Jesus said what?

I wonder what life would be like if we really lived the words of Jesus. I think life would probably be a whole lot better.

I've been reading articles and books on injustice issues happening around the world. It makes you really angry sometimes that there are people around the world that could take advantage of people the way they do. We showed a video at Fathers House Church a couple of weeks ago, about the wonderful people at Westboro Baptist church in Kansas.

Matthew 5:43-48 states it well. Pray for those who persecute you that you may be sons of your Father in heaven.

I love the way that the message says it. Matthew 5:43-47 "I'm challenging that. I'm telling you to love your enemies. Let them bring out the best in you, not the worst. When someone gives you a hard time, respond with the energies of prayer, for then you are working out of your true selves, your God-created selves. This is what God does. He gives his best—the sun to warm and the rain to nourish—to everyone, regardless: the good and bad, the nice and nasty. If all you do is love the lovable, do you expect a bonus? Anybody can do that. If you simply say hello to those who greet you, do you expect a medal? Any run-of-the-mill sinner does that."

I recently read an article in the Mission Frontiers Magazine titled, "Loving Bin Laden - What Does Jesus Expect Us To Do?"

What does it look like to love our enemies, to let go of bitterness, hate, those people that have said horrible things about us, done horrible things to us. What does it look like to do what it says in Luke 6:28, "bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you."

How will you respond this week when; you learn someone has done something horrible, the person that cuts you off in traffic, the one that gossip's about you, that co-worker that has it out for you. How will you respond to your enemies? My challenge to you is to take a deep breath, say a prayer, and if at all possible, love them and bless them!

Pictures To Save Pictures...

A couple of weeks ago, in an attempt to quickly see what my son was up to. I tripped over a cord connected to my laptop and knocked my external hard drive off of my night stand. It only fell about a foot, onto a backpack, but it no longer works. I've taken it to several people and the only hope there is for my hard drive is to send it to San Francisco, and have these guys take it into their clean room and fix my hard drive.

The mac superstore gave me their number, I called them and after their diagnosis, the told me they had great news. Because all that was on my hard drive was jpeg's, so I qualify for the jpeg discount. "Sweet," I though to myself. Then the guy on the other end of the phone said, with your 10% referral discount and jpeg program, it will only be $950.00. Wait a second, I though he said he had good news for me.

Because this hard drive has all of Eli's baby pictures, and a ton of pictures from around the world, we've decided to do it. Well to cover the cost of the hard drive repair I've decided to try and sell some of my pictures to save my pictures. I've been trying to decide which one's i want to put online. I'm going to try and create a site, but here are some that i'm considering. If your interested in any of these photo's at all, let me know.

Love, Peace and Justice

Well here's my attempt at trying to blog again. I go through blog phases where I post alot, then not so much. So I'm going to try putting up small posts once or twice a week. We'll see how this goes. It may take me a time or two to find my voice and actually get my words out right, but here goes.

This week I'm going to start with a trailer for Hillsong United's new movie "The I Heart Revolution: We're All In This Together" and a look at Matthew 25

I've been on this journey learning about Justice issues around the world and what is God's heart for these issues, and what are we suppose to do. This video has been rocking my world the last couple weeks. So take 4 minutes and watch this trailer and then lets take a look at Matthew 25.

When we forsake the lives of others, We actually forsake our own. WOW! I think this is what Jesus is saying here;

Matthew 25:34-40

³⁴"Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. ³⁵For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, ³⁶I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.'

³⁷"Then the righteous will answer him, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? ³⁸When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you? ³⁹When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?'

⁴⁰"The King will reply, 'I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me.'

I think that Jesus is calling us to act. Each one of us has something that we can offer to the horrible injustices that are happening around the world. Even the ones that are happening in our own backyards. There have been several reports of human trafficking right here in the Central Coast.

• How do we help the poor in our world – Whether in our backyard or across the globe?

- If they’re hungry … we bring food.

- If they’re homeless … we provide shelter.

- If they get sick … we provide medical care.

If they get abused … we bring relief and advocacy.

It seems pretty clear...

I recently drove out of Burger King and saw a homeless guy sitting with a sign. I had just come from a meeting at our church. It was 9:00 pm and not really the time you see someone sitting with a sign at the end of a Burger King driveway. I saw him while I was waiting for my food. I thought about giving him some money, but then like the movie above, the thoughts of what if he spends it on drugs or booze. So I drove past him on the way to my friends house.

