Official October Newsletter!!

Hi. 

I am excited to tell you that I have made it back to China safely and am looking forward to another eventful year. 

I am so very thankful for all your love and encouragement. I was able to see many of you while I was in the States these past few months. My time in the USA was very full. I was blessed to share this work with many new groups of people and re-connect with long time friends and supporters.

While there, I was able to touch base with old KM teammates who have big changes in their future and was able to properly give them encouragement as well as have good closure to our times together. This was really special to me and I was really glad to be able to be encouraged by them as well.

Thank you so very much to all of you who were able to make time in your life to meet with me. For those of you who were unable to see me due to my schedule or your schedule, I hope that next time I am on Home Assignment we can make a rendezvous happen.  

I was blessed by the many churches and individuals that I was able to meet with. This was one of my requests to Father before I came back to the States that He would bless me with meeting new people and making good connections.  So, Thank you. 

Worth the Wait

We found this stone with the saying: No Cross, No Crown inscribed on it.

 

Thank you to everyone who has been faithfully petitioning for my ministry.  I had some days of wondering if I would waste away as a correspondent between organizations. Forever doomed to try and coordinate the bosses schedules. But despite my occasional doubts I knew that Father had great things planned for this program that I am working on. Shine is a special program and the way we have melded it together with Wait Training really gets me excited to talk with teens. 

This now will be my report on how the trip went. Enjoy!

April 8-10, 2014 Shi Lin Number 4 Middle School Visit

Angela, Denise and Peter 

traveled to Shi Lin by a rented private car. In a local Shi Lin restaurant we met Mr. Cai (the vice principal) and two teachers. At this luncheon we explained the Shine School Program and discussed that our plan was to teach 45 minutes of the program regarding Worth, Choices, and Purpose. We notified them that we wanted to return to do the second 45 minute presentation on Healthy Relationships and Protecting Themselves. When they heard that there was two parts to the program and that the second part was regarding Healthy Relationships and how to protect themselves. They insisted on giving us adequate time to teach the whole program.

We were escorted to the school grounds and given one of the teacher’s old apartments to stay in during the duration of our time. The apartment had three bedrooms, a living room, a chinese style bathroom, and a kitchen. We were encouraged to stay on the grounds for our safety. We were invited to meet the two classes we would be teaching later Tuesday evening and so Peter went to one class and Denise went to the second class. For a half hour we introduced ourselves to these classes and then the classes as well as ourselves went to dinner at the school cafeteria. Then at 7:30-9pm we taught the entire Shine School program to these two classes-approximately 90-100 students. 

The next day, Wednesday, we ate breakfast and lunch at the school cafeteria and we taught 4 classes-two in the morning from 9-10:30am and two in the afternoon from 2:30-4pm. During one of these sessions the teachers did not stay for the whole program and afterward informed us that they left early because they were afraid the students would feel embarrassed to ask their questions if they were there. 

The atmosphere at this middle school was very welcoming but not overbearing. We never felt imposed or pressured to do or teach anything we didn’t want to do. The teachers and administration desired us to be there not to teach english but to help their students become all that they could be and help them realized the risks that the world has in it. They recognized the need as well as the importance of this program. The vice principal told us that he could see the immediate results of the program because when he had the students in his class after we had taught them the students in general were vastly more well behaved and kinder to one another. This gave us much pleasure. 

The administration took us out to dinner on Wednesday night and they were very polite and did not pressure us to drink too much. Our reserve seemed to effect the reserve of the administration. We were introduced to a principal and vice principal of a near by elementary school and then after dinner we proceeded to visit their school and see the campus. They invited us to come and teach their students. I told them that at this time we only had curriculum for middle school age.  But I said that we would love to return at some time in the future. Perhaps in conjunction with a teacher training via Dawen. We then returned back to the Number 4 Middle School campus for bed. 

Thursday, we taught two classes from 8:30-10am and then we had lunch with the vice principal’s family. In this situation there may be significant relationship building opportunity. Mr. Cai told Angela and Denise about how his daughter, age 21, returned from college suddenly and refusing to return due to reasons she wouldn’t share. Her personality seemed to be significantly changed and she began to buy dogs in the dozens. Her father was and is still very concerned for her but doesn’t know what to do. He would like it if we or some one from Dawen could come and help her.  

The other situation that Mr. Cai has asked for our help with is that they have a 15 year old young man who has been acting out in school, causing trouble and beating other students up and stealing their money. This young man’s father had died and his mother has remarried. The administration seems to believe that the home atmosphere is healthy but we were unable to talk to this young man because he did not come to school the next few days. 

We are trying to arrange for Trudy (from Dawen), Angela, and I returning to Shi Lin to spend some time with Mr and Mrs. Cai and helping them know how to help their daughter as well as teach some of the teachers on how to deal with unruly students and to spend some time with both this troubled boy and Mr. Cai’s daughter. 

All in all I feel greatly blessed by Father for his blessing with this school as well as for our contact in Mr. Li-who set all this up for us. 

We are awaiting Mr. Li’s return call to let us know if there is additional schools we could visit this month. We gave him dates for next week and the week after. Therefore, we will await his direction. 

