Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Valentine Fundraiser

Tonya, Lisa and Tina are at it.... they've been planning some kind of BIG fundraiser for us and are thinking about a romantic Valentine's Day dinner. This will be a chance for our team to earn money for the trip. Tonya is heading this up so you may be hearing from her soon. Stay tuned for more info.

Lions and Tigers and .... Bears???? Oh My

Come on a safari with me!

Until late last night I had not come up with a theme for the 2007 trip. That didn't worry me much because I usually operate under the "it'll come to me" rule. I think from past experience that God leads in certain directions. I would never be so bold as to say "God told me this", because frankly, I'm never certain of that. It may well be a concoction of the steriod/narcotic meds I'm taking to fight this pneumonia, or it could just be my normally weird mind at work. In any case, about 2am last night, "it came to me".

The theme for the 2007 trip is just that - an African Safari!

The kids will all have safar hats, animal print bandanas, and will make all kinds of safari crafts! Tim, I'm volunteering you to come up with a CD of "safari" songs... (The Lion Sleeps Tonight, Jungle Love, etc.)

We will have cool decorations ... including animal prints drawn on the sidewalks with chalk and signs like "Zimbabwe ---> 3000 miles" stanked in various places on the playground.

It's be FUN! Silly, yeah, but fun.

AND then, we'll do something really different ......

We will take a moment to tell the kids about Africa and the desperate needs there and give them an opportunity to GIVE to help build a well for the African children to have clean water. It may seem strange to go to the poorest place in America and ask them to give but I believe they will be blessed to be able to do something for someone else.
We will be giving through Blood Water Mission, a ministry set up by the guys of Jars of Clay to help provide clean water for Africa (and to fight AIDS and extreme poverty). You can check them out here.

Saturday, September 02, 2006

We Made the Journal News!

I was out of town last Sunday, but if you can find a copy of the Journal News from Sunday, August 27, 2006 look for the picture of James and Charles handing out backpacks. It is in the "Picture This" section and has a short story about our trip.