Saturday, July 30, 2011

Summer Plans

My goal for the summer (while not in school) was to work on several quilting projects. I did start on my sister's t-shirt quilt and have half the blocks sashed. I did very little cross stitching.


Today, I decided to watch a couple of older Fons and Porter episodes. I became inspired to start a project I've had planned for ages.



 I had all of the materials to do a few notebook covers. I have had this project ready to go for over a year. I decided it was time to get started.


I cut out all of the pieces. It is a very simple cover, you need a piece of quilted fabric cut to wrap around the notebook you choose. A couple of pieces to hold the notebook in place and an optional pocket for pens or as a catch all.


I cut all the pieces and then cut binding strips. I wanted the project to go quickly, so I machine stitched the binding to the front and back, adding a decorative stitch for the front of the piece. I'm not sure I will do that when binding of the entire piece. Next, I sewed the small pieces that hold the back of the notebook in place. I'm sewing four covers at once. So I stopped after turning the last strip inside out.


I still need to sew the pieces together and add the binding. But that will wait until Monday. I need to purchase some large buttons for the flap and I want to try to find some darker velcro for the closing. 


I realized that I needed to photograph my progress while I was sewing along. It is great practice for my photography class. I'm pleased to say I shot the entire time in manual mode. A big accomplishment for me. 

Not that every shot was good, by no means, some were really bad. But I'm learning from my mistakes. Mistake #1 is not wearing my glasses and having the diopter set for corrected vision! LOL Several of my photos were blurry because of that.



Asher decided to come and watch my progress.

Tracy

Thursday, July 28, 2011

Summer's Over

Or so it seems. Teachers in my county have had two complete days of inservice. Tomorrow, we have an administrative day which means we get some time to spend in our rooms prepping for the new year.

We will get schedules and student rosters tomorrow. This will give us some specific prep time. I received my textbooks today for one class. I have already started pulling materials. I know that sounds a little slow, but I've never taught this class and had no idea how the text fit into the curriculum standards.

I have a new photography class assignment and I hope to be able to take some pictures at school depicting the first day of school. It will be a "day in the life of" study. I'm looking forward to the photo shoot.

I will be teaching 8th grade US History and several more classes. I'm looking forward to next week when students start.

Tracy

Monday, July 25, 2011

The End - Bye Harry

I went to see the last Harry Potter movie today. Sis and I splurged for 3D IMAX and it did not disappoint. Of course it was a different take than the book, but I expected it to be different. In preparation I've been retracing the series. I'm on book six. My trip to Alaska came mid-read.

I am sorry to see Harry all grown up.

On the photo front, the assignment this week was to do a diptych. I naturally drew a blank and had to call sister for artistic pump priming. She helped a lot. I took one set today that I liked and hope to do another tomorrow. As I look at the pics up close I realize the focus could have been a little sharper. Also, no matter how much delinting I did, lovely cat fibers still show up on the black velvet.

Blogger still doesn't like to upload my pics. Will try from different computer tomorrow.

Friday, July 22, 2011

Weekend Arrives

It is hard to believe we came home on Monday. Sunday, we did another tour of Anchorage and then drove to Whittier. It was a wonderful trip. The town of Whittier is exactly what you imagine a seaside Alaskan village to be like. It was foggy and boats were out in the water. It was very poetic. We had to drive through the continent's longest tunnel to get there. It was a unique experience.

We started our day by seeing a black bear cub and ended the evening with a moose and calf sighting. It was a great day.

After traveling all day Monday, my body decided Tuesday was a day of rest and I slept in late and went to bed early. We had school in-service Thursday and next week the school year starts.

I leave you with these memories of Alaska.



Saturday, July 16, 2011

Saturday - tourist day

All I can say is wow! I serve an awesome Creator and His work is magnificent.

blogger hates my photos so I will post some here - flickr.com/noahtracy

Friday - End of park experience

Thursday and Friday were big days for the mission teams. We ended our time with park parties. One we hosted and one we served as cooks and clean up!

But we started each day with a time to run team errands. We had completed all of our in-park service projects and the ship hadn't arrived for the food bank. So we spent Thursday getting team pictures printed and while running into the stores, team members made a great decision. They decided to bless the children in our park with backpacks.

It was great fun, they purchased backpacks, pencil boxes, markers, and notebooks. We filled the boxes with candy, gum, and our team picture. We took the two mornings to purchase the items and then prepare the backpacks.

