Hey guys "how are you"?  "How are you" is what every kid in the slums say to you when you walk by them!  Don't know where it comes from or why, but you go by a group of young kids and all you hear is "how are you?  How are you?  How are you?"  It is pretty funny!  So hey what does your classroom look like at school?  Does it look like the one in the picture above?  Well the kids in Bhondeni have rooms just like this for their classroom!  We went to the lower campus of the Bhondeni school this week and the kids were so cute, they are all in the first few grades there (K-2) and they were awesome, I put a video below of them singing to us today...we have to step up our game kids, these guys make us look dull!   

These are the cooks at the school making up a batch of cabbage for the kids meals at school!  What do you have for lunch each day at school?  The kids at Bhondeni get to have...

• Monday- cabbage, rice, beans, water.
• Tuesday- cabbage, rice, beef stew, water
• Wednesday- cabbage, rice, beans, water
• Thursday- cabbage, rice, pasta, water
• Friday- caggage, rice, beef, water
• Saturday- cabbage, rice, beef stew, water

So?  Sound good?  My apologies to the cooks if I got the menu right I tried to remember the best I could.  But you get the idea, would you like that menu for each week at school?  Oh and did you notice the "Saturday"?  Yep these kids go a half a day on Saturday, if they did not they would not eat!  So they come and get breakfast and lunch before having to go home, sadly for some with no more food till breakfast on Monday.  

Umm the kitchen at the lower Bhondeni campus....look like your kitchen at home?  Hmmmm?  

Bhondeni Day 3

Hey guys, what a great day three we had today!  About 230 adults/kids came to seek medical treatment and (if they knew it or not) also meet with God!  While the medical team treated their wounds we in the prayer room treated their hurts...and guess what?  OVER 7 PEOPLE CAME TO KNOW THE LORD AS SAVIOR TODAY!  Is that not awesome?  God is so very good and it is so awesome to be able to be used by Him here! I love this picture of the kids, the dude on the end just cracked me up all day long!  

This is the sign that hangs in the front of the school telling the kids/parents what is going on for the day.

This is a new friend I made last night, his name is Ryan...he is a cool guy, he likes soccer, and played football for Texas Tech University!  We ate at an Ethiopian restaurant last night and he helped me know how to do it...you guys ever eat at an Ethiopian restaurant?  IT IS GOOD!  Their are such nice people that I have met while being here, Ryan works with Missions of Hope here in Bhondeni and helps people to make businesses and make a living for themselves. 

This is a picture of the prayer room and a place where almost 700 people to date have come for prayer and healing. Cool!  

This is my corner in the room where I have seen so many nice people this week and so many people in need of prayer for their bodies and for their families.  I will show you and tell you alot more when I get back.

This is the entrance to our prayer room.

This is the child that Mason and Jada Brooks and their family support, many of the kids have adopted families that help to support these kids and send money to make sure they have food and clothing and an education.  Thanks Mason and Jada and family for supporting this child, he was so appreciative of the gifts you sent.  I have to leave to head back to Bhondeni for day 4 so I will catch up with you later!  

Love and miss you guys see you in a week or so!  

Pastor Darren

Bhondeni Day 2

Hey kids what is up?  Well this was day number 2 in Bhondeni and let me tell you it was incredible!  We prayed today for almost 230 kids and adults and 6 people came to know the Lord...YEAH!  Now that was worth the 24 hours of travel, questionable food, bad water, stinky bathrooms!  We also prayed for so many kids to be healed today, the conditions in the slum are so poor and all kinds of sickness is the norm for the children here!  I just tried to love them like Christ would and feel like he would for them and you know what? Jesus must hurt a whole lot because it brought me to tears today to pray with these kids and their families and see the struggles they have to live with...not deal with but "live" with!  This is a pic of the street looking north going into Bhondeni.

Now this one is kinda funny...you can't make it out very well but the sign on the building says "Beverly Hills Hotel"?  Now I have never been to Beverly Hills but have seen Beverly Hills Chawawa and this does not look like the Beverly Hills Hotel to me?  

See all those umbrellas?  Well all through the slums to make money people have little roadside shops set up selling everything from food to shoes, clothes to jewelry and just anything you can think of to make money to survive!  This picture does not do justice how many people have little shops set up and it is one of many little outdoor places you see all through the city.  

