Pleasant Hill, California

 We left the Ciaramitaro's house on Wednesday to go

meet up with the Vans where they were staying just

about ten minutes away.  When I got there we were

standing around chatting and Leesie had the brilliant

idea to put some flowers in my hair! :-)

 We normally do the War of Special Forces, which is

when we work in a Christian school during the day

and then recruit and bring in the lost for the evening

rallies on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday.  This

week, however, we did a War, which is without

the Christian school.  So, we were recruiting a lot

more to try and get kids to come out for our

Saturday, Sunday, and Monday night rallies.  We ended

up having to recruit a lot in the rain!  I thought it

was fun, though! :-)  Gotta make the best of it, I guess!

Here you can see Crystal and I after we got back from a

recruiting time.. we were soaked!  Such fun! :-D

 The Vans stayed at a church about fifteen minutes

away and the rest of the team stayed in this huge

house!  When we got there Wednesday night to get

settled in, we explored around.. I think Crystal and I

counted five bedrooms and six bathrooms :-)

This is Crystal and my room.. it was pretty awesome

to have our own king size bed!

 This is probably the room where we spent the majority

of our time late at night & early in the morning :-)

Mr. Perez was an amazing cook & cooked us huge

breakfasts every morning!  We were so spoiled!

 DJ had fun dressing up with an 

outfit he found in his room :-)

 The second story had a balcony that overlooked

most of the rooms on the main level.. we had

a lot of fun memories overlooking :-)

 Our view when we walked out of our house!

 The outside of the house... it was quite the hill!

Almost every morning when we came out too we

saw "Bambi and his wives" in the neighbors yard! :-)

 Cornerstone Baptist Church

The church actually rented this complex, so it

wasn't your typical looking church as we think of it :-)

 Playing Frisbee for recess with Miss Crystal!

 Miss Crystal has come and fit right on in with the team!

She's a lot of fun & we've already had great times together!

 We went to Hometown Buffet for dinner on Thursday night.

 While we were at the Hometown Buffet, Crystal was

up getting some food and there was this older gentleman

who stopped her and asked her who was with the Navy

Seals.  Crystal figured he must have seen the Navy Seals

shirt that one of the teen girls who was with us was

wearing.  So, she tried to explain that it wasn't the

real Navy, but a teen competition.  She reiterated herself

a few times, since he didn't really seem to be understanding.

She came back to the table and was telling us about it.

Well, we forgot about it after a while, and when we were

just about to leave, the waitress came up to our table

and handed a gift card to DJ and said, "This gentleman

wanted me to give this to you to thank you for your

service for our country."  DJ was quite shocked, as

we all were!  So, this nice gentleman that was talking

to Crystal must have not fully understood! :-)  I

think DJ didn't mind that misunderstanding, though! ;-)

 We went recruiting on Friday night & I saw this

store... had to get a picture for you, Jo! :-)

 The first night of the War we had about 25 kids.

Most were from other churches, though... we only

had a few from the outside, so we kept praying...

 Matt making fun of the Seals!

 Thomas just laughing nicely as usual! :-)

 Cheering contest... who's gonna win?!

 The team captains with David Kinnicut, a teen that we

got to know from this past week at Antioch.  

There was a good group who came out from 

Antioch to enjoy this week as well!

Great to see them again!

 Me and Jeanne, another teen from Antioch

 Thomas with his nicely decorated wall!

 Me and Crystal... she's pretty awesome! :-)

 Some of the Ciaramitaro's came on Saturday night

to join us as well.  They only live about twenty

minutes away, so they came a couple nights...

great to see them again too! :-)

 Joanna, Thomas' sister, enjoying her perched

position on the picnic table while she waited

for the rest of her family :-)

 Sunday secrets with Miss Crystal :-)

(not really, but it sounded good ;-))

 Matt enjoyed "watching over the tubes", so DJ

and Stephanie decided to "dethrone" him :-)

 Abby, the pastor's daughter, 

enjoying the tubes as well :-)

 The Snow kids (the pastor's family)

Tim, Bethany, and Abby

 Keeping ourselves entertained before the War starts :-)

 Watching the War from the Gazebo,

where we did registration this week.

 Big Ball Basketball

Sunday night was a lower night.

I think we had about 18 teens.

The Lord was/is definitely teaching

us about walking by faith, claiming

His promises, and not walking by sight :-)

 Watching the competition from the Gazebo

 Spoke Tackle was done a little differently since

we had a smaller crowd, but it was still a lot

of fun to watch!  Even had the youth pastor

get involved & do a little bit of "damage"...

now, that was hilarious! :-D

Praise the Lord that a girl that Crystal and I recruited

showed up with her sister!  They both are in need

of salvation... Julie, the older sister, couldn't come

back on Monday night, but Allie did... as far as I

know, though, neither of them accepted Christ

as their Savior... please continue to pray for them!

 Short-Range Bombardment on Monday night

 Annaleese, Joanna, and Janna watching the fun together!

 Then we went inside for Trash Ball.

 Dr. Jim doing a "jump ball"!

 Chris, the "youth pastor", with his daughter,

about to judge the cheering contest.

 Tizzy and Izzy! :-)

 The girls enjoyed fellowshipping with Rebekah,

Thomas' sister, on Monday night as we got

things cleaned up and put away.

 We got home pretty late on Monday night since

we had to clean up and clear out stuff from

the week.  Without fail, though, the guys were

downstairs for their ice cream! :-)

Crystal came into our room and said, "Tiz!  You

have to come look!  The guys are watching

cats on TV!"  So, I dashed out of the room

to look over our balcony and see this... :-D

I tried not to laugh as I got a few pics...

DJ didn't know it until I showed him.

Needless to say, he was a bit chagrined! :-)

 Here's the little kittens on TV... 

I guess they were pretty cute :-)

Our final night of the War we had the most that

we'd had the whole week!  We ended up with 37

kids, according to Matt's calculation :-)

Praise the Lord for answering prayer!

It was so neat... Katie, a girl that Crystal had

recruited, came that final night, listened to the

gospel message, which was new to her, and

received Christ as her Savior that night.  When

they were finishing up Katie told Crystal that

when she saw her on Thursday she (Katie)

knew that there was something different about

her (Crystal), and she knew that she needed it.

Something like that... :-)  I thought that was

pretty awesome, though!  What a testimony!

This week for us could probably be characterized

as a week of learning faith... realizing where unbelief

had crept in and what "active faith" really was.

We, the three team captains, Crystal, and I, had a

phone conference with John Barber on Monday

morning.  It was very helpful and yet very sobering

to hear him encourage and challenge us in the area

of recruiting specifically!  I think it was good for all

of us to realize what "active faith" looked like and

that God wouldn't reward unbelief!  I believe, as

John Barber said, that this past week was a preparation

week for this upcoming week in Placerville, where

we would once again being doing a War without

a Christian school.  Please pray for us to learn

and apply these lessons as we recruit, pray, and

look for God to do miracles!

Thankful for what God has done, 

but also looking forward to what more God will do!