First of all… thanks for your support of Neighborhood Thrift. Because of the church we have been able to offer affordable goods and, more importantly, jobs in the neighborhood.
Monday :: August 31st :: All Day + Night
Neighborhood Thrift is in need of your services this Monday, August 31st. During the day we are going to be moving clothes and other loose items from our current store (1050 N. Fulton) over to the new store (353 Olive Ave).
Starting at 7:00 PM on Monday, August 31st we are in need of help to remove the current fixtures with heavy duty power tools and move them and possibly install them into the new store. What we have are 30 feet of bookshelfs, gondolas and clothing racks that need to be moved over. This is a great mission opportunity for those who like to work with their hands and help out your church! Bring your trucks as well, as we could always use help transporting!
Saturday :: September 12th :: 10am-5pm
Neighborhood Thrift has been working hard to open the 20,000 sq foot store in order to employ and train the local community members for the job market. Its going to be a great day w/ lots of food and potential amazing music. The cafe/lounge area will be open for all of you to enjoy!
Neighborhood Thrift was launched in March of 2008 and has been due for an expansion for the last year or so. With unemployment up so high in this area, there is a larger need to train and equip community members for work. The store is growing from a 2,000 sq ft store to a 20,000 sq ft store and wants you all to attend to come see what is happening and score some killer deals on any and all items that you desire. If interested in helping out email info@neighborhoodthrift.com or visit neighborhoodthrift.com for contact info. Also see Grand Re-Opening Facebook Event Page.
Colburn learns from his travels: Thai mission gives QB a life-changing perspective.
By Daniel Lyght / The Fresno Bee
First, people told him he looked like David Carr. Now, Fresno State quarterback Ryan Colburn draws comparisons to Tim Tebow.
No, Colburn can’t flash two national championship rings like the Florida quarterback, and he hasn’t won the Heisman Trophy like Tebow either.
In fact, odds are Colburn will win neither this season.
But he does wear No. 15, is left-handed and enjoys running the ball, just like Tebow.
He’s also been halfway around the world on a mission trip, and you guessed it — so has Tebow.
Bulldogs quarterback Ryan Colburn traveled to Thailand in January through The Well Community Church and the Integrated Tribal Development Program. He said he volunteered because he felt compelled to serve through his Christian faith.
Colburn traveled to Thailand in January through The Well Community Church and the Integrated Tribal Development Program. The goal was to build a dam, filtration system and water tank to provide villagers with accessible drinking water and for the volunteers to proselytize through their actions.
He said he volunteered because he felt compelled to serve through his Christian faith.
“People ask, ‘Did it change your life?’ It really wasn’t that,” Colburn said. “In our society we tend to want to be complacent. … We want people to give us things. We don’t realize how blessed we are. …
“[The trip] gave me so much perspective. These people don’t even have running water. We took showers with a bucket in a stream, and I was perfectly content. You realize how much you don’t need. You appreciate what you’re given, but you realize what you truly need and what you want.”
Bulldogs team chaplain Jamal Jones said Colburn wasn’t changed as a player by the trip, because he was already hard-working, highly motivated and committed to the football program.
Being a football player, however, did likely help him physically when he arrived in Thailand.
It was no sun-and-sand vacation.
Colburn, along with 13 others, flew from Los Angeles to Bangkok, then to the Thai city of Chiang Mai, which Colburn describes as “a very busy city” with traffic comparable to “controlled chaos.”
He called the flight there “miserable.”
“It was 18 hours and we never saw the sun,” he explained.
On top of that, he forgot to take his malaria medicine the previous night, so he had to take the drugs the morning of the flight, which left him nauseated.
From Chiang Mai they drove deep into the jungle — all 14 crammed into two pickups with campers on the back.
The clay roads departing the big city were narrow and rocky impromptu thoroughfares molded by machetes.
Upon reaching the hillside village, Colburn saw beautiful dense jungle scenery, with bamboo huts, tropical plants and flowers mingled with trash.
