Category Archives: Jaxon

Andy, Art, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Travel, Vacation, Youth Group

Houston (Vidor) Mission Trip – Day 3

July 2, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This is my telling of my experience on the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group’s Mission Trip to Houston (Vidor). There were 18 people on the mission trip and all of them experienced the mission trip in a completely different way than I did.

Therefore, you should pull your tired bones out of bed on Sunday, July 8 and drag yourself to the basement of the Boone First United Methodist Church (703 Arden Street) between worship services (approximately 10 AM) and listen to the other 17 people give their testimony about the mission trip. I’ll probably run my yap as well. There will also be a video. Also, there will be refreshments.

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The Cowboys had breakfast prep. This means that you have to be in the kitchen by 6:45 to make breakfast for everybody. I like having this chore on Monday because it gets it out of the way early. Although truth is that the only chore I don’t really like is Building Maintenance because it involves cleaning toilets. I have that in common with many of my co-workers and the employees at that Road Ranger in Illinois.

This was my day in pictures:

Kolbe and Jordan cutting lunch supplies. Everybody makes and packs their own lunch. You eat lunch at your work site.

Anna bageling.

Mackenzie, right on time!

The Schoff Boys waiting for breakfast.

The breakfast prep team has to do a little skit to announce what is for breakfast in the morning. We had cereal.

The Heat Waves had breakfast cleanup. Andy and Emily doing dishes.

Andy doing dishes.

Jentry.

Hailey clearing the tubs.

Donovan changing garbage.

Heat Waves cleaning up after everybody had packed their lunch.

Not going to lie, the Cowboys got probably the easiest work assignment. While most groups installed insulation and hung drywall, we puttied, caulked, and painted. Lots of window trim and doors.

Kolbe puttying.

Megan puttying.

Anna painting trim.

Mackenzie and Tiffany painting doors.

Lunch!

Megan and Cousin Kari painting doors.

Kolbe!

Anna!

Jordan and Anna!

It still hadn’t stopped raining!

A masterpiece.

Mackenzie!

Anna knocking out that door.

Jake from Missouri.

Megan!

Pretty flower!

The Cowboys didn’t come to play (okay maybe a little bit)!

More closet action!

Cleaning up for the day!

More cleanup!

Mackenzie was our inventory master!

A hard day’s work.

More hard workers!

A FEMA trailer. The woman who’s house we were working on lives in the FEMA trailer. She is 91 years old. I sent this picture to Flat Earth Joe because he believes that eventually we will all be rounded up into FEMA camps. If recent events are any indication, those FEMA camps will be abandoned Wal-Marts and Toys’r’Uses, but I wanted him to see FEMA at work.

Long shot of clean up.

We took people to Sonic. That meant somebody had to go out in the rain to get the van.

Guess who that was?

Sonic!

This game is called Signs. Megan is really, really bad at it. She was always in the middle.

YouthWorks has a nightly cultural event. This was easily the weakest that we ever had. Monday night’s cultural event was listening to a speaker from Nehemiah’s Vision. She came to the building we were staying at and spoke for about 15 minutes. The bonus was that there was more free time before worship in free time.

Not pictured: Kolbe really likes the song CARAVAN and the boys from the other churches really, really like the song COUNTRY ROADS.

Andy, Art, Basketball, Candid Portrait, Flowers, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Road Trip, Self-Portrait, Shawn Karber, Still Life, Travel, Vacation, Youth Group

Houston (Vidor) Mission Trip – Day 2

July 1, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

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I woke up on the cold hard floor of the Methodist church in Saginaw. I got dressed and prepared myself mentally for the day.

Here are some pictures from the day:

Based on the amount of stores that cater to both, Texans LOVE donuts and pornography. I imagine some probably do both at the same time. I’m not here to judge.

Statue in the church’s beautiful courtyard.

Fountain in the same beautiful courtyard.

Their women’s group made us a delicious breakfast.

A staple of every Methodist diet, egg casserole!

The lady who made us the breakfast did taunt us with a description of dish she described as “too much”: Breakfast Lasagna. Sign me up lady!

Myrtle.

Donovan discussing the courtyard.

Jaxon still thinks it is a thrill to pump gas. I’m not afraid to exploit his youthful enthusiasm.

Gas station breakfast food. Hard pass.

The church televises their worship services into their fellowship area. We get it, you’re good with technology.

Congregating to worship an awesome God!

We went to their acoustic service. It was great music lead by a great musician!

They sit in the front row at our church too…

The lady in the middle was a Pastor at the church. The one on the right was a member of the congregation that recently became a Pastor and was getting assigned to her first church. She gave the sermon. I loved this worship service. There were two things of note that happened. 1 funny and 1 tragic. The funny thins was that they discussed a couple in the church that had gotten married the previous day in “Detroit or Chicago. Some Yankee town.” The tragic thing was a member of their congregation was killed in a car accident on the previous day. He left behind a wife and 2 small children. Happy Father’s Day.

