2010 PNCC Mission Trip: Slideshow

I'm still working on collecting the various reports. In the meantime, some pictures.

Here's the link on Picasa.

Here's a slideshow.

2010 Final BBQ and Year in Review!

The Kids, with David

For the second year in a row, we ended the Youth Group year with a BBQ at the church. Many of these faces we saw every week for around 40 weeks. We feel like these are OUR kids sometimes; and in some sense, they are!

The Kids, with Kate

We started the year with four youth leaders but ended with two and half. Attendence was steady all through the year at around 18-25 kids each night, sometimes up to 30 on the pizza nights. We had a very busy year, check out the table below for a list of our activities.

Count	Activity
9	Small Group
4	Destination Unknown: House of Hope, Museum, My House, Marcia’s House
3	Phone Home
2	sewing party
2	Trick R Treat
2	Stockings
	Work Party
	Bowling
	Caroling
	Epiphany dinner
	Youth service rehearsal
	Game Night
	Valentines
	Deliver Valentines
	Ash Wednesday Service
	Spring Party
	Guest Speaker
	progressive dinner
	Final BBQ

On behalf of myself, Kate Farrell and Gordon Kyle, we would like to THANK the Snoqualmie United Methodist congregation!!! Not just for trusting us with the most precious of all resources, the YOUTH, but also for supporting us during the following events:

• Shrove Tuesday Pancake Fundraiser
  
• Superbowl Sunday Subs
  
• The January Youth Service
  

Also, and this is no small thing, THANKS to all the following people who guaranteed that we were properly fed every single Wednesday. For some of our kids, I guarantee you that they wouldn't have gotten a hot, home-cooked meal if you hadn't given it to them.

Gordon & Kelly Kyle, Kate Farrell, Pearl Dennis, Mary Brown & Sue O'Donnell, Holly Bigoff-Young, Autumn Eadon & Sam McNabb, Jonathan &; Yuka Souza, Tom &; Linda Boord, Dawn Olson, Pat Kelley, Ernie & Norma Jenner, Peggy & Angela Richter, Rachel Coombs, Lucinda Hauser, Phyllis Huster, Denise Ritthaler, Noelle Rollins, Cheryl Eiger, Genie Fairhart, Steph Eakin, Toddie Downs, Ed & Barb Kelley, Alex Hulet & Laurie Edwards!

Heaven forbid that I might have forgot someone in there. If I did, I'm sorry! But thanks again to everyone for supporting and feeding us all year!

Homeless in Seattle Speech

Here's a speech I gave about the Phone Home program. I also gave a modified version of it from the Pulpit on Sunday.

Homeless in Seattle from David Holmes on Vimeo.

Never Give Up

On June 2th, we're going to go downtown and minister to the homeless again.  I've written about that before and how touching it can be.  We'll likely hand out sack lunches or hygiene kits.  Denny said we could put little inspirational notes in there if we wanted, so I had the kids write some notes as if they were addressed to themselves, homeless in the future.  Okay, I threw in that last part at the last minute -- sometimes you wing it.  But the results were pretty cool.  I thought they were worth sharing.

So without further ado, here are the best of their notes, to themselves, as if they were homeless.

"You are special to God.  He loves you so much.  Never Give Up."

That one was basically what I was looking for.  Something comforting, sort of inspiration.  Loving.  The last three words don't seem to fit but whatever, it'll do.

"God is always with you, and watching you because he loves you."

I liked that one more.  Its a reminder of never being alone.  Also very short and digestible.

"Winners never quit and quitters never win!  Never Ever Give up OKAY!"

This one I put in the pile of "maybes" because while it might be appropriate to yourself  I thought it sounded just a tad aggressive to someone else.  There's that "Never Give Up" thing again.

"You may be thinking 'I'm so poor I got no life. Worthless.'

But there is always a soft spot in God's heart for people like you.  Never give up!"

Wow, that's poignant!  Again, just a tad too aggressive and possibly slightly condescending.  I also put this one in the pile of maybe's just because its conceivable that it could be taken the wrong way. Note the common refrain of "Never Give Up."  Somehow all the kids had that phrase on their minds.  I think there's something interesting there worthy of some study.  


Lastly, here is the one that got "first prize" by me.  I think we can hand this one out.  In fact, I'd like to make 30 copies of it and put it in each sack.  Note that common refrain in this one too.

"My mom was homeless for about six months, and lost her children.

She stayed strong in God and prayed everyday.  

She now has a loving family, a good job, and a roof over her head.

God truly works miracles, and if you never give up

on him then he will never give up on you.  I Love You."

I got a chill down my back when I read that one.  I am a lucky man to get to witness what these kids say and do.  

Destination Unknown: To Me Anyway...

One of the kids' favorite Youth Group events is this thing we do called "Destination Unknown."  We, the youth leaders and the youth council, work up some a destination, usually with a little spiritual message woven in, and we don't tell the kids where it is.