Summer 2014 Schedule

I am wanting to make some of my plans for this summer available to you all. Of course some of my plans are not yet finalized. But I have some decisions made.

The main locations I will find myself are: South Dakota, Minneapolis Area, and Lincoln Nebraska Area.  Because this year I have to split my time between three states to see my family and main church I will not have the time to travel to Wyoming.  I am very sorry, but as I tried to rearrange my schedule it just did not work its way into the mix. So I promise that in 2016 I will come back to Casper. If any of you lovely Casper peeps are traveling east-let me know and maybe we could meet up for lunch or coffee.

At this time the best way to contact me is via email but my gmail address does provide me with a phone number at this time. Note that this number will not be the number I use once I am actually in the States. :) But that number is: 402-882-2951.


So lets talk South Dakota: What a beautiful and relaxing place to spend the first couple weeks of my return to America. The fields of grain or cows, the wide open roads, the empty store aisles, the cowboys. What's not to love?  I will be in Huron from about the 26th of May until around the 9th of June. I do have some appointments already locked in during that time. But I am willing to meet people for meals or activities.

Minneapolis has all the amenities of a big city without the slap in the face that so often accompanies a big city. I will be cuddling and loving my babies, Henry and Sydelle, to my heart's content. I will be there from about June 10-18th.

Time with Family either in Minneapolis or South Dakota: Due to my family being split between two states and all those people having plans and lives of their own it has been some what difficult to nail plans down so very far in advance and therefore I have dates that I intend to spend with my family but I am unsure whether I will be with my family in SD or in MN. If you are wondering where Denise is on these dates-don't ask her because all she will know is that she is with her blood. June 30th-July 8th, July 29th-Aug 20th.

Finally lets look at Nebraska. In many ways it appears to be a lot like South Dakota. But those of us who grew up in Lincoln know that we are more citified.  Which, could be a good thing but could also trip you up. My heart is in the heart land. I love it there. I get enough country as I want but can still run back to the city. The Redness is soothing and the love of what we have resounds deep in my soul. I am excited to say that I will be in Lincoln from Aug 21st- Sept 22nd.  During this time I already have some activities planned and I am hoping to be involved in Awana again at FBC!! But I would love to start putting people's names down for lunches, breakfasts, coffee, movies, dinners, small groups, and any other kinds of good times you can think of.


Times that are not listed here are still being finalized or tweaked. I know that many of you do not know what tomorrow looks like let alone May through Sept. But I also know that some of you already have plans poured into cement.

Please feel free to contact me regarding a possibility of getting together. I will do what I can to make as many connections happen as possible.

Denise.

Permeate 2014

Permeate 2014 had the theme of  Mind: Set. 

We focused on Colossians 3:1-4 but really looked at the whole chapter. This year was just as exciting as last year. My small group consisted of 9 girls ages 11 to 14. At the beginning of the weekend two of them told me that they didn’t think that they were going to learn or enjoy the weekend very much. They expressed the sentiment that they perhaps had wasted their money on the registration fee. 

With this beginning it is so exciting to give you a glowing report at the end of the weekend. On Saturday evening as they packed their bags they shared with me and with each other some of the things they had learned. 

It was so very endearing to hear these young women share with me their struggles-regarding emotion control. Most of them were very concerned with how to handle their anger in relation to their siblings, parents, and friends.  It made me think about my days as a junior high student. I don’t know if you can relate but it was hard to control my emotions. I was proud that these young women were seeking to follow Father’s way for their life. Colossians 3:8 says: “But now you must put them all away: anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.” This sentence is easy to say but not so easy to follow. All nine of my girls wanted to know they could apply this in their lives. How encouraging to me. 

This young women told me that she thinks she learned more this year than last year and that she was really glad that she came. 

The other event that touched my heart during this year’s Permeate had nothing to do with my 2014 small group but actually had to do with how two girls from my 2013 small group have grown. My small group last year had two girls who did not get along. In fact they got along not at all. Surprisingly, they knew just what buttons to push to drive each other CRAZY.  This year as we were preparing to make roommate assignments I was shocked to see that both of them requested the other to room with at Permeate. Father truly does work in mysterious ways.  During one of the game times these two girls plus their other roommate did not show up. When I discovered them I found that my former small group girls were talking with their roommate about why they believed in Father. I almost cried. How far they had come in their love for each other and their love for Father. 

How blessed am I to be involved in these youngsters lives and not only get to witness their growth in Him but also get to impact them. 

Thank you for all your thoughts, support, and love in this endeavor in pointing young ones closer to the cross. 

This year we had some difficulty with the retreat center and we are hoping that next year these same difficulties could be avoided. If you could be petitioning on our behalf asking for good relationships and favor with these ladies: 

These three photos are of one of the stations at our Pr8yer Maze. We did a scrabble puzzle of what our relationship with Father looks like. The pictures with the green background are from Permeate and the finished brown background product is when Mikayla and I finished gluing all our words down. This will be hanging at the Youth Center for future generations to see. :)