FUSION INNER CITY MISSIONS TRIP 2007

Summer Update!

We are still alive, just as busy as ever! We are settling into our new home, taking up the new hobby of updating and decorating our home. It's alot of fun. We feel very blessed to have this house and already we've had at least 12 people spend the night and easily 50 other visitors for meals or games or just to hang out and see the place, and of course, we are living that!! :) The pic below is of Us and our friends Leanna and Becca as we played trading spaces and painted some old furniture ot update it a bit!!:) We had alot of fun, and did not plan to dress like opposing teams on trading spaces!!:)


After we began the process of moving in, we practically moved out!! We spent a week at church camp, 2 weeks in the Czech Republic and tomorrow, we are off for a week of inner city work in Cincinnati!! Crazy....yes, but we love it!!:) Here are some pics of our adventure to Czech. We absolutly enjoyed our time there so much and feel so blessed to have had the opportunity to serve there and to serve with the people we got to meet and work alongside throughout the trip. We did a VBS for Czech Children in the area of Brno, Czech, and had an utter blast bringing back an "old" VBS from the US called SCUBA! We also helped around the ministry center and got aquaited with the missionaries there and some Czech teens and adults. We really enjoyed their culture! It was a WONDERFUL Trip!!!






Stay tuned for some pics of our home in the almost finished state.
Also, PLEASE Come for a visit, we'll grill for you and play games!! We'd love to have any of our faithful readers stop by to catch up on life!
Thanks for your faithfulness....we've been really busy, but want to hear from all of you, I'd love updates from you all too!!
-Danielle:)

Freeds overseas

John and I are here in Czech after a good 24 hours of traveling and losing a night of sleep. We'll be here until July 3rd with our team of 19 people. We are safe and sound in the Majak center where there are alot of great things happening as we get to know the missionaries, get to meet the children who we are ministring to through VBS and meeting the teenagers from the area. WE are having alot of fun and are looking forward to all God has in store for us still. Some highlights so far include Ryan H losing his luggage, which has still not arrived, and it may be 2 more days till it comes, if it comes...and we had 15 kids at our VBS, we have been loving the food, it's hearty and fresh, the team is working VERY well together and having a ton of fun doing all we do. They all work hard, but have fun while doing so! Most of our days begin at 8am with breakfast, then we go into come type of ministry, wether with kids or the missionaries here, then we have a yummy lunch and have our VBS to follow, then we have another great meal-dinner, then hang out in the back yard playing volleyball, basketball, soccer and whatever other games come about as we get to know more Czech people, all to build relationships and be examples of Christ, then we get together as a team and share about the day, pray togehter, journal our experiences and then hit the sack, and sleep very well. The jet lag isn't too bad, which is a praise. Keep praying for team unity, for God to use us in people's lives, for safety and effectivness.
Thanks for czeching in!

Rednecks!!

Well, we have to admit it at some point...we are both rednecks by nature...we aren't ashamed of it, but neither are we proud...it's just a fact that we have to own up to and face once in a while! :) We thought that we'd share some pics from our Easter weekend, just to prove that fact. On Easter Sunday, Danielle's Dad (David) and brothers Josh and Micah and Sister in Law Kristina along with John-boy decided to spend the afternoon shooting clay piegons in the back yard. They aparently had alot of fun, and come to find out, David was the best, he'd even knock out the ones that other people missed over their heads...all in all, it was fun and they had alot of laughs and great memories.
Oh..and we threw in some bonus redneck material of Zoe!!:)










And lastly--Danielle's Easter Centerpiece creation--made with John's help too!

new Posting on John's Blog

Just a heads up, I have been posting again on my school blog. If you get a chance, check it out. I hope it can make you think, lift your spirits and allow you to grow deeper in your walk with Christ.

WE GOT THE HOUSE!!!

LOOK WHO BOUGHT A HOUSE!!!
WE DID!!!:)
We close and move in May, God REALLY blessed us!!:)

Set Apart

Click on the title of this post and see if you recognize anyone in the video??!! :)

Skiing and Snowboarding in Indiana

Yes my friends, it is possible to ski and snowboard in Indiana...we have large hills in southern Indiana!!:)


We had an awesome snow camp with our distrcit last month, we had a ton of fun with our friends from Fusion and enjoyed some beautiful weather.


