Helping a Burma Family

The Hagens have "adopted" a family from Burma to provide Christmas for this year. Its a family of 9 (7 children). They will be having them over for dinner friday and giving them Christmas gifts. So if anyone else wants to contribute towards the presents they can give Kristin the money on Sunday. If you'd like to learn more about the resettlement of the Karen people from Thailand/Burma go to: http://www.christianfreedom.org/. It is the largest resettlement of a people group in history - 80,000 are coming to the US now. Agencies are totally overwhelmed so churches really need to step up and fill in the gap.

Sorry for the massively late notice on this. I just found out about it on Sunday. Thanks so much for getting involved with the Serving team this year. This year we've been able to send much needed supplies to Zambia with Liz, write letters to soldiers serving overseas, donate to the austin pregnancy center, paint curbs on the eastside with Austin One, do yardwork and a little computer help for a widow, serve with the foodbank here in austin, give blood at the Central Austin Blood bank, bake cookies and treats for the LonghornLife students and their new friends, send 42 christmas boxes overseas with Operation Christmas Child (Samaritans Purse), and now help out a family from Burma. I look forward to serving even more with you next year. Yeah.

OCC

We are gearing up for another great year of Operation Christmas Child. We will be collecting the shoeboxes filled with excitement at the church potluck Nov 18th. I have ordered brochures for this year but they haven't arrived yet. I wait patiently by my mailbox. If you want to read more about the ministry and how to put together the shoeboxes then check out the Samaritians Purse website (http://www.samaritanspurse.org/OCC.)

Here is the list of ideas for packing the showboxes. In the past I have found that the Dollar Store is a great place to shop and also Big Lots and Walmart. Also don't put candy in the same box as soap or the candy will taste like soap. bleh. I sometimes run out of shoeboxes and often the shoestores don't have any extras lying around or whatnot so you can also use a bought plastic shoebox from walmart or where ever. They are about $1.50 each. Now thats a scoopsy. :0)~

So, here are some ideas for items.

TOYS: small cars, balls, dolls, stuffed animals, kazoos, harmonicas, yo-yos, jump ropes, small Etch A Sketch®, toys that light up or make noise (with extra batteries), Slinky®, etc.

SCHOOL SUPPLIES: pens, pencils and sharpener, crayons or markers, stamps and ink pad sets, writing pads or paper, solar calculators, coloring and picture books, etc.

HYGIENE ITEMS: toothbrush, toothpaste, mild bar soap (in a plastic bag), comb, washcloth, etc.

OTHER: Hard candy and lollipops (please double bag all candy), mints, gum, T-shirts, socks, ball caps; sunglasses, hair clips, toy jewelry, watches, flashlights (with extra batteries)

DO NOT INCLUDE: Used or damaged items; war-related items such as toy guns, knives or military figures; chocolate or food; liquids or lotions; medications or vitamins; breakable items such as snowglobes or glass containers; aerosol cans

Groovy. So bring your boxes to the potluck on November 18th. Yeah.

Cans Film Festival

Thursday, September 27

Regal Cinemas presents Cans Film Festival
Gateway 16, Metropolitan 14, Westgate Central 11, Lakeline Mall 9, Arbor Cinema @ Great Hills

Donate three non-perishable food items or $3 for the Capital Area Food Bank at a Regal theater and receive one free movie ticket and one free small popcorn! For more information visit www.REGmovies.com.

The Kickoff - KICKED OFF! :0)~

Thanks everyone for helping out and making desserts for the kick-off. I think Ellen gets extra jewels in heaven for her 15 dozen plus chocolate chip cookies! I really liked the choc ones with the peanut butter chips. :0) And Cassia gets major props for her 2 chocolate pies - glad she is studying nutrition this year in 4H! :0) And Sue, Karina, and Blanca -- thanks for the yummys. Thanks to all of you we had lots and lots of treats and had a good time Monday night with the students. There were about 15 new people. Yeah! And then last night we played soccer to burn off all those extra calories from Monday! Man, I am super sore today. But that could be from taking a few elbows from Nathan and Derek! Anyway - thanks for all y'alls help to make the kick-off a huge success.

Longhorn Life Kickoff

The Serving Project this month at Liveoak is helping out Longhorn Life. Yeah! They are having a kickoff party next Monday night (August 27th) and need some yummy baked goods to make the party a PARTEE :0) Anyone interested in helping out by baking something and bringing it to church Sunday (August 26) (I will take everything to the party Monday) can email me and let me know that you want to help and what you think you'll be bringing (so we don't have 20 pans of ricecrispy treats. :0)

Thanks Team!
and
Go Horns!

Back to School

When you think August, what comes to mind? The summer's coming to an end, so you try to fit in those final fun activities before you have to go back to....SCHOOL! For the month of August, we've decided to help Longhorn Life, our college ministry, as they prepare for the beginning of fall semester.

