Good Parents gone Bad!!

I don't want to say we are bad parents, I just want to say we have made poor choices in our first week of parenting our new dog Zoe....Ok, here is the story...when we first got Zoë we had great intentions of helping her become the great dog God has created her to be. We spent a lot of money on toys, good food, fancy dog dishes, fo-rhinestone collar, a long leash, balls, Frisbees, and a big fluffy bed. We have fallen in love with her, and the joy she finds in all these things. We laid down the house rules so she would know our standards of living: here are our rules:

1. NO getting dirty in yucky nasty ponds. Labs love to swim, and Zoe is no exception, she grew up swimming in a pond out her back door, however, the ponds in our area are nasty and full of seaweed, plus when she comes out she is no longer beautiful blonde but black from the mud and grime.

2. NO swimming in Rosie's (Grandma walls) pool!! Her nails can hurt the sides, and plus, dogs should not play in the pool.

3. NO SLEEPING IN THE BED! Dogs are dogs and don’t belong in beds.

Well you can see by the pictures below, we have given in on all three of our core rules. We tried to be good parents, but in one simple week we have given in to her cuteness. I just want to say for the record, all the rules have been broken through Danielle, as the one picture can show.

We love our Zoe and are having fun with her anyway!! This is good training for future additions to our family, but at this rate, we are not doing to well with rules.

Picnic

Last night Danielle and I had dinner with a small group from Church. We are unable to be apart of their Sunday school class, because we are teaching "Breakfast Club" but they adopted us for their picnic. As we all shared about work, family, life, and our new puppy, I was reminded of the deep joy that grows through community. We had a great time last night, and really loved the people we had dinner with.

Side Note: If YOU are not involved in a Christian community, and I don't mean Sunday morning worship...I mean a group of people that you know care about you personally, and connect with you. Work to get this, as if your life depended on it. Because truthfully, I believe your spiritual life does!

Thank you so much Scott and Jill for inviting us. And Patty, Mark, Jay, Ann, Kelly, Alisa, and all the kids, THANK YOU for allowing Danielle and I to fit right in! We loved it!

John's New Grad Blog

I am doing all the work, you can benefit! Enjoy and of course, LEAVE A COMMENT!

Do you love the Bible? Then check this out!

http://www.thebricktestament.com/

If you love the Bible, and have gone through Danielle's 12 Stages of the Ages teachings you will love this site! To all the CRM friends who went through a semester of BIBLE101, you will love this site!

BIBLE RAP!!! YEAH!!!!!

Pictures of ZOE!!!

Our new Daughter

Well, it has been over a week since our last post. We had ICD Teen Camp (Indiana Central District) this past week

http://www.icdteens.com

and had a great time hanging out with Jeremy and Andrea Summers. Also, this was a key week for Danielle and I to bond with our new students here in Fishers. The week went great! We love our new students and really had a great time laughing with them. Camp was rainy most of the week so that was a bummer, but it did not dampen the movement of the Holy Spirit in our hearts. God moved through the worship sets and speaking, we were very thankful to be there.

At the same time, this years camp for me was hard. I really miss our students from CRM, and found myself often thinking back to camp days in Wisconsin. God is teaching us many things, and giving us a ton of hope and love for Fishers. Our heart is growing into our new home and our new ministry here.

God has been blessing Danielle and I. We have been going going going going and my back couldn't take any more. On Wednesday after a great late night basketball game my back gave out. I guess I really hurt it bad. I suffered through the rest of the week and then went to the chiropractor on Saturday. He said I had a bulged disk and confirmed my pain. He adjusted me a bit and sent me on my way!!! It was a miracle!! Tonight, I feel awesome, and tomorrow i will follow up with him again. I have to say thanks to CK for giving us his name. ChiroSpa in Fishers Indiana gave Danielle and I a great deal because we are clergy. ChiroSpa feels that it is their business' ministry to minister to Pastors, so they give care to Pastors and their families for next to nothing. I really appriciated them and hope you choose them if you are looking for a Chiropractor. We have used them and love them!! And now we LOVE CHIROSPA of Fishers!!

