2009
Then the Grace Assembly Building on Fremont St. became available to us. The first week of January we moved from our building on Murray Dr. to a facility on Fremont St and hwy 99.
 
When we first looked at the new facility all we could say is ‘wow’ and not a good wow. The building where the kids will meet looked like it had been built in the 1950’s and abandoned in the 1980’s. The ceiling was about 7 foot high, so no bleachers and a lot of the tiles had water damage. I was really bummed that we were leaving an awesome Kid’s Church for this.
 
As we tried to figure out what we were going to do, the Lord started laying little pieces about His plan on our hearts. We know if we would have received His whole vision for the facility, we would have choked. We removed the ceiling and a wall between 2 23x25 classrooms, so we would be able to use the bleachers from our old Kid’s Church. Our original thought was to paint the roof, however after we removed the ceiling, we found piping and wiring exposed for the non functioning a/c units. The ducting for the a/c units looked like they were put in by Dr. Seuss, what a mess. We also found that most of the insulation and tiles were not salvageable because of the water damage. We did find a lot of pots and pans above the ceiling, I guess that was easier than taking care of the problem. Because of the wiring and the piping, we needed to replace the ceiling, ouch.
 
God really started to reveal Himself when a friend said he had family that would be able to put a new ceiling in for us and a friend that can check out the a/c heating units. That week, our a/c units were all working and they were able to remove almost 30 feet of extra ducting that had been installed. I had been dreading getting the estimate for the ceiling.
 
When the people came out for the ceiling, after taking some measurements, they said they would be able to do it all for free. All we would need to pick up is the tiles. He had all the wires, t-bar and everything else. He even brought a crew. All he wanted is a letter of recommendation for the job. (Are you kidding, a letter, WOW God you are so in this).
 
Now I am getting excited, I wanted to have something that took the place of our mammoth structure that we had over our stage at the other building. We tried to think of something that really didn’t belong in a classroom (or 2).  A MASSIVE STAGE, now it is getting exciting. God was giving us dreams. So I talked to our stage creator (Johnnie), who helped us, start planning the stage, and boy did we start planning. We did not waste anytime building an awesome 10 foot entrance wall, puppet stage and a 2 foot high 24 foot long stage (I was hoping for 3 foot high but 2 is awesome).

If the video below does not load, it is viewable at https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=0VjO03JtFU

 

 Finished Room

 

LifeSong Remodel of double wide modular, old youth ministries room

When we discussed the theme for this room before we started, I was hoping for an Old Jerusalem or Galilee type theme, my wife wanted a ship. When we first started to clear out the room, we found some t-shirts from a VBS the church had done a few years earlier. They had a picture of a ship on them. A few hours later we found curriculum based on a ship. Not 10 minutes later I got a phone call from the previous Children's Pastor telling me that she had been praying and the Lord had put on her heart that Robin and I were Captains on a ship....Being the dense kind of guy that I am, I got the message :) I said ok to my wife's ship vision.

We started to put out the vision to our church body for help, as I am not a carpenter or electrician. I was starting to get disheartened with the lack of interest in anyone helping. Then one family said they would be able to help, and they really were able to make our dreams come true. They were also able to add to the vision. As we started to build, then others started stepping up with supplies. 

 

 

Last year we drove to Alaska, then to the West Edmonton Mall and Yellowstone National Park. This year we are going the other direction. We are visiting my sister in Dallas then heading up to Springfield Missouri to visit some friends, instead of driving straight from Dallas to Springfield, we are going to go through Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Fort Walton Beach Fl., Bowling Green Kentucky.

We went over 6000 miles covering 16 states in 17 days.

 

Days 1-3: Home (Stockton Ca.) to Ft Worth Texas

This doesn't look like enough snacks to get us to Texas.

I didn't know that life could to start this early

It was a great morning when we left at 6:00 a.m. from Stockton California.

on I-405 we got postponed by the traffic, due to President Reagan's funeral procession

We are at the beach by San Diego

Hunter checking out the wild life by the beach.

We made it to.......uuuummmmmmm?

The girls watching the Hunter flying show

Of course we had to keep the tradition of having Dairy Queen when we leave California

at one of the rest stops in Az. We didn't get on the news here.

we made it ,to the rest stop

What is ironic, 10 years after coming through this area a couple times, Robin's parents moved about 30 miles away from this rest stop. 

such a drastic scenery change from Arizona to New Mexico....NOT

then on to Texas

Since we where in El Paso so close to the Mexican border, we went to a Greek restaurant and had pizza, go figure

time to wash the desert dirt off

as we headed further into Texas we got stopped at a border patrol check stop. They didn't know that we had smuggled Nicole in from Canada.

A B1 bomber flew over us as we headed into Fort Worth

We saw this storm chaser on I-35w as we headed into the Ft Worth area. They had been under severe weather for the 3 days prior to us getting there.

