Bigfoot and the Tree lot...

HI,
today was the 1st episode of this year's tree lot experience. We sell Christmas trees to make some money for the base so this morning at 7:30 we hauled around 1000 trees into the lot.
Clint & I wore our sod shirts (for advertisement purposes of course) and we matched. Christmas is almost here. Dublin was sad he couldn't come. Also sad he doesn't have a shirt.

Washington

2 weekends ago we went to Seattle for a King's Kids conference. It was a good time of refreshing and getting more knowledge of the program. We also got to see some family.

Coach Peters

Clint is coaching Varsity b-ball...Here's some pictures from the alumni game. The boys lost by one and Adah wanted to play with them.

It's a small world after all

This week our family the Smaill's came to visit. We had so much fun dancing, singing, drinking coffee, seeing the beach, not liking the waves, relaxing, building a floor, cooking a turkey and just enjoying being with family.
We hope after seeing the smog and the traffic they'll want to move here and never leave. Wishful thinking.
Here's some pics of the time.

when grandma turned 80...

One day, eighty years ago, a young woman entered the world. Her name: Florence Mae Zurcher-Carlson-Zang. Her legacy: the crazy people in the photos below. This is a one of a kind family.

Upcoming adventures.

I thought a little update would do us all some good...even us...to understand and grasp what is coming in the remaining part of 2006. We want to make the most of every opportunity and live for things eternal. We are "booked" for the next few weekends, and am soooo excited to have some incredible visitors coming to visit.
Upcoming...
Grandma's 80th- whoo hoo! My beloved G-ma is turning 80, and so of course we are throwing a celebration. My family is famous for throwing a good bash. We love dressing up, and so it's a decade party. Clint and I are going as the 40's or cowfolk. My parents, the creative ones, are going as babies. How funny is that! Congrats G-ma, you have lived an incredible life and influenced so many.
Then the beginning of Nov we head up to the WA for a King's Kids conference. We will probably be the youngest there...but it will be a good chance to connect with others with the same heart. ALSO big bonus is getting to visit - a much needed visit- some of my family. Clint has never even met one whole family on my dad's side. And we love seattle. It will be our first time there as a married couple...and I think it's a pretty romantic city. And it smells like rain.
Once we get home, Mark, Renee and Adah are coming for a visit. We are excited. By then we will be moved into our new home. Trailer 7. We will all fit. Praise the Lord. We will get to explore Hollywood, LA, Santa Monica, Pasadena and watch Adah be cute, loveable and adorable.
Then we will have 2 more visitors- one who came last year and a new friend. They will come to have fun with us, rest and renew at YWAM, and experience our ministry here.

I'm sure in between all of these things we will be busy with YWAM, basketball games-watching Clint coach!!! and being married and in love.
We are getting ready for spring break. I know it is far away- but we have a few teams coming and our weeks are filling up. We will take them on NIKO's, to Catalina and LA for a week to know more about GOD and themselves, to serve and to experience and be changed.

This is an incredibly long post- but I feel better and can let all of this go, and know that God has a big plan and is in control. PS- if you have itunes you should check out mosaic/erwin mcmanus. His last series has opened up my heart and head to some of "life's toughest questions" and it is amazing.

Dublin joins the family

Here is our new doggie Dublin. We rescued him from the streets of scary LA and now he's a Christian! He likes us and we love him a lot. Come and visit anytime!

Mr. Chandler Bing

This is the dog that we thought was going to be ours. Now he is adopted, living with an incredible family....and it's not us. boo. we loved him a lot.

Memories of Clear Lake

home sweet home...