[ side note...Danielle is on the phone right now with her family in Austrailia...they were singing her Happy BIrthday...because in Australia it is Danielle's Birthday!! Thanks Blackwoods, we love you all!!

http://www.blackwoods.us

Well, Danielle's Birthday is tomorrow. She is going to be 26!!!!! We are closer to 30 than ever before! I can't believe it! We are starting the 5 day celebration of Danielle's birthday, so give us a call and say hi! Mike and Tina always joke about how we celebrate such long birthdays, and this year we have a special celebration with ZOE!!!!

LET'S tell you about ZOE!!!! Zoe is a our new little girl. She is an 11 month old yellow Lab. She is so beautiful and full of energy! She really gives Danielle a run for her money when it comes to playing. And Zoe loves to fetch the ball, in fact I think she is obsessed with it! She is very well behaved, knowing how to sit, lay down, and fetch. She is very house trained, holding it today for a record 5 hours during church. We were so proud of her!! Right now, she is standing next to me holding her tennis ball, just hoping i would have a spurt of energy at 11:23pm on Sunday night and want to play fetch. HAHAHAHAHAA

Anyway, Danielle and I love our new girl. We are showering her with gifts, love and attention. Everything she does is so great! It is hard to leave her alone, because we want to rush back to her. She is a beautiful gift! She was totally free!!! We are so lucky!! We can't wait to show her off to friends!

In our next post we will give some pictures.

Some Pictures from the Freed Family Foto Booth

Here are some pictures we took this week during July 4th of friends in the Freed Family Foto Booth!


Grandma Cole, Danielle and I

Mom and Dad Freed::: i love having crazy people for parents!

Mom and Dad Freed

Crazy Mama Freed

Great picture of Grandma Cole

Some more pictures of Guatemala

Here are some more pictures of our missions trip to Guatemala. You can read the journal entry below. thanks for checking in! Leave us a comment!!

back...for now

WOW! It has been a whirlwind of two weeks. As you know...if you have been keeping up on this blog or calling us...we have been in Milwaukee and then last week we were in Guatemala doing missions work. While the trips were both really short, they were extremly "impacto" on our lives. We have been running from one project to another. In Guatemala our eyes were open to huge devistation from mud slides, along with poverty stricken fmailies that live in grass huts. They have no shoes, and many of the children have worms; however, God opened doors for us to serve in little ways, but mind you, little ways for Jesus are big ways for eternity! We gave 250 pairs of shoes to children in a little village called San Juan. These children had very dirty feet, some even bloody and we washed them with baby wipes and placed new shoes on their feet. They never asked what brand they were, or what color, they were just so excited to have something. We also gave pounds and pounds of candy away. The children, don't get a lot of candy, so we gave lots!! While we were visiting the children and playing with them, we went to a school and gave de-worming medicine to the entire school grades k-6. The stuff tasted nasty but the students knew they needed it. And finally, I helped build a kitchen. That's right...with only a trowl and knife i helped a man build a kitchen. It was a huge learning experience for me, but brought some beautiful memories.

Thank you so much for all of you who prayed for Danielle, the students and myself as we travled and ministered to people. God's truly blessed our two weeks with strength, power, and new vision for our ministry in Fishers. Danielle and I cried often while we were in Guatemala it was very hard for me to see the pain and devistation this nation has. But at the same time, I knew God was there, and these people who had nothing, really had more than what appeared to my Western, materialism driven eyes. They were all very conected with family, they really cared for each other, and everyone smiled. They did not have much food, or clean water, but they smiled, because life was about more than gaining and storing up...it was about love. God's love is very much alive in Guatemala, you can feel it in the hearts of the children when they climb on your back and whisper "thank you" in broken english because of a piece of "dulce" [candy] you have given them.

Our words nor blog could ever describe the imprint Guatemala left on our hearts. We hope to go back next year...and yes...take you with us!!

Special thanks to our family Jodi and Paul for giving us a tour of their village and home in Guatemala. The coffee is amazing and your home is very beautiful!!! (And Danielle sends well wishes to the dog!)

