Next Gen Retreat

I have been so late getting this blog updated! Since I got back to California I haven't stopped.
SO! here we are at the Next Gen retreat up at Big Bear Lake, CA. I was responsible for the food and activities for the group during the week. We had members join us from all over the USA and Canada. All of them are members of our organization and involved in ministry to teenagers. The purpose of the retreat is to discuss the future, talk about what we are doing and should be doing. Of course pictures of meetings are boring, so I am giving you shots of our big group activity! Snow shoeing. I have never done this before and only a few others had. The snow up here at Big Bear is beautiful and we had a great group time tromping around in the snow among the pine trees up here at 7,000 ft. Our meetings end tomorrow morning and we will all be making our way DOWN the mountain complete with tire chains!! yikes! Even me, the seasoned New England driver is nervous. CHAINS???
This next month I will spend completely IN California! My first full month at home, believe it or not! So I have an executive meeting of the San Diego Mission Project, and youth group and various organizational meetings at the office. My boss is currently in the State looking at office options for me, once our regional office closes. I'll let you know as I know, what is going on with that.
I pray that your days are warm, and full during this winter season! The snow here in Big Bear is reminding me of winter!!! :-)

Merry Christmas!

We're enjoying each others company. Visiting with church friends, and generally feeling very blessed. I hope your holidays are as special as our are. Well what to say, except Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me and the Pitts family!

California, Christmas cookies and Connecticut

First I want you to meet Pancho. A connection from our organization, who I believe God brought to us in order to help us develop a new partnership to get some creative access to short term mission opportunities for teenagers. Ron, (my boss) and I met with Pancho last Monday. He loves teens and he is passionate about construction projects for missionaries! Be prepared to hear more about Pancho in the future! I believe he is an answer to our prayers for what God wants to do with our ministry to teens!
Now here you can also finally meet the famous Rio, my first friend from California! She's the little one in the middle! I held a Christmas party (my first in CA) in honor of Rio, who will be traveling to Asia for 6 mths. She is such an inspiration to me. If anyone is inspired to pray for a young 22 yr old who responds to God's call and goes anywhere, even to war-torn countries, let me know and I'll get you in contact with her! She will need serious prayer partners!!
I flew to CT on Tuesday and am now beginning to celebrate the Christmas season with family and friends. I was so honored to be invited to a friends home and learn to complete their Italian cookies, of which the name escapes me! It is this cool, tiny anise cookie smothered in honey! The Corica family makes this a holiday tradition and I was allowed to be a part of the party! We hung around rolling, cutting and baking for a few hours and I totally enjoyed myself. It was fun to be back in a home that I have great memories at from High school and with people who are special to me.
I've spent a day baking cookies with Mom and we've got all kinds of holiday plans including skiing in Vermont with a friend from Virginia! I've joined the choir for the Christmas season too. What a privilege to sing under our great choir director Marjie Brake! :-)
I met with some members of the San Diego Mission Project on Monday as we planned ways to better pray for the youth ministries of San Diego and from now until January I'll be working from Connecticut. Already I've got a list of practices to learn our organizations database and I'm helping to plan the retreat in January. I've got another training meeting in Orlando in January too! Seems like I'll be continuing the travel schedule on into the new year!
I wish you a very Merry Christmas and thank you again for your interest in my ministry and life. Your friendship and interest make my life much fuller! Thank you!

Orlando again!

Well, I just returned from a week in Orlando Florida! This time it was as a full-fledged member of my organization! woohoo! We were there to learn to use software and systems set up to help us do our job as recruiters. I was blessed to be able to get to know some really super people, who are recruiters all over the country as well as the staff at the headquarters in Orlando. We had regular work days and even a few Christmas parties!
Following this time at the headquarters, my mom joined me and we drove down to see my grandfather for the weekend. He is recovering from having some radiation and is kinda discouraged. I asked my prayer partners to please pray that I would be able to lift his spirits. I believe we were able to do that to some degree. He has never been sick, so he just doesn't know what it feels like to recover from something so drastic; and to have to learn this at 84!! wow! I pray that he will continue to improve and not feel hopeless. I played my guitar and we got him outside in the sun. We talked to him when he was not resting and encouraged him to eat, even though he didn't feel like it. He even played a few games of Sequence with us and that was a great improvement from his recent days of simply sleeping. Thank you for your prayers. If you feel so moved, I wish for prayers for his salvation. We just don't know!
I will be in CA for this week and then returning once again to CT for the Christmas season. My boss and I are meeting a new member here at our Temecula office tomorrow. This is someone who loves youth ministry and we hope to encourage him to consider working with us in our department! I have a youth group meeting to attend and a small group meeting. Just the short turn around time is making long term planning difficult! Gotta get those Christmas cards done and some shopping too!
The first thing on the "docket" for next year is a department retreat in January. We're starting out the year with vision casting! I can't wait!
Thanks for checking in!

