More pictures coming soon.

Our Newsletter is finally up and at more than 17 pages worth it is a chunk of reading, which means it was a chunk of writing and since Paul is an art major and dyslexic and a bit ADHD, please don't mind the errors:) but DO enjoy the adventures. We will have more pictures and postings up soon so stay in touch.

Blessings,

Hannah and Paul Messenger.

If you are wondering why it is HPMessenger and not PHMessenger, it is because Paul is gentleman;) and wanted to let Hannah be First!!

Happy holidays merry christmas and happy new year from the Messengers

Our abbreviated Newsletter.

The Adventures of Hannah and Paul Messenger: Our Newsletter 2009

This is the abbreviated version, if you want the whole thing then let us know or view it on the internet.

(which you are at right now, so just scroll down more and enjoy!)

As we have decided to take on life together we have found it essential that in our many adventures, trust is a resonating theme. We would like to take a moment to sincerely thank all of you who supported us through the summer and beyond; whether that be through: Feeding us, praying for us, giving us gas money, hugs, encouragement etc… We would also like to give a special thank you to Alan and Becky Pickrel for their willingness to let us live with them and for helping us get on our feet and pursue our callings, seriously without them I don’t know how we could have done this. We truly believe that it is because of the family and community that God has provided for us that we can be equipped and effective in pursuing Gods call on our lives, to love. On June 13^th 2009 Paul Graduated from Southern Oregon University’s Masters of Arts in Teaching program with an endorsement in teaching fine Art to high school and middle school children. And this event was the kick off to the many adventure’s of Hannah and Paul.

As we set out this summer we had and developed some strategic goals. One goal we felt was important was to let the joy of our marriage be a light of hope to the people that we worked with. We feel that we effectibly achived that goal and more with our time at Kidder Creek. We also had the privilege of volunteering with Royal Family Kids Camp, an organization that Paul has been working with for more than 7 years. The Mission of RFKC is to create positive memories for abused and neglected children ages 7-11, in a one-week camp experience. Together we believe that the Lord has used our hearts, time and words to etch loving memories in the lives of the awesome yet hurting children who attended.

We are not writing this to make our ego’s swell or to beg people for money, we just believe that there is something within both of us that has grown exponentially over the past few years and we believe that “something” can bring hope and joy to the others we encounter in the days and years to come. God’s provision has not once failed to prove itself to us since even before our marriage began. After spending a whole summer volunteering at youth summer camps, we needed some good camping gear. God knew this, and so we were rewarded for doing his work with a $1000.00 gift card to Sportsman’s Warehouse, which is great, but the best reward is being close to His heart; everything else just seems to fall into place.

For over four years now Paul has volunteered to mentor the youth at New Song church in Medford. While continuing to develop those relationships, on Friday nights, we find ourselves reaching local youth by serving with an event called ‘Ignite.’ In addition to Ignite we are also greatly involved with ‘The Revolution’ (a venue in Ashland). [the] Rev. has been a growing passion of ours for the past 3 years. We have become involved to the point now of being key members of it’s development into a potential full fledged business.

“I am in the process of achieving my bachelor’s degree in Business. I envision this degree to be a tool toward our shared passion for developing a ministry to communities and artists alike called the Warehouse.”- Hannah ‘The Warehouse’ will be: a creative furnace for youth of various backgrounds to be equipped with the tools and surrounded by community to pursue their passions, specifically music and the arts.

As we continue to pursue our passions and dreams we know that we will have to make sacrifices and that it wont all be fun and fancy free; but we look forward with hope that our lives have not and will not be in vain. In Matthew, God has revealed to us His truth and challenges us to trust Him with our lives. "Look at the birds. They don’t plant or harvest or store food in barns, for your heavenly Father feeds them. And aren’t you far more valuable to him than they are?" Lastly we will continue to let trust be the overarching theme for us in this season of our lives and for the legacy that He has called us to. May you all be greatly blessed and encouraged as we continue to pursue our dreams with passion and love.

Trust 1.0

Trust: As we have decided to take on life together we have found it essential that in our many adventures, trust is a resonating theme. The first thing we would like to note is in the realm of trust, is the concept of “calling.” We have had a recent revelation about this, in that, we can look at countless examples in our created world where God has revealed is ability to guide his creation - let alone his children. The concept of innateness, or the innate ability for someone or something to complete a complex task with little or no training fascinates both Hannah and I and reveals to us that there is something inside of all of Gods creation that science cannot explain… yet cannot deny it’s existence. There is a force inside that provides us with the skills to pursue an internal need/passion. For Hannah and I in this past year, or so, we have strived to not only listen to and look for that force which propels us forward and wakes us up in the morning , but also we are learning to trust in it.