Every time we do this, each one of the kids will pull me aside and whisper, "David, where are we going?!?!"  because they all think that they have a special relationship with me that I'll tell them.  In fact, they ALL have a special relationship with me as far as I'm concerned but I still don't tell them.

In the past we have taken the kids to:

• Snoqualmie Falls - God's Power
• The Police Station - Sin is like a Jail
• The Snoqualmie River - God's Power within you
• The Museum - with a Native American speaker
• Women's Shelter - an Immigrantion story

Well on this particular evening, there was a Destination Unknown that the council had planned and they'd put it on the calendar and hadn't told me where it was.  That's never happened before I didn't think too much of it.  So on April 28th, I arrived at the church, and once all the kids had gathered, we got in the van, and they put a T-shirt around my head so I couldn't see anything.

Then Gordon, one of the other youth leaders, drove around until I was sufficiently disoriented and then we arrived at our destination.  They unveiled me just I arrived AT MY OWN HOUSE!  My wife, Amy, had set this all up, months in advance!  This was HER plan to have a giant birthday party and she got all the kids in youth group to collude.  About 30 people knew (maybe more!), including twenty kids under 15, and SOMEHOW they kept it a secret this while time!

Amy had made sliders and potato salad and cookies and two cakes.  I've never had a surprise birthday party before, it was awesome.

Thanks to Amy for giving me such a wonderful birthday present!!!

The Phone Home Program

Another one of our kids' favoritest youth group events is this thing called the "Phone Home Program" in Seattle.  There's a man named Denny Hancock who runs a couple of charitable ministries in North Bend.  For one of them, he has a tour bus he uses where he rounds up a youth group and whatever sandwiches, hygiene kits or warm coats they've collected and he brings them downtown to hand out to the homeless.  While the kids are doing that, he stands there with a guitar around his neck cultivating personal relationships with each of the homeless.


The first time my youth group did this, I arranged to meet them under the freeway (since I work in Seattle).  When Denny's bus pulled up, all the homeless people came out of the woodwork.  My youths jumped out and they'd clearly had some instruction on the way down.  Three phone teams went among the homeless, helping them call home.  If the family member on the other end agreed to take them in (and sometimes this took 3 or 4 calls over a month) they'd also have to agree to put up half of the money for a bus ticket ($50 or so), to show their investment in this process.  It works out that about one person a week gets sent home that way.  That doesn't sound like much but over the years, Denny's organization has bought 700 bus tickets!

As an adult, I don't work the phones -- we leave that to the kids (homeless don't get to see fresh-faced optimistic youth every day, it is a treat for them).  So I usually stay with the rest of the kids who are handing out the sack lunches.  Last time, we ran out of sack lunches and the kids ran back to the bus and got their OWN sack lunches and gave those away too.

On most trips, some poor soul will shuffle up.  You can tell they want to say something; their face is full of emotion.  Often all that comes out of them is "Thank you.  God Bless you."  And they cry.  And they accept the sack lunch.

When we get on the bus to go back to Snoqualmie, the kids always say the same thing.  "David!  We should do this ALL THE TIME."  I say "I know."  And they say "No, really!  We're serious, we should do this EVERY WEEK!  This is what we're supposed to be doing as Christians!"  They are so moved by what they've done and by what they've witnessed.  I am glad that they understand at such a young age what it has taken me 25 more years to figure out.

If you are thinking about doing this with your youth group, I highly encourage you to sign up.  What you should know:

• If you have little, little ones (like under 12), don't bring them along on this one.
• Bring something to distribute, like sack lunches, or in the winter, warm men's coats or socks or gloves
• Prepare to leave at 5:30ish and be back around 8:30ish.

Here is the link for the phone home program, along with the sign-up sheet.  Good luck.

   http://www.mammashands.org/index.php?view=phone

SUMYT 2010 Camp Indianola

This is Andrew. He is one of our most active youth and a leader among the kids. He is on my A-team, in that he will volunteer for anything and he's good at everything.

Andrew is active in the regional conference leadership team, whose initials are (S)eattle (U)nited (M)ethodist (Y)outh (T)eam. He somehow gets himself to all the weekend retreats and I'm proud that he's our representative.

On March 19th, he and I left Seattle on a ferry across the sound to Bainbridge. Then we drove up to Camp Indianola and checked in around 7:30. Andrew and I, complete manly men that we are, were assigned 6 other male youth to watch over in the evening.

For three days, we basically partied with kids from other United Methodist churches around Seattle. Fairwood had HUGE representation and provided a great band to sing songs to. The food, like it was at Lazy F, was phenomenal.

I got to share my faith journey. I tried to be quick and I hoped I didn't bore the kids, me being the eldest speaker and all. I'm so old!

For those three days, I didn't see much of Andrew personally -- he was always with the rest of the other leaders (perhaps 10 of them, maybe less). That team of kids organized three days of rallies, small groups, and activities. Incredible. We are lucky to have such great kids in our churches!