Young Womens Camp

Back in May it was announced that the YW would be going on summer camp and that priesthood leaders were needed to attend.  I immediately said YES.  I have fond memories of girls camp with my girls and also while I was serving as Bishop.  As it turned out they needed help with cooking and I volunteered my equipment and I was the camp cook.  So from June 22-25 we attended Camp Sunrise, which is a girls camp, in the middle of the East Fork of the Bear (Hinckley Boy Scout Ranch).  The camp is independent of the other Boy Scout Camps.  It has it's own lake, archery and shooting ranch, showers, etc.  Brother Merle Keller, first counselor in the Bishopric went with me.  We were later joined by Elder Evans and Brother Neil Weight, high priest group leader and Bishop Kruger.

Since I had a truck I volunteered to haul the trailer full of all the gear.  I must say that I really enjoyed myself.  I was curious as to how the camp would be with the diversity of members in the ward.  We had 17 girls plus leaders attend.  There were 7 different nationalities represented; Caucasian, Pakistani, Native American, Tongan, Samoan, Hawaiian, and African American.  All got along well and actually no real drama...you know there usually is.  Great fun and those islanders can EAT!

I have attached a few pictures.  Bishop Kruger is standing next to me.

Alicia's High School Graduation

Well it has been a long time since we lasted updated the blog.  We will start with Alicia's High School Graduation.

Alicia has been working for sometime on completing her requirements to graduate from High School.  Barbara has been helping her with some of the packets that were left to be done.  She was truly motivated to complete all that was needed.  On June 16th we attended her graduation ceremony.  She was asked to speak and part of her message was including all who have had a positive influence in her life.  She mentioned both Barbara and I as well as Bishop Kruger.  The remarkable thing with all of this is that she is 46 years old and has overcome much adversity in this accomplishment.  We are so proud of her.  We had the opportunity of meeting her parents and they too expressed appreciation on how we have helped Alicia.  She was nervous about speaking but stood up there with confidence and presented herself very well. 

There were six others who graduated with her.  The program she was in was sponsored by the Alliance House accredited by Horizante Adult Education.  They help those who struggle with mental illness and addiction. 

Learning To Be Patient

On a previous post "Understanding Poverty" we mentioned how Alicia has been before a Judge several times trying to get approval for State Disability status.  At her last hearing she had asked Barbara to go with her for moral support.  Well the Judge did grant her disability status and she will now be receiving a monthly disability payment.  This is help Alicia so much in making steps toward becoming self-reliant.  Hopefully she will not need to rely on the support from Bishop Kruger as much.  She mentioned that she would like Barbara to start helping her with forming a budget.

Alicia is learning to be patient and that Heavenly Father does listen to our prayers and does answer them; not necessarily in the time frame we would like them to be.  She is very grateful and is learning to trust her Heavenly Father more.

Family Outing

When we met one of our new families, Liana d'Hulst, it became very evident that she has her hands full with her four children.  All of them are good kids but the boys will be boys and are very active.

We have season passes to the Dinosaur Museum (Museum of Ancient Life) at Thanksgiving Point. We asked Liana if it would be alright to come one Saturday and take the kids there thus giving her a break.  She readily agreed.  So when we went to pick them up she decided she wanted to go as well.  They all had a great time.  Joseph who is 5 years old is the most active one.  He is in his own world and has his own agenda.  He would not stay with us and we both had to try and keep up with him.  His mother would just roll her eyes, however, she does have a good relationship with each of them and they are obedient.  Joseph is the one with the hat on in the pictures.

 

It is very rewarding to be able to help and be apart of the families we work with.

New Families

We have received two new families from Bishop Kruger.  We are anxious to meet them and see how we can serve them.  Here is what the Bishop has told us about them.

The d'Hulst family moved into the area approximately 9 months ago from an Army base in Louisiana.  Lianna recently went through a divorce and is working as a Single Mother.  She has four active children.  She works at a Bank and has desires to move forward and become a Paralegal, like her mother and eventually go to Law School.  She's ambitious and determined, but is fighting through a number of obstacles.  Her four children: Brennin - 10, Elike - 8, Joseph - 5, and Akasha - 3.  She is a regular Sacrament meeting attender, then often gets discouraged and goes home as the children act up.  You can survey the situation to determine how they can best be served.  My goals for them are to attend church weekly at all meetings, have Lianna attend the temple on a regular basis, have FHE, and start to make and be a friend to others in the surrounding areas.  The children are scheduled to visit/be with their Army father in Louisiana for the Summer.  Address: 475 North Redwood Road #57 (Townhomes). Phone: 907-687-0443.  I have talked to Lianna about having Service Missionaries working with the family. 

