Prayer Household of the Month

Page 2Service Adventure News

Prayer Household of the MonthEach month well pray for a specific unit. This month we will focus on the Albany unit. Please pray for:Ashley BrughNat DickBelinda MuellerJill, Ben, Jakoby & Nolan Baker

Prayer Requests Pray for Jill Swiers Baker as she meets with doctors to discern next steps for relief from headaches and dizziness. Praise for support committees in each location who care deeply about Service Adventure.

April birthdays13 Elena Entz; MMNStaff21 Belinda Mueller,Albany21 Adrienne Derstine,Albuquerque25 Robert Wolf, Johnstown

April 2014

Meet the Albany Unit!

Each month we will use this newsletter as a way to learn more about whats going on throughout Service Adventure and get to know people in a specific location. This month we are focusing on the Albany Service Adventure unit. Enjoy getting to know a bit about who they are and what they are doing this year.

Albany unit back: Ashley Brugh, Nat Dick and Belinda Mueller Front: Jakoby, Jill, Nolan and Ben Baker

Check it out!Brian Krehbiel and the Albuquerque unit created this very cool video! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with us.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DGeCB3hcCRs

Hello! My name is Ashley Brugh and I am from Goshen, Indiana. My job placements are at Quail Run in the Mennonite Village, which is an assisted living retirement home, and Chance, a recovery facility for people struggling with addictions. At both of these placements I assist the activities director, which means I get a lot of opportunity for one on one time and social involvement. Service Adventure has been a terrific experience for me. I have been challenged in many ways, get the opportunity to live with some lovely people, and have made countless good memories throughout the year. Some of my favorite memories from this year are of trips weve gone on to the coast or the city or on hikes, but also times of just being in the house together and sharing a lot of laughs.

Greetings! Im Nat Dick, and Im most recently from North Newton, KS. Ive been serving this year at the Albany Habitat for Humanity ReStore as well as the Community After School Program, a childcare program for elementary aged children in the community. My daily activities in my placements include, but are not limited to, testing appliances, fixing desks, mixing paint (ReStore), and planning gym games, demonstrating professional coloring techniques, and serving snacks (CAP). My placements provide me a wonderful mix of technical manual labor and energetic human interaction. In my free time, I enjoy rock climbing, playing soccer and disc golf, and cycling. During my tenure in Service Adventure, Ive appreciated the practical skills Ive gained at my jobs, the community weve built in our unit, and the new and beautiful sights, sounds, and tastes Ive experienced here in Oregon.

Hi everyone! My name is Belinda and I have the honor to be in the Albany Service Adventure Unit. Only three months are left and I have been faced with new adventures, challenges and experiences. I have two work placements. Most of the time I work at the Mennonite Village, a retirement home, and I help with running the activities. Together with the residents we bake cookies, play bingo and cards, go on outings and do other fun things. Three hours a week I go to a High School and help in a German class. I like both work placements very much and they both enrich me.One of my highlights of Service Adventure was in the beginning when we went to Crater Lake and jumped from a cliff into the lake.One thing I enjoy here is the beautiful landscape of Oregon. Whether the coast or the mountains, the nature shows me what a gigantic creator we have. Im so glad God sent me to this place.

Jill Swiers BakerWhat have I learned so far this year? I am not a superhero. I cannot do everything. And I need other people. I was a participant in Service Adventure ten years ago, and as I was looking through an old journal from my year of service, I found this:I used to think that I could do anything I wanted to do. By myself. And this year of service has taught me (financially and otherwise) that I cant. I need other people. And sometimes, I need to accept other peoples gifts (money, time, etc.) not because I need it, but because they need to give it.

When I read that, I was annoyed at myself for learning the same lesson for ten years. Clearly, God was teaching me that ten years ago, and I have not yet learned what he wanted me to learn. This year, I have had to ask for help for things that I never needed to before. It has been a humbling experience, but a good one. I know more than ever that I have people around me that love and support me, no matter what I need. I also know more than ever that being a superhero is not for real life. Its as much of a fairytale as Cinderella.

Hello, I am Ben Baker and I am one of the two leaders of the Albany, Oregon unit. I am originally from Oregon, just north of Albany in Salem. My wife, Jill, and I moved to Minnesota in 2009not long after we were married. For me, even though I miss lots of people in Minnesota, it is really good to be back on the west coast in the area where I grew up. We have two boys, Jakoby, who will be 3 in May and Nolan, who will be 1 in May. I am a Physical Education teacher and was not planning on working full time while we were in Service Adventure. The "plan" was to be a substitute and stay-at-home dad on days that my mom could not watch our boys. Those plans changed when a full-time teaching position fell into my lap at an elementary school here in Albany. Working with kids has always been a passion of mine. I have helped out with youth groups, coached basketball and soccer, and worked in schools since I graduated from Western Mennonite High School. I graduated from Oregon State University with my Masters degree in Physical Education in 2008 and would not want to change my profession for anything.At times Service Adventure has been a little bit of a stretch for me, but a stretch in a good way. We have had several discussions during our worship times and that is not one area that I would have talked much in the past. With only five of us in the room there really is no way of hiding and not participating. This is one thing that I am excited about the continued growth in. I am also enjoying the community living aspect of service adventure. It is fun to see my boys interact with and play with the three participants and the joy that flows between them.

Albany Photos

And dont forget to check out their video on YouTube! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtcETci8hAU