Iowans working in California

Greetings from cool California,

The 2012 IOWAY team arrived in CA on July 4th.  We'll send you some of the cool breezes.... 70 degree weather.

The team headed out of Des Moines on July 4th.  They were welcomed by Gerald and Kimberley Fortier at LAX.  They transported us to the Residence Inn and served us Gerald's famous barbecue meat, potato salad, and beans.  It was a welcome meal and it was nice to sit down and enjoy and evening of conversations.

We work with Kim and Gerald each year at Skid Row.  Spencer Owen had the pleasure of presenting them a $250 check for the purchase of broasted chicken for the meal for the homeless. That will be  on Saturday, July 14.  We also presented them with 106 completed health towel kits that we will distribute along with Bibles, clothes, and food.

There are twelve on the team this year. Thursday morning, the team divided into two groups and one  headed to Christ Lutheran to canvas and prepare lessons for next week. The other team headed to Hope Lutheran to do the same. They worked until 1:30 and then both teams headed to Faith Lutheran to help get things set up for next week's VBS at Faith.

Friday, we did a repeat of Thursday:  planning lessons, deciding who will teach or lead each part of the outreach, practicing skits, canvassing the neighborhoods of the three churches, decorating, working on the music selections, etc.  We have some very talented, artistic people on the team.  If you walked into the churches, you would see a huge sun, large paper trees, and tents made from bedsheets from the rafters to set the scene of a tent city of the children of Israel.  The team is working hard with the local church members, having fun and being on-the-spot creative.

We took a 2-hour break in the late afternoon and headed to the mighty Pacific at Imperial Beach.  Beautiful day to be at the beach but a bit too cool.  Did not seem to matter to the tough Iowans.  They had a great time in the ocean and on the beach.

For our devotional time we are viewing sections of a DVD and discussing creationism vs. evolution.  Very interesting and thought provoking.

 Saturday, was the day to sleep in and to get together at the meeting room at 10:00.  We worked until 4:00 on the sorting, assembling and purchasing of items for the health kits for the homeless.  Had a great time at the 99cent store.  Purchased $900 of $1 items to be put in the towel kits.  They did not have 268 shampoos though so off to the three story WalMart for the shampoo.  That was an experience!!  It was unbelievable how many people were shopping.  We did find the shampoo. Got lots of crazy looks and had an opportunity to share what we were doing with many people.

Saturday night was a fun night. We sorted all the items we purchased and filled eleven items in each of 300 more health/towel kits.  What a project!  Thank you to all of you who donated money for the health items and to those of you who made the towel kits!!!  It will be a huge blessing to many on Skid Row next Saturday.

Today we attended church at Christ Lutheran and Faith Lutheran.  Then had a good time at Faith's community outreach.  They called it 'Picnic in the Park(ing lot)' :-)

We spent six hours this afternoon and evening going over the skits, music, continuing planning the lessons and we are set!!!  Tomorrow at 7:30 we head out to Hope Lutheran and Christ Lutheran for VBS.  Pray for God's guidance for the team.  Pray that many children will come to hear about the love of Jesus..

Thanks, Ellie Menz

Thank you for your prayers and please continue to pray for our team.

God's blessings to you,  Ellie Menz and twelve super workers from Iowa :-)

Pasadena Reflections: Lynn M, Dorothy, Kayla, Joan

Pasadena Reflections:

Lynn Menz, Trinity, Jefferson

I have been on the Pasadena adventure a few times before and each trip is different.  Different people each time make for new and special times.  This year there was a unique mission event after the decorating was completed.  Never before have I been involved in wrapping over 600 sandwiches in such rapid fire succession the way Sandy and I did.  I think we should have some kind of medal.  What say you, Sandy?  I was impressed with the operation and building we were part of in Skid Row.  We were a small part of much needed help for the homeless that day. 

The main reason for this mission adventure was to decorate the Lutheran Hour Float and other floats.  It presents the gospel message to millions of people along the parade route and around the world via TV.  It was great to be part of our group as we decorated the Lutheran Hour Float with the final roses on the last day, making it a sight to behold!  Steve did a great job with the greenery around the float while the roses were being added.  Work on the other floats was also fabulous as we worked on so many of them during our four decorating days.  And of course it was satisfying to see the finished floats come out the building the last day and line up on the street!  I appreciated the day of the parade and just ‘being there’ with all the excitement to see our group have this once in a lifetime experience!  Our seating was so perfect, thanks to Chris.  And I thought it was great that we were able to break into groups for the various activities after the parade and that everyone got to do what they wanted with the rest of that special day. Some went to the Ronald Reagan Museum, some to  the Rose Bowl game and others to the beach.

