Xmas gift bags for inmates

Every year God Behind Bars makes sure that each inmate at 'our' prisons gets a little gift. It was time again to 'stuff the bags'. Fun times!

Whole families came out to help!

The bags have candy, lotion, deodorant and lip balm

The WINNING table

Which was of course MY table! :)

These guys didn't even have a table

LOADS of bags. And that's just a couple hundred. 

I reckon she looks a little like Santa

Christmas party for inmates and their kids

So pretty much 3 weeks ago at a Starbucks a Christmas party was organised. That fact alone sounds scary, but since we are working closely together with God and his helpers it was pulled off. 

So on December 19th 2011 we were able to pick up inmates from Casa Grande (transitional housing) and provide them with 4 hours time with their kids. It was an awesome event. 

Some kids had been flown in for this event from Utah to be able to spend some time with Dad. 

Each Mum and Dad got to give 3 presents to each one of their kids thanks to the donations from people at Central's North East Campus (who also provided an 8 foot table FULL of desserts)

The inmates got to pick the gifts, which then were wrapped and then they got to give them to their kids. 

Here are some pictures of the night. Enjoy!

The toy donation room looked like Toys R Us on steroids.

Getting the room ready

Sound Check

I helped decorate this tree! BIG deal! Huge...
Just don't look at the back! :)

The first families coming in and getting something to eat.

Shopping for the kids!!!

Working on the Christmas Cards

Mountains of presents for each kid!

The family photo opp. 

I had to test it of course

So so cool to see this come together

Rain Drops Junior High

The Junior High Ministry at church puts on this awesome event each year: Breakaway Serve. It's a mix of camp and serving. 
So this year I got to go with my Junior High Group (8th grade girls) and serve others.

Part of the panel,
 getting asked questions about serving

 So on Friday night we started with just a 'couple' of us hanging at church (read: over 300 Junior High Kids)

The panel

There was a slam poet, worship and a panel (I was part of that. Pretty rat!)
















And then there was a time to be quiet. To listen to God, give Him room to speak. Just 20 minutes. So the bare numbers are: 300+ Junior High Kids and 20 min quietness. You might be surprised to hear that it worked! Here's a photo of that time. 

Getting ready for quiet time

Then we camped out at church. Boys upstairs (and I still maintain that the room probably need to be chemically treated to get the boys smell out of there) and the girls downstairs (once everyone was in their sleeping bag there was no room to stand anywhere anymore)

Aspiring super models! 

The next morning we got up and drove over to Foster Connect...


Say whaaaat? That's right, we got to serve Foster Connect, which is a part of YWAM I got to hang with my friends! 


You didn't know that serving could be so much fun eh? We took HEAPS of pictures, especially since we were sorting clothes and there was one photo op after another. I have a group of super models after all! 


Don't worry, we totally got the job done in time! 

Having fun whilst sorting

So we sorted clothes and toys for the first half of the day... And let me tell ya, my girls RULE! 


They were just going for it the whole time. Sometimes when things got a little boring and they seemed ready to quit I just had to throw a ridiculous outfit into their direction and take a picture and all was well with the world again! 




The theme of Breakaway serve this year was raindrops. The idea behind it is that if we all do our part (be a rain drop), together we can create a Tsunami. 

Dropping some leftover stuff
at Good Will

So even though sometimes we feel very unimportant and can't imagine how our tiny little contribution can change anything, that's when God takes it and together with Him we become this Tsunami of servants that will change the world. 

Stuffing bags

 For the second half of the day we got to stuff bags for Central's North East Campus. I don't even know how many bags we got to stuff... Couple thousand I'd say. And man, these girls wanted to win some speed competition that I didn't know was happening. They were stuffing these bags like there was some prize money at the end of it. 

Stuffing Bags

The picture obviously doesn't do the speed justice. Let's just say they were fast! 

A 'couple' of kids came to Breakaway serve

Germany trip - PICTURES!!!! :)

Pictures from the trip to Germany..

Amsterdam - such a fun city

Last month I got to go to Germany and I just wanted to quickly post a few pictures of my trip...
On the way there I had an 8 hour layover in Amsterdam, which I of course used to explore the city.. So so cool! :)

In Bad Laer

My Mum was turning 70, so to celebrate her birthday (and to get away for a few days) she treated herself (and me) to 2 nights in a hotel that we used to visit all the time when I was little. It's very pretty in 'Bad Laer', even though it was freezing.

Near my Mums house -
about 2 minutes away from 'if I'd live here,
 I'd have to shoot myself in the foot'

It's no secret that I am no fan of the town my Mum lives in these days.... This photo shows you what's around... NOTHING.

Dear Brother, god daughter and sis in law

Hanging with 'Dear Brother'. Love that family! Helps that they live in an area I actually like. :)

Birthday party at the Chinese Restaurant

My Mum had invited her friends and family to celebrate her 70th at her favourite Chines Restaurant! Oh yeah, it's THAT good. 
Everyone came and had a great time. It was nice catching up with some of my family that I hadn't seen in years... Like 6 years or something! Ha! So weird. 

Building a tower

I got to visit some of my friends while I was there.... Sometimes that meant 4 hour train trips there, 3 hours with my friends and 4 hour train trips back! They call my crazy. No self respecting, frugal, environmentally conscious German does that. I do... It's worth it!

Raclette Dinner set up...
Halfway there! :)

My friends decided we should have dinner... A Raclette Dinner! OMG. So good. And their house is amazing and always makes me feel right at home. I was very tempted to spend the night. But I didn't.... Left at one am instead! :)

Haha, the 'weird' family! :)

Got to hang with my best friend and her fam. TWICE! Such a blessing! Good times. See picture.. 

Train station

This picture was only taken for my American friends who apparently LOVE trains! (SHELDON!) They are really not THAT exciting. Just a mode of transport. 

Christmas tree in my city

 Before I flew out I decided to stop for a couple hours on the way in 'my' city... the place I hung out at, place I Looooove! :) It was decorated for Christmas! 

Some huge traditional Christmas thing.
Wouldn't know the name right now