I got half way up the street and had to turn around. I drove back to the parking lot and parked my car. I had $10 in my wallet, so I walked over to the guy sitting on the curb holding his cardboard sign. For the next 30 minutes I sat and talked to the guy that so many people had driven past assuming he would spend the money on booze. While I was sitting there I got to learn that he was staying in a hotel up the street with his wife and two kids because they had just lost their home and job. I got to pray for my friend, and gave him some options for help in our area. I haven't seen my friend holding the cardboard sign again, but i've been praying for him and his family.

I'm not saying give money to every homeless person you see, but maybe we should? I know some people buy gift cards to fast food places, all good options.

I think the important thing to remember is to not just drive by/walk by and assume we are to do nothing, but we should pray and ask God what he would want us to do.

Haiti Update #3

Hello from Haiti,

Today was a great last day here for us in Haiti. We spent the day registering people into a ID card system so that they can be registered as refugees from Port Au Prince. We registered at least 150 people today. Not quite the mass numbers that we had heard yesterday but it was definitely a great day meeting people. The sad part was seeing all these people coming through that have lost everything. We got a few times today where we had some lulls in between people coming through, so I would go over to the area next to the YWAM base where we have all the people that are sick. It was so good to just sit there and play with the kids, laugh with them and attempt to speak french with them.

At the end of the day we took a walk through the local neighborhood and took some pictures of the kids and and some of the adults here. We had a parade of children behind us as we were taking pictures. Haiti is a beautiful country full of just beautiful people. Please keep praying for all of the people here in Haiti and all the teams that will be coming through.

Tomorrow we will be heading back to the Dominican Republic to catch our flight on Saturday. The time has gone by so fast here and I wish we could stay even longer, but I'm really excited to see my wife and boys.

We will be praying about ways that we can come back down to Haiti and bring more care, support and love for the people of Haiti.

Thanks for all your prayers!

See all you Central Coast people this weekend and don't forget about the Missions Evening at Fathers House, 2100 Ramona Rd in Atascadero, California on Sunday, January 24th. Please come and Join Us!

God Bless!

Will

Haiti Update #2

Hello from Haiti,

Today was definitely a crazy day. As most of you have probably heard we started the day with a 6.1 earthquake that was later downgraded to a 5.9. Where we are here in St. Marc it only lasted for about 3 seconds and definitely didn't feel like a 5.9. However waking up to a earthquake is quite an experience when your in a room with about 30 guys on the second floor. We all jumped out of of beds and ran downstairs in our boxers. I'm pretty sure it was done by the time we got out of bed, but it was a crazy way to wake up.

The hard part is that right next to where we are staying in the sports field is the temporary refugee camp with people that they can not fit at the hospital. I believe there are 56 people here that are injured. Most of these people should still be in the hospital. I'm pretty sure there are people with broken bones and cuts that are very infected. All of these people are laying on mats underneath a steel structure. So when the aftershock that was very similar in sound to the massive earthquake they went through, got up and tried running out from under the building, most of which should not even be walking. So when we got down stairs it was a mass of wailing and crying as people were hurt again from trying to get out from under the building. These people are living in so much fear of the earthquake as they have gone through so much pain and loss.

We started the day out praying for Haiti, YWAM's Rescue Net team in Port Au Prince and that God would continue to guide them to rescuing people from the rubble and give them wisdom when they come to something beyond them. We also prayed that God would miraculously heal people. We also prayed that God would give YWAM a strategy for reaching out to the country of Haiti. After our epic prayer time, we had breakfast. Then we got to enter all the peoples info next to us into computers and create ID badges for them.

***When I dropped French in ninth grade, I told myself I will never need this again. Little did I know then that I would be coming to Haiti. My French has been coming back slowly and has been a help when trying to communicate with the people here in Haiti. Most people here speak Creole, which is a mix of French and Tribal stuff, or they speak French.

This afternoon, we attempted to move about 40 of the injured people to another facility to free up room here at the YWAM base to host teams. We were told that the location was only a couple minutes away. I guess that's Haitian time because we drove for about 40 minutes through the jungle out of the city, across rivers, through very uneven road, and massive puddles, all with very injured people. When we got to the location we found out that the rooms were up about 100 yards from the road and we had to climb about a 45 degree hill to get there. So to make a long story shorter, we ended up turning the trucks around and bringing the people back here to the YWAM base to stay here again.

