RIP Alex

Alex Sullivan was one of the 12 people killed at the movie theater in Aurora early Friday morning.  I knew Alex and his family.  Before my jobs took me to the west coast, when Alex was in Jr. High and High School, I spent  a lot of time with the Sullivan family.

 I met Tom, Alex's father at an Avalanche game, and we began to hang out.  They would often invite me to their home for dinner and to watch a game with the family.   I went on several trips to Las Vegas with Tom and other Sullivan family friends. We would also go to games, Broncos, Avalanche, and Rockies, together with Alex, as well as autograph hunting outside of practices.  When the MLB all-star game was in Colorado in 1998, Alex and I went downtown early in the morning to the fan-fest seeking autographs and collectibles, and then met up with his father after work to enjoy the rest of the All Star festivities.

The one thing I remember most about Alex was his love for everyone.  He could make friends with anyone and would make it easier for us to feel welcome in any situation because of his outgoing nature.  He was full of energy and loved his sports.

I knew three people in the theater next door that were able to escape without injury, but when I saw the picture below of Tom holding Alex's photo plastered across the web, my heart truly began to ache for everyone involved.  I have not heard of anyone else I know being at the theater or hurt, and I pray that I do not.

I will reach out to the family after they have had time to heal and offer my deepest condolences and sympathies, but for now, I hope everyone, especially the press, honors their request for privacy and gives them time to mourn and grieve.  I cannot imaging the pain they must be going through, and I ask that you keep the Sullivan family in your prayers.  I don't have any pictures of Alex on my computer, they are probably in photo albums in my parent's basement, but I did put a couple pictures of Tom and I below.  One was taken by Alex during some hockey playoffs while we were waiting to go the game, and the other is with some of the San Francisco 49'ers cheerleaders at a Super Bowl party in Vegas.  No laughing or funny comments about how young or silly I look please ;).  Thanks to everyone for their kind thoughts during this time.  Please make sure the victims are remembered as well, even more than the shooter.  Thank you.

Holy Cross

The dorms at YLM have a total of 56 beds.  Along with the 35 servants from Family of Christ, Holy Cross Lutheran Church from Jenison, Michigan brought 21 youth and adults to serve on the border.  That made for a total of 56 people, or one in each bed.  Talk about a full house.

Both groups started the week with an old fashioned Texas Barbecue.  I was excited to see Pete again, so I asked the leaders if they wanted me to cook a barbecue for them. It would have been cheaper than taking the group out to dinner.  They both jumped on the idea, so we had smoked brisket and pork loin, baked beans, cornbread, watermelon and iced tea.  YUM!

This group continued the construction work done by Peace with Christ and the homes of Margarita Gonzalez and Norma Saucedo in Sparks with additions to their homes.  In addition, each of the construction groups did a morning of VBS at the community center.  I didn't get to spend much time with them, but they seemed to have a great time on their event.  So much, that one of the students inquired about helping next summer.

Good rule.

Monument to challenger

On the way to White Sands

Construction at Norma's

Big G and his professional team

Dancing at VBS

Making new friends

Everybody loves the puppies

Nice work

A Large Family

The largest group of the summer thus far (we will see what the team from Canada brings in August) came from Family of Christ Lutheran Church in Ham Lake, MN, which is just outside of the twin cities.  The leader from this group, was the DCE/Youth Minister at Our Father in the years after I graduated from high school.  It has been a great summer of reunions with people from OFLC.

The 30 youth and 5 adults broke into 2 groups, one building and the other doing VBS at San Pablo.  They are used to having nearly 350 kids at their VBS at home, so they were well prepared for the ones that would come to San Pablo.  On Monday, they canvassed the neighborhood with flyers, and were ready to go on Tuesday.  They got up to 50 kids by Thursday, and each one that came had a fantastic time learning about Jesus.

The construction team laid what is the cornerstone of the Arredando home by building a closet, bathroom and bedroom.  Future groups will be adding on to this home for the family of 6, similar to what we did last year with Gilberto and Dora Hinojosa.  We ran into some challenges with wood that was not straight, or had too many knots in it, and of course it was difficult for everyone to deal with the heat, especially on the first day, but by lunch on Friday, everything was basically done.  Just a little bit of sanding left for the next group, and maybe another coat of joint compound.

It seemed that every shiny metal object on the site was left in the sun at some point, usually right before I needed it.  I jokingly told the group on Wednesday that next time I found a tool in the sun, they had to do 10 push-ups, and then add 5 for every subsequent tool.  That fixed it.  I didn't find any until we were almost done on Friday, and jokingly I told them they all had to come outside and do 10 push-ups.  Guess what?  They did them. It was awesome, and fun.

