Well folks, miracles still happen!

One of the three big challenges handed to me when I came to RFKC was to become a Minister.

The other two challenges were to raise my salary through donations, and then earn a Masters Degree. Becoming a Minister will be the easiest of the three. I'm still working on the donations and the Masters Degree will come later.

I had to take 7 classes through Berean School of the Bible, I transferred 4 classes from Liberty University, and then completed all the interviews and tests. After all that, I have been officially recognized as a Certified Minister of the Assemblies of God fellowship.

I do not feel led to be a Pastor of a church, but the Minister's certification will help as I continue to speak in churches on behalf of the Orphans and Foster Children of our communities.

I still have an additional five more classes to take and I’ll be a Licensed Minister with no plans at this time to become Ordained.

Hiking with the Kids

The kids had Thanksgiving week off so on Monday we went to Pirates Cove at Corona Beach and hiked around.

More photos at:
http://www.dropshots.com/Jjuhala#date/2009-11-23/16:15:45

Summer Training Report

Here's a brief overview of the training we did this summer.


3 Directors Training Institutes
(held in Omaha NE., Portland OR., & Madison AL.)
• 36 trainees
• 15 NEW camps from:
• Nebraska (2), Illinois (2), California (2), Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and, Wyoming


2 Passing the Scepter classes
(held in Tampa FL. & Costa Mesa CA.)
• 20 Trainees
• 12 Current camps represented

Totals
• 11 Trainers
• 5 Host Couples
• 3 Child Abuse Specialists
• 5 different training locations
• 56 total students
• 27 Camps represented
• 2 new states trained - South Carolina & Wyoming

Additional resources for current existing camps:

Training Library on the web providing resources to Camp Directors for local training.
Day Trainer Program to train and provide resources for area trainers to assist new camps with their first year of training.

Things to Think About

The most destructive habit.....................................Worry
The greatest Joy...................................................Giving
The greatest loss...............................Loss of self-respect

The most satisfying work............................Helping others
The ugliest personality trait.............................Selfishness
The most endangered species...............Dedicated leaders

Our greatest natural resource...........................Our youth
The greatest "shot in the arm"..................Encouragement
The greatest problem to overcome............................Fear

The most effective sleeping pill...................Peace of mind
The most crippling failure disease.......................Excuses
The most powerful force in life...................................Love

The most dangerous pariah.............................A gossiper
The world's most incredible computer.................The brain
The worst thing to be without.................................. Hope

The deadliest weapon....................................The tongue
The two most power-filled words............................"I Can"
The greatest asset................................................Faith

The most worthless emotion..............................Self-pity
The most beautiful attire.....................................SMILE!
The most prized possession............................. Integrity

The most powerful channel of communication.......Prayer
The most contagious spirit..........................Enthusiasm

Child Abuse Deaths on the Rise

USA TODAY Article -

Abuse report: 10,440 children died 2001-07

"It's heart-wrenching that each day in America, five children will die from abuse and neglect, but what's worse is that the real number is even larger," as much as 50% higher, says Michael Petit, the fund's president. He says the deaths get too little public attention.

The report, based on data from the Department of Health and Human Services, finds that three-quarters of the children who died from abuse or neglect were younger than 4. The number of child deaths rose from 1,300 in 2001 to 1,720 in 2007, the most recent year for which figures are available. In that period, 10,440 abuse and neglect deaths were reported.

Read the full article at:

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-10-20-child-abuse-report_N.htm?csp=usat.me

Msnbc article - Action urged to curb child-abuse deaths

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33405080/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts

Sep '09 Speaking Schedule

I have a few speaking opportunities this month in the Bay Area. I thought I’d mention them in case you’re interested.

Sep. 16th 7:00 pm
Wed night service
Title – “Sharing your Faith with Royalty”
Camp stories blended in with the story of Naaman 2 Kings 5 v1-15
Oak Park Christian Center
273 Oak Park Blvd
Pleasant Hill, CA 94523
(925) 934-3056

Sep. 19th 1-5 pm
Water Ski Fundraiser for RFKC
http://concord.rfkc.org/site/c.ktJUJdMOIoE/b.4169417/
No speaking here, just fun times for a good cause.