We are home! new couch, new window thingy and a lot of love. Friday nights staying at home, cleaning and moving furniture and sighing when its over, sinking into our couch....LOVE is grand.

pics from Africa

Africa

Africa. Dirty. Kind. Powerful, powerless. Beautiful. Challenging. Encouraging. Comfortable. Cold. There's a lot of words I could use to describe our experience...it's just that none seem to fully capture the two weeks we spent there, the faces we kissed, the hands we held, the lives we touched and the lives that impacted ours. The pictures bring back incredible memories.
I think that we learned a lot on this trip-
we can't change the world. we can pray. we can educate ourselves. we can tell others. we can believe for a difference.
africans are amazing. faced with hardship, death, struggle...they offer joy. they continue on-through it-with amazing faith and trust and belief that GOD exists, and that there will come a day...
people's relationshipl with god is not formed through others. you cannot create a personal relationship with GOD for someone else.
africa becomes a part of you-it stays with you when you leave.
So- we loved africa. here's some pics of our time there-our team and the friends we made.

Almost time to come home

Hello everyone!!!
This is a link to one of the ministries that we will be visiting this next week. http://www.beautifulgate.org/ We are taking a team of 10 youth to this ministry for one week and then serving a local church for the second week.
We have had an amazing time in Europe this summer and are serving in any way possible to the bases out here. We served YWAM Italy with maintanance-chopping down trees, and cleaning up the base. It was like a 3rd world country down in Sicily. We also led a GO Camp for youth in Italy, teaching them on the bible, relationships, and teaching dances. We served with an outreach in Paris, and saw the dances Nic taught in Swit. being performed on the streets. Each night the team went to a different location of the city and did a program including testimony, dance and music. They handed out thousands of bibles as well. In every country we have been to we have seen God at work in the lives of his people. We have been so encouraged and our eyes have been opened to the needs of these countries. In all the countries we have visited the rate of christianity has been less than 2%
Now we are on our last leg of the trip, heading to S. Africa to serve in a community affected by HIV/AIDS. We are looking forward to coming home and sharing with everyone all we have seen and experienced this summer.
Blessings, Clint & Nic

MARRIED...

This is the newly married couple the Gingerich's. They had a beautiful wedding and a very long and funny and entertaining reception complete with skits, paper airplanes and games with gardening tools. We had 5 courses and a cake with fireworks on the top level.
Clint's favorite course: Number 2. Soup with the greatest filled pasta ever. Delicious.
Nicole's favorite course: The dessert. Fresh strawberries, chocolate mousse and expresso. Ahhh. so good.

Little cars and big backpacks

To get to our hostel in Stuttgart we had to hike up 3,000 stairs..well at least it felt that way. My calves are still sore. On the way down we stopped by a little car, very common here. I don't think that our backpacks and us would fit. We miss you all...we'll be home in a few short months.

More pics...

Just a few more pictures. Some are of the wedding and more are of our trip into Stuttgart Germany. Now we're at the Lausanne base in Swit. getting to see some good friends. Friday we head to Italy to explore and serve at 2 ywam bases.

pics from europe

Germany here we come...

We arrived in Europe!!! We have been staying Germany for the past couple of days...spending time in the black forest and getting to know some german. We have been eating bread for almost every meal, with cheese or jam. We also came face to face with a mountain goat who was trying to scare us off the edge of a cliff. The people here are friendly and we are so enjoying being here. Sat is the wedding of some goood friends and then we head to switzerland to see the ywam base there and meet up with some other good friends. We will try to keep you as updated as possible. Cheers!

Finally an update!

It's been a busy season here at YWAM. We had another UPRoot event on the 27th and it was a success. We partnered with a local church and had a couple great bands and a dance team again. We got to work with some of our favorite people and really get heart and direction for where God is taking us. We're having another event on the 24th of feb. where we'll be uprooting violence through providing opp's here in la through the juvenille hall system and also giving info on sierra leone and the violence that occurs there.
In MAY we're hoping to travel to germany for a wedding and then to france to work with YWAM over there. In june/july we'll be taking teams through paris and morocco - ministering to the muslims and exploring. We're really looking forward to all the upcoming happenings and really appreciate all your prayer and support. -Clint and Nicole