i can’t believe it’s wednesday already!  it’s been going so well and everyone has been working great together as groups and it’s been a very fun week.

this has been a great serve week so far in terms of wonderful kids, great leaders and just lots of blessings and God sightings.  thanks to God for making this week flow so smooth for all.  we have one more work day left to make a difference in the community and touch people’s live.  then thursday night we have dinner in downtown holland and see the street performers.  friday we wrap up with our day floating down the muskegon river and jolene’s last talk with us.

thanks for prayer and well wishes and we’ll post a bit more tomorrow.  here’s a few more pictures or check out flickr page.

anita’s girls

at the habitat restore

clearning the jungle

go madison!

well, it’s a rainy morning, but we’re off to a great start.

• 87 students and leaders
• 13 small groups
• 6 barnabas team members
• over 20 work sites
• a couple of inches of rain
• and a great group to work with!

it’s fun to meet knew people and see old friends and everyone is getting along wonderfully.

i’ve just posted pictures on flickr [ http://www.flickr.com/photos/harderwykserve/ ] and you can check them out at the link.  you can also add me as a facebook friend if you want [ ty hogue ] and i’ll have pictures there too.

please continue to pray for us, the worship band, jolene our speaker and everyone involved this week.  out theme is “living inside out” and we want to let the spirit of God work through us and show us how we should be his servants this week.

blessings,

ty

ps.  here are a few pictures…

hey all,

this summer we’ll have a flickr page to make seeing, printing and even ordering pictures easier!  our page will be…

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hollandserve/

we’re looking forward to seeing you all in a few months. if you have any questions or comments, please feel free to let us know!

pax: ty

if you are a parent reading this blog then ask your child when they get home about the dollar dinner.  our experience tonight was about trying to understand the injustice of economics and the difficulty people have providing for their families needs.  it went so well!

we gave each student and leader $1 and told them that is all they had to spend for their dinner.  they could either spend it individually or with their group.  they could only shop at convenience stores, dollar stores or gas stations.  i wanted them to experience what someone who may only have $1 a meal budgeted has to deal with when they buy food.  for someone working at minimum wage, $100 for food a month is 10% of what they make and wouldn’t be out of the question.

they all did so well and when it was all said and done we spent $72 dollars to feed 85 people and had leftover food.  pretty sweet.  we hope that this had an impact on how we spend out money, how we have so much variety and choices when it comes to our food and that maybe, just maybe, God is concerned about how we eat and use our resources wisely.

something i hope will have an impact on each of us for a long time as well as keep us asking questions and looking for solutions so that everyone has plenty of nutritious food to eat.

it was also an amazing work day today and the teams are doing so great out in the community!  here are some pictures…

at the recycling job

woodchip mountain

dinner crew

everyone cooking

chillin on the couch

group number one

practice before worship

fun with ty's serve shirt

have a great night everyone!

peace: ty

here are a few videos of one of the groups today. they were at my neighbor’s house mowing, raking and more.

enjoy!

peace: ty

because of the rain we had a late start and had a few logistical difficulties this morning, but things ran smooth the rest of the work day and it looks like the teams have begun bonding well and working together.  we’re very happy!

here are some pictures from the day…

getting ready to plant

the jared

shovels

some muck

i also took a few videos today of some students working and messing around and will be uploading them as soon as youtube processes them for me.

peace: ty

it’s 8:31 and we are in the midst of a pretty sweet thunder storm.  the power just went out for about 30 seconds and aaron is now reading scripture to everyone with a flashlight.  we’ll probably delay the work sites for about an hour until the storm passes.

it’s pretty impressive!

peace: ty

we are in the midst of our leaders meeting at this moment and mark and nate are talking about worksites.  i figured that gives me time to start on the blog.

all the groups and kids are here safe and so far it’s been a great evening.

i will be posting pictures later this evening after students are in bed.  thanks for all your prayers!

peace: ty

our dates for hollandserve for 2008 are…

august 3rd to 8th

we’ve got great work sites coming together, our speaker trent is amazing, the band is fired up and we’re making plans to go tubing on the muskegon river again!

we can’t wait to see you here this summer.

pax: ty