The pic at top was looking north going into Bhondeni and this one is looking south...you have any streets in your neighborhood that look like this?  I so miss all of you and hate that I will be missing this week as well but fear not super friends I will be back and more broken than ever on the 25th and hope to share all about my time her, please keep praying for K-dog and me as we continue to do what God puts before us!  

Love you guys! 

Pastor Darren

Few pics from first day in Bhondeni

This is Dr. Carlos and some of our medical staff they did a great job treating all the kids and the sickness that is sadly much a part of living in the slums.  

This is where I hung out all day in our "Prayer Room" after the kids were seen by the doctors we had a chance to meet with them one on one and share the love of Jesus to them and pray for their spiritual healing!  We had several adults and kids accept the Lord as Savior, prayed for alot of kids to be healed and just loved one them....it was awesome!  (oh btw that is Kristen in the photo she was great at praying with the kids)!

This is looking up at the school that TPCC helped to build for the kids of the slums.  3 stories, several classrooms and HUNDREDS of kids like you guys!  

This is a picture of one of the classes beginning to see nurses and get medical help.

This is a shot of looking out of the second story of the school into one of the many streets of Bhondeni.

And I saved the best for last, this is the potty...yep a hole in the ground, sanitation is not great here and....well, you do what you gotta do man!  (how is this picture Maddie?  hee hee hee hee).

Seriously it was a great day and these kids and people have been the best, but it is late and I have to be up early so I am saying nighty night and I will post more tomorrow!  

Pastor Darren

Bhondeni Day 1

Hey Guys!

We had a great day at the Bondeni school today!  That is a ton of people and Pastor Darren and I are pooped!

I got to talk to and hang out with a bunch of kids today.  And you know what I learned?  Kids are kids, no matter where they are in the world.   

They do many of the same things you do.  They run, play soccer (which they call football), and steal the red chair from their brothers and make them sit in the pink chair. They love to sing and dance and they don’t like vegetables.  But these kids are different in other ways.  They don’t have electricity in their homes.  And their homes are tin shacks that are smaller than your bedrooms and they sometimes have 5 brothers and sisters staying with them in that shack.   They don’t have air conditioning, heat or toilets.  And often, they don’t have the opportunity to go to school or to know God like you do.  That’s one thing; we get to do, talk to them about God and how great He is, no matter where they are. 

Tomorrow we get to do it again so please pray for us as we talk to these kids and their parents.

We love you and can’t wait to see you at home!

Miss Kathy (K-Dog)

Pipeline Explosion

Please pray for the slums of Kenya as an explosion killed many people people today and left many homeless...our team is alright as this slum was not in our area but in Northern Nairobi.  Thanks for the shout outs of concerns but we are alright and just praying for those affected!

Pastor Darren

Missions of Hope!

Missions of Hope is the name of the ministry that we are working with while here and let me tell you they are an incredible bunch of people!  The work they are doing here in the slum area's south of Narobi is nothing short of amazing, as you look at these pics of the streets we hung out on today just remind yourself without the work of these people they would be much, much worse!

Typical alleyway where people have their homes, after an orientation today with the staff of the Missions of Hope we went on a tour (sounds so nice) of the slum area to check out the living conditions and visit some people in their homes.

We turn out of the mission and this is our entrance into the slum area...the smell of garbage, open sewer and people cooking on fires outside their "homes" fills the air!

We take an alleyway to head to a lady's home we are going to check in on, she has 6 children, living in something like a closet and most of them are in the school to give them a fighting chance to get out of here.

The slum is like it's own little world with small businesses in them, like this guy cooking bread and selling it, my fav was looking in on a small one room hut to see a woman with almost 20 little kids running her in home daycare with no lighting/running water or anything in her place but a bed and table.  

It rained today and made the slum a mess to make it around, slippery and smelly was the flavor of the day!  Still...............This was my favorite moment, these little guys shouting out to me "picture, picture" they wanted me to take their picture then show it to them and they laughed and laughed! I am amazed by the Kenyan people, seriously, they are unbelievable and how they carry on with such joy and strength, it has been something to see.  Hey see you tomorrow and tell you all about our first day of medical clinic!  

The Kenyan Version of Laura Yates!

Just have to throw this out there...Laura Yates we saw this scene and thought of you!  Not just the size of class and one teacher but because she was awesome (as any student who calls you mentor can say of you as well)!
I looked at K-dog and said "Oh my goodness it's the Kenyan version of Laura Yates"!

