Tool Time

Our mission trip to Mexico is approaching fast! We have four weeks until our team will be building a home for a family in Mexico. We’ve come along way since our first staff meeting where the mission trip was dreamed into reality. Over the past five months we’ve been preparing our team to enter another culture, lovingly holding the students and staff to the expectations to go on the trip, and faithfully raising funds. So many people have helped us along the road leading up to Mexico and now we’re in the stages of gearing up for the trip, literally. One of the unique aspects, and I think one of the coolest, about this trip is unlike most houses here in the US, the house we build in Mexico will be done without power tools. We’ll be mixing our own cement, our best friends will be our hammers, and I saw on our list we need a sand sifter (that should be fun). Given this, we have to bring our own tools to Mexico. If you know of anyone or you yourself would like to help, we are starting to collect the tools necessary to build the house. Attached in the following link is our building manual and on page 26 is the tool inventory list. If you have a tool on that list and are able to part ways with it for a week it will be put to good use with the Tacoma Rescue Mission Youth program in Mexico. Thank you so much for your help and please continue to pray for everyone involved in the mission trip. http://mumbles.amorhq.net/build/single.pdf

Growth!

During the last couple of days, I have been helping some of our 5th grade students with their big Science Fair Projects at the Afterschool Program at Tyler Square. It's been a lot of fun, and I love seeing the kids' creativity. With one student in particular, we were experimenting with flowers to see how their growth would be affected by different liquids that we used on them over the span of a week. The different liquids we used were water, milk, and vinegar. Below is a picture of the new, spry, and still-healthy flowers on the first day that we got them.



Then we watered one flower with water, one flower with milk, and the last flower with vinegar.



The vinegar smelled so bad! We plugged our noses...



By Day 2, we could already see a change! You can see in the picture below that the flower on the far left already began to wilt within 24 hours of our first watering session. Can you guess which liquid we used on that flower?



If you said vinegar, you are correct! Vinegar is acidic, and in this case the vinegar was so acidic that it made the environment of the soil nonconducive for this flower's growth, and so it began to die. This flower not only began to die, but it smelled and looked bad too. The other two flowers that were given water and milk, however, look healthy and beautiful. They were in conditions that helped them grow, and it showed.

This experiment made me think about what we "feed" ourselves as people. Even further, it made me think about what the Youth Program feeds the youth. If we don't feed and nourish ourselves mentally, spiritually, or even literally with the right "food," then our bodies and our states of mind show the effects.

Our mission statement within the Youth Program is to "Foster a safe environment that empowers all kids to grow academically, socially, and spiritually through the love of Jesus Christ." Essentially, we hope that what we "feed" the kids at the Youth Program helps them to grow and transform. We hope that what we do here helps the kids to lead healthy, productive lives that bear fruit. With the help of good volunteers and a caring staff, I think we do a good job. But really, we can't do any job at all without the help of the all-good and all-loving Father, whose hands must be in all we do if we want to succeed.

If you feel called to support the growth of the kids here in the Youth Program, one of the first things you could do for us is pray! If you have time that you can pour into these kids, you can also volunteer during the Afterschool Program or become a mentor. Let us know if you are interested in helping! It is an opportunity for you to grow and transform alongside these kids...I know that I as a staff member have definitely grown and learned a lot. The Tacoma Rescue Mission is a good environment for everyone involved to grow and transform.

Bootstraps & Bullet dodging

Have you ever thought about why you are where you are in life?
Did you really pull yourself up by your bootstraps?
Do you really believe that you earned everything you have?
C'mon.
You might immediately in your mind agree with me, but does your lifestyle and actions follow suit with your mind?
Whether you feel good about where you're at in life or not, you did not get there by yourself, there were many people actively involved.

If you're anything like me, I'm guessing someone influential in your life helped you to dodge some serious bullets.
If you're anything like me, I'm guessing there was someone or a combination of someones who poured into you.
If you're anything like me, these influential people or mentors are one of the main reasons I do the work I do.
If you're anything like me it was a coach, a teacher, a grandma, a pastor, or a mentor.

Think back on where your life would be without a single stable mentor, teacher, coach, aunt/uncle, or grandparent...We at the Tacoma Rescue Mission work with many kids without these, and if you feel led to be an influence in a kid's life by being a mentor, please listen to that pull on your heart and let us know!
Sincerely,
~James
(253) 627-4308
jamesl@trm.org

Silent Auction Success!

Thank you to everyone who attended the Mexico Mission Trip Silent Auction! It was very successful, and we owe a lot of our success to the generous volunteers and attendees who were there. I think everyone had a lot of fun getting into bidding wars, and I think many people walked away with at least one thing that they wanted. I know the Mexico Mission Trip Team definitely walked away with a prize--we are now $2,000 closer to Mexico! God has blessed this trip in amazing and miraculous ways. I'm so excited to see what He has planned for us.  

This is the before picture, when the chips and the salsa were still pristine and untouched. 

First raffle! The winner got a dozen cupcakes from downtown Tacoma's Hello Cupcake! YUM! Delicious goodness!

We had some beautiful performances by guest vocalists and guitarists. They blew me away!

I really enjoyed James' motivational talk about "weight." He wasn't talking about the weight we carry on our thighs and around our midsection, but about the weight that we carry on our shoulders. He focused particularly on the weight our teenagers who are going to Mexico carry on their shoulders everyday. The teenagers motivate him, he said, because they have had to carry so much weight their entire lives, and they have had to figure out ways to cope with  carrying all of that pressure and weight. 

Everyone's putting down their competing bids with only a couple of minutes left!

Two sharply-dressed members of the Mexico Mission Trip Team! Don't they look ready to serve?

Everyone's enjoying their delicious food (enchilada casserole) made by the awesome New Life Square Kitchen, and the food was made even better because it was served by the lovely New Life Program Ladies. 

Thank you all for your support! We will continue to keep you updated on our trip. 

Hello from the TRM Youth Program!

We had an exciting week last week, and this next week will only continue to bring more bustle and excitement! We have had a lot going on!

Last week, we took a group of younger kids to Pump It Up, a huge building filled with inflatable bounce houses--it is the perfect place for kids to run around, use all of that pent-up energy, and get some exercise all while have a lot of fun! We also got to make crafts. We painted pots, and the kids did a beautiful job. They were such artists, and they were so focused too--especially after getting so tired out with bouncing around for an hour and a half.

Last week we also had our monthly Teen Late Night, and we did another (upon much request) Fear Factor theme, except this time we really stepped it up a notch. With the help of some great volunteers, we were able to do teammwork challenges, physical challenges, and food challenges. The kids really stepped up to the plate! They ate raw eggs, unknown mixtures of things, and they all really worked together and had good attitudes. It was a blast! Unfortunately, those few who attempted the gallon challenge (drinking a gallon of milk in an hour) found themselves visiting the bathroom probably more often than they had wanted.

Now, this Friday, we have another really exciting event that is much more open to the public, so we hope you are able to come! It is a Silent Auction being held at Trinity Church by the Tacoma Mall, and it is at 5:30 pm. Tickets cost $20, and it includes entrance, dinner, and the night's musical entertainment (singing and acoustic guitar). All of the proceeds from this event will go directly to our teen's mission trip down to Mexico, the purpose of which is to glorify God by building a house for a homeless family in the area of Tijuana. We hope you can come! If you want more information, you can call Krista Dunham at 435-757-1673.

There are always exciting things happening around the Youth Department here...we hope you can be a part of them!