Sep 20 8:30 am
Seniors Adult class
Title – (a shorter version of) “Sharing your Faith with Royalty”
Calvary Temple Church
4725 Evora Rd.
Concord, CA 94520
925-458-9100

Sep 21, 7:00 pm
Men’s Ministry Meeting
Title – “What I’ve learned about Men from Summer Camp”.
Mountain View Christian Center
5000 Amaryllis St (school building)
Oakley CA 94561
(925) 625-9570


I’d love to see you at any of these if you have the time.

Excellence - from John Mason

(From John Mason's Enewsletter - "Nugget of the Week")

Start every task thinking how to do it better than it has ever been done before. "It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it" (Somerset Maugham). Think only of the best, work only for the best and expect only the best. Excellence is never an accident. Become a yardstick of quality.

Excellence measures a man by the height of his ideals, the breadth of his compassion, the depth of his convictions and the length of his persistence. People will always determine your character by observing what you stand for or fall for.

Don't seek success. Instead, seek excellence, and you will find both. Work to become, not to acquire. Do the very best you can, and leave the results to take care of themselves.

Perfection, fortunately, is not the best alternative to mediocrity. A more sensible alternative is excellence. Be easily satisfied with the very best. When you are delivering your very best is when you will feel most successful. Never sell your principles for popularity or you'll find yourself bankrupt in the worst way. Dare to be true to the best you know!- John Mason, from the book Know Your Limits, Then Ignore Them

I hope you strive for excellence...Jeff

A 15 year old perspective of RFKC

The following are the ramblings and misspellings of a 15 year old who went to RFKC for the first time this summer. This is an abridged text from her blog. The full text is posted at: http://amongthethirty.wordpress.com/2009/07/27/rfkc/
27 07 2009

…a week ago I went to a camp called Royal Family Kid’s Camp that my dad had been raving on and on about. This was a camp specifically for abused children. My dad said that it was one of his favorite places on earth…

... So finally I was old enough to come, actually I wasn’t even old enough to come being only 15 but they made an exception this year. Along with me two other 15 year olds came. I was a bit iffy about going considering that my dad brought a huge bag of crap to camp every year for his lessons! =D

Well actually, camp was great! In fact it was one of the best experiences of my life. In fact, my dad’s lessons were amazing. He was creative and he really captured the kids attentions. It was truly amazing.

...As stated already its made specifically for abused children. Many were abused by their parents physically, but the greater percentage were abused in even worse ways. Most were abused in ways to graphic to write about. Honestly, how their parents did these things to these children is beyond me. A parent would have to be pretty sick minded to do such demonic things. RFKC seeks to help this kids forget all this in a week of fun, were they can just have a good time and learn about God.

On the bus ride back to the ranch were they would be saying I got to know a few of the kids. Already I was seeing how awesome these children were…

As we pulled into the ranch we were met by the children’s guides and my dad, the youth pastor. They were screaming and waving the signs that had the name of the children they would be looking after inscribed on them. My dad, always eager and truly excited about camp, had already gotten his grey hair painted with colorful polka-dots.

The rest of the week was insane! I mean donkey screaming, hair coloring, birthday throwing insane! Basically it was just really crazy, in a good way.

…Well so you get the drift, there was a lot of drama, but honestly none of that really mattered in the end. More importantly were the people and kids. As for the people I met a lot of great ones there. In fact, when I first got there my dad would be walking me around and then point at a guy and say that that was one of his favorite people in the entire world, and I would look at him and say, “Dad you’ve said that about everybody here!”. Seriously, my dad thought the people who volunteered here were great, and I saw that too. They really were awesome people.

When I thought about it and for a while I was confused about how these people were so great at RFKC, but at most other places the people their just weren’t. My dad explained it like this. Everyone that comes to RFKC to help the kids. They set aside their faults to help these kids. …Thats because we are all working towards one main goal…As my dad said, its one of the most beautiful things that you’ll ever see.

The best part of RFKC, is the whole reason that it was created, the kids. The kids top it all off, they are what makes the whole experience truly spectacular. I made friends with quite a lot of the kids, and just talking to them I knew that they were great kids. …I’ve heard some of these children’s stories, and they had to be some of the worst things I have ever heard. I’ve never heard anything as bad in movies, songs, stories, anything worse than what happened to some of these kids. I knew if I was one of these kids, I’d feel horrible, I’d be completely miserable. But when the children come to this camp, they forget all of that. They forget all of their suffering, and they have a blast! They smile all the time when their here, and its just so amazing that they could forget all the filth in their lives for a week and just have a fun.