We can look back and see how, as we trusted the Lord’s leading we have been drawn to a variety of passions:

from youth ministry to preparing meals with good friends, creating art to collecting antiques, education to family, Africa, music etc… We will continue to step out in trust and see where what adventures the lord will lead us on next, but for now here is a recap of the ones we’ve been on so far!

Thank you from the bottom of our hearts (not sure why the bottom though:)

Thank you: We would like to take a moment to sincerely thank all of you who supported us through the summer and beyond; whether that be through: Feeding us, praying for us, giving us gas money, hugs, encouragement etc… We would also like to give a special thank you to Alan and Becky Pickrel for being willing to let us live with you and for helping us get on our feet and pursue our callings, seriously without you I don’t know how we could have done this. We truly believe that it is because of the family and community that God has provided for us that we can be equipped and effective in pursuing Gods call on our lives, to love.*

*Disclaimer: If you don’t understand or believe in the “God factor” of our lives, that’s ok, we obviously still love you and thank you so much for your support and acceptance of what we believe in. Thank you for your enduring help and encouragement and may He reveal His love to you with grace and hope through our lives. It is never our heart or desire to force our beliefs on anyone, its just that we can’t help but talk about it.

I'z dun Graumated!

Graduation: On June 13^th 2009 Paul Graduated from Southern Oregon University’s Masters of Arts in Teaching program with an endorsement in teaching fine Art to high school and middle school children. He graduated magna cum laude and with high regard from his professors for being passionate and creative. After the reality of school finally being over, for Paul anyway, set in our summer was off and running with a explosion of joy and hope.

Camp (Kidder Creek)

Camp: As we set

out this summer we had and developed some strategic goals for our time. One goal that we felt was important, was to let the joy of our marriage be a light of hope to the people that we worked with.

Knowing that an average of more that half of American marriages end in divorce or have horrible relationships, we wanted (and want) our marriage to be a beacon of hope. Although we understand that we have only been married for a year, we also understand that Gods love is the foundation of our marriage and as long as we both stay rooted deep in his love we hope to lead a legacy for our generation that marriage can be an amazing adventure and not a burden.

Our main goal in camp ministry this year was; to bring kids into a new or deeper understanding of Gods love and desire to be their Father/brother/friend/ and especially savior. To bring them Joy, challenge them and equip them with tools to further develop their relationship with Christ. Although it is easy to get caught up in the hype and excitement of the camp atmosphere we wanted our campers to leave with something more than just having had fun. I didn’t realize just how well we had accomplished that goal until I received some letters from some campers who took the time to write Hannah and I and let us know what specifically changed in their lives from their time at camp. The response I will share is from a student that we worked with in the ECHO program at Kidder Creek which is designed to be the next step at camp for teens who were willing to not only have fun, but to also serve and grow deeper in relationship with God. I believe that this student’s response is clearly and accurately speaks to the amazing opportunity we had in letting God use us this summer to transform the lives of young people.

This letter below is a direct inscription of a students ability to reflect on his/her experience at camp.

“Camp has not been nearly as hilarious and monster ninja without you guys but has continued to be and incredible experience. I have been thinking about the whole molting process and growing/maturing as spiritual beings, (a message that Paul gave based on a vision of a bald eagles transformation process from adolescence to adulthood) and it has been something I have been wrestling with for a while now, but I finally feel like I‘ve discovered what has been holding me back. All this time I have been searching for what I needed to fix about myself or how I could make myself better. Finally I have come to the realization that all this weight I feel pulling me down is not the imperfect things about me I must remove, but my baggage has been my inability to accept that imperfection. Because I wanted to be perfect so bad and have been relying on my own strength, all my humanly imperfections have been amplified and prevented me from effectively doing God’s will. Hopefully now I can move on to what God has planned for me to the best of my ability and accept that it is not my place to be perfect, but Gods. I don’t believe I would have come to this place if it was not for you and I thank you and God so much for that.” – Anonymous.

Another key goal that we felt called to accomplish was; to be an encouragement and support for the counselors and staff that we worked with. Being a veteran of camp ministry Paul knows many of the challenges it provides and together we felt led to be more than co-workers with the young adults at the camps but also take them aside in times of need and support them.