Maci taking Communion

Kolbe taking Communion

Mackenzie taking Communion

Summer taking Communion

Jentry taking Communion

Something else unique about this church was they did the light a candle thing in the corner. This is something I’ve always affiliated with Catholics because I’ve only ever seen it in Catholic churches. Really, mostly in movies. I lit 2 candles.
Shortly after the worship service, we hit the road for Vidor. Another 7 hours or so in the van coming up!

We stopped in a town where a buffet was recommended to us by one of the Saginaw Methodists, but it required a 30 minute wait, so instead we went across the street to a string of fast food restaurants: Jack in a Box, McDonald’s, Dairy Queen, Subway, and Texas Burger. I recall an unsavory taco experience at a Kansas City Jack in the Box on another mission trip with Shawn Karber. So Jack in the Box was a hard pass for me.

I went to Texas Burger because I might never get a chance in my life to try Nolan Ryan’s Texas Beef Steak Fingers.

They taste kind of you how you imagine.

The next stop was Buc-ee’s in Madisonville, I’ve always been a big fan of Buc-ee’s. At least since Carla, Mom, Alexis, and I stopped at one on our way to see Elainie graduate in San Antonio.

If you’ve never been to a Buc-ee’s, it is the single greatest gas station chain in the world. It is the exact opposite of that Road Ranger in Illinois.

I wanted to buy a Buc-ee’s hat to make it my official Mission Trip Hat, but none of them were my flavor.

The last 2-3 hours we drove through some major rain. But when we got to Vidor: BASKETBALL!

On Sunday night we worshiped and we prepared for the next 4 days of hard work.

Worship!

After the worship service I found out I was part of The Cowboys. At YouthWorks they split you up into several teams. You work with that team the rest of the week on chores and at your work sites.

The Cowboys consisted of:

Humble Narrator
Tiffany
Kari – from Missouri, but really Madrid, but really Boone (who turned out to be my cousin)
Anna
Jordan
Kolbe
Maci
Mackenzie
Megan
Ellie from Missouri
Jake from Missouri

In the next 4 days, the pictures will concentrate heavily on those people because these are the people I spent the majority of my day.

The Cowboys had breakfast prep on Monday, so I had to make an attempt to get to bed early, to rise early. Even though trying to sleep the first two nights of a mission trip is a fool’s folly.

Not pictured:

Kolbe really, really likeS the song CARAVAN.

Andy, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Vacation, Youth Group

Houston (Vidor) Mission Trip – Day 1

June 30, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

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A few things I should clarify before I get into my mission trip experience.

For the 4th straight year, we booked our mission trip with YouthWorks. I have been on 7 youth group mission trips now. YouthWorks is by far the most organized group we have ever been with. They have you organized from 6:45 AM to 11 PM.

We decided to take our Mission Trip to Houston because of Hurricane Harvey. Plus it was farther away than our past mission trips, which appealed to the kids on the trip. A couple of them badly want to go on a mission trip to a foreign country. Texas is kind of like another country. So close enough.

This is the first year that YouthWorks offered mission trips to Houston, so it was a learning experience for them as well. When they got back to us about some of the details of the mission trip, they originally stated that we actually would be going to Beaumont, which is about an hour east of Houston. Then a few weeks before we left; Beaumont became Vidor. To this date, nobody I know knows how to pronounce Vidor.

Vidor is just east of Beaumont. If you do any research on Vidor, you will find out it is considered one of the most racist towns in America. It was a Sundown Town. Meaning at one time, white people were the only people that were legally allowed to be outside after the sun went down.

Vidor is allegedly not as racist as it once was, but I only saw one black person my entire time there. He didn’t live in Vidor.

Now that you have some context, let’s discuss Day 1 of the Mission Trip.

We gathered at the church about 7 AM. We took the obligatory group photo:

First without Autumn

Then with Autumn. (Can you find her?)

We prayed and then hit the road. 2 big white vans and the Sharps in their own vehicle taking a separate route.

Houston is about 15 hours in the car, without stops, so we planned on stopping for the night in Saginaw, Texas at a Methodist Church to stay the night. It was going to be a long day in the car.

Some highlights:

We stopped somewhere in Kansas at a McDonald’s for lunch. The first time I’ve eaten McDonald’s since January 15, 2006.

Selfie with my van. Tiffany was driving. Maci, Mackenzie, Kolbe, Megan, Anna, and Jordan in Yogi Bear’s van.

Shortly across the Oklahoma border we stopped for gas.

It was a gas station/casino. It had the grossest bathroom I’ve been in since a Road Ranger in Illinois that still haunts my dreams.