On August 27, Longhorn Life will have a table set up on campus to pass out information and meet new students. Stay tuned for details on time and table location. Students will also be moving in August 24-26, so there are opportunities to help out in that way as well.

Also, don't forget soccer every Tuesday night at 6:30 at Clark Field!!!

Along with helping out with these different activities, we can continue to pray for Longhorn Life as they begin a new school year.

Capital Area Food Bank!

Mark your calendars: Sept. 15, from 1-4pm, we will be volunteering at the Capital Area Food Bank! Although there are a variety of things to do at the food bank, we will most likely be helping in Product Recovery, where you evaluate donated products to determine what is safe for distribution. "Recovered" products are then sorted, boxed, and made available for distribution. Children 8 and up are also welcome to volunteer! We will have a sign-up sheet at the info table every Sunday - the last day to sign up will be Sept 9.

A few facts (taken from the Capital Area Food Bank website):
-The mission of the Capital Area Food Bank of Texas is to nourish people and lead the community in ending hunger.
-In 2006, Capital Area Food Bank distributed more than 16 million pounds of food!
-Approximately 200,000, or 20%, of Travis County residents are classified as "working poor" by the Texas Department of Human Services.
-76% of households receiving assistance from CAFB Partner Agencies report incomes below the federal poverty level.
-Austin continues to have the highest cost of living in the state of Texas, exceeding housing costs in Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Fort Worth.

Check the website for more information: www.austinfoodbank.org

Or, if you have any questions, feel free to email Blanca at ilikeyoursocks@gmail.com.

We saved a life! But they ran out of ice cream...

So the girls represented today as a group of us headed to the Blood and Tissue Center to donate blood. Me (Blanca), Michele, Ellen, Amy, Karina and Natalie faced our fears and let people stick a needle in us. :) And although David Venable wasn't able to donate, he came along for support, too! (Thanks David!) It was Ellen, Natalie, and my first time to donate, but we had a lot of support from the other girls. (They're so cool!) I was the last one to go, so I literally had everyone standing around my little chair, keeping me company. I was a bit freaked out beforehand, but it actually wasn't too bad. And the guy who took my blood was really nice and made me feel more relaxed. They made poor Michele lay down as they took her blood (the rest of us sat up). She said it felt like she was going to the morgue...totally horizontal with needles in her...

I'm really glad we went, and I'm so thankful to have had the support of the other girls there. I think it would have been a not-as-fun experience if I had gone by myself. We're hoping to go together again in the future. But you have to wait at least three months before you can donate again... Unfortunately, they ran out of ice cream before Michele, Ellen and I could have any. BUT the nice Amy's Ice Cream people brought two gift certificates for free ice cream to everyone that missed out.

We took a few pictures before heading out:

Here I am doing my post-blood donation 10-minute sit:

Here we are in the room where they have snacks and drinks...mmm...:

And here we are outside. I don't know why i'm making that face...i think i was trying to look "brave"....:

Letters to Soldiers

here is Naaman's "letters to the soldiers" -- too cute.

A couple other pictures for the soldiers.
Thanks for writing letters. We got a handful of letters and cards from the church and the 3-5 year old kids colored some cards. I am sure the soldiers will really appreciate it. Thanks.

Save a life, and get some ice cream!

A group of us are planning on going July 22 to help out those needing blood and to honor/celebrate Marshall's life. Read below for a news blurb...

AUSTIN, TX - Receive an Amy's Ice Cream Sundae on any Sunday in July when you make a life-saving blood donation at The Blood Center of Central Texas, 4300 N. Lamar Blvd. between 10am and 3pm. Sundaes on Sunday, a summertime event to boost blood donations is sponsored by Amy's Ice Creams, KXAN 36 NBC Austin and The River 102.3.

"My partner Phil Clay, who passed away in a motorcycle accident in 2003, taught me the importance of donating blood," says Amy Simmons of Amy's Ice Creams. "He accompanied me to donate my first pint of blood as he did many of our employees. It is a simple gift of oneself that can save a life. Add an Amy's ice cream sundae - what a way to celebrate life!"

"By donating on a Sunday in July, you can beat the heat, enjoy a sundae, listen to music from The River and save lives in Central Texas," said Marshall Cothran, CEO. "Patient need can spike unpredictably during the summer, so we are very grateful to Amy's, KXAN, and The River for giving us a hand and encouraging blood donation in July."