Personally found great joy when we were able to pull a young man aside one day when he was at a breaking point in his personal life and let God use us to speak strength and hope into his life. Specifically, Paul felt led while praying for him to step behind him and prophetically pull out the spiritual “arrows” that were stuck in his back. Although he felt ridiculous at fist for doing this, while he was making this gesture, with her eyes closed, Hannah began to tell the young man that God had equipped him with armor to protect his heart from the arrows of the enemy! Simultaneously the other leader that was praying with us got a vision, also with her eyes closed, of him running into battle as a soldier in full armor. Not only was this experience a supernatural breakthrough for the young man, but it left us all with jaws slacked in awe of how God still, today, uses His people to speak His truth in love.

Mrs. Goria

Mrs. Goria: When Paul started attending College in Ashland it wasn’t more than a week before he met one of his “R.A.’s - Resident Assistants” an amazing, encouraging and passionate young man named Andrew Goria. (Now I know that the title of this chapter is MRS. Goria, don’t worry he didn’t get a sex change, just wait and it will all be explained) Andrew and Paul have shared many cherished memories over the past 4ish years. From being in a “metal-core” band together with their dear friend Mark Lubbers (now living in Ventura) to adopting Hannah as their “little sister,” working at the Revolution in Ashland and countless other endeavors and adventures. Andrew moved back to his home town, (Portland) shortly after graduating to pursue his calling to be a pastor and began attending seminary. So here is how this story goes from there: Andrew was Paul’s R.A. and then Paul was Hannah’s R.A. and then later Hannah became Karen-Rose Anderson’s R.A. and it was during the time that Hannah was an R.A. that a phone call was made that changed Andrew’s life forever. One night while Paul was visiting Hannah and Karen-Rose while doing some homework, his good friend Andrew called, but being overwhelmed with a pressing paper he handed the phone to Karen-Rose, whom Andrew had never met before, and more than a half an hour later they were still chatting, we knew something was up. Needless to say that little phone conversation led two little love birds down the road to marriage, a marriage that we were undoubtedly invited to this summer. On July 11^th 2009 Mrs. Karen-Rose Goria started a new chapter of her life in Wilsonville Oregon as an interim Pastors wife/ Nursing student and now the world is in big trouble in a good way.

RFKC.

RFKC: Royal Family Kids Camp is an organization that has been changing children’s lives for over 20 years. This year alone over 6,586 campers were able to attend a camp in their area and there are over 164 camps nationwide. The Mission of RFKC is to Create positive memories for abused and neglected children ages 7-11, in a one-week camp experience. If you would like more information about this organization please visit (www.rfkc.org) or feel free to ask us about our service with them.

This year specifically we can look back at the way that the relationships we have developed with the children and staff last year have left lasting positive memories in their hearts. When the children first show up at the beautiful camp nestled in the gorgeous Southern Oregon wilderness the first thing they see is over twenty smiling faces and open arms ready to develop healthy relationships and memories for a week of fun and adventure. Paul has been working with RFKC for over 7 years now and it has left a great burden on his heart to reach out to the abandoned, abused and rejected in our community. The past three years working at RFKC Southern Oregon Paul has had the privilege of volunteering as the dean of men and the “coach.” These two positions end up being on opposite ends of the spectrum but are crucial to the camp’s success. Last year, 2008, was Hannah’s first year working with RFKC as “nurse Hannah” but she has returned this year as the drama coordinator and a fireball of joy and love for these hurting children. Together we believe that the Lord has used our hearts, time and words to etch loving memories in the lives of the awesome yet hurting children who attended.

Anniversary. YAY!

Anniversary: August 22 2009. Here we are at a crucial mile marker of our lives, looking back now at the amazing and challenging year that the Lord has released us into. Looking forward to the year ahead of us, a year of uncertainty and anticipation. We have heard from many people that our marriage is an encouragement to them and we believe that to be true of ourselves because we continually see again and again that it is not happenstance that we have been brought together and are being knit together. From our quarks to our passions, our weaknesses to talents, we are quite the duo. Some have likened us to Mutt and Jeff for our unique sense of humor and awkward way of interacting and loving each other. Either way we are blessed to have one another and we long to leave a legacy for our great grandchildren and following the advice of our parents we plan to leave this world better than we found it. It is our hope and goal to establish a legacy that leads us to be producing this newsletter in the first place. We are not writing this to make our ego’s swell or to beg people for money, we just believe that there is something within both of us that has grown exponentially over the past few years and we believe that “something” can bring hope and joy to the others we encounter in the days and years to come.