On Thursday afternoon we had our park time and we just loved on the kids. We saw new faces and had a great time just loving on the kids. That night we had our park party. It involved a bouncy house, hair paint and hot dogs. Needless to say, the kids had a blast. One of the teams here came and did drama skits, a great time was had by all.

Friday afternoon, we had a small turn out. We got to visit with most of our regular kids and we just spent the day giving out lunches and hanging out. The sun was out and you can tell the kids aren't used to warm 70+ degree days. They loved to stay in the shade. We had a great time handing out backpacks and talking to the kids for the last time but it was bittersweet. But we know the next team will have an awesome time with these kids.

We spent the evening on kitchen duty and serving at another teams block party. It was near our park and the make up of kids was a lot different. This area had a lot of Laotian immigrants and their turn out was huge. We cooked over 150 hot dogs and there wasn't a hot dog left when we packed up.

Team devotions and prayer times have been awesome and tomorrow we pack and leave Graceworks. We will have a fun day going to a glacier and having lunch at a wilderness park with all the mission teams.

Our team is tired but still ready to face the day! Can't wait to see God's creation tomorrow.

Friday -

Friday, July 15, 2011

Thursday

This post will come a little later, we just got in and I'm too tired to think and type. :)

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Wednesday - Warfare

Today started out a little on the down side. After a great breakfast and chapel, we found out that the ship hadn't arrived for the food bank. We had a back up plan of working at the park, mowing and weed-eating the area where we serve lunch and the park that has been recently reclaimed from nature.

The service work went very quickly but it didn't feel like we had accomplished a lot. The ladies went and ran team errands and we were finished very early. We left the park and had our lunch in the mall next to the park. The mall is very empty, lots of empty store fronts, very depressing. After lunch we decided to drive through the park and pray over the trailer court.

I think several of team members felt the spiritual warfare that was taking place. My heart broke as child after child darted in the road or played in the dirt and NO one was watching out for these babies. Tiny little people left unattended and it seemed like they were so unloved. I just started praying and inwardly weeping.

Phil drove us back to the park, freshly mowed, called the team to prayer and then sent us out for personal prayer and quiet. All I could do was weep as I prayed. I felt such battle taking place over this area. I called on My God to do victory and work through our team and those to come.

We left the prayer time and headed to feed lunch to the park children. We expected more kids because the sun/Son had come out and it was time to win some hearts. We ran out of lunches and had more kids show up after lunch was over. We played intentional games and after the games Chris led the kids in a time of bible study and discussed the parable of salt and light. It was awesome.

More kids showed up and the guys were wore out from all the playing, tickling and just intense conversations. I watched Robby grab four guys and just pour into them. Cary and Phil had several others and were just in intense conversations. Brittany and I talked with sweet little girls and just loved on them, told them Bible stories and just tried to explain how much God loved on them. Chris had a group of both girls and boys and we had NINE kids led to the Lord today!!!

The battle was fierce but God had victory. I can't wait to see what tomorrow brings.

NO photos again, blogger hates my collection.

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Tuesday - Rain Day

An awesome day today!!! We started with a great breakfast of pancakes with homemade blueberry syrup and fresh fruit - yumm! From there to chapel where Phil brought the message about praying and listening to God's voice.

From chapel we went to a local church to help in their food bank. They were in great need of volunteers and were very appreciative of the help. Several team members worked with the clients by helping them shop and making them feel welcome/loved on. Just talking, asking for prayer requests and asking them to come to church on Sunday. The rest of the team worked keeping the shopping carts prepared with bags and boxes broken down and out of the way. It was a great morning and we may work there again tomorrow, helping unload and organize a shipment.

We headed out for lunch and realized our lunches had been left at the home church! Ooops! so we headed to a nearby Subway/Burger King and had lunch. While eating lunch, the rain began. Luckily it was a soft rain. We headed to the park and prepared canopy/tents for lunch. After the kids ate lunch, we play lots of Ninja and freeze tag. We played for almost two hours and took time to look for a lost coin and share the parable of the lost coin! It was great. Kids came and went - it was cold as the rain fell, but we were pleased with who the Lord brought to us and the one on one time we could have with the kiddos.