I enjoyed the meals out with our group and all the talking, laughing and getting to know each other.  I especially enjoyed the young people who were part of our group.  I thoroughly enjoyed that they interacted with me, an old guy, and shared with me and even responded to my teasing!  It was a special joy to see the family groups in our team participating and sharing the adventure together!  All in all, it was a great trip.  I am glad I was part of the adventures again this year. Lynn Menz  P.S. Awesome job, Ellie!!

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Dorothy Kruse, Zion, Ogden

The trip could not have been planned any better.  The highlights were working on the floats, seeing the great parade in person in front row seats, seeing President Reagan’s Library and Museum and the Skid Row adventure.  All were very interesting.

 I will never forget the great faith strengthening devotions each evening and all the wonderful friends we made.

 What an awesome week! Thanks for all your special efforts. Dorothy

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Kayla Heetland, Faith, Adel

This has been an absolutely amazing trip!  It has been so great to have my whole family on this experience.  My faith has been strengthened  by witnessing throughout the week and sharing time with a group of people with the same beliefs.  The complexity, amount of detail, and amount of work the floats require amazes me.  You could never even imagine this by watching it on TV!  Watching the parade on TV will never be the same!  It will be so much better now!  Every float was so different, but so gorgeous!  The amount of different kinds of flowers and seeds used on the floats was unbelievable.  We spent the whole first day working on silver leaf.  It comes all the way from South Africa.  It was also so gorgeous to see a whole tent full of flowers!  I understand that the flower tent had over $1.5 million worth of flowers! 

The Lutheran Hour float was absolutely breathtaking!  Not only because it was beautiful, but it was such a strong witness to the millions of people watching the parade.  The float also played "I Can Only Imagine" by Mercy Me.  The beauty of the float along with this song was very moving.  Watching the Lutheran Hour float move down Colorado Blvd was the highlight of this trip.  All our hard work and lack of sleep was more than worth it.  The beautiful float, music and the presence of God was very touching and I am sure it touched many people's hearts. 

Working with the homeless was a great eye opener to see how blessed we truly are.  It reminds you to be thankful every day for everything we have.  This was an amazing experience and I would encourage everyone to become a Petal Pusher or go on another mission trip.  God loves You! Kayla Heetland

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Joan Nahnsen, Immanuel, Schleswig

The week spent with the Petal Pushers in California was an exceptional experience for me. I especially enjoyed working with and spending time with a great group of hardworking and friendly people.  Ellie does a good job organizing and keeping everyone taken care of.  Working on the floats, seeing all the beautiful flowers, and meeting people from all over the USA who are Petal Pushers was fun.  The parade was great, also the weather. 

The experience working with people on Skid Row was great although I was a little leery about that area of LA.  God kept us safe on Skid Row and also on our travels to Pasadena.  Thanks Ellie, Lynn and all our IOWAY Petal Pusher group for a great week.  God bless all of you and hope we will meet again.

Pasadena Reflections by Pat H, Sandy, Linda, Doris, Delores, Chelsie, Lynette H.

Reflections on Pasadena mission trip….Pat H, Sandy, Linda, Doris, Delores, Chelsie, Lynette H.

Pat Hoffman, First Lutheran, Missouri Valley

Highlights of the trip to Skid Row:

·        The eyes of the men in awe as they received the hygiene bag and items included.

·        A comment “Just what I needed”. 

·        The kind reception as the men met us. 

·        Emotionally losing it upon seeing a young mother with a well-behaved 1-1/2 year old boy and 3 year old girl.  I put my hand on her shoulder after giving her clothes and health items for the children.  I told her how much Jesus loves her and told the children Jesus loves them.  I also told the two children, “I know your mother loves you.  You are blessed with her love and Jesus loves you.”

Their mother shook her head yes and dropped her head down in tears, as I said to her, “Isn’t that true?” I told her to keep working to go forward because she is special.  Again she nodded yes.  I assured her that I will be praying for her and the two children. 

