California... Here We Are! :-)

 The ride to California was BEAUTIFUL!

I loved all the hills & valleys!

We left Oregon Friday morning, and traveled

all day Friday, stayed in a hotel Friday night,

and then traveled about another six hours on Saturday.

It was a long trip, but it seemed to go by pretty fast..

especially when we discussed and analyzed personalities

for a good part of the trip on Friday!

Are you sequin, melancholy, choleric, or phlegmatic?? :-)

 Stopped to take some pictures of the scenery

 And, of course, the California sign! The first time! :-)

 Mount Shasta

 Aquila, a BCM student from Ghana, West Africa,

joined the team for a few weeks to observe the

ministry so that he could implement it when he

went back home.  We picked him up from the

airport, and I couldn't believe this HUGE luggage cart!

And I thought I had a lot of luggage! ;-)

 Wilton Bible Church with Pastor Jeffcott

 The auditorium/gym.. they get a lot of use out of this room!

 The "inner court" was all gated around.. I had to take

a picture.  The first thing I thought of when I saw

this was.. "Sound of Music"! :-)  Anyone else? ;-)

 Poor Ariel.. this was an exhausting week for her, I guess.

 Splash Ball!

(DJ looks quite concerned, too.. :-))

 Brain Freeze!

 The principal, Mr. Callison, is in the blue shirt on the back row.

 Aquila giving his testimony.

We didn't waste any time to put him to work! ;-)

 Getting ready for Tube Tug..

Making sure the girls are behind the cones.

 A teen girl from the school invited some kids & they came!

Here's some of them.. The little boy is actually an uncle to 

Alexis, the girl in yellow!  I guess Alexis' mom is his sister,

if you can figure that one out :-)  That's not all, though!

This little boy was adopted along with about 25 other kids!

And I thought we had a big family! :-)

 Eating before going into the War room/auditorium

 And telling secrets, I guess...

 Okay, crazy picture!

 I guess they liked the skit, too! ;-)  So cute! :-)

 Trivia

Derek & Diane

They've only been married since April.

He's a police officer & she is a nurse :-)

Her former husband died in an accident.

It was so interesting hearing how they met..

a hunting trip, actually, and he thought, "oh no!

Don't tell me we're gonna take this woman on this trip!"

But.. he was pleasantly surprised by her :-)

She was used of the Lord to be a witness to him,

and eventually he received Christ as His Savior.

Later, but not too much later, they were then married! :-)

 Scoring.. who will win the night?!

 Mingling with the kids in the cafeteria while we're

waiting for our lunch.  Oh my starz!  We had amazing

meals this week!  The lunch portions were HUGE it seemed!

We had Chick-fil-A one day, Chinese another day...

and so on :-)  Very yummy and very filling!

 I left the schoolroom for a few minutes and came

back in to find things in an uproar!

Ariel was freaked out because there was a spider on

the ceiling and so the girls were trying to kill it! :-)

I tried, but it was a bit too high..

thankfully, DJ came to the rescue just in time! ;-)

 The girls have been taking over registration almost completely now!

 "Beautiful night for a ball game," as Dr. Jim would say :-)

 Spoke Tackle

 Alexis couldn't play because she was expecting,

but that didn't stop her from getting as involved

as she could by cheering on her aunt who was playing! :-)

 I've been doing the waitress skit, "Dinner Decisions".

This past week was my second time doing it.

It was fun :-)  And I think DJ especially LOVES that

he can throw water on me at the end of it!

I don't know that you can see it too well, but I was

trying to get a picture of my wet face :-p

I think my clothes got more wet than my face did, though!

 Some of Thomas' family came to see him.

Rebekah is on the top far left and Joanna is on the bottom far left.

It was so nice to meet some of them & we're looking

forward to being able to spend more time at his house soon!

 The girls took to Rebekah's fun, bubbly personality

right away! :-)  They had a great time together!

 Friday's Scavenger Hunt in Chapel..

A sock with a hole in it!  DJ looks quite disgusted! ;-)

 Mr. Callison gives it the okay that it passes! :-)

 The girls getting ready to play in chapel

 Leesie was so sweet.. she was going to fill

her water bottle up, and then came back in and

got mine.. then Ariel's.. and then Janna's and Stephanie's!

I was quite pleased with her servant's spirit & initiative! :-)

 Aquila taking a little nap.. I wanted to snap a picture

because I thought it was so interesting how he slept

with his phone over his face :-)  This was right

before he woke up to me taking the picture!

 Leesie picked me some flowers :-)

She's so thoughtful like that!

