Monday, January 25

Well, during the winter, there's not much in the way of physical work to put on the blog, so I thought I'd share Annissa's 13th birthday bedroom redo. Well, what's been done so far anyways.
This is her room before. This is the "inspiration". Bedding we found online. The background is chocolate brown, but you can't see it in the pic.

Who doesn't like an orange ceiling?

The walls and edge of the ceiling are an off white. The teal border is wallpaper that was already there, it just matched the light blue of the walls and ceiling before. Now it definitely pops. My neck was "popping" after painting that!

In addition to the teal and orange, we bought purple and an olivey-limey green. (if crayola made that color, I'm sure it'd have a better name) We decided on stripes. (There's stripes on the reverse of the comforter and the little pillow. see pic above) The silver and yellow contraption in the foreground is a laser lever thing. You adjust it til it's level, set the height and a red laser light spins around the room perfectly level. I used that line to apply the blue painter's tape. This job would have taken about 3 times as long without it. (Actually, now that I think about it, the job wouldn't have even been tackled without it!)

Here's Annissa applying coat 2 of 3 in the purple. Only a true fashionista wears clothes to match the paint job!

Here's a closer shot before it was done. A purple stripe is now adjacent to the orange.

After we moved the furniture back.

There's still much to do. Annissa wants her name painted above the closet doors. The closet doors still need to be painted. An upholstered headboard and a scrapbooking paper bulletin board are also on the to do list. Annissa is very excited with the results thus far, and will surely keep on me until it's all done. I'll be sure to show you some pics when we get further along.

Saturday, January 23

Molly
Last week Molly worked on the Able Church bulletin and postcards for the Able Valentine dinner. She spend some time writing thank you notes to her supporters, and she continued her work on putting together a Bible study on Corrie Ten Boom that she will be starting soon with the girls. This week Molly went to the Weidners from Tuesday night after Able Family Night til Friday evening before Able Church. She forgot how much toddlers can wear a person out!

Tim and the Guys
They've been working in the women's dorm installing drywall on the ceilings and insulating. Tim met with the "heating guy" this week. They'll be installing the heat next week, which is great news because it's not too warm in there, plus we have many work days coming up.

Did you catch that? Work days will involve a heated interior.....how can you NOT come and help???

Jen and Marceaux
Last week Jen gave the Hartley House guys haircuts. She and Marceaux visited with some campers between working on Able Church stuff and fixing Weidner's van. Like Molly, Jen sent out thank you's to supporters and volunteer drivers for Able. Jen did the sermon at Able last Friday too.

Tony
Last week Tony tied up alot of loose ends before leaving for Florida. He also spent many a day cleaning his office and getting his new computer ready to use. If you've had the pleasure of an encounter with Little Tony's office, you may understand the full extent of the job. Tony left for Florida on Wednesday. He is staying with Jim and Rhonette Hukill. On Thursday he attended a meeting with leaders in the LIFT Disability Ministry Network. On Friday the Northland Church Disability Conference started and Tony taught one breakout session the first night. Saturday the conference continued and he participated as part of a 3 person panel to answer questions on disability ministry agenda. Saturday night he went to a dinner with other disability leaders and pastors that included disability ministry pioneer Ginny Thornburgh (who's article appears in the Christianity Today This month) and pastor Joel Hunter of Northland Church. Sunday morning he will travel to the coast to preach at The Special Gathering Chapels and spend the evening with Linda Howard, Richard Stimson and Carmine Dibiase who are Special Gathering Pastors and all have been Camp Daniel Speakers. Monday he will be getting together with Joni and Friends Regional Coordinators and having a birthday dinner for Laura Lee Wright with the Hukills.

Karol
Karol worked last week painting a living room for a friend of a friend. She's been getting some things organized for camp and just doing lots of little stuff like taking DJ to the doctor for a check up. Since Tony left she's been painting Annissa's room. She wanted her room redone for her birthday, which is February 1st. I'll blog some pics for the next blog. It's taking longer than expected and the "to do list" isn't shrinking fast enough considering she's leaving for Florida on Tuesday morning.

Tuesday, January 12

We're hoping to purchase the below pictured vehicle. It's a Dodge Sprinter. Tony's had his heart on one for quite a while, because it's such a great fit for our needs. It's a turbo diesel, so it get great gas mileage for it's size, which is large. This one has seating for 9, plus an additional 8' in the back where we can install a wheelchair lift and a couple of tie downs. The ceiling is raised to accommodate standing room. The van, which type is hard to come by, is available thru a dealer in Green Bay. Lucas, from LHC, works at the dealership and is helping us out. We recently rec'd a donation of a large dump truck (requiring a CDL to drive) so Lucas is trying to sell that for us so that we can get closer to affording the van. As you probably know, Camp Daniel doesn't take on any debt, so we need the entire purchase amount up front. If you're familiar at all with the chaos that is driving people around here, you'll appreciate how needed a vehicle is that can accommodate more than 7. We often have to take multiple vehicles to church, Able events, etc.