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Sandy Day, Trinity Lutheran, Jefferson

This was my first mission/witness trip.  What a super experience!  I am very grateful to my mother for the gift of this trip.  My faith has definitely been strengthened by my many new friends in our group and the many strangers I was able to witness to.  I really enjoyed our activity where we each made a comment in each person’s Bible.  It made me appreciate the connections I have made with others on our trip.  Thank you Ellie for being an awesome leader!

                                                                                                                                                                                   
 

Linda Sprague, St. Paul, Ankeny

This trip was way more than I imagined!  I was so pumped for it but the trip was twice what I expected!  Float building is an art and people were so very friendly and open.  Skid Row was an expected eye-opener.  What struck me was how stark the building was.  No pictures on the walls, no chairs to recline or feel comfortable in.  Just the nothingness that goes on.  Yet I realize it is much better than the street.  As for the hand outs of personal care items, one man had watery eyes after inspecting his bag of items.  He said it was just what he needed as he was out.  Talk about God’s timing!

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Doris Nahnsen, Immanuel Lutheran, Schleswig

This trip we worked at a mission on Skid Row.  We served a meal and distributed health care kits and items.  Many people had many needs yet many knew Jesus as their Savior.  Even though their needs were great their faith was strong.  One gentleman and I were talking about Iowa and snow.  He said snow is beautiful.  He said snow is white and that the snow is like Jesus.  Jesus’ great love covers the darkness of sin and makes all things white and clean like snow.  I will never look at snow the same again.

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Delores Schall, St. Paul Lutheran, Eldora

This has been an experience of a life time! It far exceeded anything I had expected. When we flew out of Des Moines, I knew we were in God's hands. The lodging - meals - vans - drivers - everything just flowed like Ellie said it would! What an amazing gal.
Being a part of building the Lutheran Hour float, Home and Garden, US Bank, Micro Soft and more, was an awesome experience. The flowers were spectacular!!! Sunday morning when we saw those huge floats rolling out of that building in the sunshine, I thought I was in heaven!
The side trips to Hollywood, Santa Monica Pier (yes, Lynn it was worth it), Pacific Ocean, and Ronald Reagan Library were also a plus that I never expected to ever see.
The parade was awesome! (Just the parade was on my bucket list)  The parking - seating - food - sunshine - made it a perfect day.
Being able to go to Skid Row was very sad and humbling. We are so blessed that God has guided our lives and we have made some right choices. Now I will pray for those people every day.
It was a very faith building trip for me. The daily Bible studies were such a blessing and I came home with many wonderful memories. The people on our trip were friendly - great - wonderful - inspirational - I miss you all!!!
I know some of us will be friends forever ---- Thanks SO MUCH !!!! God Bless You All

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Chelsie Heetland, Faith Lutheran, Adel

This trip has been absolutely amazing!  Throughout the days of working on the floats I volunteered to work on the scaffolding of the floats which was very high.  The very first day was very nerve wracking and a lot of prayers were said so I wouldn’t fall off and would stay safe.  I found myself constantly praying.  As the days continued and the heights stayed the same I found myself calm because I knew that God would keep me safe.  It was a great feeling.  Spending the day at Skid Row was also a highlight of the trip.  One lady stands out especially to me.  She was dancing and so excited because she got a washcloth. The most basic item and one we take for granted could provide someone such great joy!

                                                                                                                                                                                    

Lynette Heetland, Faith Lutheran, Adel

I am so excited that my three girls and husband were able to go to this mission trip with me.  It was a blessing to me that we could serve God by decorating the Lutheran Hour float.  The amount of time and flowers that goes into each float is amazing.  When the floats were pulled out of the building and the sun shone on the flowers, they just glowed.  So very beautiful!  God has blessed us with so many different colors and types of flowers.

It was great to see my girls witnessing their faith to others.  You never know if that one comment will get that person to heaven.  This trip helped all of our faith to grow as well.  It continues to amaze me how a simple comment of “I will pray for you” or “Jesus loves you” will brighten a person’s day. Even just a smile.  We need to remember to do this at home as well, since our mission field is everywhere, not just in LA.  As Gerald says, “Isn’t it fun working for Jesus!”