HEY! did you know? The "Boomer" generation consisted of 88,000 people in the USA. The "Gen X" consists of 35,000 and the "Millenials or Post-Mod's" are 85,000. Why the drop in population between the last 3 generations??? 40,000 abortions!!!! My generation was cut in half!

Balloons and Sunsets

I'm back in California and getting ready to go to Florida to get involved in some ministry training. We will be learning how to use some software that we need to track new members to our organization.
In the meantime, I have a few days to get connected again. I had youth group again last night and am slowly learning kids names. Of course the ones I had memorized didn't show last night and I had a bunch of news ones to learn! The kids are quizzing me on it already too! The group of adult leaders get together for "dinner" after group and hang out. It's so refreshing to have a group of new friends to hang out with who also love teens. :-) Thanks for praying! Also, tonight I have my second small group meeting. I want to get involved this way because our church doesn't have Sunday School, so this is the only way to really get to know people at church! I'll be missing next week, as I'll be in Florida, but they are all understanding!
The first pictures were my first chance to catch the balloons of Temecula in action! I happened to have my camera when they were landing, so I caught them over the vineyards. There were three of them and Temecula wine country is known for their ballooning. The next two pictures are of one of the many beautiful sunsets I get to watch from my deck. :-)
Christmas is approaching, and I don't have lots of time to enjoy it at home, so I'm decorating and getting "in the mood". I thought maybe I ought to have a goodbye party for my first friend Rio as she heads to Asia to be involved in ministry there for 6 months. She is an amazing young woman and I am so glad that God put her in my life as an example. If there could be more young women like her!!! I wish you ALL could meet her. You'd be amazed.
Enjoy your first official week of the Christmas season! It all goes so fast, doesn't it?
Dagney

Thanksgiving

Well, this week I'm in Connecticut for the holidays. Lovely CT has plenty of leaves and this weekend we were out raking. Here's the happy family!The holidays are rapidly coming on. My niece has given us lots to laugh about, she's our entertainment these days!
Not alot of news so I'll share some pictures instead!
I won't be home for long, off to Orlando for training next Sunday and then with one week in CA, I'll be home again in CT for Christmas.
I appreciate all of you, who check on me periodically!
belated Happy Thanksgiving!

Freedom!!!!

I am FREE in many senses! I know it's early in the week for a blog post but i just have to tell you! #1.my car is paid off and I'm ecstatic. It's all mine! #2 I got my CA license plates, finally! (and side note, some money that friends from CT gave me while I was home, completely covered the very expensive cost of the licensing and title!!!little did they know!) #3 and the BIGGEST news! is I am released to my "assignment" with my organization!! Yes, as of today. Whew!
So thanks for sharing in a little bit of my news. I'll try to update again over this week, as Thursday is Thanksgiving anyway. There has been lots of fodder for pictures this weekend and there will be again while I'm home for the holidays! See ya again soon!

Connecticut, California, Chicago and St.Louis

Well where HAVE I been? After leaving CT I arrived in California to witness the result of the fires, drive home to wash laundry and leave 24 hrs later for Chicago and St.Louis. In Chicago I met up with two co-workers and we drove down to St. Louis for 4 day trip to the Youth Specialties conference. My organization had a booth, which is what you see in the first picture. That is Ed Swanson our camping director and he built those walls and hung the hammock. We were simulating our camping ministry. Our Brazilian hammock was very popular. We were raffling off a Jesus Loves You soccer ball (which has "Jesus loves you" in 30 languages) and 2 "Da Jesus Books" the Hawaiian Pidgin translation. We received many compliaments on our booth and we made some good connections. I was inspired by the general sessions that I was able to attend and really enjoyed the fellowship amoung hundreds of fellow youth workers from all over the US.
I was also able to make some networking contacts and I hope that a few of these will lead to some solid partnerships for my organization.
After the conference I helped my co-worker Tracy find her new apartment in Chicago where she will be moving this month. It was fun to help someone else look and not be the one looking!
Next I came back to CA and immediately got involved in a formation flying group. The San Diego Salute is a team of T-34's that fly for shows and events in the SoCal area's. I have been asked to be their announcer and this has plunged me back into the world of aviation, for which I am immensely grateful to God! This is an ecclectic and fun group of people who love aviation and are willing to let me tag along and learn from them. I look forward to alot more flying and even getting help in getting current again myself! Why do I miss Wisconsin?? *wink
Tonight I am going to youth group, the one at the church I've decided to join, Sunridge Community. I'll be helping with the Sr.H and I am looking forward to getting involved in the lives of kids again.YEAH!
I am sooo close to being officially at 100% support. It's just a matter of getting the final word back at the office from a few partners and adding up the numbers!! We're planning the department retreat for January and I just got involved in the National Network of Youth Ministries and will be much more active in that in the very near future. I hope to soon contact Josh McDowell and Doug Fields for opportunities to pick their brains and find out how my organization can be more involved in the lives of teens and inspire kids to join missions. I was really pumped up by the Youth Specialties conference and I hope that God has big plans for my organizations work!
Oh! and one last big praise! My car is paid off as of today! FREEDOM!!!!

