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Wow…we are done mFuge for this year.  I am writing this from our hotel on the road home, but I will post another update about today after I am done here.

The weather was absolutly GREAT on Friday in Nashville…the “winds turned” and blew all the humidity away…so it was 80 and low humidity.

Thomas, out church group sponsor shared some scripture with us today I Peter 2:4-11 challenging us to live consistent lives and not only worship God at Church, putting him essentially in a box.

Updates…note that only one person spoke this evening from each track as we were short on time.

Mark
- A lady could not understand his name, and kept calling him “Fart” instead of “Mark”
- He met William Ackerman, the drummer from the TV series Hee Haw.  He had pictures of all the stars he had played with and for over the years.
- he was just glad all of the kids were there
- his group sang “Nothing but the blood” and some of the patients that couldn’t tell you even their name were singing along
Alan
- People went up to the front of the worship service with Alan and he felt that was God at work and was cool
- He prayed with Mark and Natalie also
Colin
- played with a kid that decided Colin’s real name was Peter
- his whole day was a God moment
Elena
- we did Childrens ministry today, playing with kids in a mostly spanish apartment complex
- Diane used her high school spanish
- alot of games and soccer played - with kids and older folks too
- swingset covered in profanity was re-decorated by changing the words.
Shane
- Mowed and weed whacked 5 lawns
- weed whacker was having issues…speeds up like the one at Shane’s home…Mark commented that he also knew the one at their house had issues…Shane said he never uses that one so didn’t exactly know the details…
Natalie
- finished a 3rd wheelchair ramp
- some of the stories in their bible study were VERY deep today…substance abuse, etc.
Brian
- went to a YMCA…had water balloon fight
Lauren O
- went to a food bank and tried to bring some organization
- also had a deep bible study after quite the slow start apparently
Kler Htoo
- Went to a park
- played with kids after they ate lunch
- he liked pushing a little girl on the swings
Brad
- like that by the end of the day, kids that were shy and didn’t barely talk were asking them to stay and come back
Alesia
- day 4 of vbs - a testimony done in her track too
- Merrilee was very happy with today
Joy
- same place as all week…today outside though
- hard craft to do involving multiple steps…but they got through
- got Bibles to hand out

Matt shared his testimony this evening

Chelsea and Brian each were given time to address the group
after that, they were surrounded by all the rest of the group, and we put our hands on them and prayed.

There’s a light at the end of this tunnel…Ha…Christian Rock humor…who gets it…

Today was the “off schedule” day.  We had the same stuff early in the day, but after we returned from our sites, we had 3pm to 9pm for free-time as a Church.

We headed to downtown Nashville, and went to a restaurant called Demo’s.  It was a Steak and Pasta place.  Everyone really seemed to enjoy it.

After that we set off to the Broadway area (2 blocks away) and walked up and down the shopping areas there.

We headed to Walmart to load up on water, and then got back to campus just in time for the 9pm worship service.  After worship, we had our Church group devotions and got the daily updates.  We talked a bit about the way the kids would talk about this trip when they get home.  Any parents reading this, we would encourage you to really dig deep into what the kids did, and don’t just settle for “it was nice….it was fine…” or “I had fun and liked the songs, boys, girls…(fill in your preference)” just try to get them to really tell you how they saw God at work.  Its really easy to talk about these trips almost self-centered, but we as leaders know that the kids have seen God at work…WOW…I sound like one of the pastors…must be lack of sleep.