TomFest= Dirt+Music+Awesome

TomFest: 4 days, 4 stages and over 120 bands! ‘Founded in 1995, TomFest began as an alternative to other music festivals to provide an outlet for Christian indie and alternative bands and their fans to have the freedom to Worship Christ without boundaries. Through the years TomFest has given stage time to genres and bands that other fests would barely acknowledge and an outlet for expression of faith. Over the past decade we've had everything from hardcore and metal to zydeco and folk. We here at TomFest strive to give you, the music lover, a place to express yourself, worship, commune with like-minded people and have the opportunity to see dozens of bands in a safe, familiar environment.’

That is the mission and the jest of what TomFest is about. For us it was a peek into our future while tapping into our past and fully enjoying our present. TomFest brought some of our most favorite things together in one place: Family, friends, fellowship, camping, BBQ, art, worship, music, amazing bands, dirt, ministry, vision, workshops, God’s word, and the list could go on. Some of the bands that impacted us the most were as follows: Sleeping Giant, For Today, White Collar Sideshow, the Neverclaim, Blessed by a Broken Heart, and a Plea for Purging just to name a few. The members - and especially leaders - of these bands are taking radical steps to reach the lost and hurting, and to encourage others to reach out and live their lives with purpose. The words they sing, speak or scream from stage still resonate in our hearts and minds motivating us to pursue our goals and to live our lives with passion. We believe that these bands are producing more than just sounds in the air but that they are releasing power and vision to our generation. The style of music that these bands produce is far from what most people consider enjoyable but it is the heart behind the music that we love the most; just look at some of the photos from their sets. The people in the crowd aren’t raising their hands and falling to their knees because of how cool the band is, they are encountering God in a mighty and personal way, captivated and completely abandoned.

This is where my brother would say, “Go team God!”

Needless to say we were blessed to not only attend this event, but to be apart of because the leader of ‘the Revolution’ played a key role in the production of TomFest (thanks Sasha) and we got to join in on the fun because she is awesome.

[the] Revolution

[The] Rev: Speaking of the Revolution, for those of you who don’t know, it’s an amazing little venue in Ashland that has been supporting bands and building community for over ten years now. It has been a growing passion of ours for the past 3 years. We have become involved to the point now of being key members of it’s development into a potential full fledged business. In the future, we have visions that will lead into further developments which will in turn lead into a network of venues with a similar vision. We have been surprised to find out that there are a handful of people who share this vision with us and we are beginning to build relationship with them. In the past six months, we’ve taken this vision a lot more seriously, no longer just talking about it, but actually developing it into something tangible. There will be more information about this adventure as it unfolds, but for now its all “top-secret.”

We just finished up our 3^rd annual Ugly Christmas Sweater Show. We featured some local artists, opened up the coffee cart, set up a photo booth, and made a big party out of it. We even made a prize for the person who had the ugliest sweater according to the audience’s vote. As the years have gone by in doing this show, we have discovered that it has the potential to become a “big deal” in our local community. Events like this one have brought the most unlikely people/artists/musicians together and have been knitting our communities together right before our eyes. We both agree that this has been such an honor and a blessing to be a part of and we send out our thanks to everyone else who has played a part in building [the]Rev. Props again to Sasha Timmen for her willingness to trust us with the torch.

Ignite: Pro(vision)

Ignite: For over four years now Paul has volunteered to mentor the youth at New Song church in Medford. While continuing to develop those relationships, on Friday nights, we find ourselves reaching local youth by serving with at our youth focused event called ‘Ignite.’ Since about August, Richard and Sarah Larcombe – the associate pastors at New Song church – have taken this event under their wing. God has called them strongly to be leaders for this youth movement and they have been so obedient to Him with all they have done. Ignite is an event where youth encounter God, are equipped with tools, and are encouraged to pursue their dreams. We have become a lot more intentional about our rolls with Ignite. Paul has taken up being a leader specifically in worshiping with art, such as painting, drawing, journaling, ect. Many youth come to us with grateful hearts saying how they had no idea that they could worship God this way. They are learning that as they worship, they can also get to know God more too. “worship” for us has found its best definition from one of the youth: “worship is at its core an intimate interaction with God.” And from that definition I can see that our interactions with God aren’t and shouldn’t be reduced to just singing or reading the bible but an embracing of the many facets that God has allowed us to experience and encounter Him. I have taken on the role of musical worship and have been putting together songs from various artists and composing a unique set of songs for each night. She lets the Lord to lead which songs are chosen so that He can speak to the youth’s hearts while they worship; this method has worked unfailingly. At this point, CD worship is doing fine, but I’d like to see it grow into a group of youth musicians.

