Your Kids May be a Victim

Let's talk about the boy on the porch. You may have seen him as you drive by. He sits in the porch of shabby, small house that needs demolishing. The boy sits on that porch doing nothing.

It is after school and as you wait for the light to change, you wonder why he isn't doing sports and why is he just there, alone? All of your kids are in activities every day after school and the non activity of this boy who must be about 10 years old and this is bothering you.

There is a rumble in the alley next to the porch and you see some older kids in a fancy car. Not much to guess these are drug dealers. The music blares and they are acting manic. The boy on the porch looks up and seems to be watching the kids in the car.

You think to yourself; "This can't be good"! But is it any of your business? The boy needs help. Parents? Someone to care? But maybe he has no one at all who can help.

Then the thought startles you. The boy clearly is on his own. Rents have gone up. Mother must be working more than one job to make it. Just as the light changes, you, observing this scene, remember something.

It tickles at the back of your mind. There is a free camp for disadvantaged kids. What's it called?
You think hard and as the light changes, then it comes to you — TOUCHDOWN CAMP in Verbo, Redwood City! Something about sports and free for kids. I should google this, she thinks glancing back at the boy.

The boy watches the woman zoom by in her car and knows nothing except he will have to get off the porch and go with the gang in a couple of years. That's just how it is.

Joyce at Le Petit Manoir

Purpose and Latest News on Expansion

Joyce Dueker  |   Founder, Advocate, Evangelist of Project Lost Sheep.

 Sharon Lee and David Ronald helped shoot this video at the
Bay Club, Redwood Shores, CA.
Go to: http://www.projectlostsheep.com

Camp Nurture Leaders

Camp is coming very soon. With volunteers included there will be around 175 for the week of Touchdown Camp 15 in Redwood City, California.

When you first walk into camp, you see the children and their leaders, in a "LEADER" T-shirt. The children are usually subdued the first day but camp puts them in groups, each with their own leader.

Camp is well organized and so the children get settled in quickly.

There are return campers each year. In fact, Touchdown Camp is so well known in the community that no notices have to go out! People call the church and ask for dates of camp. This is a high point of their summer!

At the end of camp, each camper gets a backpack filled with school supplies!

As President, Patty Cardona pointed out recently camp is producing a "Legacy of Leaders".

Many of these leadership skills were learned as former campers came back to volunteer as teenagers. In fact, now, most of the volunteers are from former campers!

We are thankful for all that God has given to bless children and for creating a a legacy of leaders. Over 1000 children have received a free week of day camp.

Let's up the numbers!

Responding From the Heart

Do you ever feel that you are just repeating the same thing over and over again? It may be in your home, business, or church.

Now we all need a certain amount of sameness but when there is "nothing new under the sun'" something is wrong because there is always something new to say, do, and think if we are inspired by God's heart.

Recently our president, Patty Cardona, got inspired to offer a new five week Academic Kids Camp. This started in June and runs into July for five weeks.
See Events.

She responded to the requests of parents who knew their children needed tutoring help. And Patty feeling moved in her heart prayed and talked to others and this new thing has happened and is happening as you read this. Children are receiving 16 hours per week of academic help. 

Patty recently received the Inspirational Leader Award from Second Harvest Food in California. Patty has been coming up with inspired ideas for some time like feeding 20 families a week at church and many others. But, an idea is only an idea until there is confirming action and this usually starts with one person who gets others to come alongside and take action. A true leader will be inspired and then be able to inspire others.

Programs should not be cookie cutter because one size does not fit all. From Chicago, I learned the importance of meeting the needs of the community and listening to what those needs are.

How can you break out to new things in your life, business or in church? In all those areas, we need INSPIRATION from a creator God who is infinitely creative. 

From personal experience, I say we do not get inspiration on our own because the world is so noisey and full of input, I believe we do need to unplug. Will the world end if I do not check my messages x numbe of times a day?

How To Unplug
Go for a walk early before work or listen to some calming music. Get alone and stay there for a few hours or days without input from others. Tune into God. Above all, after this, listen to your heart. The path will open for you. There are new things for you!

