Local high school kids Reach for the Future!

Here's a quote from a fellow staff member after working with high school students here at their Reach for the Future retreat.  We have 350 public high school kids from northern California here this week learning how to be a positive influence in their schools.

"What a great day yesterday. Great to see young people face their fears, overcome them and live their life's to the fullest! Lots of tears and lots of happiness!"   -Patrick Danielsen

Crazy week but God is faithful!

God's promises are faithful! And it's Plumbline (Inner Healing/Forgiveness) week for C/DTS, and Butte County Reach is on campus, too, training teens how to reach up for their potential by knowing who they are (identity!). Good stuff. Thanks, Father, for Your promises that are true!
(photo courtesy of Dayne Boyden)

Spring at the Springs

This has been a beautiful, warm and sunny spring.  I brought the boys up to the aquaponics field with some friends.  They looked so cute on the cow gate and we even saw the cows close by.  Josh caught the first friendly garter snake of the year.

News from the aquaponics field.

Exciting progress on the aquaponics field! The rest of the fence posts were put in last week and the trench was dug for the water line.  The fencing is half done and the greenhouse is taking shape.  This week is pretty rainy so our progress is on pause.  

Here's some volunteers digging holes for the fencing.

Dan is digging the trench for the water line.

Mike is cleaning out the trench.

Pounding rebar for the greenhouse.

Trying to cut a piece of rebar that was stuck on a rock.  It didn't work.

Mike is hooking up the water line!

Robin is cutting PVC for the greenhouse.

Progress on our YWAM Chico aquaponics project

We're making some progress on our own aquaponics project.  This past week a couple of our dedicated mission builders (volunteers) dug the holes and placed the fence posts around most of the area.  The water holding tank is ready to be put on the hillside to gravity feed the system as needed.  We have a couple of PVC hoops in place where we experimented with PVC pipe size for the greenhouse.  We hope to make plenty more headway this coming week with the greenhouse and the fence.  Then we'll build the actual aquaponics system the first week in April.  This is an exciting spring!

Dan's Aquaponics Project in Mexico

Dan just spent a week helping to build an aquaponics system in a village near the YWAM base in Creel, Mexico.  He joined a team from Amarillo, Texas led by our friends Jimmy and Teresa Heisler who used to be on staff in Creel. They were able to get a lot accomplished and I'm sure that Dan learned a lot from Jimmy throughout the week. The boys and I had a pretty good week but we'll be glad to have Dan home again tomorrow!  Here's some photos from the project:

This is a flexible, PVC liner that needs to be carefully folded in the corners of the grow beds.

The plastic containers will hold the fish and the wooden troughs (grow beds) will hold the plants.