As leaders for Ignite, we were provided back in September with the opportunity to attend a conference for youth leaders in Redding, California through Bethel Church called ‘Outpouring.’ The majority of the youth leaders at New Song got to go fellowship with other youth leaders from around the nation… even the world. We listened to several speakers and attended a handful of workshops. Our time there was spent soaking in the presence of God and learning more from others and their experience with today’s youth and the type of generation that we’re working with. We left that conference feeling very blessed and equipped for the year to come, and while we were there, we were informed of the most wonderful news!

Several months ago, we were in Sportsman’s Warehouse to pick up Paul’s dad some more fishing gear. We crossed a table for an entry to win a one-thousand-dollar shopping spree at their store. with a piddly little prayer we dropped our info into the tub and went on with our day: God listens to piddly little prayers. We got a phone call while we were at the conference, on the other line was a Sportsman’s Warehouse employee with the news that we had won the one-thousand-dollar shopping spree! YAHOO!:)

God’s provision has not once failed to prove itself to us since even before our marriage began. After spending a whole summer volunteering at youth summer camps, we needed some good camping gear. God knew this, and getting rewarded for doing his work is great, but the best reward is being close to His heart; everything else just seems to fall into place. Others who want to be close to God’s heart have also blessed us with our living space – thank you so much, Alan and Becky! We were also gifted with a brand new car back in October of 2008 – we named her Edna. (We would like to say a special thank you to you, you know who you are;) Hannah is currently going to school full-time for no cost because her financial aid covers her entire tuition. Paul’s student loans are Income based, which means that in the next year, we owe nothing and his loans will not gain any interest. Even simple things such as the provision of the perfect parking spot have been given after a quick prayer. We are so thankful for what God has provided us so far in our less than two years of marriage! He is such a good provider, such a good father.

Challenge or a Season of Growth

Challenge or a Season of Growth: While at the conference in Redding one of the speakers mentioned a dichotomy that he faced, and how it seems to encompass his life of chasing his dream. At first it was just a good saying but now it is clear exactly what he was talking about. He said “the more difficult and challenging something is and the more sacrifice you have to make for your dream to come true; then the more rewarding, fulfilling and valuable it is.” Also as a dear friend and mentor of Paul’s had warned us in the past, that after any great success or “mountain-top” experience, there would come a great challenge and opportunity for growth. (This part is where I-Paul would like to ramble on about research, statistics and the social construct of failure, but I will refrain for the time being. However it is true that we did hit our rough seas and a season of growth after returning from our summer experiences. (Thank you for the heads-up on this one Terry:) It was the let down period that we have all experience in our lives; physically, emotionally, spiritually, and mentally we were exhausted.

At times of deep growth and challenge there are three common ways that people react: we push through, we fall into a cycle of repetitious attempts to overcome the problem(s) or, we “fail” and rarely if ever try again. We had our times of sleeping in separate rooms, awkward silences, drawn out arguments, bouts of yelling and stomping about, there were tears and fear (but not ‘tears for fears’ an English pop rock duo from in the early 1980s). It is in times like these that the failures, pain and fears from our past can consume our entire lives, distorting everything we look at and causing us to doubt our foundations. But as was mentioned at the begging of this section; the greater the sacrifice, the greater the reward. There is no guarantee of happiness for our faith, there is no promise that we will not endure hardships. As we continue to pursue our passions and dreams we know that we will have to make sacrifices and that it wont all be fun and fancy free; but we look forward with hope that our lives have not and will not be in vain.

Trust 2.0

Trust: It is clear to us both in looking back that that God had His hand on us and that His grace went before us because we ended up succeeding and our marriage is all-the-more strengthened because of it. It was at the time of challenge that we were tempted to discard that “force” inside of us and settle for the mediocre, but that doesn’t seem to be an option for us, the everyday American lifestyle is horribly uncomfortable for us to maintain and therefore we persevere and continue to pursue our passions. We don’t say this to look down our noses at others, and we are sorry if you feel that is what we are doing, but “entertainment” and common leisure activities that plague this society are like wearing concrete shoes and trying to run a marathon for us. Again it is not with pride but with humility that we believe that we are called to accomplish some amazing goals and to experience some incredible things and we don’t want to sacrifice that for anything less.

