Rainy Royal Welcome

I just got back from another great Training Camp in Omaha, NE. We had 15 trainees from Iowa, Nebraska, West Virginia, Washington and Oregon. It was a great group of people excited about making an eternal difference in the lives of Foster Children in their communities back home.

The Camp Director told us the story of one boy who was riding along in the bus going to camp when the young boy recognized a certain exit off the freeway. The boy said, “I recognize this place, there’s a jail right down this road, that’s the jail where my Dad’s at.” The boy right behind him spoke up and said,”My Dad’s in that jail too.” What a way to grow up. These are the kids we take to camp.

The local Omaha camp did a great job of making the campers feel safe and cared for. When the bus arrives we always give the campers the “Royal Welcome”. This year it was raining pretty hard but the camp volunteers still got out in the rain and yelled and cheered as the kids got off the bus. See the attached video. A special thanks to the Omaha Camp for providing a great “Rainy Royal Welcome” to kids who desperately need to know that they are valuable and cared for by people who are willing to stand in the rain just for them.

Jeff

Twenty Habbits - Book Review

The Twenty Habits That Hold You Back From The Top.
From the book What Got You Here Won't Get You There, by Marshall Goldsmith.

This trouble with success often manifests itself in the form of destructive habits in the workplace, of which Goldsmith lists twenty. He lays out very brief summaries of these twenty habits on a single page:
1. Winning too much: The need to win at all costs and in all situations - when it matters, when it doesn’t, and when it’s totally beside the point.
2. Adding too much value: The overwhelming desire to add our two cents to every discussion.
3. Passing judgment: The need to rate others and impose our standards on them
4. Making destructive comments: The needless sarcasms and cutting remarks that we think make us sound sharp and witty.
5. Starting with “No,” “But,” or “However”: The overuse of these negative qualifiers which secretly say to everyone, “I’m right. You’re wrong.”
6. Telling the world how smart we are: The need to show people we’re smarter than they think we are.
7. Speaking when angry: Using emotional volatility as a management tool.
8. Negativity, or “Let me explain why that won’t work”: The need to share our negative thoughts even when we weren’t asked.
9. Withholding information: The refusal to share information in order to maintain an advantage over others.
10. Failing to give proper recognition: The inability to praise and reward.
11. Claiming credit that we don’t deserve: The most annoying way to overestimate our contribution to any success.
12. Making excuses: The need to reposition our annoying behavior as a permanent fixture so people excuse us for it.
13. Clinging to the past: The need to deflect blame away from ourselves and onto events and people from our past; a subset of blaming everyone else.
14. Playing favorites: Failing to see that we are treating someone unfairly.
15. Refusing to express regret: The inability to take responsibility for our actions, admit when we’re wrong, or recognize how our actions affect others.
16. Not listening: The most passive-aggressive form of disrespect for colleagues.
17. Failing to express gratitude: The most basic form of bad manners.
18. Punishing the messenger: The misguided need to attack the innocent who are usually trying to help us.
19. Passing the buck: The need to blame everyone but ourselves.
20. An excessive need to be “me”: Exalting our faults as virtues simply because they’re who we are.

The Twenty-First Habit: Goal Obsession (The habit that is a good trait that can become a nightmare.)
He goes on to devote a few pages to each habit in detail which was very insightful and interesting. He also goes on to devote several pages to the “twenty first” habit, goal obsession. Goldsmith argues that many people lose sight of the here and now because they spend their time plotting out their long term goals, not realizing that the here and now is often the best place to take that first step to whatever you have in mind. In fact, obsession with goals often is the underlying factor in many of these bad habits.

From : http://wikisummaries.org/What_Got_You_Here_Won%E2%80%99t_Get_You_There

Family Photos

Judy - Self Portrait

Jessica - 15 years old!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jonathans basketball game

Lunch on the Lawn with Janae at school

The Paradoxical Commandments

The Paradoxical Commandments

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.
Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.
Do good anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.
Succeed anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.
Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.
Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.
Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.
Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.
Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.
Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you’ll get kicked in the teeth.
Give the world the best you have anyway.