So, here are the updates I have…
Kriten, Mu Shang
- went to 2 adult daycare centers
- played bingo, danced, colored
- at the first site there was another church group there, so it was challenging finding someone to work with
- Some were very mentally handicapped so hard to communicate with
Brian
- went to My Friends House - a group home
- played monopoly, volleybal, basketball….got beat at all of it
Alesia, Lauren M, Merrilee
- More VBS
- hungout with/played with the little girl there from previous updates.
- played football
Joy, Lauren O,John H
- there was a group of Boy Scouts that came into the site in the middle of mFuge being there which disrupted everything
- they wound up on a prayer walk through a project where they asked random people if they could pray with/for them, all done by the teens.
Mark
- two adult daycare centers - singing, puppets - liked that since its the 3rd day, the quality of the singing is way up
- enjoyed trying to engage a guy named Levi in conversation, and got him going on a 30-minute sermon by mentioning God…all about loving your enemies
Alan, Matt D
- center for disabled - magic show
- Alan was handed a bunch of loose leaf paper by a guy named Wade, and it was his life story written out. Alan read the whole thing and was quite impressed with how the guy even did it, let alone some of the stories in there.  Almost died as a kid, how he was picekd on, etc.
Colin, Jacob
- same community center - basketball, dodgebal
- played “War” card game with kids and wound up losing to a young kid
John S, Elena, Diane, Rob
- we are Social/Childrens, but our Social wound up PCY today
- cabinet repair, shelf repair, re-attaching cafeteria tray line to wall, paint scraping/touchup, ALOT of cleaning - rubber mats and carts from kitchen with power washer
- there was a list given with 20 items on it, the guy said he hoped we could get 5 done…we got all but 2 or 3 done
- We did talk and pray with homeless peoe outside the center as we were leaving
Matt R,Shane, Chelsea, Pla Soe
- 4 different houses - painting, yardwork
- one guy made a money donation to the group
- one unfortunate event happened with a person putting their hand or foot (its under debate) through a ceiling from the attic
Tah Soe, Natalie, Jeremy, Lauren S
- finished wheelchair ramp - this one was much longer than one on the first day
- so thats 2 ramps this week
Brad, Kler Htoo
- YMCA - played video games, ping pong
- did crafts

Well, thats it for another days.  Continue to pray for us as we move back into Travel mode starting this evening really with moticvating the Kids to start packing.

Hi,

I am hoping this wasn’t too late for some of you…but I needed to get to sleep last night, so I did the update by Kler Htoo (read the next blog entry) and decided to do this before I rush off to get the lunch for my team.

Matt R, Shane, Pla Soe, Chelsea
- Enjoyed meeting and talking with a guy in their group who is an Air Force chaplain
- Went door to door asking if they could help people out.  The place they worked for a while had a Pear Apple tree adn the kids ate them from the tree
- A person passing on the street asked them what they were doing and they told them they were working for God.  The lady was excited and said she was going to tell all the neighborhood and her church about it.
Jeremy, Lauren S,Natalie, Tah Soe
- built another wheelchair ramp - their leader rallied the troups to get them more motivated and they finished more in the last half hour of site time than in the first 3 hours.
- Lauren and Natalie were talking to some other people in their group and were surprised they didn’t know what water ice is…they call it shaved ice and other names in their towns
Matt D, Alan
- Went to a center for disabled people - met a person named Rachel - she prayed when they ate which impressed them
- Alan also made sure she was safe while playing on some gym equipment
Brian
- went to “Rocket town” (Michael W Smith idea)
- kids hang out there listening to music, using wifi, etc instead of on street
- He was able to connect to a couple of kids skateboarding with them
- they taught hime some moves, and one was talking about becoming a part of skateboarders for Christ which impressed Brian
Brad, Kler Htoo
- They went door to door knocking, asking if the kids in the houses could come out and play
- one had a puppy and brought it out, so alot of the kids got to play and take care of it
- they thought it was funny that one kid caught another cheating…Kler Htoo saw it and decribed it..
Alesia, Lauren M, Merrilee
- Takensy at the site has pretty much adopted Lauren and Alesia as big sisters
- She wants to be a singer, dancer and model - so at least has dreams
Joy, Lauren O, John H
- Daycare Center - helping with worksheets - school like
- They were helping a girl with a wordsearch, then she had a math workseet and was sort of down about it.  They were able to excite her about it and finish it
- Joy had a little boy ask her why we came so far - since it would be such a long walk
- a creative team showed up and sang with the kids and made balloon animals which the kids loved
Mark
- went to a daycamp - 40 kids - 2 ladies
- was amazed at control these ladies had over that many kids
- they sang with them and made balloon animals
- also went to retirement home and met a lady name Guella that he enjoyed talking with
- Was amazed how the Sr Citizens just loved the puppets…and how they were just on the students hands…not hiding, etc.  Made him think about the “producer” in him, always worried about production quality when in services as opposed to just getting out there and doing it which seemed to work just fine for these folks.
Colin, Jacob
- Daycamp - 10 year olds get very irritable playing 4 square - fist fights errupted
- were touched by the kids wanting to share food
Elena, Rob, Diane, John
- went to “Thrift Smart”, a thrift store to help out
- sorted all kinds of donated items (clothing, housewares, books) and hung and priced things, and straightened up the store
- John had an old lady befriend him and use him to tell another lady she was nuts for throwing away one book that she liked
- We found it interesting that the recession is affecting the quality and quantity of donations to thrift stores, and more people are using them at the same time.

We had a good time at church devotions acting out people having to tell others bad news, and talking about each skit.  Our room was HOT this evening.