We're heeeeeeere!

Hey kids/rents/friends and casual late night blogger reader!

We made it man!  And it was not easy...a hour flight to Chicago from Indy, then 10 hours to London then right on a plane for another 10 hours to Kenya...whew!  But we made it and let me say you never know how much you can stink or how oily your skin can get until you just do nothing but set on a plane for over 20+ hours!

We landed boarded a bus in Kenya then went straight to our home for the next week "The Grace House Resort" now I know what your thinking "RESORT"?  Well don't think Disneyland Resort when I tell you about this place, it is small/old/my shower is right next to my toilet and I have mosquito netting around my bed to keep the little pests out of my face while I sleep and keep me from getting sick from them.

But we are here and today on our first full day we got up had breakfast (now I will tell you the guys/gals who do the cooking here could blow the Disney people out of the water....gooooood food).  But we ate then.....WOW.....the church is located right next to the slum that we will be at for the majority of the week!  The worship was over the top awesomeness, they sang/clapped/danced/jumped up and down/cried and it was great!  You know what it reminded me of?  YOU!  Yeah I had the same feeling worshipping with them that I have when we are singing in the Zone.....oops!  I mean the gym now, I had someone say to me "that was something wasn't it Darren"?  I told them "reminded me of worshipping with the kids each week"!  But they did it in a way that blew me away..sometimes when I have had a bad week or am upset over something I don't want to sing, I want to sulk, I don't want to lift up my hands to praise the Lord I want to cross them and put on my grumpy face...not these people!  Not these people who have very little if anything at all...they praised God!  They worshipped, they went for it, they got it on, they get it and they....they got it, they got to be in the presence of God because they accepted Gods invite to come and worship Him!  Wow...it was great!

When we left church (2 1/2 hours later...felt like an hour at most to me) we went outside and a new friend I made while here named Steve called me over and said Darren look over this wall and see....I looked this is what I saw!

This is the slum area that thousands call home, you look to the right and left as far as you can and all you see is slum.  We just looked in, tomorrow we go in!  I will talk more later on tomorrow night...be looking for it!  So glad to hear that Pastor Tim and the crew did a fantastic job this first week in the new digs for the kids, hope it was fun, so looking forward to being back with you guys!  

Pastor Darren

Bye Bye Zone...Helllllllllo Kenya!

Hey guys this is Pastor Darren and I am so saddened that this last Sunday was our last one in The Zone!  The place we have called home for the last several years since opening up our new campus here in Z-ville!  Well on to bigger and better things and this week (reminder alert, reminder alert) this Sunday September 11th we will be moving our elementary services to the mpr!  It will be the new home for our elementary Kids Blast program as we continue to grow and expand our facility to meet the increasing need of all these great kids and adults that God keeps bringing us! 

                                                                                                                                                              I am so excited that this Friday K-dog (a.k.a. Kathy Jarrell our awesome and very pontifical 11am coordinator) and myself and a bunch of other people from TPCC are going to be off to Kenya to work in the area we as a church have adopted there and am so looking forward to seeing the school and learning how are elem kids can better serve our friends there.  Thus my next thing I want to tell you about...please check out our blog here for the next week or so and I will be filling you in on the journey into the Dark Continent and our adventures in Kenya as we look to see what God is doing there and learn more about how we can be a part!

Love you guys, thanks for a wonderful week this last week as we said goodbye to our home The Zone and look forward to the next part of our journey together and kicking off our first week in the mpr with a bang!
Thats it for now but come back beginning this Friday and lets have a great trip together!

God bless guys
Pastor Darren

Sorry guys....

Have been so wrapped up with the "bidness" of children's ministry I have neglected our poor little Blog each week! I promise to do better, wow so where should I begin? Well how about we just jump in with this week and what will be happening in the Zone for the kids? The place is gonna look like a mess for the next several weeks as our beloved Zone is going to be going through some pretty major changes! We are putting up a permanent wall in the back of the room that will be our new "kindergarten suite" as I like to call it. This is an attempt to address the overcrowding we have in our preschool area and elementary as the kids just keep comin....PTL! It is a problem, but as I have said before a good problem to be having!

We will communicate changes in rooms and places for kids to be in the coming weeks as we make our way through March!