He coped with stares, something he was warned of before arriving, and smiles. He owned a height advantage of at least a foot over his host family’s father, something that helped break the ice when the family squatted around the fire.
His advantage of being physically fit kicked in when the work began.
In order to build the dam — by hand — and deliver the water to a 10,000-gallon tank — built by hand — and also route the water directly to the villagers’ homes, the volunteers and 128 villagers had to dig a trench and lay PVC pipe for more than a half-mile.
Colburn, a designated “root buster,” scooped up a pickax and swung for hours, breaking the roots of jungle trees and plants as the trench snaked its way through wilderness and spider webs.
The digging, uprooting, and cement mixing left the 22-year-old aching. His hands throbbed with agonizing pain and hurt every time he moved them. His back was also sore, but how his body dragged was nothing compared to how his heart leapt when he saw the fruit of his labor.
“My most satisfaction came [when] … for the first time in a 65- to 75-year-old woman’s life, I got to watch her walk out of her hut, turn a spigot and collect fresh water,” Colburn said.
“You’re tired, you’re sweating, and I lost like 10 pounds, but it was completely worth it.”
During his time in Thailand, Colburn inspired and encouraged others, said Joyce Bitter and her husband, Norman, a dentist who along with Fresno State team doctor Eric Hanson provided medical care to villagers. It was Hanson who invited Colburn.
“He was one of the hardest working guys,” Norman Bitter said. “He’s really a tremendous, young Christian witness. Always cooperative. When someone needed help, he was there.”
That included helping Joyce Bitter, who assisted in the dental care, dismount from an elephant.
Colburn said he’s never tried to connect his Asian experience to his current toils with practices and a quarterback battle that might carry into the season.
“I don’t think it’s possible to compare my ’sport,’ and the struggles I go through, with everyday issues of health and survival that the Thai people dealt with,” Colburn said. “The experience gave me a life-changing perspective on contentment and what poverty truly is.”
The reporter can be reached at dlyght@fresnobee.com or (559) 441-6400.
Training for all Target Neighborhood and local missions ministries! Saturday, August 29th, 2009 at the Cross Church (4545 N. Palm Ave.) Time 10am to 12pm with free breakfast and lunch. This orientation will include great speakers, lots of information and fingerprinting. If you are interested in learning more about our vision for local ministry or a part of it currently this is a must! Download the flyer here.
This is a special note from Neighborhood Thrift…. visit their website at www.neighborhoodthrift.com
Neighborhood Thrift Friends and Family,
Hope that this email finds you all well. Here at Neighborhood Thrift we have been having a blast setting up the store and seeing God’s hand at work. To see the amount of donations come in has been mind blowing and a sure blessing from God. We are still in great need of help on our Thursday work nights at 353 E Olive, 93728. We are there from 5pm to 9pm, this is a great avenue for a group to serve or just yourself! In order to try to make this store open in the next month we are going to need help from you and your friends and their friends as well.
The projects still needed to be accomplished are filling the clothing racks with sorted clothes, setting up our shelves with merchandised product, hang clothing from unsorted bags, and cleaning the store. Let us know if you have any questions about volunteering and feel free to sign up at www.thewellcommunity.org/missions or call for any questions.
You can visit our new revamped website at www.neighborhoodthrift.com
Thanks,
God Bless
Neighborhood Thrift
498-0708
Well, we had a whirlwind of a day. We traveled all around Phnom Penh seeing the different tourist attractions pertaining to Cambodian culture.
First we went to the Killing Fields of Choeung Ek. This was the place during the Pol Pot regime where people were taken to be “educated”, or that’s what they were told. In reality, they were taken there, blindfolded and bludgeoned to death. The bodies were thrown into mass graves. The field we visited is just one of hundreds around the country.