There are so many great things that the camp did for these kids. For one, it teaches them about the bible, and thats probably its greatest purpose. If they believe what the camp is saying about God then they will find a friend that they will never lose, a friend that will always be with them. Also, these kids enjoy themselves for once and its just great.

For example, there was this one girl, a small little girl, and she would come up to my dad every day and say, “Pastor Mike, we have to do something for my birthday ok?”. Her birthday had been last week, and that hadn’t celebrated it. So she would ask, and ask, and ask. Then Thursday came, every Thursday at camp they would throw a party that was for every kid there, a birthday party for all of them because most of them didn’t get birthday parties and at the camp the workers want to let the kids know how special they really are. So we get the party set up, and then open the doors and let the kids in. As they ran in we’d all clap for them and then sing happy birthday. As you can imagine all the kids were ecstatic, but the one that was the happiest was that one small girl who had been asking and asking my dad for a party. She came up to him, weeping tears of joy, and said, “Thank you Pastor, thank you.” My dad was so touched that he couldn’t help himself from crying either. Practically, everyone that saw how happy she was ended up crying.

That being said, most of the kids effect the adults more than the adults effect them. As my dad explained during one of his sermons, helping to teach these children, and helping to give them such a good time helps those working for the children more than it actually helps the kids.

Sure, doing all this work is super hard, but its all worth it. Most of us would do anything to make these kids happy, I even colored my hair and let the girls mess around with it a little. Seeing these kids, who have suffered more than anyone should have to, enjoy our work is one of the best feelings ever. Seeing them smile brings an even bigger smile to our face, and seeing them leave causes us to weep thinking of how much were going to miss them, and thinking of the kind of life they have to go back to.

Finally, I understand why every week after Royal Family Kids Camp my dad would come back with pink colored hair and tears in his eyes.

RFKC Overall Summer Training Experience

Here’s a brief recap of the summer training:

5 week-long training camps (3 Directors' Training camps, for new start up camps &
2 Passing the Scepter camps, for existing camps).
11 Trainers
5 Host Couples
3 Child Abuse Specialists
56 trainees
12 existing camps with new leadership
15 NEW camps

Our new camps average 30 campers their first few years. 15 new camps at 30 campers each, equals 450 additional campers!!!

450 new lives being touched. 450 new experiences. 450 kids who have had few people in their lives come along side them and say “you are worth my time, because you are somebody special”. 450 more opportunities for caring adults to find out what the camper wants to do, and doing that! 450 opportunities for a “first time” experience, like “I caught my first fish”, “I sang in front of a crowd for the first time”, “I built my first bird house”, “I prayed for the first time”, “my first week without being called stupid”, “my first hike”, “my first time to hope”, “my first night without crying myself to sleep”, “my first time to hear about God”. RFKC creates lots of “first time” experiences, thanks to people like you.

Your prayers and financial support have made it possible to take 450 new kids to camp. You have made an eternal investment into their lives, and it’s a good investment!

Thank you for your support and help.

Jeff's Training Days 2009

Directors Training Omaha NE. 2009



This summers training Schedule took me to Omaha NE. for a six day training camp. I was joined for the week by fellow trainers John and Gael Ostenson and our Host Couple Kent & Sharon Mutschler. Sara Swansen spoke our first day as our specialist on child abuse issues. We had 12 trainees from 5 different churches in Nebraska, Colorado, Illinois, and our first training group from Wyoming. It rained a little bit every day but it didn’t dampen our spirits. We were there to teach and inspire, rain or shine. It was really a great week getting to know the trainees and having a great experience with the host camp from Omaha, NE. The facility Directors are also RFKC Directors and have 5 different Royal Family Kids’ Camps at that facility during the summer. Great people, doing great work making a great difference in the lives of kids all across the county.

Here’s a short video clip showing some of the events of the week.