During our time of challenge and growth our trust in the call on our life was made even more clear. It seems to me that when we are overwhelmed with the monotonous tasks of everyday life, our passions are not stifled but instead the flame of our passions burns even brighter. When times in our life seem difficult and depression attempts to drag us down there is a grace for us to trust. During the times that we cannot see or feel the presence of God is when our trust in his existence is most necessary.

Family

Family: We love our families! We want thank all of you for your support and encouragement, challenges and prayers. Whether you claim us as your family or if your stuck to us because of genetics or guardianship we love you!

Art de Paul

Art, well Paul’s anyway, Hannah’s is later: Sometimes it is hard to discern between a vice and a passion, somewhere in between the two is my art. There is a symbiotic relationship that I have with what I create, (not in a creepy way where my art and I share clothes or anything.) In a sense, art for me is a motivation, and a purpose for living. Art is something that I love to create and without me creating it, it doesn’t exist. I do not claim to be the next Picasso and I also don’t create paintings to make money, I do it because like a number of the things mentioned in this newsletter, it is a passion. Over this past year or so I have taken my art making more seriously and focused more intently on its production. (although focusing on anything for a period of time for me can be challenging for me, thus proving even more how powerful art is in my life.)

I have began to not only increase the frequency of the art I make but also had a few gallery showings and even started a “website” through an artist community called ‘redbubble.’ As with most of the projects that Hannah and I are tackling at this time it is a work in progress but the hope is that it progresses. If you would like to see some of my work you can either visit my personal art blog at http://paulmessenger.blogspot.com/or you can go to http://www.redbubble.com/people/paulmessenger/art. If you would be interested in purchasing a work of art that is not listed on my redbubble but that you like please let me know, I would be ecstatic to start that process for you!

Wubete and Africa

Africa/Wubete: One evening, we were watching a documentary video on Paul’s laptop called: “a walk to beautiful.” It ended up revamping a deep excitement for Africa and their hearts for the people of that Nation. There was a girl in the movie that particularly touched both of our hearts. Her name is Wubete (pronounced ‘woo-bee-tee’). As a girl in Ethiopia, at the young age of 2 years, she was expected to carry about 150+ pounds of water several miles from the well to their village on a daily basis. Because of the lack of proper nutrition in this country, the women there are almost all very short and young looking. They do not get the needed amount of calories to fuel their bodies for the work that they do, so they almost always end up around four feet tall by the age of 18 and are incapable of delivering a child without terrible consequences reeking havoc on their bodies – and most of the time, the infants hurt from this too.

Wubete was only one of the several girls in this video that touched our hearts. We watched as the film developed into a story of hope and joy for each of the girls. It gives us such great happiness to know that God has a plan for us in Africa and that our ministry there will be just as practical and life changing as the people who were helping these women and changing their lives.

Washington (don't worry we're not moving;)

Washington: Named after the famous George Washington and located in Oregon, Medford to be exact, is the Elementary school that Paul has been working at since late October. Hurray for income! Even more so an opportunity for Paul to use the gifts that God has given him to work with youth. His job title is “Positive Behavior Coach.” This position is more-or-less a dean or counselor however it is based around a “positive behavior model” which simply put means that the students who need extra help or encouragement to behave well are given the support they need.

The best example of how this model works is the classic scenario of a student running down the hallway; now there are a number of ways to stop this child from running.

A) I could set up a series of hidden trip wires in the hall; (That would stop them!! but also would be illegal and I would loose this awesome job I just got.)

B) I could yell at the student and chase them down the hall threatening them to stop or I’ll tell their mommy.

C) I could also tell the student that it hurts my feelings when they don’t listen to me and they should stop or I’ll cry.

D) I could blow a whistle and shout STOP with my hands out in the crossing guard pose.

E) OR I could simply give the directive that the student “please walk” (a positive command).

OH my gosh, you would be amazed at how well such a simple shift can impact a student in a positive way. All I can really say about this job is; at the end of the day I know that I am making a difference in the lives of the kids I come in contact with. That is what truly wakes me up in the morning, (well that and my alarm clock and the occasional jet that flies over, absurdly close to our house.) Honestly I didn’t know how I would handle working with children that are literally ¼ of my size and age, and there are no benefits or teachers salary… but I LOVE it!

