Radical Reality Back2Back Camp 2016

Here's a video summary of the camp we hosted last week. I get choked up every time I watch these videos. Some of these kids come from really difficult lives but for a week they get a bed to sleep in, good food, lots of fun and an encounter with a living God that loves them. Glory be to God!

Radical Reality camp 2016

This is how you feed over 500 youth and staff during a Radical Reality camp week. We made about 720 enchiladas in 2 hours. It was a lot of work but the kids were so excited when they saw what was for dinner!

Ready, Set, Go for a Powerful Week!

Every year YWAM Chico hosts these big camps that are run by Donnie Moore Ministries. We get to prepare the rooms for them, serve them 3 meals a day, share about missions, and pray for a life-changing week for them.  Please pray for their staff, our staff and the campers for health, safety and energy for this week.  Here's what their website has to say about this camp:

For almost 30 years, students have come and experienced life changing camps!

Each year almost 1,500 teens come from all around Northern CA for an experience like no other. Of these, many are able to come because of our scholarship program. During the week of camp the students are given a safe environment of hope and healing and are presented with the Gospel in a culturally relevant way. In the History of our camps, we have had the opportunity to minister to more than 30,000 students, many of which have been called into full-time ministry. Each camp season has brought with it reports of lives that have been transformed by the power of God. Today, after years of ministry through camps, we are delighted to see that our camp staff is made up largely of people who themselves were once students at camp.

South of the Border

Caleb is a student again in YWAM Chico's summer program called 180.  He did it last year too.  This week they are in Mexico repairing the roofs of some houses and ministering to kids.  Please pray for their safety and that God captures the hearts of these teens for missions. Caleb is by the plywood wearing a red, white and blue shirt and he loves tacos.

A Loooooong Overdue Summer Update

Oosterhouse Adventures  June 2016  The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor. Isaiah 61:1a   View this email in your browser

Hello from California where the people are warm and the weather is HOT!  This past spring was wonderful and busy and flew by.  It was great to have a number of visitors this spring because it's so encouraging to see friends and family and be able to spend time together. Dan's folks came for 2 weeks in early March and a couple that used to be my neighbors came out with their grandson in late March.  A team from our home church, Friendship Chapel, came out in April and built a beautiful gazebo in the center of the Ag field  This provides a place of rest and shelter as well as a quiet place with God.  Dan and I are full time agriculture and aquaponics now. This past year we were responsible for maintaining the grounds of the base but beginning this past Feb someone else took that over. Now our total focus is developing the agriculture area. We are planting fruit trees around the base (as the budget allows) and we keep expanding the food variety in our fenced in area. We've added a number of fruit trees, lots of berries, rhubarb, herbs, the gazebo, and lots of veggies. We put up a new, metal greenhouse this spring that WILL NOT BLOW DOWN!!! Dan did a lot of plumbing and installed 7 more faucets around the garden plus a sink to watch produce in. :) We continue to encounter challenges with aquaponics but we are constantly learning and problem solving. This spring we had some mission builders working with us a couple of days a week that wanted to learn more about aquaponics. We also had a Chico state college student spend some time in the garden with us so we did a lot of training this spring and learned some things from the agriculture student. We've also given a lot of educational tours of the area and system. We've had homeschool groups come out, our own YWAM school kids, our staff, and guests from the community during a base-wide Open House.  We are planning to visit Michigan for 3 weeks in August and look forward to catching up with friends and family.  Thank you so much to all of you that keep in contact with us, pray for us and support us financially. We could never do this alone, you all are part of our team and we appreciate you so much.  God is good and always faithful!   A homeschool group came out for a tour after seeing our article in the newspaper.  They enjoyed watching the fish swim around and loved being able to see all the plant roots hanging in the water. This is an African-style keyhole garden.  It's just one example of a way we can teach others to grow their own food. This is part of our most recent DTS that have completed lecture phase and are now on outreach in Asia. One student wrote, " As we leave  YWAM Chico, we remember what Luke 10:1-16  reminds us. Go out into every town and place and  represent Jesus." Please pray for their health, safety and effectiveness during this 2 month outreach.  These are our friends that are going to India for a year to complete construction on a children's home.  They've invited us to go to build an aquaponics system on the property to help feed the children healthy food.  We are planning to go in early 2017, likely in February. We also do outreach in a nearby town called Hamilton city. Some staff members focus on a group of high school boys but our main focus is a woman named Gloria. She has cancer and is caring for family members with a variety of medical issues. They need a new roof so we are fund raising for that and hope to replace it very soon. She is a believer but her family is not so hopefully this will tangibly show them how much God loves them.   We need to raise $3000, if you can help please let us know! What's up with the Boys? So far we're loving having teenagers. They are funny and good natured but they sure eat A LOT!!! The boys bike around base often and Caleb and Josh bike the 4 mile base road with friends. They swim a lot now that it's hot and Nate plays in the creek with his friends. Caleb is 15 and in the summer program that YWAM runs here. It's 5 weeks long and they learn things like Hearing God's voice, the Father Heart of God, Relationships, Intimacy with God, etc. They do downtown evangelism, are going to a music festival and are serving in Mexico for a week. It's an amazing program that takes them deeper with God and teaches them leadership too. He did it last year too. Josh is 14 and will be old enough for the summer program next year. He reads a lot and listens to music, swims and bikes and of course likes video games. He'll be able to start working in the base kitchen in the fall so he's excited to start earning some money himself. 11 yr old Nate is super social and is always playing with friends. They play Lego's, board games, video game and play outside. He likes to learn things in the garden with me too. All three of them made the honor roll this past year so we're really proud of their hard work!