I'm an Aunt 2x's over!

She has arrived! Yes, it's a girl. Bryn Marie Pitts arrived just after I did on Oct 17, 10:10pm. I got in to Bradley airport Oct 16 at 7:45pm and we got the phone call late that night to come get Aurora, my other niece, in preparation for baby to arrive. Wow. God does take care of details. I was given this ticket and made arrangements for it in June or July. We weren't told the due date at that point, so this can only be an extra blessing from God. He knew when she would be born and allowed me to be here for it. I know it's an "extra", but with my brother and his family preparing to leave for overseas missions, this birth may be the last one for some time that we'll all be in attendance for! I am grateful.
I am home to attend the missions conference for Calvary Evangelical Free church. I will be in CT until Oct 29. Prayer requests would include my being able to raise that last $96 a month that I need in order to work full-time in ministry in California. Also, I am looking forward to a number of small group meetings, that have already been arranged. I hope to be used by God however He would like, and I expect that I will be encouraged through the conversations with these home church family members. Every time I come home God has used people in this church to encourage me, to counsel me and to prove His activity in my life in specific ways. I hope that He will repeat that pattern and I hope that I can be a blessing in return to speak of how He has been amazing in my life too.
ps. check this out! I made friends while attending the Miramar Air show in San Diego and was able to catch a ride in a T-28. Not only that, but God has totally blessed me! I am now connected with a great group of pilots whom I will be working with and who have introduced me to some great opportunities for flying and for hanging out with those that do! I'll be driving a Vietnam era Jeep in the Thanksgiving Day parade and be trained to announce for their air show performances of T-34's! Wow! I am soo excited! I've been praying for over a year now that God might allow me to fly again.

Not alot of news

Not alot going on here as far as work. I am at 96% support though!
There are some plans being made for what I can begin to do once I am released to my ministry assignment. Apart from training meetings that I'll need to attend, one of those plans is to attend the Youth Specialties conference in St.Louis in November. We plan to interview youth leaders as to what areas of their ministry we can help them accomplish in missions. I am creating a list of questions that we will use. We are also creating a design for our booth at the conference, complete with tents and hammocks. This is represent the camping ministry called Jungle Jump Off. We hope to recruit both campers and helpers!
Last week I was blessed to have been given a trip to Ohio with my Dad to see a special air show, called the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends! There they gathered 100 P-51 Mustangs (WWII aircraft) among other aircraft. It was a really special weekend, not only to be surrounded by my very favorite airplanes, but to spend time with my Dad. We can't stop talking about it. I took 200+ pictures, but here are a few for you.
Right after I returned from Ohio, a girlfriend came to visit me here in Ca. Anna Tuckwiller from Virginia came for a week. Her last request was to watch the sun set over the Pacific. As you can see, it didn't disappoint!
As to prayer requests, I have found a church that offers a singles ministry and although it is far away I plan to supplement my future home church with that ministry. I am so excited to have been introduced to this Evangelical Free church ministry. I am still looking for a local home church. Also, I will be traveling at least once every month for the next few months. It's hard to settle here and travel so much, although I LOVE to travel. So I would appreciate prayers that I can settle with a church and friends here while at the same time accomplish all the travel. One of those trips is coming up next week. I will be going back to CT for Calvary's Missions conference and hopefully the birth of my next nephew/niece! Perfect timing!!! Thank you God! and thank you Dan Getz Jr for the ticket home!!! Thank you for checking in on me and my ministry situation! See many of you very soon!

This is part of the road to my house. In order to get to this point there is 20 minutes or more of asphalt and then.....this. lol Good thing I have 4WD! They tell me that when it rains, it flash floods!