Every night, they had group time which included skits, songs, YAY God's, and small group devotions.  I got to share my story one night, and feel that it was pretty encouraging to the group.  It has been great to have some of my old youth leaders here, and they really made an effort to encourage me and support me in the new direction He has put me on.

The team at scenic drive, using night mode.

Looking through the bathroom window towards the bedroom

Plumbing

Looking out the bathroom window

Nails in the sun.

Framing 

Drywall saw

They have it under control

Coming together.  Bathroom on the right.  Still need to build the center wall. 

The super drywall team

Construction team

Alexa is excited about her new house.

VBS fun

Back Home Again at YLM

Back Home again in Indiana is a song sang each year by Jim Nabors, who played Gomer Pyle, at the beginning of the Indianapolis 500 race.  This year, a group from University Lutheran Church, in West Lafayatte, Indiana returned to YLM for the sixth year.  I was with the group from West Bend during this week, but my mom was able to fill the role and ensure their week was a success.

During the mornings, the group hosted a VBS at the Sparks Community Center, while nursing student Ashley, for the third year in a row,  performed health checks for the residents of Sparks.  In the afternoons, the ladies returned to YLM, where Ashley continued health checks and the others helped out wherever needed:  from breaking down boxes to sorting donations, to hauling boxes from one room to another.  The guys spent their afternoons replacing tile and finishing a fence.

One thing that stands out about this group is their desire to help the staff of YLM.  It may be a big material thing, or just some words of encouragement, but the way this group holds up the staff and encourages us goes a long way in terms of moral and happiness.  I thank the members of uLu for their willingness to serve and hold up the staff.  We look forward to working with them next summer for year number 7.

Viviana and her Nino

Sisters with sisters

Errin, with the guitaron 

University Lutheran group with me hidden in the back

New friends in Sparks

The hand prints of the kids

Crown crafts

Showing off their handiwork

Errin and her friends

Cool hand Jeff

Manicures

Paulina and Camila having fun

Enjoying El Paso Connection

Sweet Sixteen

 I stole this title from the web article because I couldn't think of anything better.  At least I am not just copying the web articles over to the blog as well :).  Trinity Centralia joined us this summer for the 16th trip.  Bert, the leader, always jokes with me that he has to live 4 years longer than my mother, so he can at least tie her for the most annual trips to YLM.

This is a great group.  They bring a lot of skill, and often volunteer to work on their own in an effort to ease the workload of the YLM staff.  Some may have seen this as a bad thing, but it is actually very nice.  They like to get up and be on the road by 5:30 and often work late into the afternoon trying to accomplish as many projects as possible.  This year, they built a house and tiled Pastor Hernandez's office at Santisima Trinidad.  The one sad thing about them working on their own is that I don't get to hang out with them a lot.  They are fun, and I like to hang out with fun people, but at least we had some time at night to joke around and scour the tool shop for that one evasive thing that would really help their project.

The thing that impresses me, after their willingness to serve and help out wherever is the ability of the group members to sleep ANYWHERE!!.  I guess Bert and Judy must work them too hard, or they stay up too late, or maybe both, but as I went through the photos, there were pictures of people napping everywhere.  In the van on the bridge, on the floor of the church, sitting on the couch of the office, in the dirt under the tree at the job site, etc.  I mean anywhere you can imagine, they were sleeping.  I am a big fan of the nap, but I am amazed at their skills.  I hope next year they can teach me their secret, because there are times where I would love a 10 minute power nap, but can't fall asleep.

Thanks to Trinity for another great year, I pray that you continue to receive the support you hope for.

Off to San Antonio today.  YLM has a booth at the National Lutheran Youth Workers Conference.

The cross at Santisma in the early morning

Their first view of the clouds that were painted on "their" sky.  Nice job Erin Mackenzie

Pastor Pepe showing off his new window unit.

Preciosa the wonder dog.  Friendly as can be if you enter the church by legal means, but don't you dare try to climb the fence of come when no one is there.

Beginnings of the tile project

They had to rip up all the tile that was laid the next morning because many were loose, and then scrape up all the mortar.

Oh, you put mortar on this side too!?!?

Second try looks great

Since he didn't have an office, he had to do his work somewhere

Moved back in to his newly tiled office

Why is Judy working and they are watching?

Now everyone is watching Bert work

Long lines for a couple days...

...so Tyson got a part time job

House team

Mad napping skills

Friday afternoon, the team went evangelizing near Santisima, here they are in action.