Tomorrow begins the massive project that some of the staff have been trying to co-ordinate, in bringing 3000 people up to St. Marc from Port Au Prince. Now that was an early number from yesterday, today that number is up to possibly 8000 refugees that will be coming to St. Marc from Port Au Prince. Please be praying that as this massive operation takes place that God's safety, patience, peace and grace would be on all involved.

To catch you up on Tuesday we spent the morning helping clean and gut out an abondoned school house/clinic building. A team from Lancaster County, PA (in my opinion the missions sending capitol of the world, every person I meet in missions from PA is from Lancaster County) fixed up half of the building today so that YWAM can start using it as a clinic.

Yesterday, we spent the afternoon with the refugees next to where we are staying helping nurses clean peoples wounds...while wearing gloves :) It was a full afternoon of caring for people.

Please be praying for us tomorrow and everything that will come our way! Please also be praying for my amazing wife that is at home with my two adorable boys. Lori has been such a blessing to me as we prayed together and felt like I was to come down here this week. Pray for peace, rest, strength and patience for her as she is home with the boys. I miss them like crazy!

God Bless!

Will

HAITI UPDATE

Hello Family and Friends,

Here is a update of our last couple days of travel which I will try to write as best I can, I don't have Lori here to edit for me ;).

Friday we ran around like crazy getting the final things before we left for the Dominican Republic and Haiti. We left Pismo around 9:00 pm. We had to stop in Santa Barbara and pick up some supplies for Rescue Net a medical first responder team from YWAM. We made it to YWAM LA somewhere around 12 or 12:30 at night.

We woke up after 2 or 3 hours of sleep to leave Saturday at 4am for the airport. After a long day of traveling from LAX to Chicago, to Miami, to Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic (D.R) we arrived at the YWAM base at 2 in the morning Sunday. We were planning to leave first thing on Sunday for the border on a taxi and then were going to have to figure it out from there. It turned out we ended up spending Sunday in the D.R, which was a good thing.

A team from Pennsylvania showed up with 16 people, and we were able to ride on a 50 passenger bus with them to the border on Monday. We then get on another mini bus from there to St. Marc, Haiti. ***i got a free tetnus shot at the border as well, because I couldn't remember the last time I had one. Don't worry it was all clean :)***

So crossing the border actually ended up being very easy. We were also part of a World Vision caravan that when we got to the border they just opened the gates and let us into the country. So I guess because I have no stamp in my passport I haven't officially been here. The plan was for the group that was coming here to St. Marc to go part of the way to Port Au Prince (PAP) and then take a north route to avoid the craziness of PAP. The World Vision group would continue on with our SWAT style Police escort that all teams must take from the border due to safety issues :) Somehow our van ended up driving all the way into the craziness of PAP. It was heartbreaking. There were so many buildings that had fallen and apparently we didn't even see the worst of it. We saw many refugee camps set up in parks and empty lots around town. We drove right past the Presidential Palace. It was completely destroyed. We drove by one gas station that had atleast 15 people standing around the pumps with cars lined out the driveway and down the street. It was hard to drive past all the people and see the hurt on their faces. Many of these people have lost loved ones. We pulled in to the main police headquarters and then realized we had not taken the right road. Our driver then drove very fast through the streets of PAP to get us North towards St. Marc.

Our original plan was to stay with a DTS student from last year whose family had moved just north of PAP. It now turns out our past student Philip will be staying the week with us here in St. Marc. There are many people that are fleeing from PAP and coming to the surrounding cities. Just today the local hospital who should only have 120 people but currently has 410, brought 50 people to the YWAM base to lay in their soccer field under shelter. Tomorrow it sounds like we are going to be gutting an old school and turning it into a temporary clinic.

There is so much that needs to be done here. Just today this temporary clinic here at the YWAM base gave a boy 5 stitches that he has needed since last wednesday. The hospitals and clinics have been giving people amputations if they have a compound fracture. This is just crazy that someone will not have one or more of their limbs for the rest of their life because of a compound fracture.

I will try and write more tomorrow. After we have spent the day out in the city.

Godbless and THANKS for all your prayers and support!

Will

rest for my soul....