Water was out all afternoon and until around 8:30…so that was interesting.

Well…have to go start today…keep us in your prayers…God is moving greatly in the lives of our kids, so lets lift them up…

More later.

Well, I had spoken to Kler Htoo about writing something for the updates we are doing.  For those that do not know, he is a teenager from a Karen family our church helped sponsor in coming to America.  He handed me some loose leaf tablet pages, and I will type them exactly as it appears on the paper.  Its more about the time we had getting here, and the first day, but I wanted to share it.

This was my first time riding a roller coaster.  It was very scary.  We went to Dollywood park in Tennessee.

We had a good time at the park and I had lots of fun hanging out with my friends.

My favorite moment at Dollywood was going down the water slide.  Monday we live in college dorm first day.  We come to mFuge it is very fun!

Second day is we go to play with children.

We drew the picture and we play ping pong and we come back to the college.  We have a free time and we eat dinner.  We go to Worship.

So, that was it.  I have the hand-written version and will post it on the Youth Bulletin Board when we return.

Hello from Nashville at Midnight!

The day started for me this morning with a shower before 6am and heading out to get the lunches for my track at 6:30 from the cafeteria loading dock.  There is a designated driver in each track group that does this, and I am the one for my group.

After that we had breakfast, followed by morning celebration (informal worship), then Bible Study.

We had a bit of a diversion during Bible Study for Mark and Rob when we got a call from Alan B.’s track leader saying he could not go to the site with them because of improper footwear.  Anyway, we wound up finding him a pair of sneakers at a store on campus when we saw the guy that runs it drive up and go inside.  It didn’t open until 10, but he sold us a pair of shoes at 9:40.

So, after all that and bible study, it was off to the ministry sites (updates later).

After returning from sites, we had a group picture taken, and some free time, followed by dinner.  After dinner there was a worship service, then our church group met for devotions, then we had a Rally…think high school pep rally…

The devotions were led by Mark and he talked to us about what we had left behind or needed to leave behind for this week.  We split up into teams and talked about this.  We also spent a bit of time in prayer as a group for our students, including the ones that could not be with us.

There was another short hang-out time following that, then in-rooms and lights-out.

Here are the updates…
in the interest of getting through everyone, we had everyone sit by the groups they are in together, then come up with a funny thing, a cool thing, and a story about someone they met

Diane, Rob, Elena T., John S
- A kid name Andrew (nickname popcorn) had foam swords and kept beating on John…to the point of calling him “nubby”.  He turned out to be the pastor’s son.
- Made rain sticks out of Pringle’s cans.
- Elena had a little girl befriend her named Brittany.  She was really attached to Elena, even getting anxious as to where Elena was when she went to the restroom.
- John played a Bugle there
Matt D, Alan B.
- Track leader is the Drummer in the worship band
- Went bowling with handicapped people
- met a guy named Ethan with as much hair as Jacob B.
Jacob B, Colin S.
- one of the kids in their track had a heart problem at birth and was dead for at least 30 minutes
- There was a kid playing ping-pong with them who could not even see over the table
- Found that the kids would change the rules if they started losing a game
Chelsea, Matt R, Shane
- A guy named Chris told Matt to put Windex on a cut because it cleans everything…he did it…and survived so far
- Met a guy named Nathan who is going into the Marines and has his whole college and military career all planned.  Shane enjoyed talking to him about it.
Brian W
- Went to juvenile detention center.  There were too many campers to talk to the 3 inmates there, so it was a bit frustrating, but overall a good day.
- played football with them
- learned to NOT get a tattoo using a ball-point pen
John H, Lauren O, Joy G.
- alot of dodgeballs to the face happened today
- One of their track members got a cell call that their mother had a heart attack
- Learned that safety scissors are safe because THEY DO NOT WORK
Lauren M, Alesia L, Merrilee H
- Kids had face paint - they painted everything with it…the girls faces and name badges and arms included
- Got lost on the way to site, so got there at noon
- Alesia enjoyed meeting and talking to Katelyn from the local church
Kristen O,Mu Shang
- worked at a food bank loading boxes of food to give to needy.
- in charge of macaroni and cheese
- packed like 2000 boxes of food
- met 2 girls that will be going to U of Mississippi next year as roomates
Kler Htoo, Brad
- went to a YMCA
- made puzzles from foam sheets
- played baseball with the kids
- also ping-pong and pool
Lauren S, Jeremy R., Natalie R., Tha Soe
- made a wheelchair ramp for a 97 year old widow
- people were intimidate by the hammer skills of Tha Soe
- Kaleb from Louisianna can build anything
Mark
- went to a local Presbyterian Church to help with adult daycare
- found out he is in Creative not Social
- Sang Songs, did a little bit of puppets, and hung-out for an

Today we had 8am wakeup calls and met by the vehicles at 9:15am.