The really inspired visions and ideas will become in time visible works that bless others.

Summer is Here

Here we have seasons. Spring doesn't just become summer. There are dramatic changes. One day or week, it seems summer is almost arriving and then temperatures drop and we are back in almost winter again and again.

Rather like life, sometimes it seems that things are going along almost without changing but underneath, there are always currents of change. A bit like the current stock market.

So, what is this about? We like that the weather have seasons. There is nothing constant and that is why we need an anchor, a rock, beyond what we can see to keep us in peace whatever the season is. And the only constant is that if we have found the Rock of Our Salvation, we know who is in charge no matter what changes hit.

God is our hiding place. He is the rock and our refuge in a dry and weary place. Lately, I have been spending more time resting inside my rock and less time trying to figure it all out.

Just yesterday, suddenly, summer came. It was only a trip to the post office but people were enjoying the sun and wearing not only lighter clothes but more relaxed postures. I knew as sure as anything that summer was upon all of us. No more coats and boots or rain gear!

It is time to rejoice in the new season ahead. Be with family and friends. Enjoy a vacation or make one with a picnic at a park. Listen to more music.

Smile from the inside of your heart.

Waiting for Spring

Here in the Northwest, where we live now, we do much waiting for Spring which came late in April this year.

In winter, I look out at my raised flower bed and it may have some snow. There isn't much to see and yet I know that under that bed I have planted bulbs that one day, they will appear.

Nature seems to be saying this year that spring will never come with February snow almost every day followed by cold and rain in March into April.

I wait and wait because from my former life in California. I expected Spring to start sometime in late February. Here it does not. We have something called seasons. Winter is real, long, and trying at times, especially when I gaze out of my kitchen window.

Last fall, we planted more tulip bulbs and unlike California bulbs, I did not have to refrigerate them. And to tell the truth, my California tulips never made much of a garden inpact. But here, nature seems to smile on tulips. Even an amateur, can plant the ugly bulbs and see great results.

Tulips are a marvel here... a kind of resurrecfion in glorious colors. God speaks in what we see in front of us. There is winter and there is death. But after that, there is so much more. Now in Spring, I look out my window and see a blaze of tulips. It is beautiful that the dead of winter has produced the glory of this Spring.

Working Together Is Not Impossible

It is one thing to read about the city and quite another thing to be in the city for a week, in the midst of a group of Christians from many US cities and beyond focused on changing the areas of the city's under belly.

I was acquainted on other trips with the Michigan Ave Miracle Mile, with hotels, high end stores, and the river. That was all I knew, and it was there in a hotel 13 years ago that I got called to Chicago.

This trip in July 2018, I was at Moody Bible Institute in a different area.

It was an adventure to revisit, living in a dorm, going to lectures and taking notes from people who were out to change the situation of the poor. Not by writing a check or visiting once a year, but actively engaging in the problems of the inner city.

However, it was not an intellectual conference for me, but much more, as God let me to experience the pain and the problems first hand on a trip to the emergency room after a fall on the broken cement. I have written more details, in the newsletter which is on-line, so please take a minute to check it out.

One thing we still need to learn is how to work together between groups of churches, and to walk in love together tackling big problems with little actions. If we are one body in the city and see ourselves as part of the whole body of Christ, we can make big advances. There is much interference to say Christians from various churches can't work together. I know from experience that we can.

At Moody, it was as if many parts of the body came together from all over the world, and one of the most moving times was when I was able to take communion together.

We are called to be salt and light. Together even Chicago can be changed!

I was reminded this morning, God hears and keeps all of the prayers. He has them all before him in heaven. Not one is lost.

We may not see answers for years but do not give up on your prayers for larger issues. Go on an adventure for God. Pray for your city. Dare to find friends from other churches and release prayers together for the wounds of the city.

God allowed me to feel the pain for Chicago. This is the start of the work ahead and I trust the findings of these people who welcome hope and allow us to give the vision. Like bridges over the rivers, impossible things are enabled because our God is limitless and we need to love each other to know the adventure God has for each of us.