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Days 3-4: Cleburne Texas, Ft. Worth Zoo

 

We made it to my sisters in Cleburne, just south of Ft. Worth







on our way to the zoo





the 3 amigos


Hunter was terrified of the squirrel.








This is a great way to cool off

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Days 5-6: Cleburne Texas, Ft. Worth Stockyard

and I thought our kids were good. You raise them right and they still turn out bad. I think Oscar is the bad seed ;-)

Just yesterday he was terrified of a squirrel

The girls got their Texas size gumballs, they were hollow. What a jip

Aunt Robin got Hunter a gun set

Then she shot him

my poor poor boy

I think he liked the gift.

from being afraid of squirrels to riding bare back

helping with the chores

family picture time before we leave

I can't believe I got my kids Dallas Stars stuff. But at $4 bucks, I couldn't pass it up. 2 weeks earlier our pastor was in British Columbia and the hockey stuff was way over priced.

 bye Cissy.....again

 

 

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Days 7-8: on to Louisiana, with a stop in the big Easy, Mississippi, Alabama

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we made it to Louisiana. Uh oh, where is Cole? Did we leave her in Texas?

those clouds look pretty serious as we head towards Baton Rouge.

not too bad

didn't need it but I guess it was good to know

Baton Rouge across the Mississippi River

thats where we are headed

the French Quarter. They were hosing the barf out of some of the bars into the street. It stunk.

The buildings were really awesome to look at.

On to Mississippi

Out of it already???? Hello Alabama

USS ALBAMA Now, That is a boat

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ADays 9-11: Fort Walton Beach, if you go here you have to stop by the Old Bay Steamer and have the seafood boil, it was the best food on the trip.

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We stayed at the Ramada which was a great family hotel.

oooooooohhhhhh mmmmmmyyyyyyy. This is the view from our room. As soon as we saw this view, we called down to stay an extra day here.

yea dad, this is our room.

The girls wasted no time hitting the beach.

this is my favorite picture, this was taken from inside our hotel room. I love the wave crashing.

it started raining for a while, so we went and did laundry.

quick everyone lets go... the sun is out.

because of the weather front that moved through, the waves were great.

 

the girls getting ready to go body boarding at 11:30 pm.

 

the 3 girls out at the surf after midnight.

 

they decided to call it a night when the lightning started to get close.

 

 

the next part of the front made it in.

 

We were on the beach for about an hour and half between the rain, and boy did we get cooked.

except BD just got browner

we seem to be getting redder

The slide worked suprisingly well for being very humid. Hunter flew off the slide

 

the last night, go to check our emails.

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Days 12-14: on to Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Arkansas

 

there is a gator over there

we just passed the highest point in Florida and then we dropped into Alabama (345')

on our way on a side trip to pick up some boiled peanuts

Nashville? or LA with trees

We want to go to Kentucky again and spend more time here

The pool felt great on the sunburns

bye Bowling Green

We just watch the Godfather the night before. I don't think we have any enemies like Sonny Corlione.

 

the show me state.......show me the way out.....

trying to get to the arch they had everything closed off. St Louis sucks.

this was as close as we got....stupid Missouri

 

 

we don't have lightning bugs in Calif

on to see my parents. They live in Arkansas. I will get some pictures up from there pretty quick.

We had a great evening watching T-ball game.

 

go girlfriend

 

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Days 15-16: on to Kansas Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona

 

look, we're not in Kansas anymore (I think it is a law that you have to do that picture)

this McDonalds goes over the highway. Too cool

we stopped at the Oklahoma City Bombing Museum. It was very sobering.

 

this tree survived the blast

 

as we came up to this statue across the street, Hunter was saying, 'Look, Jesus is crying'. Here is a 2 year old who can grasp the concept that Jesus was crying. Another family was walking by and the mom told her kids that they let a church put this statue here because the church got damaged during the attack. How about it is here because 168 people lost their life because of terrorist attack.

 

just west of OKC we passed through the Canadian section of Ok. I didn't know they had a canadian section.

 

Cole getting emotional at the end of Return of the King

 

 

yea I'm still back here

 

We stopped at the Petrified Forest and Painted Desert again. It is worth the stop

it's not time yet!!??

 

 

should we be concerned?????

 

these things are huge

 

 

 

except for Cole's scowel, this is a nice picture, at least Bon is happy.

 

we picked up some ice cream cones to help cool off

 

through Las Vegas

look at the all the great things to do on highway 95

area 51........oooooooo scary

the Ramada was like an oasis in the middle of the desert. The hotel and restaraunt were fantastic.

 

back to Califonia

 

Mono Lake

 

Hunter had a chart of bugs and he was excited to match it up.

hi bunny

 

 

 

on to Panum Crater. The girls went up to the top and I had to change a tire.

fun times for me

we always find snow on our trips.

since we had to change a tire, we went to Yosemite instead of Bodie. I didn't want to take the gravel road to Bodie without a spare tire.

we always try to get a penny smushed

it is over already. Droppin' of Oscar Cole