After the park, we came back to the church, had a brief rest and then an amazing dinner. The wonderful cooks prepared salmon (smoked, grilled and blackened), halibut (baked and fried), coleslaw!, and hush puppies (regular and jalapeno). It was delicious and the first time I've ever liked salmon. So thankful for this awesome team that volunteers to staff the kitchen!!

After dinner, several team members headed out for a three mile hike, Phil and Andy are roughing in a door frame here at the church (the church is installing all new outer doors), and some of us are having down time. Daily team devotions and team debrief to come!

Photos later - blogger really isn't liking my connection

Monday, July 11, 2011

Monday Evening

Today, we had orientation at Graceworks Ministries, what an awesome ministry. There are five teams here this week, working in five different neighborhoods. The ministry is very organized, we are all color coded (we are yellow), vans are named (bear van), and neighborhood hosts are assigned to each team. They have really planned how to best use their time and talents.



We worked in Penland park today in a 450 site trailer court. Very inner city, exactly what you imagine in this type of facility. There is a great diversity in the area, both in people groups and family makeup. We had 25+ kids at the park. We are feeding them lunch (federal lunch program) and after lunch we have two hours planned to love on these kids. It is a very young group of kids at the park, ages 3 - 12 with the majority in the 3 - 7 age range. We will have a family night on Thursday.

It was a great day, we had several of the children asking great questions and showing amazing knowledge, someone at home is really pouring into them. After we had our team time, two of the kids met with Phil and a group and had more questions. He walked them through salvation and Jesus' love and they accepted Christ!! Great afternoon.

We followed that with a nice team worship time before dinner and we are about to have devotions. For those of you looking for awesome Alaska photos, sorry! 1) we've been asked to wait a little while before taking pictures with the kids and 2) it is cloudy and you can barely see the awesome mountains surrounding Anchorage.

I leave you with this prayer request for Tuesday. Pray for the children to return, for our team to be unified and very specific in actions, continued ministry to the area, this area to fall in love with Jesus!

We are here!


We made it to Anchorage. We had a little delay Minneapolis as we waited for a storm to blow over us. But everything else was smooth! Here are today's prayer requests and I will write about today a this evening.

Monday, July 11 – Saturday, July 16:

Pray for our team to be rested and ready for the work that lies ahead each day. Each of these days will be filled with sharing the Gospel with the Boys and Girls Club, and serving the community. Each day, for some children/teens, this will be the first time that they have ever heard the name of Jesus! Pray that the Holy Spirit fills us, that God speaks through us, and that the love of Christ captures the hearts of those we witness to. Pray for strength, boldness, unity, love, and protection. Pray that Heaven has just become populated with more souls for the Kingdom as Hell become more deserted.

“And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly...being chosen to carry the name of Jesus....proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.” (ACTS 6:7;9:15;28:31) SERIOUSLY PRAY BIG THINGS!! PRAY THAT GOD WOULD DO SOMETHING SO SUPERNATURAL IN ALASKA THAT IS COULD ONLY BE EXPLAINED BY THE FACT THAT GOD HAD SHOWN UP AND SHOWED OFF; THAT THE WORK WOULD LAST; AND THAT IT WOULD NOT BE DEPENDENT UPON US TO KEEP IT GOING BUT WILL BE CARRIED OUT BY THOSE WHO EMBRACED THE CALL. PRAY THAT GOD RAISES UP GENERATIONAL GIANTS THAT WILL HAVE A RIPPLE EFFECT THROUGHOUT GENERATIONS TO COME!!! Also, please continue to pray over our families for protection as we are away.

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Prayers for Sunday

Sunday, July 10:

Please pray for safety, flight connections and unity of our team as we travel to Knoxville and Nashville airports. Our team connects in Minneapolis to fly the last leg together to Alaska. Pray that God begins to place His burden on our hearts for those that He is going to cross in our paths. Pray that God will use us to be the fragrance and light of the Gospel as we drive, fill up for gas, through the airport, security, terminal and on the plane. May our eyes be opened and our hearts be ready for ALL opportunities to share the love of Christ through our words and our actions. Pray for the hearts and field to be ready for those in Anchorage that we will be meeting. Pray that the Holy Spirit begins to awaken souls to be stirred for what’s to come. Pray for God’s protection over our families as we leave them for the week.

Welcome

I am about to start on a new journey. I am headed on a mission trip and I will be using the blog as part of my journal. When I return it will also be a place to share my love of the Lord, stitching, quilting, and photography. Thanks Tammie for pushing me to start the blog.