Judith asked me to pass along this Christmas greeting to all of you.
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Saturday, December 20, 2008
Thursday, November 20, 2008
Orosi Angel Tree
I have a post in the works that will detail the Mission Team's planned activities for December's Costa Rica Vacation Bible School. However, in the meantime, I wanted to put up a quick post about one particular activity--and ask you to consider helping out.
One day during the week, the team will take a break from VBS and bring upwards of 60 kids (last year it was 39) from the local orphanage to El Jardin Sagrado for a Christmas celebration. They'll sing, listen to Bible stories, have a Christmas pageant, etc.
And they'll each get a present.
These kids have very little except a shared room at the orphanage and the clothes on their backs. The gift they get from our team while at El Jardin Sagrado will, in all likelihood, be the only gift they get all year.
We'd love to have people here at home participate by buying a gift for a specific child and sending it down to Costa Rica. Unfortunately, the cost of shipping packages (or checking extra luggage on the plane) is so expensive that we can't afford it. Therefore, the team will buy the gifts once they get to Costa Rica. They'll have some basic information about each child (e.g., age and gender), and they'll pray for guidance about what kind of gift would make the biggest difference for him or her.
Even though we can't take the kids gifts from the US, we would still like to give people here at home an opportunity to establish a personal relationship with a child in Orosi. If you can donate $20 to $25 to buy a gift for a child, we will provide you with a photo--and maybe even video--of that child receiving your gift. We would like to provide more information about the kids, but PANI (the agency that runs the orphanage) is very wary about giving out too much personal information about the children. Costa Rica has a problem with child exploitation, so the authorities are rightly cautious.
Can you spend a few dollars to help one or two kids? I plan to do this with my daughter. I'll make a couple of donations in her name, and I'll use the photo as a way to help her understand how fortunate she is--and what it means to help others.
If you have smaller kids, this would be a great learning and giving opportunity. If you don't, it's still an opportunity for you to reach out with a small donation that can make a huge difference.
If you attend Threshold and would like to donate, stop by the Christmas Tree that's located near the Threshold Kids check-in area on Sunday morning. Or you can send your gift to the address on the right side of this web page. The only difference is that you should have the memo say "Orosi Angel Tree."
Thank you, and may God bless you for your generosity!
One day during the week, the team will take a break from VBS and bring upwards of 60 kids (last year it was 39) from the local orphanage to El Jardin Sagrado for a Christmas celebration. They'll sing, listen to Bible stories, have a Christmas pageant, etc.And they'll each get a present.
These kids have very little except a shared room at the orphanage and the clothes on their backs. The gift they get from our team while at El Jardin Sagrado will, in all likelihood, be the only gift they get all year.
We'd love to have people here at home participate by buying a gift for a specific child and sending it down to Costa Rica. Unfortunately, the cost of shipping packages (or checking extra luggage on the plane) is so expensive that we can't afford it. Therefore, the team will buy the gifts once they get to Costa Rica. They'll have some basic information about each child (e.g., age and gender), and they'll pray for guidance about what kind of gift would make the biggest difference for him or her.
Even though we can't take the kids gifts from the US, we would still like to give people here at home an opportunity to establish a personal relationship with a child in Orosi. If you can donate $20 to $25 to buy a gift for a child, we will provide you with a photo--and maybe even video--of that child receiving your gift. We would like to provide more information about the kids, but PANI (the agency that runs the orphanage) is very wary about giving out too much personal information about the children. Costa Rica has a problem with child exploitation, so the authorities are rightly cautious.
Can you spend a few dollars to help one or two kids? I plan to do this with my daughter. I'll make a couple of donations in her name, and I'll use the photo as a way to help her understand how fortunate she is--and what it means to help others.
If you have smaller kids, this would be a great learning and giving opportunity. If you don't, it's still an opportunity for you to reach out with a small donation that can make a huge difference.