Well.....I am all caught up with the two weeks of Grad work I left here, our Apartment is still not all the way moved in, and we have the begining of a week of Youth Camp on Monday...life is good...busy...but really good!!

quick report before we leave again

Report:
we arrived after many hours in traffic jams and constant traveling. We boys slept in the damp hot basement and the girls staid in the hot dusty second floor of the NON-air conditioned Unity Lutheran Church in downtown Milwaukee. We woke each morning at 7:15am and took all of our clothes, toiletries and food for an entire day of serving the Lord. Each site was unique and required a unique perspective:

St Ann Center was an elderly, handicap and children care facility that provided care, compassion and programming each day for it's visitors. To help give care and compassion was a team of students, who played cards with the elderly, played with children on the play ground, help clean up the grounds, and helped facilitate adult care.

TriCorp was a home for emotionally and mentally hurting people. Our young men worked very hard behind the scenes using their strength to serve the Lord. Much sweat and hard work went into helping the facility move a ton of Mattresses and other rooms needing cleaned. Windows were washed with the love of Jesus through these tough young men.

Gingerbread Land was a whole city block managed by Mother Clara who gave care to families who needed home and a hot meal. All the houses are painted in WILD COLOR like hot pink bring green and yellow. The trees all hold signs such as "drive slow" and "Jesus loves you" the side walks are painted in wild colors as well. Our team of students help weed an entire lot for a garden, painted a playground, cleaned an old burned out church, planted a beautiful flower garden, and played with children who hunger for love.

Family House is a home for elderly people who can not afford the nursing home or other services. The team of students sorted clothes, and put on a play for the residence. They clean and organized HUGE piles of clothes, blankets and other items. Helping the home put together their annual clothing distribution to residence. Janet even help feed the patience. Which was an eye opening experience. This team also helped at "the Gathering" a soup kitchen that fed almost 400 homeless with the help of the students.

As the new youth pastor it was an honor to join them this week. Danielle and I were so proud to be counted among the Fall Creek group. We have great kids who are hungry to serve the Lord. We all look forward to next years missions trip and thank the church for providing this opportunity. Many lives were eternally changed in the process of making small changes through missions work. We fed the hungry, clothed the naked, helped the sick and hurting, and planted our sweat in a place that was not our home. We gave, and expected nothing in return. We spent everything we had for the spreading of the Gospel. It was a victorious week!! Praise the Lord!!!

pardon the grammer...i am very sleepy!! We leave for Guatemala in 7 hours.

jf

God's On the Move...and we are along for the Ride!

Where Beer is Born and Brats are Devoured


Hey Friends, Danielle and I stopped for a quick minute to ask for your prayers. As many of you already know, we are leaving for a couple missions trips tomorrow following Church. We are spending a week in Milwaukee [YES! This is very weird for us!] doing missions with "YouthWork". We hope to be working with the Milwaukee Rescue mission where we will be able to see some old friends. We will be staying on the far North side of Milwaukee and bussing in everyday to the project sites. We have never done a trip with YouthWorks but hope it is the begining of a long beautiful relationship. Many of you remember our trip to South Chicago last fall, and we are praying for the same outcome: Deep dependence on God; Stretching of Our Character and Faith; Moving past being "nice" and into the deep realm of Kindness; and finally falling into the deep moving work of the Holy Spirit in the lives of everday people. We are praying for power, and open eyes on this trip. I am expecting it to be difficult for me to see God in a familiar setting like Milwaukee.


We leave Milwaukee on the 23rd at Noon, and Return to Fishers at around 6pm...then do a quick wash of our clothes and leave for Guatemala at 4:30AM on Saturday. We will fly to Guatemala and do missions work with YES! Ministries. We are pumped about this trip because it will be our first spanish speaking missions expereince. We were in Cancun for our honeymoon 3 years ago...but we suspect this trip to South America will be MUCH diffrent. We are praying that we stay dry. We have done our research and read that it was the rainy season. So we are expecting damp clothes and short nights of sleep. We are not real sure exactly what we are doing, but we do know we will be building a wall for a church, passing out shoes to children while at the same time washing their feet with baby wipes, and finally doing a small children's bible school [which Danielle will be good at]. We wish we had our friend Brittney V. with us because of her vast Spanish skills, but we are praying the Holy Spirit gives us wise tongues.

