball at PD (he’s a junior this year), Dalvin didn’t play much, and when he did, he struggled.  Not because he didn’t have talent, but because he was just overly timid and completely lacked confidence.  This year, it’s a whole new Dalvin.  He’s scoring lots of points, making great passes, telling teammates what to do, encouraging other players, etc.  It’s been a joy to watch him play. 

I’m super proud of him.  He hasn’t decided if he’s going to play next year (he’ll make varsity, but just isn’t sure if he’ll play that much).  I hope he does.

Ty the Baptist

This year during our Kids Bible Studies, we’re going through the book of John to study the life of Jesus.  Nellie and Judy from St. Stephen’s UMC helped us out on Monday (which they do once a month) and taught the kids about John the Baptist.  Ty helped by showing us what John the Baptist might have looked like:

The ladies always do a great job of teaching the kids.  And the kids enjoy it.

Judy even let Taekwan say the prayer.  It took awhile, and he needed a good deal of coaching, but he did a great job and felt quite special about it, it I think.

Thanks for blessing our kids Judy and Nellie!

Wall ball

I don’t post much about our boys and girls youth bible studies on Tuesdays, mainly because I never remember to take pictures. Last Tuesday, the boy and I played a little indoor wall ball with a nerd basketball. I enjoyed it because it involves throwing the ball at each other. It feels quite good to hit Terrell and Puna in the back of the head. I kid, I kid.
We then started our study of the book of Proverbs. Puna said at the end of it that he realized he probably shouldn’t steal. Good times.

Back in the swing of things

We started everything back up last week after breaking for the Holidays. The only thing that didn’t get going was this blog. So here’s a quick first entry of the year.

This year, our Monday and Tuesday bible studies will be going through the book of John. Yesterday at Rose Plaza, we discussed John 1 and how Jesus came to be a light in the darkness.

To demonstrate how living in darknesss is rather difficult, For we played a game where one person was blinfolded and had to scoop cotton balls with a spoon into a plastic cup while listening to the directions of teammates. It’s an old game but lots of fun. Pictured below is Suzanne having a go at it.

Christmas Present Delivery!!

Saturday was my favorite day of the year.  Maybe it’s the joy of blessing a bunch of families.  Or maybe it’s the joy of finishing a giant project that I begin the last week of October.  Or maybe it’s a combination of both, but I love Christmas present delivery day.  We provided 2 gifts a piece to 173 kids this year from 50+ families.  Thanks to all of you who provided gifts, gave toward gifts, shopped, and/or helped deliver.  It was a huge undertaking but well worth all the work!  Some pictures:

Gideon gets ready to load a box of presents for his family to deliver.

Happy faces.

More happy faces.  Christmas is lots of fun, insn’t it?

NGV Christmas Party

We held our North Grand Villas Christmas Party on Thursday evening.  We ate the same stuff and did the same things as at the Rose Plaza Christmas Party.  The only difference is it was a lot bigger of a party – probably 60-65 attendees. 

Here are some of the boys waiting to eat.

Enjoying the food.

Singing Christmas songs with Jody (and Jody’s hat).

The Christmas story.  Most listened to me, I think (or hope).

Handing out the gift bags with the help of my daughter Karsen.  Everyone wanted these, of course, so I’m glad I had enough – nearly 50.

Thanks to everyone who helped.  It was another great party.

Rose Plaza Christmas Party

On Monday, we held our annual Rose Plaza Christmas Party.   I think nearly 20 of our kids came, and we had a big feast of Chick-fil-A nuggets, fruits, vegetables, chips and dip, and cupcakes.  We visited, sang some songs (thanks to Pat Turner for leading us) and heard the Christmas story.  The John Mark Sunday School Class at St. Stephen’s United Methodist generously put together gift bags for all the kids.  Obviously, we had a great time.  Here are some pictures:

Thanks to Suzanne, Pat, Judy and Nellie for all the help!!