Next we went to the Tuol Sleng Museum also know as S-21 (security prison 21). This was the largest center of detention and torture during the Pol Pot regime. Between 1975 and 1978 more than 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the killing fields. Each prisoner who came into Tuol Sleng was photographed before and sometimes after being tortured. These pictures were displayed in the museum as well as the torture instruments, prison cells, and artwork portraying things done by the Khmer Rouge soldiers during that time. Overall, this was such a depressing experience. What a horrible display of the sin nature.
Then we had lunch at a local Khmer (this is what Cambodian people are called) restaurant with delicious food and a nice break from the sun and heat. Afterwards we went through the National Museum of Cambodia which was built from 1917-1920. It holds the world’s finest collection of Khmer sculpture. There is pottery, artifacts, statues of Buddha, Vishnu, Shiva, previous kings, etc. The earliest artifacts are dated to the 4th century.
The Royal Palace was next. We walked through various buildings including the place where the King receives dignitaries and the Silver Pagoda where the floor is laid with tiles made of solid silver. There is a giant statue of Buddha made of pure gold and diamonds, weighing 90 kg with over 2,000 diamonds inlayed into it. The saddest part to me of the whole day was to see people come in and bow over and over again to this statue of buddah. I don’t know all of the ins and outs of buddhism, but I know that it’s a lie and that Jesus Christ has truth for them. That is why we are here, we believe that God wants to free people in Cambodia from the power of sin and death. We would love to be apart of that work if this is where God leads us in the future. Would you pray with us about that? Seeing it first hand and being here amongst the people raises in my mind lots of questions, apprehensions, and fears. I know, though, that our God is above all of that and he is “mighty to save”. So, I will continue to stand in awe of Him and follow Him where He leads.
Lastly, we went to Wat Phnom which, to be honest the meaning got lost in the excitement of seeing one of the last legs of the Amazing Race!! A section was blocked off and our Cambodian friend who was showing us around the city asked what was going on. Through some investigation we found out that the contestants from the Amazing Race were to meet the host at the top of the mountain of Wat Phnom. We went up and got a look at the host and the first team that arrived. On our way out we saw the next 2 teams arrive and were able to get some pictures and video. Of all the days and places, eh? It was crazy and random!
After about 8 hours of sightseeing we came home sunburned and tired and spent the evening relaxing and talking with the missionary we are staying with. It’s been a good day, and I think we have managed to avoid most of the jet-lag! We’ll update more when possible.
~Jess
http://web.me.com/youngsplace/YoungsPlace/Blog/Entries/2009/7/25_Cambodia_-_Day_2.html
Hey again…we found a wireless signal finally and thought we should post some pictures for everyone…last day here and we still need your prayers for a safe return home. 
Greetings Everyone!
Well the team made it back to Quito safely yesterday . After serving a small community in the morning, we packed up, said goodbye to the friends we had made in Latacunga, and enjoyed the bus ride back to where it all started…. Quito. For our dinner last night, we feasted on Pizza Hut pizza (Ecuadorian style- not much difference except the olives were green instead of black). At 7 o’clock, our team took a stroll to the local mall, which by the way is 10 times fancier than Fashion Fair and about as expensive. Needless to say, we did not buy much. Today, we get to drive to the center of the world to make history for our team (well, at least we’ll get to say that we went to the center of the world and have pictures to prove it). Then we’re off the the markets to do some shopping at far better prices than the mall. Tomorrow we head home. We miss you all just as much as you miss us.
We’ll see you soon.
Sara
Hi again everyone…today was a great start to our week. To give you all and idea of how our day went, we saw over 120 children and 103 adults at the town called Chisquas. One small story, there was a man who had poor vision for many years, and we were able to give him some new glasses. He ended up hanging around for about an hour smiling to everyone, and he also spent some time admiring himself in the reflection of the windows. We also gave out over 500 prescriptions today…very busy. The neat thing about today was that we were short about seven people today as four left for home and three members of our team were sick. The team really pulled together and made it work for one of the busiest days yet. Anyways, the trip is winding down and we have thre days left of serving left here, we´re trying to finish strong and are looking forward to warm showers and our own beds…
Joel