Fetu Solovi is a Polynesian (Samoan) sister in the ward.  She has nine children.  Three girls stay with her in the home. They live in the Woodcrest Condominiums at 1860 West 500 North #(?).  Three of her children are staying with her: Apaau Julie - 18, Seini - 16, Kaati - 15.  Other children have been farmed to other relatives, some I know, others I do not know.  Fetu works at night and is often away from the girls.  The girls are left alone for long stretches at a time.  I have talked with Sister Solovi about you.  It would be probably advisable to go with you the first time.  Seini and Kaati attend church most of the time, Apaau attends the YSA ward, goes to Magna with relatives and attends the ward.  The girls are big into rugby and quite good.  One daughter, Etta is competing to be on the USA team in the Olympics and has been under contract to play rugby professionally in France, but injured her knee.  I think you will really like this family.  The girls have some learning disabilities, I believe.  Kaati, certainly does.

More to come as we get to know them and access how we can help.

Addiction Recovery Program

At one of our recent missionary training meetings we were introduced to the LDS Family Services Addiction Recovery Program.  This program has adapted the original Twelve Steps of Alcoholics Anonymous into a framework of the doctrines, principles, and beliefs of the church with special focus on the Atonement.  When I served as Bishop this program was just getting started.  This program is designed to help persons to be healed and cured from all manner of addictions.

Here are the 12 Steps:

#1 Honesty - Admit that you, yourself, are powerless to overcome your addictions and that your life has become unmanageable.
#2 Hope - Come to believe that the power of God can restore you to complete spiritual health.
#3 Trust in God - Decide to turn your will and your life over to the care of God the Eternal Father and His Son, Jesus Christ.
#4 Truth - Make a searching and fearless written moral inventory of yourself.
#5 Confession - Admit to yourself, to your Heavenly Father in the name of Jesus Christ, to proper priesthood authority, and to another person the exact nature of your wrongs.
#6 Change of Heart - Become entirely ready to have God remove all your character weaknesses.
#7 Humility - Humbly ask Heavenly Father to remove your shortcomings.
#8 Seeking Forgiveness - Make a written list of persons you have harmed and become willing to make restitution to them.
#9 Restitution and Reconciliation - Wherever possible, make direct restitution to all persons you have harmed.
#10 Daily Accountability - Continue to take personal inventory, and when you are wrong promptly admit it.
#11 Personal Revelation - Seek through prayer and meditation to know the Lord's will and to have the power to carry it out.
#12 Service - Having had a spiritual awakening as a result of the Atonement of Jesus Christ, share this message with others and practice these principles in all you do.

Many of the people the Inner City Mission that the missionaries work with are suffering from one form or another of personal addictions.  Alicia is not exception to this.  She is dealing with current addictions as well as past addictions and the consequences of her actions.  Bishop Kurger, 2 years ago encouraged her to participate in the Addiction Recovery Program.  We likewise, recently have been encouraging her as well.  We believe that because of the trust we have built with Alicia she finally agreed to participate and we took her to her first session Wednesday night.  What a special experience.  Her heart was touched, she expressed her feelings and problems to the group and is anxious to return and continue in the program.  We told her we would take her every week and support her in her recovery. 

We know that when old "scratch" as my Dad would call him, gets a hold your heart and spirit it is very hard and difficult to change.  We are beginning to see that change in Alicia.  We hope and pray that it will continue but are fully aware that there will be peaks and valleys in this process.

UNDERSTANDING POVERTY

One aspect of our mission training was a course entitled "Bridges Out of Poverty."  This three hour course was nothing short of eye opening!  I (Barbara) was so impressed I bought the book and read it.  I don't know which it helped me with the most:  my work at the prison or our service in the mission.    These people generally come from a similar background.  I feel I have so much more understanding of why it is so difficult to change these people's life for the better.  The best hope for them is to have a mentor--hence, the inner-city missionaries.  Everything we learned applies to Alicia.

A couple of weeks ago she texted and asked me to accompany her to her SS Disability hearing to provide moral support.  I was touched that she would ask me so I took the day off work to accompany her.  It turns out that I was not admitted into the hearing, so I waited in the lobby and read a book.  I was just happy I could be there for Alicia.  I truly hope she gets approved for the disability--with degenerative arthritis she's not going to get any better.  Having that regular money coming in each month would be a major step toward her becoming self-reliant.    She told me that if she gets approved, she wants me to help her set up a budget (something I happen to be pretty good at).  It also looks like she is going to finish her high school diploma for June graduation.  She said I will be the first one she will invite.  (that's what makes this all worthwhile)