Passing the Scepter Training 2009 Costa Mesa CA



This summer I was able to train in my first “Passing the Scepter” class for RFKC. We have 2 different versions of camp training. Brand new camps with no experience go to “Directors Training”. When an existing camp needs a new Director or extra help they go to our “Passing the Scepter” training class designed for people who already have Royal Family experience, but now they need the in depth training to go with. So this year I had the honorable pleasure of training with my office mate, Glenn Garvin. Glenn and I have worked together for 3 years now and this was our first time to train together. We were assisted by our Host Couple Darryl & Linda Fisher. We had 11 trainees from 8 different camps learning how to direct a RFKC. The group was fabulous and funny. After laboriously training and observing all day we had some great social times in the evenings in the camps game center.

Here’s a short video clip showing some of the events of the week.




These 13 camps, represented by 13 churches, now have the potential to go back and take around 500 kids to camp. 500 kids!!! Your financial support and prayer support help make that possible. Thanks for your investment in the lives of these kids.

18 Year Anniversary

In July Janet and I celebrated our 18 year anniversary. Still going strong!

Dinner and a walk on the beach!

Family Update Spring 2009

Jessica celebrated her 14th birthday at Disneyland (Disneyland special get in free on your birthday). Favorite ride -Indiana Jones.

Jonathan celebrated his 10th birthday at Disneyland (same as above). Jonathan’s favorite ride – Indiana Jones

Jeff went to Disneyland for Jess and Jon’s birthday paying full price L
Jeff’s favorite ride – the ride home!

More Pictures at: http://www.dropshots.com/Jjuhala#albums/Juhala%27s%20Spring%2009

Janet’s Grandfather passed away at the age of 83. Pastor Paul Schoch was a Pastor & Missionary Evangelist who traveled all around the world.

Pictures of the Funeral service are located at:
http://www.dropshots.com/Jjuhala#albums/Paul%20Schoch%20Funeral

Jonathan finished a major project for his fourth grade class. Instead of building a California Mission he built a model of the La Brea Tar pits. We had a good time visiting the place & working together on it. And he got an A on the project.

Photos of several of these events are located at: http://www.dropshots.com/Jjuhala#albums/Juhala%27s%20Spring%2009

Yosemite in Winter

This February Janet’s Mom got married at the little chapel in Yosemite. It was a lovely time and a beautiful place to get married. Here are a few photos.

"Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound. – James Allen

If that be the case, man must improve himself before he can improve his circumstances. What are you doing to improve yourself in 2009.

Here's part of my personal and professional development goals for 2009?

Maybe they will inspire you to write down your goals. Zig Ziglar says only 3% of the people write down their goals, and the other 97% work for them. True? Probably not, but writing them down makes it more likely that you will accomplish them. Have a great year.

Goals –
1. Write them down every Monday until they are memorized and therefore naturally intuitive

Character – Strive for the Character of Christ through
1. Daily devotions, prayer, journaling
2. Prayer with Janet
3. Prayer OVER the kids

Time Management -
1. Do what only you can do – First!

Personal Health -
1. Limit deserts, candy & soda
2. Bring more fruit to the office
3. More push ups & biking

Finances – This year things will be tight!
1. Cut out all unnecessary items, no casual spending
2. Find fun free things to do
3. Enjoy what we already have

Courage –
1. Have the courage to call and ask for a service, meeting, or support on behalf of the abused kids who can not call and ask

Responsibility –
1. Contact my donors more regularly
2. Honor my donors support by working hard, making wise decisions, and making a substantial difference
3. Honor God in everything I say and do on behalf of Royal Family and on behalf of my family

What do I want to accomplish in my personal life in 2009?

1. Monthly date nights with Janet & Thursday night reading / Prayer together
2. Organize the garage
3. Build projects with the Kids
4. Build a tree house / fort with the kids
5. Get Jessica involved with the High School before her Freshmen yr.
6. Invite 4 couples / families over to the house
7. Annual trip to the mountains in July / August
8. Daily devotions- kids and family

Career/Job –

Number of people giving on monthly or annual basis - 70
‘08 was about 50

Complete 3-4 Berean classes. Complete Certified Min. process
’08 was 3

Meet off site with 3 board members
’08 was 3

John Maxwell Seminar & send informational email to Camp Directors
’08 - YES

Have 5 churches send in support
’08 - 3

Speak for RFKC in: 5 churches, 4 Civic clubs, 2 Schools
'08 was: 3 churches, 2 schools, 2 civic groups, 1 Ministers group