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Pasadena Reflections: Lois, Pat S., Kathryn, Sadie, Steve

 Lois Brant, Trinity,  Jefferson

Friends are asking how the trip was and I suddenly realize I cannot describe the trip to them.  I can tell what we did, but that hardly touches what really happened in only one week.

There are so many levels!

·        There were absolutely marvelous people on the trip working with so many Christians.

·        Seeing how a float comes together.

·        The people who saved us front row seats on Colorado Blvd. How do you explain that...how to explain how much work that was..and they do that because?

·        Watching the parade with pride....thinking I did that.

·        The opportunity to witness to people just because we were dressed alike or because our sweatshirt said Petal Pusher.

·        The fun of giving witness bracelets to people, how surprised and pleased they were and how that made us feel. 

·        Just saying thank you to the crossing guards and others that helped us and how they appreciated that. 

·        The look on the faces of the homeless, realizing how they try to take pride in themselves, how hard they have to work to get out of that situation and to be part of the people who are helping them. How do you explain the feelings that we had from that day? 

·        How to explain the renewal of faith and the feelings that I have from this week....and it was only one week!!!

·         I feel like I have 22 really important friends. (I already knew Ellie, Lynn, Sandy, Brenda)

 Special thanks to you, Ellie

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Pat Stofferahn, St. Paul, Ankeny

This trip was so much more than I had expected.  I knew we would work on floats but I never imagined how much we would witness for God.  I know some people thought of this as a vacation but it wasn’t.   The floats were just a part of the trip.  Giving out friendship bracelets, talking to others about Lutheran Hour Ministries, Petal Pushers and nightly devotions were just some of the other things we did.  We were totally immersed in God’s work.  I can’t leave out the trip to Skid Row and the homeless shelter.  Seeing the smiles when we would give out underwear or socks was amazing.  I truly felt we were serving a need.  I came back with a new lease on life.  I know that I can make a difference in my family, my church and my city.  I can’t wait to continue my work for God whatever it may be.  Thank you Ellie, for organizing this trip.

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Kathryn Sprecher, Trinity, Des Moines

Just imagine.  Just imagine a hot meal while sitting at your dining room table.  Just imagine pulling up the covers in your nice warm bed.  Just imagine… The 27 members of the IOWAY team were privileged to visit the Urban Street Mission located in the area known as Skid Row and distribute health/hygiene items as well as undergarments.  We also helped to serve meals to the residents at the shelter as well as those who came in from living on the streets.  I visited with a man who had come to LA to drink himself to death.  I was able to share that, though our lives had followed different paths, God still loved and cared for us.

 This visit followed four days of working on several of the floats, including the Lutheran Hour Ministry (LHM) float, for the Rose Parade.  Theme of the 2012 parade was “Just Imagine”.  The LHM float had the theme “God’s Promise for All“.  Just imagine.  Millions of people either saw the float as it passed down Colorado Boulevard or on television and they read “He who believes in Jesus shall never die but have eternal life“. 

Just imagine how God worked in the lives of those on our IOWAY team as well as those we visited with and those who watched us as we worked to serve Him.

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                       

Sadie Heetland, Faith, Adel

When my mom originally told me we were going to California, I wasn’t sure what I was getting myself into.  Boy, am I glad I went.  Working on the float and talking to all the people was so much fun.  All the work that goes into one float blows my mind! They were just beautiful.  Seeing the final product driving down the street and knowing all the millions of people all over the world watching was very rewarding.

Going to Skid Row was exciting yet sad.  I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.  Some people were very grateful and happy to get anything and others wanted a specific one and wanted the best.  One lady came in with her daughter and was on the phone, not paying attention and pushed her daughter our way.  The look on this little girl’s face was so sad.  She was so scared so I talked first and gave her a health kit.  I asked her favorite color and said pink.  I asked if she wanted a hat and she shook her head yes.  I gave her a pink hat. Her face lit up, she smiled, showed her mom and was so excited.  That made me feel good that one pink hat had changed that girl’s mood.  That was the most rewarding part.  As we left for the day and walked by the ladies who were in the shelter at Skid Row, they clapped, said thank you and all smiled.  They were so happy with so little and we lifted their spirits.

