Disappear

It was almost 12:00 am on Saturday night and my phone rings. I usually have my phone turned off by this time, but I accidentally left it on. When I answered the phone I could hear the slight sniffles of one of my girls. The first thing she says is, "I have never wanted to disappear more than I do right now."

As I listened to her story I couldn't help but get emotional. She has had such a hard life. With an alcoholic mom and a pot head dad she hasn't had much of a chance. Her parents split up when she was very little and her mother was still using drugs. She and her siblings have been shuffled around from house to house, eventually ending up with their father. All of the kids have anger problems, so things can get pretty heated at their house. Often they will end up saying something to their dad, and he then responds with a phrase such as, "I wish you were never born."

Earlier this fall her older sister gave birth to a baby, and the baby was so sick that she ended up passing away. And now she finds out her father is having another baby. With his girlfriend, whom all the children dislike.

She said, "I'm f***ing mad at God. Why would he do this to me? Why would he take away my sisters baby, and give one to my dad and his girlfriend who are high as a f***ing kite?"

I wish I had a good answer for her, but I don't. Some things in this world are so hard for me to believe. I do not believe that God "caused" this to happen to this sweet girl. I do believe however that He is with her in the midst of this. Though it is ever so hard to see, I know God is there. This girl told me later the next day that she was going to be praying for her dad because he is so messed up. She also said the only thing she can find comfort in during times like these is Psalm 88. If you get a chance to read it, it is a very dark psalm. David is crying out to God and feels like God isn't there. She finds comfort that even people in the bible feel scared and alone sometimes.

I am so impressed with her that even in her darkest moments, when she wants to literally hurt her father, she can still find it in her to pray for him. She has struggled with anger her whole life, so we try to really encourage her when she chooses to break that cycle.

Keep this girl in your thoughts and prayers this week. She needs all the strength she can get!

Girls ALL NIGHTER!

This past week Tami and I took 10 jr. high and high school girls on an all nighter! We left after treehouse got over on Thursday night and headed straight up to Brooklyn Park to the Brunzwick Zone. There we got to bowl for an hour and then play some LAZER TAG.

I came in 2nd in lazer tag, I might add!

After that we headed over to Applebees for some half priced apps and soda. Of course the kids didn't have school on Friday, so they felt sooooo cool going to a restaurant at midnight! Once we had had our fill of chips, salsa, chicken wings and coke, we headed back to my house for the night. The girls, much to my surprise just wanted to go to bed! So we ended up watching a movie and most of them just fell right asleep. Probably because many of them were in junior high and still have bed times!

The next morning Tami and I got up and made some chocolate chip pancakes and we had a family meal together! It was so great to see these girls who absolutely do not associate at school, come together and have a great time. We didn't have a specific purpose for this retreat, other than bringing a group of girls together who don't necessarily associate outside of school. I don't know if that has helped build any bridges between girls, but I do know that they had a great time!

The New Year!

Hello everyone! Treehouse is into the new year and things have been hard so far. I knew that we were in a bit of trouble because of the economy not being up to par, and being that we all had to take a furlough this fall I was assuming that this year would bring about yet another furlough. However last week we found out that two of our beloved staff at TreeHouse were going to be let go as well as all of us taking a 10-15% pay decrease for this upcoming year.

Plymouth TreeHouse happened to be one of the only fully staffed (4 people) areas so we lost one of our male staff members, as well as brooklyn park. It has been so hard to see him go. We had his goodbye party this past Thursday and it was amazing to see all of the lives that Tim impacted. Many of the youth in the room were crying and recounting all of the times he had helped them through their situations. I heard from several different girls who had been either abused or raped in their lives say that he was the first male that they had ever really opened up to. Since many of these kids don't have fathers in their lives it is very hard for them to want to have a relationship with our male staff. However, Tim Eaton surpassed those boundaries and found a way into their lives. And now their lives will never be the same. As shown Thursday night. One girl even said, "You are one of the reasons I believe that true love between a husband and wife is possible."

These statements both make me incredibly happy and break my heart. I'm so glad that we had Tim for as long as we did to help impact the lives of these youth. I will miss him so much in this upcoming year and I hope you will join me in prayer for TreeHouse. I pray that we will not lose any more staff and that we will get back on track financially. I realize that God is way bigger than all of these setbacks we are currently having, but it is hard to remember that on a daily basis.