Much of the next two weeks will depend on the Holy Spirits work in our lives. While we are excited about this, it means one very crucial thing....we must become less so that HE becomes MORE! So we are praying that our desires, plans, comfort level, and strength takes a back seat to the POWER and PURIFYING work of the Holy Spirit in our lives. We hope these next two weeks will draw us closer to our new students. Taking us past the student to Pastor relationship into a deep community of brothers and sisters in Christ.

Finally, thank YOU for your prayers. And thanks FALL CREEK for providing the funds for Danielle and I to take this trip. We know before you even met us, you made the committment to provide the funds. We appreciate it, and hope to make you proud.

Love you all. Pray for us! and remember: God is on the Move!!!

Beautiful Guatemala!

Jay and Ann

Jay and Ann are cool new friends!! We grilled out with us tonight..the chicken was not that good...but they were awesome! of course we had a ton of laughs with the freed family foto booth. They are an intresting couple who moved here from California and are starting life here. They were recently married and now are searching together for God's Life for them. We are excited about connecting our lives to theirs!

Karen and Chad from Ft. Wayne

Our Friends Karen and Chad came over today on their way to her parents house. They took some great pictures with the Freed Foto Booth!!!!
Thanks guys for having fun with us!

Couple Pictures of friends...and grill

Pretty Lily
Here is a picture of our friend Shanna's beautiful little girl Lily. As most of you know, most little kids are scared of me, and I don't know why, but I snaped this picture of her being mean to me=)


JT and Kelli
These are two great friends! They have been married now for a whole year, and are so cute together! It was great having dinner with them last week [pre Freed Foto Booth]. Thanks guys for coming over!!!


Danielle and Benjamin
This is not ours!!! I know how the rumor mills can start. but this is little beautiful bundle belongs to Shanna. She has so beautiful children! Thanks Shanna for letting us hold and love your kids. They are beautiful!


Our Duck Friends
Ok, these are some new friends we made. We even bought them some bird seed. And last night we grilled some hotdogs and Danielle gave them her bun. They are really cute and we hope they bring all their friends to our house. But they may not come back after we get our dog.


The Beautiful Grill
Oh yeah!! This is our prize grill. So far since we have put it together, we have grilled out almost EVERY DAY! I even grilled in the rain. And tomorrow night we are having Ann and Jay over for a cookout. We love this awesome gift, and use it to serve the Lord.

OH YEAH!!! I Almost Forgot! PHOTO BOOTH

This new MAC BOOK PRO has a camera built into the screen, and also comes with a program called ,,PHOTO BOOTH,, With Photo booth you can do all kinds of silly things with the camera. Here are a couple of the many many pictures we have taken today. And from now on...as a little Freed House Tradition we are going to make everyone take a picture with us in the Photo Booth when they visit our real Freed House so we can add them to our internet Freed House. Anyway, here are a couple pictures of Danielle and I, and KELLY our new friend here. She is going to IWU this fall and came over today for Hamburgers off our new grill. Which I am going to take a picture of and share with you some time soon. The grill is awesome and LOVE IT!!!!! we grill everyday!!!!

Enjoy and come over so we can get a picture of YOU in the Freed Foto Booth

Mac Book Pro::::Back and Ready for Action!

Hello Friends, as Danielle told you a couple days ago, my MAC BOOK PRO had to be taken back for repairs...and today, a delivery man showed up with it...it's back and working great. In fact, I am posting to you now from it. This is an awesome machine, and it will be a huge tool for ministry.

Couple of things I learned through my sabbatical from computers:

1. Computers take up a lot of time in my day. I would say that most of my communication and preparation for life is taken up on the computer. Through email, AIM, and blogging I give a lot of time communicating to people, the world is a smaller place, and I have access to more people now than I would have had 10 years ago, which makes preparation much different than in the past. I gather information from all over the globe, from the comfort of my office.

2. Computers give less than they receive. After losing the computer about 3 weeks ago, I realized everything I had given the machine, and how little it had given back. When it fried, I had nothing to show for my loss...but if I fried it would be just fine! ?Does that make sense?