Our group was amazing!  We had so much fun and I am so blessed to have gotten to spend it with them and my whole family.

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 Steve Kruse, Zion, Ogden

 (written 1/3/12 – his dad’s 81^st birthday)
This trip made me more confident and wanting to really go out and witness to get more people at home involved and sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior.

I helped with other floats, but when I did work on the Lutheran Hour float, it really made me proud and wanted to do my very best, for our witness to the whole world. When the float went by on Colorado Boulevard and heard the song “I Can Only Imagine” it brought tears and goose bumps to me.  I was very proud of it!  People that sat next to me praised the float and said, “That was the best. Great job, Petal Pushers.”

Left missing my family and went home missing my new Christian friends. We did a lot of smiling, laughing and crying all together. We experienced many adventures together. The experience made me feel great, knowing we were all showing that we are Christians by God’s love.

Reflections....by Afton, Don, Lynn H. and Jena

Reflections from the amazing Pasadena team J

 Don Hoffman

What a neat experience A-Z!

Ellie, God has given you a great gift and you use it to the fullest. 
Our goal is to make a difference in life for our Lord.  I know we had that chance.  God has opened the door for us to make a difference.  We had the opportunity to help. Now it is up to us to carry through.
At Skid Row, it was neat to see the eyes of children as we opened packages of socks and underwear. 
I would recommend a follow-up visit next year.
The Rose Bowl game was great.  Couldn’t have had a better seat!  Wrong team won, that’s okay. J

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                    

Jena Nahnsen

Working on the Rose Bowl parade float was an amazing experience, especially since I could spend it with such a fun group of people.  Seeing the whole process of the making of the floats and watching them go together was phenomenal!  Some jobs were interesting and a pain at times, but they were worth it in the end.  At one point, I worked on the head of a T-Rex and it was a pain but was totally worth it because that float won an award!  Seeing the final product go down the parade route was indescribable.  It’s awesome being able to say I worked on that float!  God gave us the ability to help and it’s a great, fun way to witness and be a servant of God.

 Skid Row is a real eye opener.  There’s no way you can understand the situation going on there unless you go and experience it for yourself.  It’s so great to see how the people’s faces lit up when we gave them just the littlest thing.  One man who was a resident at the Rescue Mission told us his story of being addicted to drugs and how he’s now part of a rehab program.  Then he prayed for us and I thought that was really cool.  God blesses us with so much!

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 Afton Kahler

This trip meant a lot to me in so many ways. I am glad I got to experience this with my grandma and uncle. The best part was making new friends with the group. We were all family for a week. Working with people on the floats was very fun, getting to know them, and how their faith is in Jesus Christ. Jesus is in our lives as we go from day to day. The scenery was one of God's gifts to us to experience.

My faith has strengthened from being on this trip. I believe strongly that Jesus died for our sins, and forgives us. Everything happens for a reason, with God's will. The memories from this trip will last a lifetime. If you believe in Jesus your life will be awesome! :)

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 Lynn Heetland

This has been an amazing trip for my family.  We have not taken many family vacations but this is one my three girls will never forget.  I am so glad that we were able to do this together as a family and with the extended family of everyone on this trip.  We have shared so many stories and many, many more laughs.  Life is so busy that we don’t take time to slow down and enjoy it.  We all need to do more of it.  We truly have so many “things”, but somehow seem to think that we need more and more.  I hope and pray that each of us will look for other ways locally that we can help the needy and homeless.  I was fortunate many years ago to be one of the many people that toured the floats before the parade, but still had no idea of everything that goes into making the floats.  Every day was a totally new and different adventure as we were given new floats to work on and various different tasks from gluing or cutting or placing flowers.  It was so exciting at the end when all of our hard work was further beautified by the addition of all of the fresh flowers.  The flowers so drastically changed the way the floats looked.  We were all so blessed to have been able to work on several floats.  How proud we all were of our specific parts of each float as it went by us during the parade!  I was especially proud to have helped with the Lutheran Hour float.  What a great way to get God’s message of eternal life in front of so many people!  Words cannot express the fun that we all had on this trip.  My group, the ‘Red Light Runners’, shared so many laughs during our daily road trips.  Never a dull moment!

A special “thanks” needs to go to Ellie for all of her hard work in organizing these wonderful adventures and thanks also to each of you for making this trip so memorable.