Also keep Tim Eaton in your prayers and he journey's on to a new adventure in life!

thanks all!

Christmas Blessings!

Hey all! Sorry I have not updated you lately. I just wanted to let you in on a great christmas story! As I was at treehouse last week one of our alumni students was visiting and she came into our main room and saw our b-e-a-utiful Christmas tree. She got kind of a sad look on her face and said, "I wish our family could afford a beautiful tree."

The next day we got a call from one of my kids' mother. She said she and her family were really struggling this year and she was wondering if there was any way we could help. When one of our supporters got wind of this he very generously offered to purchase the trees and christmas gifts for the families! THEN, Target contacted TreeHouse and said they had TWO Christmas trees that they wanted to donate to these families. So today I got to go around to target and cub foods to pick up trees, gift cards, and gifts. Then I got to play santa claus to these families.

As I went up to "Megan's" house I knew she wouldn't be home but that her mother would be. I knocked on the door and was greeted with a smile and as I asked if she needed a tree she looked almost overwhelmed. When we brought it in I noticed that she had some house plants decorated with lights and she said that this was the most beautiful tree she had ever seen, and definitely the most beautiful tree she had ever owned.

Heading to the next house we got to drop off gift cards and two hams to another well known treehouse family. They were overjoyed because now they could afford to buy gifts for their family and feed them on Christmas morning. Then we got to drop off another huge tree and gifts for another family. When I took "Kelly" out later that night she said she was so surprised by the tree in her house! She said her little brother "kenny" ran up to the tree with a huge smile on his face and said, "now that's a big tree."

I was just overwhelmed with the generosity of our supporters who made that possible as well as target. I'm also overwhelmed with seeing the joy in the families that we got to give things to. I think that will be better than any gift I could ever ask for.

Please keep these families in your prayers as we continue to journey through life with them!

heavy heart

One of our treehouse girls gave birth two months ago to a beautiful baby girl.  She was unfortunately born with a disease called Trisomy 18.  This has caused her to have very low birth weight, a collapsed diaphram, and several other complications.  She was born at right around 4 pounds and now two months later is only 5.2 pounds. For her first month of life she came home with her mom, aunties, uncle and grandpa.  She soon was unable to breathe on her own so she had to be rushed to the hospital.  She has spent the past month in the PICU with a tube in her nose forcing her to breathe.  While her mother "Dana" is only 18 she is acting wise beyond her years.  She has spent every waking moment at her bedside giving her kisses, changing her tiny diapers and giving her every bit of love she could give.  Tomorrow is the baby's two month birthday and she is being taken off of her oxygen and is expected to pass soon after.  

I went to visit today and my heart broke for Dana.  I am not sure why she was chosen to get pregnant at 17, give birth to this beautiful baby girl and then have her taken away 2 months later.  It's funny because Dana is acting so grown up about all of this.  She told me today that God can take better care of her baby than she can, so she just has to give her back.  She thinks her baby was brought here to teach her what unconditional love looks like and she is so thankful for that. Dana told me she cherishes each and every second she gets with her daughter.  To keep her child alive at this point would mean surgery after surgery with no guarantee that she would not die on the operation table.  Dana does not want to put her through that. It has been hard enough watching her struggle to breathe for these past two months. 

Most babies diagnosed with Trisomy 18 do not even make it to birth and the ones who do, don't often make it to one year old.  Dana believes her baby girl is a fighter, but she knows she must now let go of her.  She is worried about going back to life without the newest love of her life.  I can't even imagine going home to her bedroom with her baby's crib, clothes, blankets and stuffed animals, .. but not her child. Please pray with me that she continues to look to God for her strength as tomorrow approaches.  Pray that her family surrounds her tomorrow with all the love she deserves and that they can be a support to her in this awful time. Last but not least pray for her child, that God would take her comfortably and embrace her tiny soul. 

Thank you for reading this and praying with me. 

I'll try to keep you updated. 

The Triple Tube!

I just got back from a week at the lake with our kids and it was a BLAST!  Some of these youth had never been in a boat before let alone been tubing or knee boarding.  It was so great to just see their faces when they partook in these activities! 

This whole week we were teaching them about proverbs 3:5-6 "trust in the Lord with all of your heart, lean not on your own understandings. in all your ways acknowledge Him and He will make your paths straight." 