Been away a bit

Hello friends! I went to the East Coast for an annual get-away/retreat with friends. We are graciously invited year after year to this little piece of heaven on the South Outer Banks, N.C. This is a special time to be blessed spiritually and emotionally. We held Bible studies and worship times, and lots of talk time as well as celebrations! Thank you Powell and Anne Harrison!
I am home in Southern CA now and writing more letters to partners, trying to get in touch with everyone. I can't keep from doing some NextGen work though. I hope to have support confirmation in time to get moving on some great ideas that my colleagues and I are dreaming up. One is a Youth Workers convention in November. We want to pick the brains of youth pastors and workers about how we in my organization, can help them help their teens to think about missions.
I have so many ideas I want to get started. Once we hear from all my partners I will be free to "go at it"!
I attended my first youth group last night (Wed) at Sunridge Community. We played a giant game of "capture the flag" (hilarious) and then a teaching time followed by hang out time. Some of the kids were willing to talk with me and I got some hang out time too! :-) After youth group the leaders go out for a late dinner. For you CT people, this restaurant is open the latest in town....*drum roll* 11:00pm!!!! Missin' those New England diners! :-) So, I'm going to attend this church again this week and go from there! It was really sweet to be with youth leaders again. I must say though, CA kids are so different! I was told they are quite sheltered and you can tell. Some of these kids have never been outside of Temecula, even going to San Diego is a stretch for them!!! Wow! I would never have thought that! The culture of these more well-to-do kids is gonna stretch ME. There wasn't a single "Emo" kid in the group. I'll miss that kind of kid. I'll have to get used to the "popular" crowd. Who said ministry was easy or comfortable?? :-)
To end I'm going to include some more pictures of "where I've been" the last two weeks! In case you want to know what heaven might look like! :-) Thanks for checking in AGAIN!

Waiting in Hemet

Well, here is a view of "my mountains" for you! The paddock in the picture is behind my house. Cool huh?
This week I met with a group of youth ministry people in San Diego. I was invited to meet some of those involved in mobilizing our youth ministries in this area to better reach our youth. What an amazing group of people! They are so passionate about having the Gospel shared with every teenager in San Diego county. It was a pleasure to be a part of this group. I've been invited back and I expect that God will use these connections as another way to find those teens that He wants to call into missions and Bible Translation.
As for the rest of my days, I am waiting. Waiting for my organization to give me the "go-ahead" to actually work. I am working from home, not even going in to the office these days. I must have confirmation of 100% support before I can officially begin my job. I am not allowed to even accept speaking engagements until they are confident that I don't have to return to CT for "partnership development". In the meantime I'm contacting those who have been a part of my team this last year with the EFCA and writing letters. I am sure that it is just a matter of time, that Summer is upon us and peoples lives are very busy. Prayer request? That those who plan to continue with me to my organization will let it know. I imagine for some it feels like they are recommitting. In fact it's really just a change of authority from the EFCA to my organization.
In the meantime, we're having HOT weather and even some storms! I am getting excited about what God has in store for me in youth ministry and missions here in Southern California!
Thanks for praying!

Camp in the mountains

Well, what has Dagney been up to? Apart from getting settled, I have also been quickly getting involved in ministry with the office here in Temecula! Last week I spent up in the mountains, at Idylwild CA helping to staff a camp called Total Vision. This camp gave the participants the opportunity to see the work of my organization at a much deeper level. I appreciated being introduced to the concepts of linguistics, phonetics and the sort. It was almost a brain drain! The ladies in the first picture are some great crazy missionary women. Do we have fun here or what?
The next one is a skit that I took part in that demonstrated how confusing language can be. It is necessary to be a good listener. The topic was the usefulness of the bandana in missions living. I was supposed to have mistaken bandana, for banana. I demonstrated how to open it to then use it to cover your head for shade, how to wipe it over your limbs to "dry" off persperation, to "spread it out on the ground" and sit on it to keep from getting your bum dirty and then to "lay" it over your eyes to keep off the sun. What a mess! But Fun!
I was really encouraged as I spent time with these amazing people. I was challenged to get over my recent move and to concentrate on the participants of this camp and be a part of God moving in their lives. It was so energizing to see God use my life, my testimony and such for His glory.
I also met some new friends! Trevor and Sam Deck are missionaries who are recruiters in San Diego! We got along really well and I was so encouraged that I might now have some new friends. We plan on attending our required "recruitment" meetings together and traveling together. I am so blessed!
The reason for me to go was to just spend time getting to know the few teenagers that attended. That was such a pleasure. These were some really mature, awesome teens. I was impressed with them. The picture of the group of smiling people, is those of us who helped lead worship. Next to me on my right are the three teens. Marieke, Aryn and Becca (who by the way, is from the town in CA that I was born in!).
Lastly, I have just met with a man who leads a ministry here in San Diego, and who is an EFCA church member. He was an answer to prayer. His spiritual gift is Exhorter,and he was an amazing encouragement. He challenged me to more committed times with God and He challenged me to try to accomplish greater things than I would have imagined here with my organization. He has agreed to be a mentor for me in ministry building (yes, I know that's Gods job, but hopefully you know my intent). He can teach me alot about building networks and meeting people and can challenge me to think bigger. He said he sees a vision for what God is going to do with me, and I am a bit scared but also totally encouraged. If it's gonna happen it is gonna be ALL God! So this meeting was from God I am sure. He is already arranging things around me. I have a meeting with a network of youth pastor next week!!!! Wow!
Prayer request? That all my financial partners would finish signing up with my organization so that I can actually begin to do all these things. Without knowing if I am at 100%, I am not officially allowed to begin my job. Please pray that that is resolved soon!