This week we kick off our new unit of study for the spring and we are talking about being a friend of God or more specifically we will have the focus of being a BFF with Jesus! I was thinking of the best friends I have had in my life...many of which I have long lost contact with and wonder where they are and what they are up to from time to time but Jesus? He is the best friend who stays with us forever! Changing schools/moving homes/all the changes that can happen in the world of a child they need to know Jesus never changes and He will always be there to be a friend closer than a brother!

This week we will be focusing on the fact that as a friend of God I will obey His words!

Our verse for this week is Hebrews 11:6
"Without faith it is impossible to please God, for the one who draws near to Him must believe that He exists and he rewards those who seek Him."

We have some really cool things for the kids this week in the Zone a visit from "Scout" I cannot tell you who he is but he will really leave an impression on the kids in what obedience is all about and then in second hour something that will "amaze" you and leave you saying "how'd he do that?"

See you in the Zone this week!

Pastor Darren

Savior/Lamb of God!

Hey guys how is everyone doing?

What an awesome week we had last week in Kids Blast! I just loved being able to finally teach the kids in second service some new songs off of the Yancy cd "Stars Guitars and Megaphone Dreams" it so rocks dude! If you have never heard of Yancy or checked out her website, do yourself a favor and check it out now http://www.yancynotnancy.com/ She has awesome preschool worship, worship music for kids and tweens and even the adult stuff is great!

Anyway the worship rocked and we had a great time playing "Super Duper Smarty Pants" in which a student was asked questions to tough to answer but with an older friends help could of most likely answered the questions! The point being many things it helps to have assistance with but with repentance there is no help given...we must choose to repent for ourselves and nobody can do it for us!

This week we will continue with our overreaching theme of repentance as we talk about Jesus (another name we know Him by) but being the "Lamb Of God!" It should/will be great...hey do not forget about Superstart coming up in just a little under a month from now...Feb 4th and 5th.

If you have not registered your preteen do so now at our website http://www.tpcc.org/

Thanks guys and we will see you in the Zone!

Pastor Darren

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Traders Point Peeps/Kids/Mentors/Visitors/Other Worldly Alien Types/Whomever has landed here!

What a great Sunday we had last week as we talked about Jesus being our Teacher and learning about lessons from His life and words. This week we will be learning that Jesus is our Savior and we will discuss the topic of Repentance.

I am really loving this quarter and learning the various names we have for our Lord and what each of them teaches us about how great/awesome/loving He is to us.

Not sure if your a New Year resolution type or not, I gave up on all that sometime ago! Well not really, I mean it comes to my mind each year and I do find myself saying "this year I will do this or that" sometimes it sticks and then again sometimes??????????? Well I hope you make one promise this year and that is to make it out and be with us in the Zone on some Sunday if you have not, or have not been back in awhile....good lessons, good people, and a very good Lord we put at the top of ALL we do each and every week!

See you guys in the Zone this week! Start the week/year off right!

Quick reminder if you have not volunteered yet or registered your tween for it SUPERSTART is upon us...one month and counting!

Pastor Darren

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!!!!

Oh my goodness I do not think my daughter will make it through the night, we are having our Christmas tomorrow as we will be on the road Christmas Eve and with my fam on Christmas day and my goodness she has been bouncing around here all day long with excitement! I so love that, and so am going to miss it when they hit "that age" and my babies are too old to wake up at 5am and come jump on the bed and ask if we can get up yet.........well maybe will "eventually" miss that...LOL.
I just wanted to quickly wish all of you reading a very Merry Christmas and may the JOY of this holiday and our Savior find you where you are! We have been talking alot about Joy these last few weeks with the kids and the difference between Joy and Happiness....there is a difference ya know!
Happiness-as long as conditions are right and I get what I want I will be happy.
Joy-(as we have been defining it) is a delightful contentment from knowing Christ! And that Joy can and will be with you no matter what your condition or place in life! I have experienced it myself in a fathers death followed by an overwhelming sense of Joy in knowing he opened his eyes to see the face of God! Or when the checkbook does not match up to what the family budget says it needs to be happy...Joy in knowing the one who cares for me has promised to meet ALL my needs according to His riches in glory! WHOO!
I love the Lord, love all of you and am so thankful for the awesome year we have had and even more for the one in 2011 I know we will have!
You guys be safe, have a great Christmas and I will see you in the Zone this Sunday as we finish up with one final lesson on the Joy of knowing Christ and look at another name for our Savior in our continued series on the names of Jesus!
God bless and c-ya!
Pastor Darren

Snowflakes...and a big mess!

