Category Archives: Life

2013 Mission Trip

A couple weeks back I went with my church’s youth group to Kansas City on their annual mission trip. Here is the video I put together to show the congregation on Sunday:



Of course, if you subscribe to this blog via RSS Feed or email, you will actually have to go to the website to view the video.

We weren’t allowed to take cameras on the trip, but our facilitator Joe (an Iowa State Man) took several pictures for us. I also was able to snap a few with my phone.

Here are some of my favorite pictures from the trip:



Jake showing off the meal we prepared on Thursday Night.


Our spaghetti feast. We had a communication breakdown with Urban Plunge and didn’t realize that we were responsible for the meal on Thursday night. Thankfully, Jim Jordan donate $40 for the trip that we were able to use to buy and create a perfectly edible spaghetti feast.


Ryan, Shawn, Joe, and Gabe in line for food.


Curtis assigning us work to do.


Moving mattresses to the attic.


Corbin and C.J. moving a trunk.


Corbin, Shawn, Ryan and I moving a exam table.


Sarah and Alisa


Maddie


Sarah


Paige


Emily C.


Amber and her injured fingers.


Emily C., Grace, and Maddie serving breakfast/


Sarah and Jordan prepping lunch.


Corbin and Carter doing dishes.


Paige and Emily W. sorting clothes.


Gabe and C.J. doing dishes.


Hope/Faith Commons Area


On the stairs to the Game Room at Hope/Faith.


Getting instructions on how to bag flour.


Sarah cutting open a 25 lb bag of flour.


Jordan and Maddie bagging flour.


Corbin and Carter bagging flour.


Jake and Grant bagging flour.


Amber sweeping up four.


Sarah and Emily C. outside of Harvesters.


Group photo outside of Harvesters.


Prayer Walk


Some Hope/Faith Statistics


Amber and Sarah


Grace


Maddie


Emily W.


Pastor Sarah


Amber


Shawn, Carter, and I breaking rock.


C.J., Jake, and Gabe cleaning glue out of a tub.


Gabe, Jake, and C.J. cleaning glue out of a tub.


Grant pulling weeds.


Grace and Maddie working with neighborhood kids.


Paige working with neighborhood kids.


Katelyn waiting to break up more rock.


Ryan and Shawn goofing around.


Emily W., Katelyn, Shawn, Ryan, C.J., Gabe, Corbin, and I loading the truck up with rock.


Grant and Amber


Emily C., Amber, and Sarah posing with neighborhood kids.


Carter and Paige taking a break.


Paige and Alisa having their hair braided.


Group Prayer


Emily C. and Ryan vacuuming the floor.


Corbin and Carter cleaning the boys room.


Gabe and C.J. playing “interrogation”.


Grant preparing to cut down vines.


Gabe and Katelyn weed “whacking”.


Paige cleaning a mirror.


Shwan, Alisa, Jake, Nancy, and Pastor Sarah putting cots together.


Ryan and I doing something I don’t wish to discuss.


Grace nursing Pastor Sarah’s head injury.


Basketball Break


Jake with the board.


Fans


Paige, Jordan, Maddie, and Grace showing some of the kids at the shelter some dance moves.


Group Prayer


Grace, Maddie, Gabe, and Ryan enjoying breakfast at homeless shelter.


Sarah defying the laws of physics.


Group Photo


Katelyn, Emily C., Grace, and Maddie on The Viking.


Paige and Alisa were very impressed by “bro-tanks”.


Paige enjoyed The Boomerang. Alisa did not.


Emily C. with the bear she won.

All in all, the pictures don’t really do the experience justice. I have many stories to tell about this trip. It was one incredible experience after another.

Personal Photo Project No. 181


$80
$80

The first scheduled stop on Shannon and I’s road trip itinerary was the grounds of a former 19th century cult that had a colony near Corning, called the French Icarians. They had some pretty crazy beliefs like:

Fraternity. As a rule of conduct, three principles summarize all: Love your neighbor as yourself. Do unto others as you would have others do unto you. Do to others the good that you wish for yourself. All must be as brothers, living each for all and all of each.

Equality. It is not nature, but society that has made men unequal in intelligence and education. The remedy for existing social problems is the universal application of the principle of social equality. Social equality can be achieved by a system of communal sharing of goods and services. The community has an obligation to provide free equal educational opportunities to all. And all individuals must be treated equally before the law.

Liberty. All religious opinion must be accorded tolerance and respect. Freedom of speech is basic and all people may participate in the communal assembly meetings, the principal means of setting community policy.

Yeah, like that would ever work!

The rest of the $80 Series:


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I’m curious to know if Shannon can figure out what is “wrong” with the image that I chose to represent the entire photo series. I guess I’ll have to wait to see.

365 Day Photo Challenge: 22-28

This week was a bit of challenge with the mission trip taking up 4 days of my week, but I still managed to get my pictures in, even if some of them might not make much sense to you as they relate to theme.


Day 22: Grey
Day 22: Grey

Day 23: I Drew This!
Day 23: I Drew This!

Day 24: D is For...
Day 24: D is For…

Day 25: Ground
Day 25: Ground

Day 26: The Everyday
Day 26: The Everyday

Day 27: Black + White
Day 27: Black + White

Day 28: This is New!
Day 28: This is New!

Here is the list of the next 34 themes:

Day 29: Perspective
Day 30: Friendship
Day 31: Workspace
Day 32: Something Beginning with N
Day 33: Incomplete
Day 34: Skylone
Day 35: Fresh
Day 36: Early
Day 37: This Means a Lot to Me
Day 38: A Sign
Day 39: Peek-a-Boo
Day 40: 2 O’Clock
Day 41: Beverage
Day 42: I Love Doing This!
Day 43: Macro
Day 44: Fast
Day 45: Trash
Day 46: The Best
Day 47: Cooking
Day 48: Exercise
Day 49: Someone You Spoke to Today
Day 50: Lost
Day 51: Stairs
Day 52: Slow
Day 53: A Room
Day 54: Yellow
Day 55: In the Background
Day 56: Culture
Day 57: Entrance
Day 58: 10 Minutes from Home
Day 59: Corridor
Day 60: Lucky
Day 61: Cluttered
Day 62 Dangerous

Looks like a pretty excellent list!

Personal Photo Project No. 179


A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock
A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

I recently went on a road trip through southwest Iowa with Shannon. While the Freedom Rock was not on the original itinerary, a quirk of fate (i.e. bad traffic on I-80), and my famous love for bad art (I even once went to see a Jackson Pollock) converged and we stopped for a few minutes to see the Freedom Rock. Which is a rock. Painted to look like a rock.

There is also a bunch of patriotic art work on the rock as well.

The rest of the A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock Series:


A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

A Rock Painted to Look Like a Rock

Next week’s Personal Photo Project will most likely involve a flower garden from an exotic locale. Well, not that exotic.