If you attend Threshold and would like to donate, stop by the Christmas Tree that's located near the Threshold Kids check-in area on Sunday morning. Or you can send your gift to the address on the right side of this web page. The only difference is that you should have the memo say "Orosi Angel Tree."
Thank you, and may God bless you for your generosity!
A Message from Rick and Judith
Judith Grossman asked me to post this note as a follow-up to the golf tournament recap.
Wow! We are speechless when we think of all the hard work that went into making the Golf Tournament happen! Thank you to every organizer, every giver/sponsor, every volunteer and every player!!!!
So much is already happening down here through La Gaviota Blanca and the projects we are sponsoring and your support, especially to help fund the December outreach, will open even more doors in the community. We are expecting 150 kids between the ages of 5 and 11 to come for the Vacation Bible School that Threshold is bringing in December. Last year we had more than 50 kids receive Christ during this outreach and we are praying for that same kind of impact again this year. Please pray along with us for this!
In the meantime, the building that Threshold refurbished for us has hosted a bunch of outreach events for children and for youth in the past three months and the response within the community has been very positive. We are in that stage of building trust which is so crucial to the longterm success of a community ministry, especially with kids and youth. Because our town has a history of competitive and negative relations between churches, we are working very hard to help the community understand that this is a Christ-centered INDEPENDENT ministry that desires to work together in harmony with ALL the local churches.
One project that is helping us get this message across is Proyecto MORFO -- a project we have initiated that is designed to combat the most serious of social problems that confront our youth and children. Problems like drugs and alcohol, the sexual/commercial exploitation of children, the disintegration of the family, domestic violence and abuse of all kinds.
To that end we are planning workshops and trainings in partnership with Focus on the Family (Costa Rica) on a regular basis over the next year at La Gaviota Blanca's building in the center of town. We will also duplicate these workshops in Palomo, a small town with some of the most severe problems, just down the road and across the river from Orosi. In this way, we hope to host as many as 200 people at each workshop.
Topics for parents include: Raising Secure Children and Communication Between Parents and Children. For children we are planning to discuss Values in my Life and How to Make Good Decisions and for adolescents: How to be a Successful Youth, Developing My Identity, etc. We are also going to have prestentations on the prevention of drug abuse, how to respond when a child reports abuse and other topics regarding social risks and/or violence.
We currently have a youth group meeting in the building on Saturday nights and have recently been approached to open the building on Sunday afternoons for a kind of coffeehouse for the local youth -- a place to hangout and talk and play games, a place that is smoke, alcohol and drug free -- to be hosted by some Christian kids who have a heart to reach their friends.
All of these things are free to the community as the people here have very little, but of course, everything costs money! So we are extremely thankful that the Lord has laid this place on YOUR heart! The Golf Tournament will enable the team to come here in December to work alongside of 25-30 local youth who will build longterm relaionships with local kids. These seeds will be nurtured and they will grow and these lives will be transformed and this community will never be the same thanks to your commitment and generosity!
We hope to see many of you down here in OROSI one day soon!
With love from Rick and Judith
Wow! We are speechless when we think of all the hard work that went into making the Golf Tournament happen! Thank you to every organizer, every giver/sponsor, every volunteer and every player!!!!
So much is already happening down here through La Gaviota Blanca and the projects we are sponsoring and your support, especially to help fund the December outreach, will open even more doors in the community. We are expecting 150 kids between the ages of 5 and 11 to come for the Vacation Bible School that Threshold is bringing in December. Last year we had more than 50 kids receive Christ during this outreach and we are praying for that same kind of impact again this year. Please pray along with us for this!
In the meantime, the building that Threshold refurbished for us has hosted a bunch of outreach events for children and for youth in the past three months and the response within the community has been very positive. We are in that stage of building trust which is so crucial to the longterm success of a community ministry, especially with kids and youth. Because our town has a history of competitive and negative relations between churches, we are working very hard to help the community understand that this is a Christ-centered INDEPENDENT ministry that desires to work together in harmony with ALL the local churches.