We got them loaded and headed out around 10:15.  We made a Walmart run, filled up the gas tanks, and headed West on 40 for Nashville.

We made a couple of rest stops, and an Arby’s stop for Lunch, arriving at Belmont University around 1:30pm.

The kids were kept busy with signing up for ministry tracks and games while Rob, Mark and Diane got all the registration tasks handled.  The boys are in “quad” rooms where there are 2 double rooms connected with a common bathroom.  The girls have a traditional style dorm, with normal rooms and a common bathroom “down the hall”.

We had free time, then Dinner.  Then there was another short period of free time, then a “celebration”.  A celebration is a more informal worship service.

Each of the kids are assigned their tracks now…here are the ones I have noted.  If I missed some, I apologize and will true it up tomorrow.  Many of the kids are in the same track this year, so they said “I am in the same as she is”, etc, so I may have missed some.  I will also make sure all the spelling of names is correct tomorrow as well, so bear with me.

- John H has Social and will be working with disabled adults and youth, even possibly taking them bowling.
- Merrilee H has Childrens and will be doing VBS outside in a park all week and is with Alesia L and Lauren M
- Matt R has PCY and will be helping finish a widows house, and then will be going door to door offering things like grass cutting, etc.  Also with Chelsea W, Shane and Pla Soe
- Jeremy R will be building Wheelchair Ramps.  He is with Natalie R, Lauren S.
- John S has a mixed Childrens and Social track.  Will be going to a daycamp, a thrift store, and 2 other places.  With Rob M, Diane W, and Elana T
- Matt D has games and rec with Alan B also.
- Pla Soe and Tha Soe have PCY and are with some of our other kids.
- Mu Shang has Childrens with Kristen O.
- Kler Htoo has Childrens and is looking forward to playing with the kids.  Brad is with him.
- Brian has Peer ministry and will be going to a Juvenile Detention Center
- Lauren O and Joy G have Childrens
- Jacob B is in Games and Rec with Colin
- Mark has Social

So, WE MADE IT!

Just a logistical note…we are in Central Time, so an hour behind Lansdale.

Please continue to pray for us as we go onsite tomorrow.

Well, need to pick up lunches for my group at 6:30 tomorrow morning…GoodNight!

We talked about the things the Kids liked today…
- The Slide-winder seemed to be a pretty good favorite ride - thanx Linda
- There was a coal mine ride that was also was thrilling - loop, cork screw, etc
- Mark really liked this sort of strange “Fire in the Hole” ride…aka Blazing Fury

During the devotional time this evening, we discussed the purpose God has for having us on this trip.

We are all looking forward to getting to camp and getting settled in for our service tracks.

We will be on the road from 9am to 1pm Philadelphia Time (we will be an hour behind in Nashville), so we would like your prayers for our safe journeys.

Wishing you God’s peace. Goodnight.

Hello.

It has been quite some time since this has been updated, but we are “on the road again”.  We are attending the mFuge “camp” in Nashville TN this year, which is at Belmont University. 

We will be stopping (well…have stopped) in Knoville, TN for 2 nights along the way.  We spent a day driving on July 11, Leaving our Church at 6:50 AM, and arriving at a hotel in Knovville around 7pm.  All the leaders agreed that this was a very smooth trip, and we were happy that we arrived as early as we did.  We had thoughts of pulling into the Hotel at midnight.  The kids should really be commended on the efforts they put forth to listen and work as a group to make all the stops quick and smooth.

Today we spent the day at Dollywood.  We all had a great time on the rides there and enjoying each others company.  There was a Church there, and the minister had a great message in one of his “shows” about how we are there thinking we are “whittling”, but really the time spent is more “carving”.  He was drawing a reference to how people call taking a piece of wood and passing the time chipping off pieces but not making anything whittlling, where carving is making something out of a blank piece of wood.  Anyway…not dong as good a job explaining this, but the point is we are here to do some “carving” in ours and others lives, not just “whittling”…and he was saying how spending time at the park waiting in line for rides might be thought of as “whittling”, but its the memorys that turn it into carving.