So for the last couple of day's i have been enjoying the great Northwest. I led worship at our church sunday morning and had a great time. God really showed up and i had a great time worshipping him. Immediately after church we hopped in the car, grabbed some in n out and headed for San Jose. I got on a plane and flew to Portland. I got to spend Sunday and Monday with Tierney in Portland and going through all the YWAM stuff.Tuesday for lunch me and T had a delicious Lebanese lunch. It was really good. Some amazing lamb and chicken kabob's. Tuesday afternoon i headed to Salem.

I've had a great time here the last two days just relaxin and getting refreshed. I spent some time reflecting on the positive things God had done in the last year. Some of the things I came up

with were Lori, Liam and Eli, God's provision in our lives the last year, Growth personally and as a base, vision for the future, picking focus countries for the base. It's been a good time, connecting with God and friends.

....

This post didn't get posted the other night, but now i'm back in the central coast. It's good to be home with my amazing wife and super cute little boys. I really needed the last couple days. It was really restful for my body and my soul. And so now it's time to go enjoy some pancakes with my family, while listening to the once soundtrack.

Sabbath

Sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest and/or time of worship that is observed in any of several faiths. The term derives from the Hebrew shabbat (שבת), "to cease", which was first used in the Biblical account of the seventh day of Creation. Observation and remembrance of the Sabbath is one of the Ten Commandments (the fourth in the original Jewish, the Eastern Orthodox, and most Protestant traditions. Many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over

 the millennia. - wikipedia

I've been realizing lately that even though I'm an extravert, love being around people. I need to have some time to myself. 

Growing up in church, I know that it is biblical for me to take a break and call it a "Sabbath". Someone I know said that "Sabbath" is just about not doing anything, but is to take your soul and give it a break.

For me it is easy to get doing a million different things and become busy with a lot of different little things. I need to remember to set aside time for me. I set time aside for my wife, kids, work, but I need to remember to set time aside for me as well.

Jesus said, "man is not for the sabbath, but sabbath for man". I think this is what I have been doing lately. I have been going to church on sunday and being around people and calling this my "sabbath", but I think i need to find a place just to myself. A place where my soul can rest and recharge my soul. 

So hopefully I can move forward in this area, and start taking better care of my soul.

The Freedom Project

Our friends Troy and Alisa were here teaching in our Discipleship Training School this last week. They are apart of an organization called The Freedom Project.  I don't know very much about human trafficking but I want to become more aware. As I've started learning more about human trafficking, I'm starting to learn that it's right here in our cities. 

With an estimated 27 million people in the world living in some form of bondage, human trafficking is the second largest criminal industry in the world. Slaves make bricks in India, they work on cocoa plantations in the Ivory Coast, they are forced to beg on the streets of Europe, their organs are sold on the black market in Asia and they are tricked or forced into prostitution all over the world.

Human trafficking is slavery.

Slavery is not a new concept. Modern technology and communication has transformed the old idea of slavery into a dangerous and illusive force called human trafficking. Human trafficking involves the buying and selling of human beings into some kind of forced work for little or no pay.

Human traffickers:

• buy and sell people over the internet
• they pose as boyfriends or as business owners with quality jobs to offer
• they may personally know their victims or are a friend of a friend
• they might simply be a normal person who have been given an unethical opportunity to make a bit of money by selling someone

Trapped by the lies of their traffickers and by their seemingly hopeless circumstances, trafficking victims feel like they can’t escape. They bitterly resign themselves to do the work they are being forced to do.

Victims of human trafficking come from all over the world. In Eastern Europe, young women look to Western Europe and North America for job opportunities. Going to a new country makes them vulnerable, especially if they don’t speak the language or they don’t know the person who is getting them the job. Many Eastern European women end up as prostitutes in the international sex trade, stocking brothels in Amsterdam and New York or working in rundown massage parlors in the United Kingdom.

The fight against human trafficking is a fight for human freedom. It is a fight to give all people everywhere the freedom of choice, the freedom to not live in constant fear, the freedom to pursue their own dreams and live as the sole owner of their life. Everyone should have the freedom to not be bought and sold.

That is why we are the Freedom Project,
because we believe that freedom should exist for everyone.

So reading this you start to feel like what can I do. I'm only one person. I possibly can't bring change. Well luckily my friends over at The Freedom Project have come up with some answers.