Han Made

Han Made: I was featured in one of [the] Revolution’s local artist showcases earlier this year. I played my nylon string guitar and did a short set of some original works. I also got to play this summer at Bernie’s house for her “Yard-Sellabration” – a neighborhood get-together of friends who make things and gather together to show each other what we can offer the world. I busted out with my kazoo and had everyone who was watching and listening use theirs to make a funny-sounding kazoo chorus to a song she wrote. Much fun!

Earlier this year, I was provided with the opportunity to get a ½ size Cello. It’s perfect, because it’s about the same size as my guitar, so it’s easy to manage. I have not been taking lessons, only looking up videos on the Internet on the technical things, like holding the bow, etc. Since this season has been so busy, it has been hard to make time to practice; this has been frustrating because I would love to develop my skills as a musician, but in order to do so, I need practice. I am very thankful for this busy season in my life, but I’m looking forward to being able to sacrifice more time toward my music and art/craft making in the future.

I have has also been taking to my sewing machine and making a few things; reusable hand-warmers, blankets, pillowcases, and patching up old jeans, among them. I have also fell in love with making fashionable head bands and combs to put in my hair. They have been so much fun to make and I would love to sell them. My favorites are made with lace, feathers, and silk flowers. If you would be interested in acquiring one of these goodies the let me know, because that means I get to make moreJ

Hannah’s Education

Hannah’s Education: I am in the process of achieving my bachelor’s degree in Business. I envision this degree to be a tool toward our shared passion for developing a ministry to communities and artists alike called the Warehouse. My final project for business computing class was putting together a business proposal in all kinds of formats; i.e. power point, Microsoft word, and excel. All kinds of graphs, charts, fliers, and slide shows were created in that process. I am looking forward to implementing this project for “real-life” purposes in proposing the vision to investors, grant-writers, and most importantly, the local community whom it will serve.

THE WAREHOUSE

The Warehouse: In October of this year I had the privilege of going to a concert in Redding and watching one of my all time favorite bands, “the David Crowder Band.’ The tickets were a graduation gift from our dear friend Sera Stymus (soon to be McComas: Congratulations sis!) This experience of viewing a one of the countless, literally 100’s of, concerts that I have seen leads me to our biggest goals together… THE WAREHOUSE. The WAREHOUSE proposal rough draft!

The Warehouse will be: a creative furnace for youth of various backgrounds to be equipped with the tools and surrounded by community to pursue their passions.

From music, to video production, to fine art, audio recording, lighting, creative writing etc... (In the future, culinary arts, theatre, photography, dance etc..) Our goal is to meet a need that is not effectively being met in the public school systems or cannot be provided by a child’s family. We will also to bring together a community of professionals who are passionate about their field and want to help others discover or refine that same joy. It would be open late and be a place of connecting, and gathering. The venue will be primarily supported by a coffee shope style dinner that will be a safe place for teens and young adults to interact and develop community.

These are the items that we are praying about specifically, and if you feel let to pray for us about as well we would love that! Before we move to phase TWO, promotion, (Phase one is brainstorming vision downloads from daddy) we are seeking guidance about the following items and some unlisted ones as well.

Is it supposed to be a non-profit, grants and donor based program?

Is it supposed to be a Business that receives its funding from revenue and donations?

Is it going to be an openly ‘Christian’ business/venue OR do we wish to appeal to a larger more diverse audience and be missionally minded? (not hiding our faith under a rock, but being tackful and relational about our approach to reveling God’s love and truth to the people of the Rogue Valley and surrounding areas.)

Do we start out with a larger goal and vision and pursue the big picture with a 3000 capacity building? or Do we start out small, say a corner shop with a small stage, and develop over a period of time?

What is the best location for the final product?

That’s basically it at this point! We will be formulating it more as we go, building and rebuilding ideas as God leads!

Thank you for hearing our dreams and we pray that God will reveal to you if and how we can see this come into being. The reality of this vision is that it is not our idea but we believe it is part of His destiny and call for our lives.

Prayers

Prayers: Please be praying for the following for us: Guidance in Hannah’s schooling. Our home in the future (preferably with property and out of town a bit.) Both of our families for various reasons. And ultimately for us to continue to pursue all that God has called us to with focus and fervor.