John stuck with skiing, and did awesome, it was only his second time and he was skiing just as good as me, and I've been skiing for years! I did the skiing thing most of the weekend, but being true to my frist snowboarding teachers, Sam and Kate McG., I decided to give it another try. I was better, but, still fell ALOT on the bunny hill!! However, I will keep trying, a little at a time. I may never get it, I feel so awkward, but, it's really fun to try. Luckily John was willing to help me down the bunny hills in his regular boots, so I fell LESS, but still fell ALOT!!:)

We will be trying to post more often....sorry it's been scarce....we are possibly experiencing the busiest month of our married life....ugh...John is doubling up masters classes this month, so he's in class 2 nights a week and then has double homework...:( ANYWAY....love you all and look forward to some comments, seeing who reads and cares that we update...

Another Snow Day....in Indiana....

Look how deep it is!!

Wow, it felt like we were back in Wisconsin for a little while this morning! We aren't used to quite this much snow down here. The news is calling it Blizzard conditions! Well, when John and I hear that, we get excited....and so does our little puppy! She LOVES the snow! She can't wait to play in it when she sees it out the back door. She'll just stare out the window when it's really coming down, so, despite the wonderful warmth of our apartment, we decided to take a mid day break from working on our computers and take the lil pup out for an excursion!
MAN---Did we have fun! We were the only people out besides the maintenance guys snow blowing in the falling ice and snow...it was like small pebbles of ice smacking you in the face constantly! It drove us nuts, but didn't phase Zoe of course! She's a trip! We got some AWESOME pics and had to share them with you! Enjoy and stay warm...wherever you are!


READY


SET


JUMP!!!!!


We fetch this little green frog in the snow because the ball sinks and she can't find it because after a few good inhales of snow her little sniffer is frozen!! hehe

Ahhh....so happy together....how sweet!!


Where are you going puppy??

Is that not the funniest pic of her! This shows how much she LOVES to run in the snow!!

Come back Zoe!!!



Ah, all alone now:(


*click on the photos to grasp the real facial expressions, especially the one where Zoe is running away!!!

GO HORSE!!

WOW--Are we excited!
One week ago today we found out our Colts are going to the SUPER BOWL!
PARTY ON!!:)
We have Super Bowl Slam next Sunday @ Fall Creek....MAJOR PAR-TAY!!:)

Kiss Florida Goodbye....Welcome back to snowy Indiana!!

Well, Florida was wonderful. We were very spoiled with wonderful weather while we were there....




But back to Indiana, we are kissing that heat and sun goodbye....things are much different....different than Florida, and even different than the Indiana we left at the new year....




However, we were thrilled to be able to play in the snow with Zoe for the first time! She's so adorable! She loved it, eating it, rolling in it and running after snow BALLS....you should know by now, our dog is overly obsessed with balls of any shape and size, but her all time fav is the mighty tennis ball!!!!

We're Back....again.....!

We are back in blogging land finally. We have had problems updating lately because we are very strict about trying to post with a pic, and if we don't have a pic, we don't post...well, then there is another issue, all of our pics are on John's computer and he's been insainly busy lately, so he doesn't have time to post, nor do I get time to use his computer, SO we are going to try to copy all of our pics onto both computers so that we don't have to go through a long long time like this again, without an update from the Freeds!

Anyway---We had an awesome Holiday season with MANY Christmas parties and celebrations between people at church, friends and of course family. It was nice to be near family again and we have felt very welcomed by our new church family, church staff and new friends in the area.

Here is the wide array of White elephants from our Staff Christmas Party!!




New years was great, we had alot of fun with our new friends Matt and Carin whom we enjoy their friendship, but we are crazy about their kids, I mean, we really do like them too, but their boys are a HOOT! The funniest thing was when Ian, their 3 year old went around the room telling people what they looked like. It started when we looked at a wedding picture of his mom and dad and he said, "Mommy, You look like a princess" then he said "Daddy, you look like an angel" and I asked him what John looked like, and he said "An Angel too" and then what do I, Danielle, look like, and he responded, "You look like a man who rides a horse!" WE LOST IT....he is SOOOOOOOOOOOo funny.