For some of them they have never heard that verse before, and for a couple others, they could recite it by heart. But either way we just talked about the paths they are taking and having them think about whether or not they are on the path that leads to destruction or the path that leads them to God.  In our group of 12 we had kids that have been abused, a girl who has an eating disorder, a youth who is a sex addict, and several that use alcohol and/or drugs to cope.  Most of them are heading down a pretty destructive path. Also among them is a boy who does not want to believe in God. 

On the last night's talk I looked around and found him missing. So I went inside and had one of the best talks I've had in a long time. He has tons of questions about grace and the devil and why people get to go to heaven when they lead such crappy lives, etc... He told me the only reason he believes in God is because he can see the work of the devil. 

That just speaks to the dark places that some of these youth are in.  Now this is a boy who has been coming to TreeHouse for almost two years now and is such a wonderful kid.  He has a sweet heart and is always there to listen to anyone who needs an ear.  He is struggling in his own personal path of hating himself, cutting and using drugs.  

Please join with me in praying for this young man. Pray that he can stand up to his ways of coping (i.e. cutting, anger, drugs) and pray that he learns to lean on God.  

Tour De Scandia

no we did not take our bikes and go through the town of Scandia, but we DID take our 12 passenger van and rock the borders of Scandia! 

Vanessa our intern and I took 7 girls to my home town of Scandia this past weekend and we had a BLAST! We got to my parents house and my mom had the pizza stuff ready for us to make our own pizzas right away! After we chowed down on the pizza's we all got on our swim suits and headed down to Big Marine Lake for a dip.  Yes we did wait 30 minutes before we got into the water! The night was so beautiful, I could not have asked for a better sunset.  The girls did some head stands, chicken fights and drawing in the sand. 

Then we headed back to my parents house for a fire, some smores and a night hike.  For the night hike we decided to blindfold everyone (except me) and the girls had to hold the hand of the girl in front of them as well as behind them and learn to trust AND to lead.  I had a flash light of course, but at any rate, I took them through my very hilly and interesting yard.  There were a couple of giggles and a couple of falls.  Once we had made it the perimeter of our yard I took them to the way front of the yard and lay them down to look up at the stars.  Many of these girls have never really star gazed in their life because they have spent most of their time in the city.  Once they were all laying down I told them they could take off their blind folds, and all was silent.  Maybe a minute later one of the girls just said, "wow." 

Then we talked about what it was like to have to trust the person in front of you to warn you of a hole or root by squeezing your hand.  And what it was like to know that the person behind you is depending on you for that squeeze!  We talked about how the Lord leads each of us through our lives and sometimes we feel like we are blind folded.  We don't know the outcome of our lives, but God does.  Also along the way in life we may trip and fall, and God does not necessarily stop that from happening, but He is always there.  Right next to you.  

We read some scripture about how God placed each star in the sky and knows each one by name.  I asked the girls to count as many stars as they could, and of course they just made up a number.  We talked about how all of those stars are millions of miles away and that even though the universe is HUGE, it still has a limit somewhere out there.  But the second part of the scripture that we read said something about how the knowledge of the Lord is LIMITLESS.  So as far as you can see is no where near the amount of knowledge and love and compassion that God has for each and every one of these girls.  

Many of them had not thought of God in that way and had some great things to say.  Basically we had a wonderful time star gazing.  

Then we all stood up and picked out our favorite star, put our arms straight out and kept our eyes on that one star as we spun and spun until we all fell over.  My favorite game, star spinning.  I only did it once myself, but some of the girls did it 3 times. uck. I would have barfed. 

Anyways, the next day we sent out on Tour De Scandia where we visited each and every  one of the life sized dolla horses in Scandia as well as visited my Pastor Jillene.  While we were visiting with PrJ one of my girls said, Hey, would you baptize me? 

This did not surprise me because the last time I worked at TreeHouse we had planned on getting her baptized but never had the chance to, and so 7.31 was the perfect date for her! My pastor was a bit stunned, but was so gracious and excited to do it.  SO she robed up and we headed up to the sanctuary where she preformed a beautiful baptism and all of the rest of the girls watched.  I was her sponsor and it was so amazing to look at where she has come from in her life, to the past two years that I have known her up until that day.  I was so proud because this is truly a girl who is running after the heart of God and I am just so blessed to know her. I can see her becoming one of our treehouse leaders in this next year.  

Anyways, here are some pictures of our adventures.  Enjoy!