 Volleyball game on Friday night before the final rally!

 BIG BALL BOWLING

This was one of the best bowling games I've ever seen!

It was very competitive and extremely close!

So close that actually the last pin that got knocked down

right before the final whistle blew to end the game actually

allowed the Recons to win!  Those are my kinda games! :-)

 The Army Ranger Team

 The Marine Recon Team.. who ended up winning the week!

(now each of the teams have won one week!)

The Navy Seals Team

 Final night bonfire service

 We ended up having a great testimony time that lasted

for about an hour!  It was so awesome to see how the

Lord had answered specific prayers...

Citori, an unsaved girl in the school, who knew she

was unsaved and didn't seem to care, received Christ this week!

"The twins", who had been invited and many were hoping would

come, finally came Friday night!

Kelly, Alex, and Camille, grandchildren of some church member's,

came the final night.  As we were praying for their salvation during

the week, it was awesome to see Kelly accept the Lord as her Savior that night!

Continue to pray for Alex and Camille.. they seem so hard and uncaring really as

I talked with them after the service.  It was scary as I talked with Alex.. he

basically said that he loved his sin and would rather go to hell than give it up.

He actually said he wanted to go to hell!  Wow!  It was just so scary

as I looked him directly in the eyes and it seemed as if I was looking

right into the eyes of Satan, for Satan had an obvious grip on his life.

I challenged him that when he came to the end, which he would,

that he would turn to the Lord.  I also told him I would pray for him.

Please do pray for him as well!  He and Camille desperately need the Lord!

Favian, a girl from the school who is in the
Recon shirt, recruited these two girls.
It was so awesome to see them come out
all three nights and even bring other family
members' with them!  Mrs. Van did have
the opportunity to talk in detail with Alexis
(the girl with the grey hoodie) about the
gospel and, as far as Mrs. Van knows,
she did accept the Lord as her Savior.
She wanted to start attending church there,
so pray that she will be remaining fruit!
Praise the Lord for using teens to reach teens!

After a long week.. we do crazy things, I guess?! ;-)

Mr. and Mrs. Isaac

Ariel and I stayed with them this week.

They were very sweet!  We enjoyed breakfast

each morning with them, a special treat that doesn't

always happen because of our busy schedules! :-)

Of course, some there were a couple days that

Mr. Isaac left to go golfing at like 6am, so he

didn't join us for breakfast those days!

It amazes me that people like golf that much! :-)

The Isaacs were amazing to talk with!  Since the

twelve years that they have been married, they've

traveled to all fifty states together and gone on

twenty-nine cruises!  They had some awesome

pictures that I enjoyed looking through.. of course,

I didn't get through all of them.. that would've

probably taken a whole week just to do that! :-)

Deciding what cruise I would like best.. :-)

They have beautiful house!

Abby, a girl in the school, lives in this house..

at least we think it's this house :-)  She explained

where it was and this is what we found :-)

We'd noticed it & thought it was beautiful and big!

We wondered who'd lived in it, but didn't know it was

her family until the end of the week! :-)

So, I wanted to get a picture with Abby before she left

on Friday night, but she left before I could get one.

So, I thought I could get a picture of her house at least

to remember her :-)  She's supposed to send me a pic, too :-)

Okay, adorable story!  I know this post is long, but I can't

leave this one out! :-)  On Thursday night during the

invitation, Abby responded.  I took her into a room Mrs. Van

had set up and did the salvation drawing for her on one of

the white boards.  It was so precious to watch her as she

followed along intently.. nodding, eyes filling up with tears

at times, big smiles at other times..  she was right there

with me!  Then when it came down to the decision, I

asked her if she'd ever asked the Lord to be her personal

Savior.  She thought she might've when she was in

kindergarten, but she didn't think she was trusting in Jesus 

alone, so she wanted to make sure.  I talked her through the 

prayer and then I told her that she could go ahead and pray.

I then bowed my head and waited for her to pray.

She started praying, "Dear Lord," she said as broke down

into a sob.  She sobbed her way through the whole

prayer, the sweetest sinner's prayer that I think I've ever

heard!  It was just precious.. that's the only word for it :-)

Abby then gave a testimony at the bonfire service on Friday

night.  Then after she was done giving her testimony, she

ran to me and threw her arms around me as she sobbed.

Through broken sobs she said, "I don't want you to go..

I'm gonna miss you!"  I'm thankful that the Lord allowed

me to see this precious little girl led to Him this week!

There were horses right by the church that we enjoyed petting. 

Saying goodbye to the mom and her baby before we left :-)