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Youth Group Super Bowl Party

Celebrating Our Homecoming Queen

Taylor Ouellet, daughter of Jim and Karen Cronn, was crowned Homecoming Queen of Tustin High School on Thursday, October 13. Taylor was selected by the teachers and administrators for this honor and elected by her peers at Tustin. Fifteen adults, teens and children were at the game to root for Taylor and celebrate with her family. Thanks be to God for this joyous occasion!

Reflections from Previous Mission Trip Participants

Ruth Schmalenberger

God has done a new thing here. He has made us a way in the wilderness, a river in the desert. For the first time in over 15 years, our youth group has gone on a mission trip. We wanted to go somewhere we had never been, to set aside our distractions and open our hearts to what God was calling us to do. Louisville may not seem particularly distant, and it probably does not cross most of our minds when we consider places where people need aid, but it is not only in foreign countries that we can do God’s work. The wilderness is everywhere; sometimes it is more difficult to see.

When we boarded the plane to Louisville, none of us knew what to expect. We understood that we were going to provide relief and assistance, but we had no idea who we would work with or what their stories would be. When we arrived, we were greeted by two other church groups and welcomed into the church that would be our home for the next week. Because we, like the other groups, had opened our hearts and minds to this new thing, we forgot the foreignness of our situation and were able to throw ourselves wholeheartedly into our work with Catholic Charities and the Kling Senior Center. We let God change us, transform us, and though we are back at home, resuming our lives, I believe that stayed with us.

Celia McGlinchey

Iniquities.  Webster’s dictionary defines iniquities as wickedness.  Psalm 130 tells us to hope in the Lord, for only He can redeem us from our iniquities.

On Monday evening of our mission trip, we visited Wayside Christian Mission. At Wayside, they help you turn your life around. It’s the place people go when they want a second chance, a chance to live their lives right.

But wayside isn’t just a rehabilitation center. It’s a home, a second chance, it's life. On our visit, we met a woman named Priscilla. She told us her story of how she came to be at Wayside. She had lost all 12 of her children to social services because of her addictions to alcohol and other drugs. The addictions had taken control of her life, thought she wouldn’t admit it. She said that at one point her addiction had gotten so bad, she sold her children's Christmas presents, just so she could get a fix. Finally, she came to terms with her addictions and sought professional help, but not before all of her children had been taken from her. She had hit bottom, the place that the psalmist called, “the depths.” 

She ended up at Wayside, where they have one single condition: you must either have a job or, be looking for a job, and be in some form of program to deal with your addictions. They say they do not give handouts, but hand-ups. The people at Wayside helped Priscilla bring her life to a different path. But it wasn’t just the amazing staff that accompanied Priscilla on her difficult journey. God was by her every step of the way. Thankfully, Priscilla's story has a happy ending. She was reunited with most of her children, and has been drug free for a long time. She uses her story as an example, an example of the amazing things God can do. She says that, if it weren’t for the Lord, and the love He gives us all, no matter how much we may mess up, she never would have made it as far as she has today.

Priscilla knows that God is always with her, just as He is with all of us. When you hit rock bottom, the only way to look is up, and there He'll be, hands outstretched, ready to lift you back up on your feet. No matter how bad our lives may be, we must always have faith in Him. Priscilla’s story is a living testimony that the words of Psalm 130 are true.  "Hope in the Lord! For with the Lord there is steadfast love, and with Him is great power to redeem. It is He who will redeem us from all our iniquities."

Deanna Patton

Ephesians 4:25-5:2

So then, putting away falsehood, let all of us speak the truth to our neighbors, for we are members of one another. Be angry but do not sin; do not let the sun go down on your anger, and do not make room for the devil. Thieves must give up stealing; rather let them labor and work honestly with their own hands, so as to have something to share with the needy. Let no evil talk come out of your mouths, but only what is useful for building up, as there is need, so that your words may give grace to those who hear. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God, with which you were marked with a seal for the day of redemption. Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you. Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children and live in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering of sacrifice to God.

“Sit down, darling” are the first words I heard when walking into the main room at the Kling Center. The Kling Center, a place for people ages 55 and up – most of them at or below the poverty line, welcomes people for fun, fellowship, and a warm meal. We went to be part of that fellowship for about a day and a half. In a sense, we were the thieves, normally unwilling to spend time with anyone other than family and friends. We gave up that state of mind to smile, talk, serve food, and play darts and pool with people that appreciated the company. One of the older men, Charles, having developed a love for waltzing throughout his life, was quite fond of the idea of having 6 girls to teach how to dance. For the first day, almost the whole time we were there, Ellen was the only one he danced with. With patience and determination to make this man’s day, Ellen learned a couple waltz moves. He said something about having that time to dance with volunteers throughout the summer made him feel “ten-feet tall”. And although waltzing is not on the list of activities that teens like to do these days, Ellen gave grace to Charles. We could tell the difference we made by just sitting down, talking, and listening to these people who had interesting stories to tell. One man remembers going to Disneyland the second year it was open for 5 dollars. Another man was a Tuskegee Airman. In general, these people were full of laughs and great senses of humor. In a way, they blessed us and showed us love, and much as we did them.  We now know we can be a blessing in people’s lives just by giving them a smile and a few hours, or even minutes, of our day. I know I needed that experience for that to really sink in and become real to me. There’s a good reason behind having heard “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” being said in church Sunday after Sunday. And now, when hearing those words, I’ll always look back at the amazing time we had loving others and doing God’s work in Louisville, Kentucky.

Ellen Greek

“So they remained for a long time, speaking boldly for the Lord, who bore witness to the word of his grace, granting signs and wonders to be done by their hands.” Acts 14:3.

In the short week that we spent in Louisville, Kentucky, we were not only able to perform many wonders with our hands, but we also experienced the amazing effects that we had on people in need. With the hands that God gave us, we were able to pack and deliver care packages for refugee families and to serve meals to grateful senior citizens. We were able to hold up a "Welcome to America" sign in the airport for Alli, a Kurdish refugee, just arriving from Iraq.  We used our hands to recognize and to play with underprivileged children at a Salvation Army.  Our hands also worked diligently to clean the apartment of Thar, a refugee suffering from Lou Gehrig’s Disease, and we worked with children at the Catholic Charities English Center to help teach English to refugee children.  But the greatest thing that our hands experienced that week was the gratitude of the people that we helped. Whether it was a hug or a simple pat on the back, it was incredible to see how the work we had done had really affected the lives of so many people.  Nothing else could ever have been so rewarding as that.  We learned this week that we are all the hands of God, and with our hands we can make a huge difference in the lives of God’s people.

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