So, the plan is to go after church and donate at the Central TX Blood and Tissue Center at 4300 North Lamar Blvd and eat some Amy's ice cream. Oh yea, baby! Gotta love the ice cream. For more info the Blood Centers website is http://www.inyourhands.org -- oh and girls, your iron will probably be too low unless you do something about it! So take some iron pills for a couple days before it or eat like a billion burgers :0)~ And if you haven't donated before I will warn you that they take you into a little room for an interview before you donate and ask you a million questions to which you will answer "no" to most all of them. Some of the questions might be uncomfortable b/c they are weird. But really, I hate needles and the procedure is uncomfortable but it saves a life (actually up to 4 lives in some cases) and for me that is worth it. So come on, let's Save a Life and get some ice cream! :0)

Letters to Soldiers

Not many people filled out cards for our soldiers overseas. So,we thought that we would give you another chance. So, in the spirit of remembering the people who fought for our freedom 230+ years ago, let's tell the men and women who are fighting for freedom right now that we appreciate them.

You can bring cards and letters to the service on Sunday and place it in the box at the back table. The cards and letters will be mailed through an organization called, "Any Soldier"(www.anysoldier.com). We will be sending letters and cards to two soldiers to distribute to their troops. One is a Sergeant in the army serving in Iraq until November. His team is an all male unit from TX that is working to train and educate their Iraqi counterparts on various subject matters. The other is a 22 year old Specialist also from TX (FtHood) in Iraq until Jan08 who is part of a Medical unit that does Combat Stress Control. Their mission is to help those soldiers in need of help so they can continue their day to day activities.

This is a great project to get the kids involved in, either writing letters or drawing pictures. We will also be sending letters to Mason Hagen at bootcamp and Ethan Shrader (stationed in North Carolina)so if you'd like to write letters directly to them that is cool too.

If you have any questions contact Blanca Garcia(ilikeyoursocks@gmail.com) or Michele Bennett (michelebennett@gmail.com).

Letters to Soldiers

Our next project for July is supporting the troops by writing letters to soldiers serving overseas. Michelle Cook has been involved with various care package and letter writing groups for the soldiers and we are going to use "Any Soldier" to write letters and get them into the hands of the troops. We will be collecting letters at the info table at church July 1 (NEXT WEEK) and mail them the first week in July. This is a great project to get the kids involved in, either writing letters or drawing pictures. We will also be sending letters to Mason Hagen at bootcamp so if you'd like to write letters directly to him that is cool too. We (serving liveoak team) will handle all the mailing and forms so we just need letters! Yeah.

If you have any questions contact Blanca or me.

Austin One - woohoo

The AustinOne project Saturday went well. From Liveoak we had Nelson, Chris and I out on the streets of east austin painting house numbers on curbs. Chris and I were on the same team with a girl, Karin. Nelson was part of another curb team and then helped out with another project - tearing up a driveway, I think. The day started out with a worship service and message by the singles pastor at Hyde Park Baptist. Then we headed out to our projects after a short speech by the police about not picking up crack pipes and try not to get shot. :0) It went smoothly once Chris figured out how to use a spray can (pointing it in the right direction helps!) We really don't have to worry about him being an illegal tagger or anything with his spray painting skillz. (kidding)

Here are a few pics from Saturday.

Chris and Karin painting a curb. The black gloves made us look a little more professional (or criminal)

Chris being Chris.

Chris and I (michele) in front of a house ready to paint numbers. My job was to get the right number stencils and put them together, then hold them for Chris to paint.

Nelson helping tear up cement chunks with some boys.

FLMI

We collected boxes and boxes of stuff to send to Zambia this summer with Liz, Renee, Anthony, and Nelson. They will be going in July - just a month away! We packed up all the boxes and crammed them into Liz's car and she zoomed on up to the headquarters in Dallas with them. Liz said beannie babies were exploding out of the top of one box. I am looking forward to hearing in late July on how the trip went and I am sure Nelson will bring us back lots pictures of the kids we helped. Yeah!

Family Legacy's Mission International website is: http://www.legacymissions.org

AustinONE June 9th

GOD IS MOVING - come see!
AustinONE Event Day: June 9, 2007

AustinONE is a ministry that has a vision of bringing unity, revival, and transformation to Austin, TX. AustinONE is bringing together Christian singles (and others) from all over Austin for a one day event of worship, service, and fellowship in central East Austin.

The Event is based on John 17:20-26 where Jesus prays for those whom believe in Him. He prays, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

June 9, 2007 Event Day Schedule
Event Day Headquarters: Rosewood-Zaragosa Neighborhood Center
2808 Webberville Road, Austin, TX 78702

9:00 a.m. Registration / Check-In
10:00 a.m. Morning Worship Service
12:00 p.m. Head to Service Projects
5:30 p.m. Dinner / Prayer & Praise

website for more info and to sign up: http://www.austinone.org/

The service projects will be from about 11:30 or noon til 5ish so if you can only commit to that time and not all day that is fine. There are many opportunities from painting houses, cleaning up a creek, curb painting, organizing library books, etc... Children can come if they are old enough to help out - the coordinator suggested 3rd grade or over and asked that we put the names of kids and ages in the comment section of the registration form. We need to register as soon as possible so AustinOne knows how many volunteers to count on. I (michele) registered for work for elderly (painting mainly) or curb painting if anyone wants to do that with me. We'll be working with lots of other churches but if some poeple want to be on the same project that can probably be arranged.