Hey Everybody!

How are you? I hope your all enjoying the happy holiday season? We here in the children's ministry are so excited that in the last week we kicked off our winter quarter with a teaching series on the names of Jesus! And a quick "thing that makes you go hmmm" is not God the coolest in how He works out things like only He can in that we began this series the very same week the adult crowd kicked off the "a.k.a God" series with Pastor Aaron????

Hey I'm good but even I could not have foreseen this happening but thankfully God does and works out these little details that I so appreciate Him for!

We had a BLAST this last week with our first name (Messiah) and also making snowflakes to liven up the Blast kids area...man did we make a mess but had such fun!

I hope all of you are keeping Christ where He belongs and that is at the center of anything you have planned for this holiday and have just a great Christmas season! This week we will be studying the name of Jesus (Gift of God) and the JOY that comes with knowing Christ as our Savior!

Have a great week and look forward to seeing you in the ZONE!

Pastor Darren

Trunk and Treat

How fun...over 1500+ who came out and shared an evening of fun/food/treats and laughter!

We had our annual Halloween alternative event this last weekend and it was such a huge hit! Not just in the number of people who came (1500+) and consumed over 800+ hot dogs, got faces painted, photos made and heard/saw a fantastic presentation by Jesse the Juggler http://www.jessethejuggler.com/ but sharing and having fun being together! I stood back at one point watching our youth do an impromptu Christmas parade, listened to the laughs and it was just the most awesome thing. I love it when God's people get together...there is nothing like it! Now I know there are many of you who question doing anything on Halloween because "guilty by association" I guess and I get that...I really do, and those of you who choose to do nothing every October 31st you have my support. But I have to tell you this event is so one I look forward to because as I prayed when we kicked off the night "we are not here to celebrate spooks and fear, but to fellowship and share in how awesome and great you are God!" October the 31st is a "holy day" it is...God made it like He did October the 30th and November the 1st! Our purpose is not to ignore the culture but do all we can to redeem it...salt? So this event fits just fine in that school of thought and we had a blast if you did not make it out make plans to join us next Monday October the 31st 2011!

Jesse joined us in the morning in our two children's services and did an awesome job of supporting our study of the book of Genesis and all the "firsts" we learn of there. Then that night he did such a great job sharing Jesus and many, many laughs and wows with his talent!

Will post some pics of the event later but for now just a few of Jesse from the morning.

See you this week in the Zone as we kick off a month study of Noah and the events surrounding his life and our AWESOME GOD!

Darren

Toy Story

Doin a bit of catch up this afternoon!

On October 24th we (adults) to reward the kids for reaching the giving goal (see previous post) dressed up like Toy Story characters for the morning and had a great time doing it! When I am surrounded by adults who like to dress up and laugh so much I know I am in the right business and place.....these people rock!

It was a fun day....except for Tonya who dressed up like an evil clown....all clowns are evil you know, right? (Shudder, shudder) I told her this last Sunday I just cannot look at her the same ever again! Not sure where my irrational fear of all things clown came into being but baby believe me they totally creep me out man! Enough...rambling...a bloggers worst enemy, rambling...well I think "clowns" are actually ones worst enemy but I digress.

Anyway here are a few pics for you LOL(ing).

Toys Toys Toys

Hey kids/rents/grand rents and anyone else who may be looking in!
Lookie at what the kids did...and I mean that in the nicest way possible! Look at all the toys the kids collected to be included in our giving project we are doing here at the church, is this awesome or what? I have not gotten a total number count of all the books/games/puzzles and toys the kids collected but they did a great job and met their goal and won "The Toy Story Challenge"!!!
Now this week all, well most all, the adults have to dress as a favorite toy story character...do you know how hard it is to find a Buzz Lighyear in 3XL? Not easy my friend, not easy at all....and just what people do they use to measure and say this is an XL or M or whatever...they certainly are small framed people I tell ya that!
Hey just gonna post some pics and split but this week promises to be another fun one as we tackle the topic of "First Kids" and talk on corruption and what God has done for us to overcome the corruption in the world through Christ!
See ya friends, will have pic's of our embarrassment for you on Monday!
Darren