After new years we headed out for Florida where we were a part of the Gathering, a meeting of Weselyan Pastors and families for 4 days(in Orlando), and we had alot of fun there both with our church staff, and with friends from our past and some from our WAY past! I was thrilled to unexpectdly run into my first two youth pastors Brian and Michelle and Barry and Heather. What a huge suprise! We caught up on new times and old. It was wonderful! I also got to see one of our old pastors Bill and Rebecca from the old Memorial Circle days, one of our favorites!

After that we were off to Lake Placid to see my Grandparents and to meet up with some other Aunts and Uncles at their huge house they rent each winter. We were down there for 3 days and got to do alot of fun things. We got to go on a couple of boat rides around the lake they live on, took a tour of an Aligator farm that had 2,000 aligators, some for show and some for eating and making purses and shoes out of. That was an intersting place. We both held a 5 year old Aligator....who had his little mouth taped shut...just to be safe! Then we watched a few movies there and had alot of good eating! We also got to visit the church that my grandparents attend down there then we headed on out to Cocoa Beach.





Cocoa Beach treated us well. Despite the fact that I was sick most of the time we were there (4 days), the weather and the ocean were beautiful. We were in Cocoa during a LOW tourist season, so it was almost like we had everything to ourselves, even the ocean! We were the only people swimming besides the surfers, and most days we were 2 of many 4 or 6 people at the heated pool, which was lovely! Apparently, the second week of January is the time to be there! We also got the privlege of going to Kennedy Space Center where we met a real astronaut who went into space with Sally Ride (the first female in space). He was cool, he did a presentation and showed pictures then we got to get our picture taken with him. We also toured real space shuttles and rockets and all that fun outer space stuff. It was very interesting and fun!


Now--We are back home preparing for our new year. I am now working at the church doing the afterschool program like I did last semester but also taking on a new role as the Student Ministries Assistant...I'm excited!:)
God has been good to us over the last year, there were great times as well as hard times, but we know God's hand was in all of it. I was reminded of a great phrase on my friend Leanne's Myspace
"God is too wise to be mistaken, too good to be unkind, so when you don't understand, when you don't see His plan, when you don't feel His hand, trust His heart." I think that's been our motto this past year, we know we serve and loving and a good God, and we trust Him with everything we've gone through this past year.

We also want to thank our family and friends-new an old- for loving us so much! We love you all!!

Here is an overview collage of Florida...Click to enlarge!!:)

The Freed House for Thanksgiving

OK, going home to Detroit does not happen as much as we would like. But everytime we go home to Mom and Dad Freed's...it is always an experience. For example, now my parents have chickens! Well a lot of my life i had grown up with chickens and collecting eggs. BUT we didn't live in town...we lived out in the country...like normal people with chickens. But if you know my parents, they are unique and love to have chickens.

The funny thing was, Danielle and I got to go collect the eggs. But Danielle was freaked out...or as she likes to put it,
"this is freaky". But once we got into the coop, and played with the chickens and ducks she was ready to discover some eggs. Also, my Dad would be happy, if i would mention that my parents once used to have a Turkey....but well, Thanksgiving came along, and he became the guest of honor at the Thanksgiving meal.



Finally, big thanks to my Dad for taking us to Port Huron Michigan on Wednesday! I really wanted to show Danielle where i lived until i was 12. It was amazing how well i knew my way around, and how things had not changed much since 1993. Everything was still there!

Port Huron is the birth place of Thoma Edison, and also the location of the Blue Water Bridge. So here is a picture of me and dad with Tommy Edison!

Catching Up with some friends!

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well life has been crazy around here. With big projects in my Masters program, Thanksgiving, traveling to Detroit, and many visitors to our home from Wisconsin. Here are a couple of our favorite pictures!!!





Dani and Becca, it was so cool to have you here!! We loved hanging out with you, laughing with you, shopping with you, and of course hanging out with campers at TARGET until 1am!!! So proud of you for your driving adventure, and your heart for personal growth!!! You ROCK!!!



But Before Dani and Becca made the long trip down from Wisconsin, our friends, Matt, Jake, Cindy, Steve, Mike, and Tina all came down from Mukwonago to celebrate my birthday!! It was just like old times...lots of loud laughing and lemon teeth!!! I think that is how you know when a friendship runs deep, when you can pick up right where you left off, and it isn't events or experience that bring you together, but a heart connection. We love you all!!!