One project that is helping us get this message across is Proyecto MORFO -- a project we have initiated that is designed to combat the most serious of social problems that confront our youth and children. Problems like drugs and alcohol, the sexual/commercial exploitation of children, the disintegration of the family, domestic violence and abuse of all kinds.
To that end we are planning workshops and trainings in partnership with Focus on the Family (Costa Rica) on a regular basis over the next year at La Gaviota Blanca's building in the center of town. We will also duplicate these workshops in Palomo, a small town with some of the most severe problems, just down the road and across the river from Orosi. In this way, we hope to host as many as 200 people at each workshop.
Topics for parents include: Raising Secure Children and Communication Between Parents and Children. For children we are planning to discuss Values in my Life and How to Make Good Decisions and for adolescents: How to be a Successful Youth, Developing My Identity, etc. We are also going to have prestentations on the prevention of drug abuse, how to respond when a child reports abuse and other topics regarding social risks and/or violence.
We currently have a youth group meeting in the building on Saturday nights and have recently been approached to open the building on Sunday afternoons for a kind of coffeehouse for the local youth -- a place to hangout and talk and play games, a place that is smoke, alcohol and drug free -- to be hosted by some Christian kids who have a heart to reach their friends.
All of these things are free to the community as the people here have very little, but of course, everything costs money! So we are extremely thankful that the Lord has laid this place on YOUR heart! The Golf Tournament will enable the team to come here in December to work alongside of 25-30 local youth who will build longterm relaionships with local kids. These seeds will be nurtured and they will grow and these lives will be transformed and this community will never be the same thanks to your commitment and generosity!
We hope to see many of you down here in OROSI one day soon!
With love from Rick and Judith
Friday, November 14, 2008
Threshold Golf Tournament 2008
On Tuesday, November 11, we held the first annual Threshold Mission Teams Golf Tournament at Firethorne Country Club in Charlotte (well, Marvin if you want to be exact). God gave us an absolutely gorgeous day for golfing, and 79 players and approximately 20 volunteers came out to enjoy the weather, connect with friends, and provide financial support for Threshold's outreach efforts in the US and Costa Rica.
The final numbers won't be available for a few more days, but it looks like the profit from the event will be between $13,000 and $15,000! Many thanks to everyone who played, sponsored a team, donated prizes, donated money through sponsorship, or volunteered at the tournament. And thank you, Lord, for meeting our needs in such a mighty way! We will use what you've provided to change lives and bring others to Your Kingdom.
So you can get a feel for how great the day was, here's a slideshow with some highlights. Click the arrow to play it. Or, you can link to the album here.
Key Players (no pun intended)
Jeff and Kristen Lewis, along with Van Pennington, did an absolutely awesome job with the planning, logistics, and execution for the tournament. If there were any glitches, I sure didn't see them. I know the planning consumed huge chunks of their time for more than a month now, and the results were top-notch--particularly in the details. Anybody who has ever run a golf tournament will probably tell you that putting together an effective one generally takes six to twelve months. Jeff and Kristen really pulled this all together in about five weeks. Absolutely phenomenal job, you guys!
Also, I would be utterly remiss if I didn't give a huge shout out and massive thank-you to the man who made this all possible. Well, yeah, God . . . that's a given. But I'm referring to Howard Nifong. Howard and his wife Barbara essentially gave Threshold the Firethorne Country Club and its resources for the entire day. Staff, grounds, carts, range balls, etc. Gratis. And as if that weren't enough, Howard also donated several full rounds of golf to the winners, along with golf accessories and Firethorne apparel to players as prizes.
Thank you, Howard. It was great working with you in Orosi back in August, and my respect and admiration for your caring and generosity has grown immensely since then. May the Lord bless you for your kind heart and giving spirit.
