Today for VBS, our theme was earth and we talked about the story of Jericho. We performed a short skit where some of the kids could get involved by being a part of the Israelite army. We gave them kazoos to represent trumpets and used mattresses as the walls of Jericho. We also did a scavenger hunt where they could go outside and participate in the Arizona heat. It was a fun time interacting with everybody and seeing how they enjoyed the activities.

- Lucas Yasumura

Greetings from one of the 3 adults of the kitchen crew this year.

Being back in the kitchen has been an opportunity to continue to see how serving a meal for large groups is challenging yet rewarding! Timing the various dishes to ensure that they are ready has gone better this year than last. A note from last year was, "Always start meals earlier than you think you need to!" This has been a result of being in a higher altitude as well. Having a third adult has helped make our timing better too. Almost each prep has had 2 - 3 of the youth and college work in the kitchen - mostly chopping and making the evening dessert. During their time with us, kitchen life skills are being learned cutting fruit for our colorful fruit salad, cutting a variety of vegetables, following dessert recipes using math as we are double or tripling most of the time. Getting to know these youth and young adults has been refreshing not being a part of West Covina but from sister church in Walnut Creek.

There are times that the kitchen experiences moments of feeding the five thousand. We have miscalculated an ingredient or decide to make something in addition after making the recent grocery run but are missing an ingredient, we check the large pantry and find substitutes or the exact missing ingredient. This time we checked with a staff home and they had an ingredient in just the right quantity! It's a humbling reminder that His provision is always there through faith and trust. It has been a joy that our sister churches can partner together.

- Laura Hamai (Walnut Creek)

This week we were able to finish a few facilities tasks that NAOMI House had for us. Our main project was painting the Eaves of the main building which had began to wear and chip over time. Here would be a good place to add pictures, we did such a good and fast job that we didn’t have time to take any.

A few smaller tasks we had were caulking floorboards and cable management. With some of our team leaving early it didn’t make sense to start tasks we couldn’t finish so we ended up being more involved with our other activities like helping out the kitchen team.

Overall although this week didn’t go as expected I think everything worked out great and we were all able to help and serve the kids and house parents!

- Eric Romero