We tried to stop in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma for supper, but the whole town lost power, so we went to the next town.

We stopped at this super sketch A&W in a gas station. It only had 2 employees.

They weren’t real happy to see 15 customers come in at once. But they managed to serve us.

But behind the sketchy gas station: Goats!

Kolbe & Jordan enjoying the goats.

I think Kolbe might have his own goats at home.

Megan, Jordan, and Kolbe

Goats!

Jordan’s Selfie Game is Strong

Very strong!

Goats!

One of the goals of the trip was to make it to Texas by sunset so we could take pictures with this. It threw me off how short the days in Texas are.

Mission Trip Kids

Plus Adults

MacKenzie, Anna, Jordan, Kolbe, and Anna

Summer and Jentry

Jordan

Megan and Kolbe (who are significant others, but for some reason wanted to tell the YouthWorks kids that they were twins).

Emily and Hailey

Mackenzie and Megan

More Megan and Mackenzie

Megan, Mackenzie, and Kolbe

Tiffany

Maci and Mackenzie

Maci, Mackenzie, and Tiffany

Emily, Jentry, and Hailey

Jaxon and Jentry

Jaxon, Jentry, and Alan

Summer, Jaxon, and Jentry

We got to the church in Saginaw about 9:30 PM. Staying there was quite an experience.

We met Dale there. He showed up wearing all Oklahoma gear, which I thought was awesome considering we were in Texas. Turned out that he played for Oklahoma. He played for Oklahoma in the Orange Bowl against Joe Namath’s Alabama team.

I was impressed with the church’s commitment to technology. They had audio visual inputs all over the place. They had a computer kiosk where you could make your offering. The checked people into their Sunday School with scan cards.

The Baptist Church we were staying at in Vidor had cots, so we made a calculation that we didn’t need to bring air mattresses for one night in Saginaw. This was a slight miscalculation. This church had the hardest concrete floor covered with the thinnest carpet in the world. It was a hard sleep, but the people at the church more than made up for the experience.

We went to bed and called it a successful Day 1.

Not pictured: Kolbe’s infatuation with the song CONVOY, which he mistakenly thought was from the movie SMOKEY AND THE BANDIT. Kids.

Andy, Becky, Carla, Dawn, Jaxon, Kim, Linda, Michelle, Photoshop, Road Trip, Ruins, Shannon, Tamara, Teresa, WPC - Submissions

WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE – WEEK 135 – SIGNS

April 16, 2018 Christopher D. Bennett

Another big week for the WEEKLY PHOTO CHALLENGE. People didn’t let the weather stop them from harvesting all sorts of SIGNS pictures. This week the Photography 139 empire stretched as far north as downtown Boone, Iowa. As far south and east as Kentucky. As far west as Folsom, California. There are 2 special notes need to be made about the submissions this week:

SPECIAL NOTE #1

Jaxon made his first submission this week. I’m very excited and I expect big things in the future.

SPECIAL NOTE #2

Pay special attention to Linda Bennett’s submission. It is a very special submission. Many of you will be able to figure out why.

But you didn’t come here to listen to all that tommyrot, you came to see the submissions:

Becky Parmelee

Dawn Krause

Jaxon Schoff

Christopher D. Bennett

Kim Barker

Linda Bennett -I found this in a trunk filled with cards and letters from the last 70 years. Made me smile.

Kim Barker

Teresa Kahler

Shannon Bardole-Foley
“All license plates in California are made in Folsom Prison. So it seemed fitting for the closed sign for the museum to be a license plate. However, we were there when the museum was open, so it was partially hidden.”

Tamara Peterson

Andy Sharp

Michelle Haupt

Carla Stensland – Form of sign..?

A very solid week of submissions!

But enough dwelling on the past. Time to look to the future. We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives. And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future! This week’s theme:

GOVERNMENT

GOVERNMENT! What a great theme! But what is a GOVERNMENT photo? A GOVERNMENT photo is any photo that shows the GOVERNMENT at work. There is the obvious, a picture of a court house. GOVERNMENT. City Hall. GOVERNMENT. Police Station. GOVERNMENT. Fire Station. GOVERNMENT. But there also many GOVERNMENT activities you might not think about. That road you drove to work on today. GOVERNMENT. That public school where you dropped your kid off (I’m talking to those of us in the lower and middle class here) at this morning. GOVERNMENT. City Park. GOVERNMENT. County Park. GOVERNMENT. State Park. GOVERNMENT. National Park. GOVERNMENT. Iowa State University. GOVERNMENT. Other public universities. GOVERNMENT. The military. GOVERNMENT. A county hospital. GOVERNMENT. The Post Office. GOVERNMENT. The clean water (assuming nobody from Flint, Michigan or a state that allows fracking is reading this) coming out of your tap. GOVERNMENT.