This past weekend, many of us took turns running a booth for Camp Daniel at an Evangelical Free youth conference in Green Bay. Molly and her parents have been involved for many years, so Molly suggested that we could advertise to get counselors there. We were one of about 30 booths, ranging from camps, to colleges to Compassion Int'l, to books for sale. We made small brochures and stapled them to individually wrapped cookies and let the kids take them. We gave out about a thousand. There were about 3,000 kids there. We also had a few sign up for add'l information. We'll be following up with those people, plus all of the youth pastors that were participating in the weekend's activities. Of course, we saw the Three Lakes E-Free group, led by Eli, there. We're hoping to get one youth group interested in a Camp Daniel missions trip.

Otherwise, Jen and Marceaux have been doing a lot of visiting of campers lately. Marceaux always seems to have some vehicle that needs something done. Right now its the plow truck. Some switch went out on the 4 wheel drive. It's extremely difficult to plow in 2 wheel, especially with all of the ice we've had. Gotta love it.

Tim and the guys have been working in the dorms putting up insulation. The goal is to get the one dorm all drywalled, then blow in insulation, so that we can heat the building. There are workdays planned for the 13, 20, 27 of February, that will be centered around the one dorm.

Saturday, January 2

Happy New Year from all of us at Camp Daniel!

We celebrated New Year's Eve with campers, Amanda, Crystal and Sarah. Amanda's family brought them all here and visited with us for a few hours. The girls spent the night at Molly/Jen's. We played games, ate junk food and watched funniest home videos. Then we all slept in the next day.

Yesterday, the Kelly's ended their 26 hour journey from Montana and ended safely at home. We all miss them, but are glad that they had a good time visiting Tim's family for Christmas. In the morning, Tony went to their home to bring their dog, Patch, back and plow them out.

In the afternoon everyone left to go to Able, where we're still being stretched. Molly led worship, and did a great job.

Marceaux was busy this week. He helped Tim Mandich with mechanic work on his car, did the bible study with the guys, and joined Jen and Tim M. at Aspiro. Tuesday they went there to have lunch with many of our campers. It was Tim and Marceaux's first time, so they got the full tour. The trips to Aspiro have been a great way to keep in contact with campers, get new campers and even some volunteers. The workers and volunteers at Aspiro all know and like Jen, so she's been the face of Camp Daniel to many of these people.

Jen is still working quite regularly in pound doing therapy.

Tony set up an email account for Marceaux. It's marceaux@campdaniel.org He also spent made a blog for Jen and Marceaux. It's jennymarc.blogspot.com Check it out! Also this week, Tony spent a bunch of time working on a brochure for the 3rd annual Mega Super Bowl party that Living Hope Church. It's a great blend of newcomers to Mega, long time attendees of Living Hope and Able Church members.

Everyone seems to be catching up on paperwork this week. Lots of bills, forms, and budgets are flying around!

The kids are enjoying their time off of school. Anthony's been doing science experiments that he finds on youtube and Annissa's been relishing in sleeping in every morning. One of her highlights has been the sleepover she had with best friend Ruth Hucek, her sister Grace, and Emily Neitzer. Emily and Grace were both counselors last year at camp and the younger girls really look up to them.

Sunday, December 27

Today was much like other recent days, in that it involved a lot of shoveling and plowing. We weren't able to make it to Green Bay for church this morning, as we could not get plowed out because the inch or so of ice under the snow is making it near impossible to plow. Tomorrow we will head over tho the town hall to get sand mixed with salt to spread every where to make some traction in order to plow. Tony worked on a new logo for the Able Church and a brochure for Living Hope Church's new Megaruselum program. All of us watched a little football! Jen and Marceaux where in green bay and attended church and came back to Camp Daniel in the afternoon. Molly is in Eagle River with her parents still and spent the afternoon finalizing our plans for the booth at Evangelical Free's Youth Convention in Green Bay coming in 2 weeks.

Saturday, Jen and Marceaux had Christmas with Jen's family. John and Sue were (and are) still visiting their children in Minnesota. Tony, Karol and kids slept in and enjoyed a day off except for some snow plowing.

Christmas day at Camp Daniel involved lots of food and family. We had 35 (10 people weren't able to come) for a Christmas dinner homemade ravioli, mostaccioli alfredo and ham. We had a lot of fun visiting with Camp Daniel staff, friends and family. Molly and her parents made a heroing trip from and from Eagle River.

On Christmas eve, the Piantine clan went to church at Cornerstone Assembly of God in Athelstane, then ate and opened presents. All of the other Camp Daniel missionaries were out of town with their families.

Thursday the 23rd, Jen and Marceaux went to Green Bay to help the Mandiches with a meal outreach at a building downtown.

Last Tuesday, the Kelly's left on their roadtrip to Montana to celebrate Christmas with Tim's youngest sister and her family. Thankfully, their 24 hour drive was crisis free, (other than a few "are we there yet"s) which wasn't easy with Tim not being fully recovered from jet lag from his trip to Kenya. Tony and the guys spent the day in Green Bay helping prepare the sanctuary for the Christmas Eve service by building a stable and setting up lighting.

