Leaving Tomorrow!

We take off for Israel tomorrow morning!  I can't believe its already here, the kids all met today to distribute tools amongst our bags and pray for God to work in the next two weeks.  In case anyone was curious, here's our itinerary for the trip!

March 1   - Leave Sacramento
March 2   - Arrive; Jack picks us up and we go to Rehovot;
March 3   - Church w/ Israeli believers; Rest and instruction from Jack; ride to Tel Aviv and stay in hotel
March 4   - Taxi to Nokia; Competition set up; get picked up by Israeli families
March 5   - Competition stay w/ Israeli families
March 6   - Competition stay w/ Israeli families
March 7   - Competition  Purim begins in evening - Party?; Pick up vans; drive to Rehovot
March 8   - Rehovot: visit school;
March 9   - Galilee
March 10 - Church w/ Israeli believers; Jerusalem in evening
March 11 - Jerusalem
March 12 - Jerusalem; leave at midnight
March 13 - Arrive home

Next time I post it will (hopefully) be from the other side of the Atlantic!

-Mike

Destination: Israel

Working for Sonshine hasn't been the only adventure of mine while in Lodi.  I've gotten the opportunity to mentor the local robotics team out of Jim Elliot Christian High School.  The team, Raptor Force Engineering, competes in the FIRST Robotics Competition, with over 2000 teams competing, annually, world-wide!  One specific cluster of teams have formed in Israel, and the team in Lodi flies out to Israel every year to compete with and minister to the teams over there!

As a student, I was a member of Team Eaglestrike in Los Altos all through high school, mentored the Citrus Circuits, a team from Davis, all four years of college, and even mentored at team in Colorado for the few months I was there.  I love mentoring students in robotics and seeing them come alive as they utilize there unique, creative talents in this intense design competition.

This year, the game involves shooting foam basketballs into hoops on either side of the field.  Additionally, at the end of the game, robots must balance on "bridges" in the middle of the field for bonus points.  Here's a quick video describing the game, Rebound Rumble!

The team I've been working with, Team 1662, decided to attempt to shoot 3 point baskets and balance the bridge at the end of the match.  After an intense 6 weeks of building, 30 hours a week, Monday through Saturday (we got Sunday off), the students came up with this machine, confusingly named "Boing-Bot"

And the best part, it works!  Here is Boing-Bot performing a completely autonomous routine at a scrimmage a few weeks ago!

So that's the robot that's sitting in a shipping crate somewhere in Israel right now.  Myself and the rest of the team (12 students and 2 other adults) are flying out Thursday morning to go meet Boing-Bot there!  We'll be setting up the field in the Nokia Arena in Tel-Aviv this Saturday, and then competing with 45 Israeli teams Sunday through Tuesday.  After the competition, we'll be touring around the country, going to historically significant places such as Galilee and Jerusalem!

I couldn't have imagined a year ago about to fly to Israel to mentor student in robotics and disciple them in their relationships with Christ, but here I am.  Depending on my access to the inter-webs, I'll hopefully be updating this blog regularly from the other side of the Atlantic, so look for updates soon!  Thanks for reading!

-Mike

The Summer is Coming!

Growing up, I've always been a home-body.  On multiple occasions, my mom and sister took vacations to various European countries, always inviting me to join them.  I always declined, instead preferring to hang out with friends, play Halo, or whatever else I did when I was a kid.

I could have never guessed that shortly after spending last summer living on a boat, I would fly to Sierra Leone to live on an even bigger boat!  But that's exactly what happened, and by God's grace the adventure hasn't stopped there!  

For the past two months I've been living in Lodi, working full time for Sonshine Specialized Camping Ministries, a houseboat camp operating out of the Sacramento River Delta and Lake Shasta.  After serving for two previous summers, I will be serving as Director this summer on Lake Shasta!  So in the intermediary period, I am preparing the camp, staff and equipment for the summer season!  It's been a stretching and invaluable experience thus far!

As the summer approaches, all Sonshine Staff are participating in our one annual fundraiser, the Run-Jog-Walk-A-Thon.  The Run-Jog-Walk (RJW) raises funds to help send students to the camp that otherwise wouldn't have the means to attend.  That's right, every cent raised in the RJW we turn around and give right back into the scholarship fund of the churches who attend Sonshine!  Last year, the Sonshine Staff raised nearly $52,000 in student scholarships!  This year, we've increased our RJW goal even further, to $60,000 in scholarships!  

This is only possible with the generous support of resources from the greater community.  The impact that a week on Houseboats can have on a student's life is invaluable.  I invite you to join with me in sending students to camp to give them this uniquely climactic opportunity.  If supporting financially is appropriate for you, please go to http://www.sonshineministries.com/rjw.html, select my name from the drop down list, select submit, and you'll be directed to a secure PayPal site.  From there, donate however much you would like to!

If you have any questions about the RJW, donation process, or just what I'm up to, feel free to give me a call or email me!  I would love to talk.

Again, thank you for all of your support of my past endeavors, and for considering to support me this summer.

God bless,

-Mike