We left Dollywood around 5 and had dinner at Ruby Tuesdays.  We will have a meeting and Devotional at 9:30 this evening, so I will update a little more later.

Peace to all.

We have the van and jeep packed and its 8:30 AM.

The GPS unit is indicating we will get back to the Church early…its says 3pm right now, but I am sure that will change.

I will post updates if I can….if not we will keep notes and I will update this later tonight.

Updates once home…

We crossed into the US around 9:45 with a 20 minute delay crossing mainly from the traffic backup going through customs.  We rally had no problems at all.

We mad a pit stop around 10:30 at a McDonalds in New York.

We stoppped South of Syracuse for lunch around 12:30.

We made 2 more stops….one at a place before the Turnpike that was very dirty…so we stopped at a Krispy Kreme right before getting on the Turnpike.

We got to the Church around 4:45, met by a group of family members of the kids and leaders.

We formed a circle and had a final prayer of thanksgiving together for safe travels, and the privilege of having served Christ in Canada.

Today was another rainy day, which meant the mega-relay was cancelled, and the events for Saturday were compressed into the end of today, which means there is nothing but breakfast on Saturday.

Updates…

Emily
- talked with residents - and a Mom and kids.
- there wasn’t much work to do today
- got a necklace from the family she was talking to
- plyed soccer

Melissa H
- not alot of work today either.
- played soccer

Chelsea
- Interesting day
- got alot of paint on themselves - more than the walls
- took down more wall and ceiling covering

Matt D
- went to a mall to talk to people and hand out flyers
- liked the pet store
- nursing home - poems, skit, singing
- also got popsicles at the home

Mark
- called it a role reversal for this week…he used a circular saw to cut lattice work
- took pictures of most of our kids on their sites working
- saw many in action and was proud of them
- liked seeing everyone working

Alicia
- mall - didn’t talk with too many people
- nursing home - talke to some of the people

Lauren
- handed out flyers…actually got directly rejected twice…but thats ok since she still tried
- talked to people at nursing home

Melissa D
- more building fences
- like working with Mark.

Laura
- finished fences with Miss Jenny
- everyone else playing soccer
- there was a mud fight of some sort

Matt R
- while driving stakes, hit Hunter in the head with a sledge hammer
- he is just fine…he eventually went to the hospital as a precaution, and there is not injury really
- put up a bunch of fences
- drove many other stakes without hitting anyone with the sledge hammer

John
- ripped don more walls and ceiling material at the church
- other work at the church
- there was a paint war where more paint got on the kids than on the walls

Jeremy
- played with kids at the site…with an inflatable shark and with a kid named Noah
- the shark wound up popped from hitting each other so hard with it
- played soccer against the girls “and let them win”…NOT!

Diane
- community center - many more people there today
- talked with a lady who was stuck in Denmark during WWII
- cleared a park dressed in trash bags for rain gear
- 2 of the kids wouldn’t get off the bus to help, so she was asked to “sternly prompt them”
- people on the site thought they were all from the same church

Rob
- Bible school complete!
- last day was Noah’s Ark which included using some Beanie Babies prvided to us by Esther Bookheimer
- it was very moving to see all the kids we worked with all week in front of the church and their parents singing the songs and doing the motions we had all had a part in teaching them
- some of the parents thought we were at a conference for ALL the Christians in the US…meaning that the 300 they knew about were ALL the Christians
- we cleaned up the entire church after the end of VBS
- we also went to a ladies house on the way back to campus who is turning her house into a place for people to hold bible studies, and as a religious retreat
- it was a very long day…we didnt get back to campus until after dinner started

Nicki
- was at the YMCA again
- she had some of the beanie babies also
- wrote “Jesus Loves You” on the tags and handed them out
- the person there went to each kid and cut the tags off
- this was a YMCA in a church…and they were not allowed to talk about God.

The end of the day was very encouraging.  A woman and her family that Mark had talked to came to our worship service.  She wound up with Mark and Nicki and accepted Christ.  She actually had no basis for what that meant since she never had sunday school, VBS, etc to get a basic acquaintance with God.  Nicki talked with her for over an hour while mant of the FBC kids watched and entertained her kids.  Nicki and I headed out to McDonalds and got her and them food…it was nearly midnight when she left.  Praise God that we actually saw one person saved!

We ended the say in Jeremy and Matts room with Mark going around the room talking about his impressions of each kid and leader, and the week they had.  We also appreciate Mark for all of the energy he puts into everything he does with the Youth here at FBC.

Bed was very welcome today, although it was pretty late with all the activities of the day, and packing suitcases.