You can contact me (michele) if you have any questions. I've worked with AustinOne once before on a smaller yardwork project a couple months ago. David Brown, me, and a group of ladies from Hyde Park Baptist raked leaves for a widow and then David set-up her DSL! yeah David!

Let me know if you sign-up/register and if you are wanting to be on a team with other Liveoakers or don't care. :0)~ Looking forward to it!

Donations for FLMI

For the month of May we will be collecting donations at church for the mission organization that Liz Rivas works for -- Family Legacy Missions International! Woohoo. There is a "rubbermaid" container set up next to the info table to put donations in. May 27th will be the last Sunday for donations as Liz will be in town and take the donations back to Dallas with her.

The vision of Family Legacy Missions International is to connect the American Church and Family to the very heart of God by actively engaging them in the relief of the suffering and pain of the African AIDS Orphan.

Proverbs 19:17 says, "If you help the poor, you are lending to the LORD--and God will surely repay you!"

FLMI is asking for the following:

1. NEW CRAYONS - We need as many as we can get for 7,500 orphans!!! You can get creative on how to collect these…try asking the managers at your favorite restaurants like Chili’s, etc. to collect the crayons that children use only once and then throw away!

2. ZIPLOCK BAGS - (Gallon, Quart and Sandwich Sizes)

3. SMALL ITEMS FOR GIFT BAGS - We put together gift bags for all of the workers from the orphanages, as well as our volunteers, so we need the following:

4. WOMEN’S GIFT ITEMS - Cosmetics, lotions, soap, compact mirrors, small bibles, pens, pads of paper, jewelry, journals, and anything small and new will be perfect.

5. MEN’S GIFT ITEMS - Deodorant, work gloves, pens, small bibles, wallets, calculators, key rings, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, tools, watches, etc.

6. NEW PENCILS - As many as we can get! We are hoping to have enough to give two pencils to each of the 7,500 orphans being served this summer!

7. CHRISTIAN C.D.’s - music CD’s and teaching/preaching CD’s (We are creating a library at our office in Zambia so that teachers and pastors can have free access to Christian literature and teaching).

8. LATE MODEL LAPTOPS - preferably with Windows XP and Microsoft Office loaded on it. Please no laptops older than three years…Power adapters are needed as well.

HEALTH AND MEDICINE

1. Vitamins, Nutritional Supplements, Juice Plus

2. Over-the Counter Medicine: Aspirin / Tylenol / Advil / BandAids / Cold and Flu Medicine

CLOTHING ITEMS

1. Any brand new clothes (close-outs from Dept. stores)

2. Used Jackets, Coats, sweaters, sweatshirts in good condition3. Children’s gently used clothes ~ Specifically khaki pants, jeans, and school uniform type shirts/school jumpers

ENRICHMENT MATERIALS

1. Bibles – new or used

2. Easy to read children’s books

3. School books, Christian School Curriculum, Ministry Books (Beth Moore, Swindoll, etc.)

4. Christian C.D.’s

5. Christian Video tapes and DVD’s for children

6. Notebook paper / Spiral Notebooks

7. Metric Rulers / Pencils / Erasers

8. Markers / Highlighters / Sharpie Markers / Pens

9. Christian stickers

10. Any other kinds of school supplies

OTHER ITEMS

1. Blankets (fleece blankets are good because they are very warm and lightweight)

2. Beanie Babies, smaller stuffed animals (gently used, preferably new)

3. New balls (all kinds…soccer balls, footballs, frisbees, nerf balls)

More more info on the organization: http://www.legacymissions.org/

COMING UP: AustinONE Day of Serving - June 9th

GOD IS MOVING - come see!
AustinONE Event Day: June 9, 2007

AustinONE is a ministry that has a vision of bringing unity, revival, and transformation to Austin, TX. AustinONE is bringing together Christian singles (and others) from all over Austin for a one day event of worship, service, and fellowship in central East Austin.

The Event is based on John 17:20-26 where Jesus prays for those whom believe in Him. He prays, “that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

June 9, 2007 Event Day Schedule

9:00 a.m. Registration / Check-In
10:00 a.m. Morning Worship Service
12:00 p.m. Head to Service Projects
5:30 p.m. Dinner / Prayer & Praise

website for more info: http://www.austinone.org/
we will need to sign up soon but we gotta figure that all out :0)
stay tuned for details!