Last Monday Molly left to visit with her parents in Eagle River for about a week. Jen stopped by the Kelly's after work to work on both Tim and Chrissy's shoulders injuries. Then she did some paperwork for the Able Special Olympic basketball team. Marceaux led the Hartley House guys in a bible study on John chapters 4 & 5, then worked on a discipleship handbook that he's putting together.

On Sunday, the 20th, Molly and Jen stayed after Church with some of the girls from Able to bake Christmas cookies. The cookies were trayed up and given to the needy at the Thursday meal outreach. Marceaux and Tim Mandich put a hitch on Sally Kelly's (Tim's mom) van, so that they could pull a trailer to Montana. But really, the most important thing that happened on this day involved a Steeler victory over the Packers! Karol insists that the touchdown pass by Roethlesberger to win the game was a birthday present. Tony worked some more on the Camp Daniel website as well as on blogs for our missionaries.

Friday, December 18th, was the Able Christmas party. They presented a living nativity story and and Tim and Janice Mandich presented a christmas out reach . That service is a special one that's loved by everyone.

Thursday, December 17

News from Camp Daniel:



Molly will be helping out the Weidner family this winter. Micah and Sabrina Weidner, and their kids Elijah and Lydia, are part of the summer camp staff, and really, just part of the Camp Daniel family. Sabrina works full-time at a school working with kids with disabilities, and Micah is in his last year of schooling to teach the visually impaired. For the upcoming semester (which is Micah's last), he has to be in Milwaukee, leaving the family in Luxemburg. Lydia is two, Elijah, whom as down syndrome, is 5, and Sabrina whom is pregnant, could use some help with dad away. So Molly will be staying with Sabrina and kids for 3 days a week starting in January, helping out in whatever way is needed. Molly is really excited to be able to serve, and I'm sure that the Weidners are anxious for the love and quality of help that Molly will bring.

Yesterday, Sue Koch took Brian, Richard and DJ to the Piggly Wiggly in Crivitz to ring the Salvation Army Bell. This is the third year in a row that the guys have volunteered a shift during the holiday season. Afterwards, all the guys and John and Sue had dinner together, then made Christmas cookies. It was a special evening for them all.

Speaking of special evenings...The Camp Daniel missionaries went on a Christmas outing Monday evening. We all met at the China Buffet in Green Bay, then went together to the Meyer Theater, downtown. We enjoyed a free Christmas concert put on by the Allouez Village Band. We all had a great time, and found the quality time together to be worth the snowy drive home!

The whole of Tuesday morning was flew by during our weekly "family meeting." Among many other things, we discussed the future of Able Church; what makes a church, a church; how to do the Able Church in a new location; what is the goal of Able Church, and many other questions not to be answered in one sitting. The Able Church is so revolutionary, that much thought and discussion go into most every aspect. Nothing is taken for granted or assumed. This whole subject is far from closed.

Tuesday night, of course, involved Able Family Night. The Able Attack basketball team played a scrimmage game against Aspiro, then it was back to Living Hope Church for pizza dinner and bible study.

As we speak, Tim and Mike are on their way home from Africa. Chrissy and the kids are anxious to pick Tim up tomorrow. If you haven't yet, you should read the blog about the trip. The link is at the top of this page, on the left. But, hey, finish this one first!

Speaking of blogs, Tony's been working on building one for Marceaux. Details forthcoming. Tony also spent time today hooking up the heater in the basement of the craft cabin. This will be more efficient and will heat up the cold tile floor in Molly and Jen's bathroom. Tony spent much of Wednesday at church meeting with a number of different people.

Monday, December 14

Here's a picture of the Hartley House Christmas tree. We're all ready for Christmas at Camp Daniel, snow and all. Since our last blog, it feels as though it's been all about printing. Printing problems, that is. All day Thursday and Friday were spent buying ink of every imaginable variety, dusting off old printers, and trying everything we could think of to get the two sided picture page for the newsletter done. And if the printers weren't being temperamental enough, the computers starting acting up as well. After much frustration, we did get all 800 pages printed, inserted into the newsletter, and mailed out. What a relief! Now we're extra appreciative of the fact that Molly got the campers' Christmas cards done early.

Marceaux's been quite busy as well. It seems like as one vehicle is fixed, another breaks down. He's been doing a great job of keeping on top of it. We're very blessed to have those mechanic's hands here at Camp Daniel.

Chrissy called last week and asked Tony to bring over a dryer that was in the garage and replace the one that she was using. He got it over there and got it going, then found out that the washer was spinning the clothes at all. She had clothes hanging all over the house so that her family could have clean and dry clothes to wear. After the printing issues were settled, Tony and the guys brought over a washing machine and switched it out. (Of course, even the simplest of plumbing jobs involves and bucket and many a towel)

Karol has been working on the new signs for the Christmas gift shop at Camp Daniel. It's been renamed, North Pole Gifts.

It's snowing lightly this morning, so shoveling has commenced.