If you only have

1 minute:
-PRAY for victims of human trafficking and for a generation to be mobilized to stand against injustice

1 hour:
-RESEARCH trafficking on the web and arm yourself with knowledge
-TALK to a friend about trafficking and challenge them to action
-WATCH a documentary on trafficking or if you have more time rent the movie Human Trafficking

1 day:
-VOLUNTEER your day to a local organization that helps stop human trafficking
-DONATE a day's wages to an anti-trafficking organization like International Justice Mission or The Freedom Project
-ATTEND a public awareness event that focuses on human trafficking.

1 month:
-ORGANIZE a fundraiser to benefit victims of trafficking. For idea's check out www.stopthetraffik.org
-TAKE a short-term trip overseas to actively prevent human trafficking or assist victims.
-PLAN a rally to raise awareness in your community, school, or work place.
-CHALLENGE lawmakers to prosecute traffickers and protect victims.

1 year:
-WORK full time with an anti-trafficking organizatioin.
-BECOME an activist against human trafficking in your city.
-EDUCATE yourself by taking a class on injustice.
-CREATIVELY use your gifts and talents to be a voice for trafficking victims.

1 lifetime:
HELP stop
-poverty
-poor education
-disease
-starvation
-economic hopelessness
-political corruption
-oppression

all of which contribute to the global epidemic of human trafficking.

my boys that love being in front of the camera

So one of our good friends and old dts students katie came out to visit us for a couple of days last week. Katie and her boyfriend Kyle have a photography business in Michigan. So when Katie came out she brought her camera and a bunch of their lens. She let me use her Canon 50mm 1.4 lens and i got some fun shots of the boys.

thanks katie

trust...

Proverbs 3:5-6 

(vs.5) Trust in the LORD with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;

(vs.6) in all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make your paths straight.

Matthew 6:25-34

(vs.25) "Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food, and the body more important than clothes?

(vs.26) Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they?

(vs.27) Who of you by worrying can add as single hour to his life?

(vs.28) "And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin.

(vs.29) Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these.

(vs.30) If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

(vs.31) So do not worry, saying, 'What shall we eat?' or 'What shall we drink?' or 'What shall we wear?'

(vs.32) For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them.

(vs.33) But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things wll be given to you as well.

(vs.34) Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

I've seen God be faithful so many times, and yet these are the hardest verses for me to live out. I am constantly worrying about situations in our life.

Lord help me to trust you with all of my heart, and to lean not on my understanding....

...

one thing i have asked of the Lord,

this is what i seek:

that i may dwell in the house of the Lord

all the days of my life;

to behold the beauty of the Lord

and to seek Him in His temple.

let me grasp the beauty of the Lord, and to seek him always....

enjoying life

I'm loving today. It's such a cool day with the rain falling. I love what i do (almost everyday), my kids are great. I have an awesome wife. I'm sitting here doing some graphic stuff for our church and one of our staff. Listening to the great online radio player pandora.com. I'll also love the noise of the rain on our roof, and the way it falls onto the concrete out the back door.  This was from a day we spent at the beach before we went to Colombia.

Howell - Beckett wedding in San Simeon, California

I had the privilege to add another thing to the list of many things i've had the opportunity to do. I got to take my friends Elizabeth and Jason's wedding pictures. I was pretty nervous to say i would do it as i have never taken wedding pictures before in my life. I talked with some of my friends that actually are Professional Wedding photographers and they told me to just have fun and put my heart into, and that's what i did. 

On October 25th, Jason & Elizabeth got married at the pier in San Simeon, California. It's a really beautiful area about a hour north of Pismo Beach. It was really foggy along the whole coast the day of the wedding, except right on the pier. There was totally a great spot right on the pier that was the only clear spot on the coast. The sun was shining and it was great. Here are a few photos from the day it was tons of fun.

Fall fun

We are really busy this time of year. We have 6 new staff joining our YWAM base this next week. Most of them have arrived this week. It has been really interesting because the house 5 of them were suppose to move into fell threw on Thursday. So we have them staying all over the place right now.

It makes this already crazy time of year a little bit more crazy. The first two weeks of November is new staff orientation, followed by two weeks of DTS staff training. Then we are in December and that's a whole other crazy month.Once a month we have a staff fun day where we close our office and go and do something fun together. With it being October we went to Avila Valley Barn and hung out at the pumpkin farm. Lots of fun animals for Eli to check out and even a hay ride.

Maybe if i try posting more on here it will help me keep taking new pictures of the boys as well. Or atleast take pictures of Liam. Here are some pictures of the boys, and one of me to keep Phil happy.

