Thailand

Friends and Family,

Allie and I are going to Thailand!!!

Thailand has been a passion of Allie’s family for many many years with Allie’s father and grandparents having served there, as medical missionaries, for over ten years of their lives. 

Several years ago our church began offering short-term mission trips to Thailand.  Allie jumped at the opportunity and in 2007 spent several weeks in Laos and Thailand serving.  Since that time Allie and I have continually pondered whether or not we should make this trip together.  Finally, with the prodding of the Lord, we decided that God was calling us to get out the bleachers and get into the game. Little did we know, at the time, but a large handful of our very close friends also felt the Lord’s nudging and will be joining us on this wonderful adventure.  Our team consists of over 25 individuals who will be investing almost three weeks into tiny villages in the mountainous country of Northern Thailand. On December 31^st, 2009 our team will be making the long journey in order to construct a school for an unbelievably uneducated and impoverished portion of Thailand. 

Allie and I would love to elicit your support in this wonderful adventure.  First we are asking for your prayer.  We both firmly believe that short-term mission trips generally impact the participants of the trip far more than contributing a long lasting spiritual impact on the people of Thailand.  We know that our purpose is to help support the long-term missionaries who are committing their lives to this challenging and yet rewarding region.  Because of this knowledge, we specifically ask that you pray for God to work through us and to shape our own hearts.  That he might reveal more about himself to us and that we might leave this experience changed and closer in our walk with the creator. 

 

Second, Allie and I have decided not to ask for financial support for this trip.  Therefore, in lieu of direct contributions we would love for you all to consider sponsoring one of the Thai children that we will be directly serving. For just $40 per month you can help provide education, food, clothes, lodging, health care and informal education for their parents (including sanitation, gardening, language and microeconomics). 

If you are interested in supporting one of these children or would like more information, please contact Allie at alliepenner@gmail.com or visit www.nextlevelmissions.org.  Also, on September 13th at the Well Community Church, there will be an opportunity to choose a child to sponsor. 

We very much appreciate all of your support and prayers. Thank you!

Jesse and Allie Penner

Aubrey Rose

Aubrey Rose is our favorite niece (we only have one)... even so, she is amazing!  We love playing with her and watching her grow up so fast!  She is becoming a big girl.  

Some of our favorite recent memories are at rite aid, watching her climb up the shopping cart and push it around, playing with her at the play area in River Park... ok, so she climbs up our barstools it is adorable.  She grabs the edge, "uh, ...  ooh... uh..." grunts a bit and pulls herself up, it is so cute!  

The other day at family dinner night, Cherie gave her crayons to draw with while we ate dinner... she ate the crayon!!!  It was so cute, we told her they weren't to eat, but couldn't resist a picture.  The sad thing is she was sitting at a table with 5 adults and got as far as she did!
Recently we went to the park at the elementary school by our house.  She was so impressive!  First, she calls the park a "due, due" which is weird because that doesn't sound like "park"... anyhow, she runs all around and climbs up everything!  We took her to the top of the slide and she wanted to go down by herself, so, she did... the slide was huge.  We were so impressed!  

Uncle Jesse, where are you?

Aubrey is looking back to see if anyone was going to follow her... this was her first big slide ride by herself!!! She did great!  

Uncle Jesse, where are you?  

Uncle Jesse taught me to climb up the slide... 

Uncle Jesse, where are you?  There you are!!!

Bud is just wondering when his turn is.  The last time we took him here with aubrey, he got on the slide and went about 3/4 the way down before bailing out and face planting into the wood chips... he wasn't allowed to go down the slide this time!

Aubrey has a little static going after a big slide run!

Aubrey was determined to do all of it herself!  She is so big!

Jesse's Hiking Trip

Jesse went on a hiking trip a few weekends ago and along with friends took his companion, Bud (our dog).  Others in the group included Chris, Breann, Kevin, Scott, and the dogs, Hunter, Kona, Tater and Remy.  They had a blast!  The back country was beautiful!  

Here is their camp site.

Just hanging out!

They went on a day hike and here are some of the views...

They scaled this wall, to which it is pretty scary, especially considering it was to get onto a ridge on the top of a mountain!

The ridge in the middle of the two peaks is the picture above where Jesse is climbing up the rocks.

This is Island lake (because of all of the islands) and Jesse thought it was definitely somewhere to return!

All in a day's work!

I thought I would post some fun pictures of me at work with a few of my friends!

Susie and Me

Me, my dad and Missy

Me, Jeremy and Katie

Me, Desi and Missy (I call Missy my mom at work.  She is great!  She can dish it out just like my mom!

Missy, Ken, Jon, myself and Kristin

Jon and Anthony

Bill, myself and Jamey 

San Diego Beach Party!

Daniel, Lauren, Darlene, Eric, Allie and Jesse having a blast in San Diego! This past weekend we went down to San Diego for the 24th (ish) annual reunion for my dad's UC Davis friends.  My sister and I have been going since we were born and look forward to enjoying the company, catching up and seeing how many inches/ feet the kids have grown.  It is such a unique group of friends and always a fantastic time!  

Every year, it has been a tradition that we dig a pit.  It started out the perfect size for two little girls (my sister and me).  It has now transitioned into something much bigger.  The dads were willing to give it up, however, I anticipated having children within the next couple of years and thought it might be a good idea to keep the tradition alive!  

Before the boys were told to play football on the other side of the flags!

The ladies and the ladies man!  Chips???

Jesse and Allie

The Hole

Still digging!

Me and my girls!

Part of the fun is, after digging all day, letting the tide come in.  We (the boys) created hole where the water can enter the pit.  After the bridge collapsed, everyone had so much fun standing around and watching the boys (and a few dads) participate in caving in the pit.  

The mound in the middle became a landing pad.  The boys had so much fun running around the circle.  I am not sure whether it was more fun to watch or to participate... we were laughing so hard!

Especially when the dads joined in!

Both Steve and Bill were caught by the boys.

Christian and Luke

After many rounds of running, John got a bit tired and flopped onto the sand. My dad thought it would be funny to bury him.  The good news is that we go back every year so we will probably find him next year!

Last Thursday night we had such a great time with a few friends of ours at the Smittcamps house.  We were able to feed the horses and then the kids got to ride one of them.  It was such a fun experience.  Aubrey had a blast faithfully walking back and forth from the hay stack to each horse feeding them(throwing the hay in the pen).  Some of the kids were a little hesitant at first, however, warmed up rather quickly!  This is definitely something we need to do again!

The Bachmans

The DeRaffaeles

The Rumleys

After family pictures the kids really wanted to ride the horse.  So, Blake put the saddle on and off they went.  It was so much fun to see the excitement they had!