Many thanks also to Beckie and Brian Johnston, owners of the Chick-fil-A at Stonecrest. They provided delicious lunches for every player and volunteer at the tournament. I can attest to just how delicious those lunches were--especially the brownies.
Players
At 11 a.m. sharp, twenty teams in forty carts headed for the tees. As they came off the first and ninth greens, we captured the moment for posterity.Before leaving for the day, each player received a team photo, compliments of Jeff and Kristen Lewis.
FYI, I would strongly recommend Jeff and Kristen's Epson PictureMate Personal Photo Printer, which they also took to Costa Rica for last December's VBS. It chugged through 80 4x6 photos, all of which looked store-quality. And it was super easy to use and relatively inexpensive (although I don't know about the cost of ink and photo paper). You can use either compact flash (CF) or secure digital (SD) cards--no computer required. I've never been a huge fan of home-printed photos, but this device could change my mind.
Sorry . . . Gadget Guy almost took over the post there for a minute, but I reined him back in. Let's continue.
Winners
As they say in grade school, "everyone who played was a winner." However, four teams actually walked away with prizes.Low Gross
Low gross is based on the team's score before any adjustments for its golf handicap. For those unfamiliar with golf handicap, Wikipedia defines it this way:A golf handicap is a numerical measure of an amateur golfer's playing ability. It can be used to calculate a net score from the number of strokes actually played, thus allowing players of different proficiency to play against each other on somewhat equal terms. Handicaps are administered by golf clubs or national golf associations. Exact rules relating to handicaps can vary from country to country.
Essentially, low gross is the team that shot the best score.
- First Place: Howard Nifong, Keith Bell, Dave Morris, and Harold Barnes
- Second Place: John Blackwell, Bobby Martin, Joe Swinford, and Mark Thomas
Low Net
Low net is based on the team's score after adjusting for its golf handicap. Maybe think of this as the team that played to the best of its ability, even if they weren't the best golfers on the course.- First Place:John Blackwell, Bobby Martin, Joe Swinford, and Mark Thomas
- Second Place:Bill Francischiello, Mark Francischiello, and Ed Sedlacek
Sponsors
We were blessed with some fantastic sponsors for this event.- Carmel Trading Company
- Cedarhill Farm
- Century Contractors
- Charlotte Cigars & Collectibles/Charlie's Cigars
- Chick-fil-a at Stonecrest
- ComRep, Inc.
- Cornerstone Ear Nose & Throat
- Evergreen Investments
- Firethorne Country Club
- Glasscock Family Dentistry
- Halas Arborists
- Mario's Pizza
- McClancy Seasonings
- Picone Insurance Agency
- Powertech
- Suntrust Mortgage
- Switchin' Kitchens
- Thompson-Smith Realty
- Tolar, Bly, & Associates, CPA, PLLC
- Weekley Lawn & Lanscape
"Bring the whole tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. Test me in this," says the LORD Almighty, "and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." (Malachi 3:10 NIV)
Saturday, October 11, 2008
Fore! There's a Golf Tourney Coming Your Way
We're making plans for December's trip back to Costa Rica. And one of the things we're doing as a precursor is hosting a golf tournament at Firethorne Country Club on Tuesday, November 11 as a fundraiser.
Do you like to golf? Do you like to help support God's work? Then have we got the event for you!
Firethorne is an absolutely beautiful course. So go to thresholdgolf.com for more details and sign up to play. Or if you really want to help out, be a sponsor. All the details are on the site.
Even if you stink, you can still play. You can be in my foursome . . . just don't expect to see much of me. I'll be spending most of my time in the trees.
Do you like to golf? Do you like to help support God's work? Then have we got the event for you!
Firethorne is an absolutely beautiful course. So go to thresholdgolf.com for more details and sign up to play. Or if you really want to help out, be a sponsor. All the details are on the site.
Even if you stink, you can still play. You can be in my foursome . . . just don't expect to see much of me. I'll be spending most of my time in the trees.
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