Anyway, Danielle and I are starting our second week at Fall Creek. Sunday was great, and the congregation opened their hearts to us. After church we had lunch with Todd, Becky, Alisa, Jake, Brian, Jolie and all their cute kids. We went to the Chinese buffet, which must be a universal Wesleyan tradition for new people, because that is exactly what we did in Mukwonago {we miss Chen's Kitchen} Our time with these folks on Sunday meant alot to Danielle and I. Fishers, though 20 minutes from where Danielle grew up, is still very new to us. We miss Mukwonago often and keep looking forward to the future when we can love Fishers the same way, so this lunch was a big thing for us, and made us feel more at home here. Thanks everyone!!!!

Finally, before I push publish and crawl into bed, I want to tell you all, THANK YOU!! Your constant prayers, emails, phone calls and love have meant the world to us. In this time Danielle and I have grown closer and have recognized our deep need to depend on the Lord. We know this is all in the foot steps of the Master, and can feel His presence, so join with us in praise, in rejoicing that GOD IS ON THE MOVE!!!!

Good night!! And thanks for the comments!!

The End of the Beginning

Hello Faithful Friends, Family and Followers!
Today's update comes from me, Danielle, and yes, this is my first post to the blog! I'm excited! John is busy keeping up with his masters work and getting the new office settled, me on the other hand, I'm shopping, Garage Sale-ing, visiting friends and family and now, writing on the blog.
People have been asking for an update, so here it is:
We are now in Fishers, getting settled into our apartment, but I'll back track a bit. The above pic is our truck all packed up ready to head out, again a huge thanks to everyone who helped, what would we have done with out you?!?!
Sunday afternoon, we said goodbye to our dearest friends in Mukwonago. It was heartbreaking to have to leave them. It was emotionally draining and much harder than we anticipated, but we had to remain strong and know that we are following the Lord, and He knows what He's doing, even when we don't. We trucked down the interstate right to our apartment where there was a good 35 people waiting to help us unload our truck. We were so thankful to have their smiling faces awaiting our arrival. They unloaded the truck within a hour, then went to John's office to unload all the office gear, then onto my mom and dad's to store all the "storage" stuff, aka "Junk we don't need but think we do"!! :) Everyone was so helpful, some of our family even until 2 AM that nite! We are thankful to be with people who love us so much-our family and Fall Creek Wesleyan. They are great people who have already been so kind, loving and fun!
All in all, getting settled here hasn't been too hard. We had people from the church bring groceries right away and put then into the fridge and cabinets, then on Monday morning, God sent an angel named Alisa, who helped me get my entire kitchen settled that day! Super cool! We only have about 10 boxes left to go through and decorations to hang, then we need a pantry for our kitchen to store all the food, then we'll be set!
We still miss Mukwonago, and probably will for some time, but we are trusting the Lord and His plan and feel confident that this is the path He is paving for us.

Other news: John is computer-less again, for at least 10 more days. He's heartbroken. He had a brand new Mac Book Pro, BEAUTIFUL and so cool to use and it flipped out when we fed it the Microsoft Office CD, it was SOOO flipped out it had to be sent out to be repaired, and we couldn't even get the CD out...ugh! What a drag for him!
Well anyway, This pic is us as we were about to pull out of the church parking lot last sunday, WE LOVE YOU MUK-TOWN! WE REALLY DO MISS YOU ALL!
PLEASE add a comment, let us know how you are all doing. We'll post more pics of the apartment when we get John's computer back, if not sooner!

Moved out: but not homeless

Well we are all moved out. We are posting to you via Mike and Tina's home in the hills. The view for tomorrow is good. We will pull out just after second service and then try to get to Indy before 8pm. Danielle and I think we can make it, and will probably take 294 around Chicago, rather then the normal 94 straight through. We look forward to seeing everyone and getting moved in to our new home.

If you are in the area...come help us move in!! And pray for us, I am driving the 24 foot truck and pulling a car trailor pulling our Party wagon[mitz expo].

Huge thank you, and hugs [not nugs] to CrossRoad Ministries for movig our whole lives to the parking lot in 60 minutes. That was amazing!! and Steve WOW!! Packed the whole truck for us!! But my most humbling experience was when Dani, Meleissa, and Kara, washed our shower...that was so humbling...I felt like I was living out John 13. Thank you girls, and thank you everyone for all the love you gave us today!!

Pray for us, thank you, and see you later!
jf