In Christ, Lynn Heetland

Pasadena Update #3

Pasadena 2011-2012 Update #3
Greetings Everyone,
Saturday, December 31, started early with wake-up calls at 5:00 A.M.  What a way to start the last day of the year!!  It was still so very dark and very foggy.  We had a quick breakfast set out especially for our group at the Residence Inn since we were leaving so early, short devotions and left the motel at 6:00 for the Rose Palace on special assignment.  One of the float judging events is judging the workers and how well the crew chiefs are using their volunteers.  The IOWAY group was chosen to come early to be the workers for this judging before the rest of the shift workers reported for duty.
After an hour’s drive, all five IOWAY vehicles rolled in right on time and reported at 7:00 A.M.  We were disbursed to various floats and put to work.  The judges arrived shortly afterwards to begin their first look at the floats.  Final judging is when the floats are finished tomorrow.  We had a long day because of the early start but so much was accomplished and the floats are progressing nicely.  The shift that followed us will finish them for judging tomorrow morning. We left the Rose Palace at 3:00 but before we left, we took a group photo by the Lutheran Hour Float.  The scaffolding had been removed and the float looks so great!
 Today we did a great number of interesting jobs.  My jobs included crawling up onto the City of Los Angeles Float with a can of white glue, a box of celery seed and a sponge.  The legs of one of the dinosaurs on the float is covered with celery seed and I touched up and finished any bare spots I found.  Later, Jennifer, the crew chief of the Lutheran Hour Float asked me to take a crew and bring over 2,000 pink roses, hot pink roses, and two colors of Gerber daisies to the float.  Many people from our group spent the next hours adding them to the float.  Everyone did an awesome job arranging.  Some put evergreen boughs around the float and some added asparagus fern greenery.  A number of others worked all day petaling, a very tedious process where you glue individual overlapping carnation petals onto a surface.  Some worked on large rose forms that will be added around the bottom of the float and others worked on the sign on the float, covering each 3-D word with overlapping carnation petals. 
Other tasks our group did today on various floats included adding carnations, blowing into roses to ‘fluff’ them before installation, cleaning float surfaces of spilled seeds by blowing them clear, gluing bark on trees, carrying huge flats of roses and other flowers from the flower tent, getting dry materials from the seed tent, arranging moss, gluing rice, flax seed and tiny peas onto float surfaces.  Popping carnation heads from their stems was another activity today.  TV stations are sending reporters to report on the progress in each building. Lois had her hands photographed close up while she worked on a detailed project and Pat and Delores were interviewed by KXNO TV.
When we left work we drove to the Soup Plantation in Pasadena for our evening meal, a wonderful place to eat.  Then we journeyed the hour back to our ‘home area’ and went to the $.99 Store to purchase personal care items for the homeless who we will be serving on January 3^rd.   27 crazy Iowans, wound up after a fantastic day of excitement and all wearing matching sweatshirts, created quite a stir in the store!  Can you visualize over $755 of soap, shampoo, conditioner, deodorant, razors, etc. in shopping carts with each item costing just $.99?  With our tons of stuff in toe, we headed back to the hotel for assembling the health kits, devotions and sharing time.  Joe Mitchell, one of the main members from Christ Lutheran Church surprised us with a visit while we were meeting.  His church is a Nehemiah church where Ellie and the gang work during the summer mission adventure.

We finished our evening by toasting each other for the new year with sparkling grape juice and headed to our rooms exhausted!  I doubt very many will stay up to see the new year arrive.  In the morning we are up early again heading for the other building, Rosemont, where floats will not be finished until later in the day so there will be work to do for our group.  It should be another very exciting day to see the floats drive out of the building and see their animation begin to work for the first time.
There you have it, a brief summary of the happenings of the IOWAY group on the last day of 2011.
God’s Blessings and Happy New Year,
Lynn Menz 
from Ellie:  I received a call this evening from Ardie, a friend who we work with each summer at Christ Lutheran Church.  He shared that his grandmother had died a few minutes earlier.  Please pray for Ardie and his sister Andrea.  Their grandmother raised them.  I suggest that those of you reading this who know Ardie and have worked with Ardie and Andrea at Christ Lutheran write or contact them.  The IOWAY group is very important to them.
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!