We sure were shocked to make the front page of our local newspaper.  Click here to read the article. They say Dutch people are tall and our family is a perfect example of that.  It's a good thing they're not too big to still give their grandparents lots of hugs! Prayer Points *Praise God that we get to do what we love and work with such fantastic staff! *In order to cover basic needs and future travel we need to increase our monthly support, please pray for more ministry partners *Praise God for the chance to visit MI in August!!!  We are all so excited! *Pray for wisdom as we plan an aquaponics system for India using local materials Checks can be mailed to: YWAM Chico, 15850 Richardson Springs Rd, Chico, CA 95973.   Please enclose a separate note stating that it's for us or for Gloria's roof. Thank you!

November 2014 Highlights

In November our busy, fall conference season wrapped up.  We had a chance to catch our breath and actually work on some projects around here like deep cleaning and painting in housekeeping.  In maintenance Dan and the guys could get into buildings and do much needed repairs properly.  Some of our staff took a trip to Asia to make some connections for future partnerships and team outreaches.  This is a first for our base to be in this part of the world so we are excited to see how God will lead.  The C/DTS finished up lecture phase and outreach preparations in November and left for South Africa on November 22.  The base is always so quiet when they leave.  I like the way there is an ebb and flow here.  It's good to have just us staff for a little while during this quiet time and then we are always excited for teams to return from outreach and for new schools to start.  

This is one CDTS family that our boys enjoyed playing with.  They are from New Zealand. 

In Michigan, Thanksgiving was always so predictable.  We would see the same people almost every year and eat the same delicious foods every year.  Since we began serving with YWAM each Thanksgiving has been very different.  2009 we were on outreach in Fiji, very warm and beautiful.  2010 we were with a family from church.  There was another family there too that are missionaries from Uganda to the U.S. so we had some Ugandan food.  2011 we were leading outreach in Guatemala, I think we ate tamales in addition to some traditional U.S. dishes. 2012 we hosted with some families here, pretty  normal.  2013 was similar to the year before but with different people.  2014 may be one of the most memorable yet!  We had 2 gals from Brazil, one just arrived the day before and didn't speak any English.  We also had a man from India, he had just joined our staff and thankfully he spoke English.  Here's where it really gets interesting.  We had a staff family that cooks southern food for Thanksgiving.  While I cooked the traditional turkey, stuffing, potatoes, and green bean casserole she cooked greens, ribs, fried chicken, and sweet potato pie.  Wow, what a feast we had!  We got to explain why we celebrate the holiday to our friends that were experiencing their first American Thanksgiving.  I always miss family back home on Thanksgiving but I'm so thankful for good friends to celebrate with here.

The fist PVC greenhouse that we built in the spring started to break when the temps hit triple digits.  Dan was able to cut it into big pieces and re-design it.  One day in November we gathered some strong teens and put up the pieces while Dan glued them together.  It was hard work but good to have a greenhouse frame up again.

It needs some supports and ends then it's ready for plastic. 

October 2014 Highlights

October started out with a quick day trip to a wedding of a dear friend that used to be on staff with us.  It was in the beautiful Napa valley and we would have loved to have stayed but had to get back for a event.  We hosted what we call a YWAM Presence Gathering on our base.  This is when we invite other bases from the west coast to come, stay for a few days and seek the Lord together.  It's a lot of work but so good to have a huge group of YWAMers together in one place!  After that conference we had a little bit more time to spend on our aquaponics system.  

We picked these fresh veggies and herbs from our garden in October.

This is a compost box and pile that Robin keeps adding to in effort to make great soil.

These are the pipes that will carry the nutrient rich fish water to the grow beds. 

Here Dan and some fellow staff are putting the plastic liner in one of the grow beds.

We even got some of the teens from our base involved in the project.

Here's our system with fish tanks in the middle and 2 grow beds on the sides.

After a way too busy September and plenty to do in October we were ready for a quick, fall camping trip with friends.  The forecast included a Saturday of rain but we decided to go anyway.  It was an adventure and we made great memories.  The guys put up lots of tarps to create a warm, dry "living room" for us that included our fire pit and picnic table.  The boys had to dig trenches around our tent to keep the flood waters out.  Adventurous yes, would we do it again?  maybe not.  

Every Monday we take part in a class (a secondary YWAM school) called School of Ministry Development (SOMD).  This fall quarter started in September and lasts about 12 weeks.  The topic for this fall quarter is outreach and evangelism.  We had one great class about evangelism explosion and learned some fun techniques for sharing the gospel.  

We also take part in local outreach and either Dan or Robin goes to the nearby town of Hamilton City almost every Friday.  We've been working with precious middle school and a few high school boys.  The town is known for crime, gangs and drugs so we want to reach the next generation before the gangs do.  Robin also wants to start a community garden there on an empty lot and we may replace a crumbling roof on a home in town.  

Robin has been teaching science to the K-2 grade class this fall.  She loves kids and science and wants to instill a love of science in the kids.  She currently has 4 kids, 2 staff kids and 2 whose parents are in CDTS.  With all this, she is the head of housekeeping and has to lead a department to keep our base clean and make sure we are prepared for conferences.  

Dan is part of the maintenance leadership team and does a lot of project planning and prioritizing needs in our busy maintenance department.  There are 80 buildings on our base that were mostly built in the 20's so there is ALWAYS something to fix or remodel!  

You can see, there is never a dull moment!