Even organizations that aren’t the GOVERNMENT, are GOVERNMENT. That youth sport organization that you allegedly resigned from the Board, but sit my basement have 30 minute conversations about who should mow the lawn and chalk the fields. (That got strangely specific.) That board is a GOVERNMENT.

As you can see, there are a plethora of options and there are a ton more.

As always, I look forward to seeing your interpretations!

HOUSEKEEPING

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 RULES DIVISION

1. The picture has to be taken the week of the theme. This isn’t a curate your pictures challenge. This is a get your butt off the couch (my personal experience) and put your camera in your hands challenge. Don’t send me a picture of you next to the Eiffel Tower, when I know you were in Iowa all week. I will point out that I have let that slide some in the past. I will not in the future. Since it is literally about the only rule.

2. Your submission needs to be emailed to bennett@photography139.com by 11 AM on the Monday of the challenge due date. It should be pointed out that this blog auto-publishes at 12:01 on Mondays. So it wouldn’t hurt to get your picture in earlier.

That is it, them’s the rules.

A MESSAGE FROM THE PHOTOGRAPHY 139 SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION DIVISION

The latest person to show taste, class, and sophistication and sign on for a Photography 139 Email Subscription is Linda Clark. I honestly don’t know much about her, other than she is a relative of Andy Sharp and he says she has an interest in photography. Welcome aboard Linda! If you see her, feel free to give her a knowing glance and teach her the super-secret Photography 139 Handshake.

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That’s all I got for today, so if the good Lord’s willin’ and the creek don’t rise, we will commune right here again next Monday. Hopefully it will be a very governed Monday!

Boone FUMC, Event, Jaxon, Kio, Mom, Youth Group

Ain’t No Party Like a Methodist Party!

October 15, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

A month or so back, my church (Boone First United Methodist Church, represent!) had their annual-ish summer is over kickoff party. So it doesn’t really have a name. But a bunch of Methodists get together at Herman Park and throw down some food and have a good time.

Here are some pictures from the event:

No poop emoji this year!

How do you know it is a Methodist Party. 4 PM. 80 degrees. Still serving coffee!

If you’re interested, there are many more photos that look like these to peruse by clicking the link below:

METHODIST PARTY

I would be counting down the days to the next Methodist Party, but that would falsely imply that a Methodist Party has stopped. “Which we all know that they don’t.

Event, Jaxon, Michelle, Teresa, Youth Group

Move ‘Em On, Head ‘Em Up, Head ‘Em Up, Move ‘Em On, Rawhide!

October 5, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

A big thanks to everybody that came out and made my church’s Youth Group Fundraiser such a big hit. Our goal was to be #1 on the Pizza Ranch board and we nearly doubled the take of the previous #1!

Here are a few cruddy cell phone pictures from last night!

We had 144 of the pamphlets turned in. We collected over $750 in tips.

It was amazing to see so many church members in attendance. As Pastor Doug says, “It is a big reminder to the kids in the youth group that this church has their back.”

A big thanks to Photography 139 Email Subscribers Michelle Haupt for her generous donation and to Jesse Howard, Kio Dettman, Charlotte Bennett, and Teresa Kahler for their attendance.

The event was a great success, but there is much more money to raise for the Mission Trip, so stay tuned to this bat channel for more fundraising opportunities coming up in the coming months!

Alisa, Andy, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Pastor Sarah, Travel, Youth Group

The Only Thing I Fear is the IRS and God

September 27, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Looking for a chance to give to a good cause and eat completely edible food? Then do I have an opportunity for you!

Next Wednesday (October 4, 2017) the Boone First United Methodist Church Youth Group will be having a fundraiser to help pay for their mission trip to a yet to be determined location!

Just come out to the Boone Pizza Ranch between 5-8 and bring one of the slips below:

For every one of these we get turned in, we will get $2 towards our Mission Trip. Plus, there will be tip jars all around the Pizza Ranch where you can give a donation to help the cause.

What would you be helping to support? Take a look at the pictures below from past mission trips:

So please come out to Pizza Ranch next Wednesday and help support great kids doing great work!

Andy, Candid Portrait, Formal Portrait, Jaxon, Mission Trip, Travel, Youth Group

Saint Paul Mission Trip – Day 4

July 7, 2017 Christopher D. Bennett

Pictures from the last working day of the Saint Paul Mission Trip:

Day 4 of the Mission Trip is always highly emotional. The large group worship service ends with a foot washing ceremony. Then church time is usually very emotional as people begin to realize that the lives that they’ve touched and who have touched their lives, they won’t be seeing those people tomorrow. It is just an incredibly peaceful and serene evening. One of my favorites from the mission trip.