Paul Washer sermon jam 1

I thought this video was a refreshing challenge to our young generation, as well as us. Tell me what you think.

From There to Here

Before you read this one, notice that this is the second one I posted today. There is another new post below!!
So a friend of mine informed me that moving is one of the top 10 most stressful life events! Huh. So, that's why I feel the way I do!! :-) As you can see from the first picture, we left on a beautiful Wisconsin day. I would have enjoyed the farmland more had it not been for the tears in my eyes. Our first stop was Omaha NE. We were then on to Colorado Springs and Santa Fe, then to Kingman AZ, and on to CA. We stopped to see friends two times and both times were blessed and encouraged on our way. We saw some beautiful rows of corn, sunsets, mountains and desert. Did you know desert can be beautiful? I may not want to LIVE there, but it IS pretty!
We arrived in CA all in one piece, Dad having driven the truck the whole 2,000+ miles!! Thanks DAD! Some help arrived from the Temecula office the evening we drove in and we managed to unload the entire truck. My new neighbors, who own the home I'm living in were there as well, moving in boxes and carrying the stuff one load at a time. Wow! It takes much less time to unload those big trucks than to meticulously load them!
The next few days were emotional for me. I am grateful that my parents are so patient. I was not, and never have been one to take moving easily. Each time I move it seems harder. How does that happen? Age? Anyway, after a few days I began to feel better and began to enjoy the lovely scenery surrounding me. God once again has really blessed me and arranged just what He knew ahead of time I would need and enjoy. I live in the beautiful mountainous farmland of Southern CA. We have orange groves and vineyards and horse paddocks all around. It's lovely! I still get to drive through farmland to get to the office! He knew I would enjoy that!
Before Mom and Sharma left to head back to Connecticut, she took Sharma and I to the San Diego Wild Animal Park. I couldn't pass up the silliness of the turtle costume!!
I am now settling into the office routine in Temecula. I met with my new boss for the first time today and we talked about our dreams for the future of NextGen and how we can help build relationships with youth pastors and youth ministries in Southern CA. I have a feeling that the pace of life will speed up quickly. I also think that I will enjoy the job! I already am heading off to help staff a language training camp in the mountains of CA next week and will have the opportunity to learn some more in depth translation work and hang out with a couple of seriously interested highschool students. Hit the ground running!

The sad part

Saying Good by was really hard. There is so much time to cover since last posting that I need to break it into parts. The first part is Wisconsin and the next will be...you'll see! Well, the first picture is of me and some of my kids at the St.Croix Cty Fairgrounds to see the tractor pull. I really enjoyed myself with all this farm culture!! What fun! It was a sweet time with these special people. Then the next one was a flight I was invited to join with my best friends in Wisconsin, Steve and Brenda Allingham and their little boy John Kenneth, for John's first small plane ride with "Daddy". It was our last real time together, and boy was that fun. Steve even let me fly for awhile.
Next is the packing stuff. Mom was a huge help, having flown out to WI early to help me pack. I don't know what I would have done without her! The Sunday before I left was a sad one for me saying goodbye to my church family in Boyceville. We all fit into one picture! See?
The Penske truck was almost NOT big enough to fit all my stuff, but this "motly" crew managed it with the supervision and expert handling of my Dad.
The next day after the apartment was checked we headed out of town. Not knowing when I'll be back made it harder to leave. We have created some great memories and I am grateful that God sent me to Wisconsin, if only for a season.