Project 18

God is ALIVE in the students at Westwood! On Friday April 11th twelve of us left Area 51 ( a little late due to weather ) and headed to the Ronald McDonald House, to what we later found out was "Westwood Family Fun Night". Cayla prayed for us before we left and specifically that we would be able to minister to these families and that they would see God in us!
When we arrived, there were only a few people down stairs, so Inez, the Resident manager, made an announcement to come join the fun! Darriana was the 1st little girl down stairs and was surrounded by about our entire group. First thing was a puppet show for her (she had a puppet too!) - then on to Dominos (really it was hide the dominos) - then to the computer with the puppets. Then it was time for us all to be entertained by her for a bit until the other group of kids (3 boys) came down. This is when things really picked up - before long there were puppet shows - checkers - horse back rides (Cayla's knees are probably still hurting) - Candy Land games - hide and seek - coloring - booking reading - Duck, Duck, Goose - OF COURSE, Laffy Taffy jokes! - And the best of all........the Hokie Pokie! This was the best because, even the adults joined in - First we got 2 of the dads (Joel and Jeff) to join in, then came Nicole who has been staying at the House since June because of her premature daughter (Michelle) - she joined us for her 1st ever time to do the Hokie Pokie! After some persuasion, we were able to get several adults to join in the fun!

Overall, we talked and played with over 20 adults and 6 children. For over 2 hours, we just tried to take their minds off their children that were in the hospital for either heart operations - spinal operations - or because they were premature.
Joel shared his testimony how God has been helping them through all of the tough times and how he knows it has all happened for a reason. He and his wife have grown closer together and he just got a MUCH better job - GOD IS AWESOME!

One of our "keepsakes" was to bring back handprints. We traced hands of most of the ones we talked to, had them write their names or child's name or family name on the hand. We told them we wanted something that would remind us to pray for them. These hands have been cut out and pasted to a poster board and will hang with the pictures of this project at Area 51! Please come by and join us in praying for these families by name.

Thank you so much for showing these folks a good time and that God is ALIVE! I am really proud of all of you! It was just AWESOME to see Courtney reading, playing Candy Land, talking to the parents - Jennifer playing Duck, Duck, Goose and coloring - Michael and Stephen getting adults to trace their hands for our poster - Stephen playing checkers with the kids - Liz coloring or playing puppets or Candy Land with the kids - Casey and his "Don" puppet playing with the kids or doing the Hokie Pokie or taking video - Cayla telling telling Laffy Taffy jokes or giving a lot of horse back rides or tracing hands - Mary Afton playing checkers or giving horse rides or reading a book - Ellen Ann was also giving horse rides - playing Duck, Duck Goose or doing the Hokie Pokie - Katie doing the Hokie Pokie or talking to the parents or playing Duck, Duck, Goose or coloring - Haley doing the Hokie Pokie or playing Duck, Duck Goose or coloring with the kids. Everyone did a little of everything, I just tried to pick out specifics from pictures taken.

Special thanks also to Karla (my AWESOME wife) for the huge cookie cake we took for the guests to enjoy!

- Jeff Long