Liam chillen on the couch

Liam smiling on the pumpkins

on the hay ride

familia picture '08

Eli being super cute

Eli falling of the pumpkins...Eli and Daddy

2nd baby days...

So i feel horrible, but we have not been as good at taking pictures of Liam like we did with Eli. I think there are already like 2000 more photos of Eli when he was 2 months old than we have of Liam. But here a few. I still have more on my camera that i have to take off this week.

here are some pics of the last couple months...

Eli making one his faces

Liam being cute in a Tonka truck
more cuteness in the truck
Eli wearing my hat
Eli with his cousin(on left) and Liam
Eli playing in his pool at Grandma's house

Eli and his friend Pablo

Eli sort of riding a bike...he was sitting and i was pushing him

some new shirts to come....

Hope Eternal the t-shirt company that i started with YWAM Pismo Beach at the beginning of the year, is starting to take shape. We have almost sold all of the shirts that we printed, and are in need to order more. We have our shirts available online, in a surf shop in Pismo and a bookstore in San Luis Obispo.

We are hoping to print two new t-shirt designs by September 1st. The following designs were made by the amazingly talented Jon Lunsford. 

Jeremy Sizemore came up with some ideas to create a shirt for Tibet where all the proceeds go to helping families living in Tibet. 

We were praying for Tibet and felt like through God we could see true freedom for Tibet.  Everyone has seen the bumber stickers for Tibet or the t-shirts that say Free Tibet. Even if we see Tibet freed from China there are still the spiritual aspects that hold the country back.

These are two other designs that Jon has done for us as well. Blogger is being a little bit annoying right now, so it won't let me upload pictures right. So i'll have to add the other designs later. We really love them both and are waiting for the finances to come through to print them. Thanks again Jon for all your great designs.

new blogs to come

I've been really busy traveling and doing stuff i don't really want to be taking care of. 

But i now have a red tomato growing in my garden. It's very exciting it is just a cherry tomato, so it will be gone in one bite. But maybe i will cut it up into little pieces and make a salad or something with it.

I also had a random realization yesterday while trying to get eli to say "w." That when you say w it sounds like double u. which it sort of looks like. Then while writing this i realized that the french have it a little closer with the way they say it like doble vey cuz it looks more like two v's. 

Anyway...i'll post some sweet pics of my cherry tomato's soon.

A short rest...

We got all the DTS students out the door and onto outreach. Our Justice &  the Arts DTS left on the 1st and our Surf DTS left on the 6th. Our surf DTS flew out of SLO, and apparently you can't check bags over 6'8". The surf team had two bags that were 10' and one that was 7', so i put there surf board bags in the van and drove down to LA at about 8 sunday night. I made it down to LA around 11 and met the team outside of LAX and gave them their surfboards. I was so tired that i ended up staying at a Motel 6 in Thousand Oaks. We have heard from the teams and they both made it to their outreach locations successfully. 

Lori, Eli and myself are going to be going and visiting the teams in May. We are going to be going and visiting our surf team in Phuket, Thailand for 10 days. We have never been to Asia so we are really looking forward to this trip.  We have 6 students and two staff that we are going to be meeting with, encouraging and ministering along side. 

From Thailand we are going to fly back to Hong Kong and then head down to The Philippines. 

We have a team of 16, 13 students (all girls), 2 girls and 1 guy staff that are there.  I think Cody is going to need some serious man time when I get there as he will have spent the last 6 weeks with 15 girls. We will have to go kill something or do something really manly. We look forward to seeing the teams it is going to be a good time. I think we are buying our tickets today or atleast reserving them so that we can buy the tickets in 7 days. We still need some money, but God is always faithful to provide.  

We are praying that everything goes smoothly as this will be the first time that we are taking Eli overseas. We are praying that he will be able to adjust to the time and the food. I'll try to keep this updated as we are heading out. 

Eli playing at the park...and home

So we went to the park the other day. We really should go more as it's about 100 feet from our front door, and it's probably even closer than that. Eli loves the slides and running around at the park. This is a series of pictures of him on the slide.

We thought this was pretty funy. His hair was so Stat-icky. (i think that's how you spell it.) It was like his hair loved the slide as much as he did. He is starting to talk more. Not really words but just babble. But it's fun to see him start trying to talk more.

We took some photos of Eli around the house the other day so here's those as well:

so serious...i loved the way this picture turned out though...

sitting on his fire truck

posing on the couch

playing with keys after lunch

pizza induced trance