Jesus Did It Anyway
The Paradoxical Commandments for Christians
Kent M. Keith
Published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons

Pray over your children at night

Here's something to pray over your children at night.

Ephesians 1:17 I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit[a] of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better.

Jeff's Donor Report - 2009

Thanks once again to all of you who donated finances on behalf of abused kids across the country. We can not do what we do without the help of many people.

As most of you know, part of my work here is to raise my own salary. This enables us to train more camps and reach more kids with hope for their future.

This makes me a part-time trainer and a part-time fundraiser. Please see the “Summer Training Report 2009” for more info. on the training.

My first year I raised 60% of my budget, my second year goal was to raise 80%, but I only reached 73%. Last year, 2009, my goal was 80%, but I only raised 76%. The good news is that it went up in a bad economy, but the bad news is it was only 76%, and not the 80%, and certainly not the 100% that I need to get to.

Last year I had 93 donors give, which is great! Originally my goal was 100 donors per year. My adjusted goal is now to reach 120 donors for 2010 so I can reach my full budget.

Here’s some of the resources of my fundraising:

9 Speaking Opportunities
4 Church services, 2 Missions Conventions, 1 District meeting, 1 Civic Group, 1 Men’s Meeting.
Many individual opportunities to ask people for their support.

93 Donors Total -
7 Churches
4 Business donors
2 Sources as a Safety Consultant
1 Golf Tournament Sponsored by Contra Costa Electric
79 individual or family donors

Note: One donor had a bowling team lose a bet on a game and instead of paying to the other team they sent the money here for a donation instead. I happily accepted.

It’s a lot of work and a lot of travel, but it all comes down to helping hurting kids. If you were a part of that support, thank you so very much. Your part, whether it was large or small, does make a difference and it does transform lives.

If you weren’t a donor last year, please help this year. I need to add another 30 donors for 2010, large or small, a donor is a donor. I have some donors who give a lot, but some can only give 10 or 20 dollars for the year, they all count as a donor.

If many people do something,
it makes a difference for kids who need a hope and a future.

Thanks, Jeff Juhala

Summer Training Report 2009

Here's a brief report of our summer training activities for 2009

3 Directors Training Institutes
• 36 trainees
• 8 Trainers
• 3 Host Couples
• 3 Child Abuse Specialists
• 3 Host camps from:
Omaha NE., Portland OR., & Madison AL.
• 15 NEW camps trained from:
Nebraska (2), Illinois (2), California (2), Colorado, Alaska, Washington, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Georgia, Indiana, South Carolina and, Wyoming

2 Passing the Scepter classes
• 20 Trainees
• 3 Trainers
• 2 Host Couples
• 2 Host Camps from:
Tampa FL. & Costa Mesa CA.
• 12 Current camps represented

Additional resources for current existing camps:

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

Caring Christians?

From the book, Quick to Listen Leaders, page 32 states…

“We recently asked more than fifty ordinary people on the street what they thought of Christians. Most people responded with colorful adjectives such as pushy, disrespectful, and judgmental. Not a single one used the word caring.”

Fifty people aren’t a large sampling but you get the point.

How would your friends, family, or more importantly, your co-workers describe you?

Does your example of being a Christian lead people to think of other Christians as caring?

New Report about Child Deaths in America

This info is from: http://www.everychildmatters.org/


The Growing Crisis in Child Protection

According to “We Can Do Better,” our report released in October, nearly five children die in America every day from abuse or neglect. In fact, federal data show that 10,440 children in the U.S. died from abuse and neglect between 2001 and 2007, but experts say the real number may be as many as 5,000 higher. A weak economy and resulting state budget cuts are putting even more children at risk, as evidenced by the multitude of newspaper stories from across America that link an increase in child abuse to the worsening recession. This document, entitled “The Growing Crisis in Child Protection: A sampling of news stories from across America," shows a number of these stories.

To read more and see the detials please go to:

http://www.everychildmatters.org/National/Resources/The-Growing-Crisis-in-Child-Protection.html


Thanks for caring for the fatherless,

Jeff

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.