ShareFest Saturday, October 10th, 2009

Our annual ShareFest Day is coming up on Saturday, October 10th, 2009. Since 2004, ShareFest has been a day of service for Christians from all over Porter County to share their faith through deeds and actions. Four cities in Porter County will be participating: Chesterton, Valparaiso, Portage and Kouts.

This year ShareFest and NeighborLink Porter County will be joining forces. The projects that will be completed on the day of ShareFest in Chesterton and Valparaiso will be pulled from the NeighborLink Porter County website at NeighborLinkpc.org

Residents of Porter County can get involved by donating liquid laundry detergent, diapers, toilet paper and food items for the local food pantries.

Volunteers can serve by signing up for a work project at the website and by signing up to give blood at one of the local blood drives.

We hope that you can be a part of ShareFest this year!

In Him,
Larry & Judy Alders

On My Heart

Our family has seen it's share of death. In the last three years, our children have lost a precious Grandma (my Mom), a beloved Uncle, a dear Grandfather (Larry's Dad) and most recently they lost a teacher. They have also seen every spectrum of dying. One died in a freak accident, one had been sick with cancer, one lived to be 88 years old and one's life was taken from them. I wonder how our little one's are dealing with all of this grief. It has been hard for me as an adult, so I can't imagine what must be going through our precious children' s minds.

For me, I can manage it all because my hope is not in this world, my hope is in Jesus Christ. I know that this fallen world is not all there is. Lately, we have had to continually remind the kids of this, but you just don't know how much they can grasp at each of their ages. This is part of why we started NeighborLink. We want to share with others who don't know Jesus personally. We choose to do that by being the hands and feet of Christ in the community. We want to be missionaries in our own back yards. We want YOU to have the HOPE that we have. Do you know that if you died today, that you would be in Heaven? WE DO. Life on earth can be great, but it can also be really tough and mean sometimes.

I was thinking about of a friend who got married last weekend. She and her new hubby are basking in the sun somewhere tropical right now. Do you know that feeling when your on vacation and you say to whomever your with, "lets just stay here and not go home." It feels so awesome to just relax and take in all the beauty that God has created. That is how I picture Heaven someday. It's going to be perfect, beautiful and amazing. I want you to have that hope too! THIS WORLD IS NOT ALL THERE IS!! This world is beautiful, but Heaven is going to be so much better.

So how do I get there you ask? Well, it's really very simple. John 3:16 says, For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish, but have everlasting life. And Romans 3:23 says, For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. All you really need to do is recognize that you are a sinner, (we all are) ask Jesus to forgive you of your sins (that's why He died on the cross) and then ask Him to take control of your life. If you want to talk more about this, please call me.

I have been on vacation and thought, "I wish my whole family could be here to enjoy this, this place is so beautiful, I wish they could all be here to share this with me." I wish that for YOU today. I hope to see you in Paradise someday.

In Him,
Judy

Chesterton Tornado Clean Up

As most of you know, on Wednesday, August 19th, at 7:35 pm Chesterton, Indiana was hit with an Ef2 tornado. While there were watches posted, there was no advance warning of the storm because there was a hardware failure on the sirens. The Chesterton Middle School roof was damaged as well as the Duneland Resale Shop. Several other businesses and homes have been damaged as well.

One of the garage's

The devastation is hard to believe, but what's more incredible is that fact that no one was seriously hurt when you look at these pictures. The tornado was Wednesday night, but it was Friday before we found out about the first family that we have been blessed to help. This family moved here two years ago from California. They moved into this home last year. There are well over 50 trees down on the property of four acres. These pictures don't do the devastation justice. The family has been overwhelmed with the generosity of those in our small town. There were several volunteers from the community on Saturday and over 20 on Sunday from the community and local churches.

This is the view from their front door.

Popolano's restaurant in Chesterton was kind enough to donate lunch for the volunteers who showed up on Sunday. We want to thank them for their generosity.

Their swimming pool

The garage attached to the house

This is just one family in Chesterton. We know that there are dozens more that will need help in the coming weeks and months. We hope that you will take this opportunity to reach out and help a neighbor in need. Please keep in mind, that if you know of someone who needs help, they can post their project on our NeighborLink Porter County website. If they don't have the Internet, they can call me and I will post the project for them. We will do our very best to help them.

In Him,
Larry & Judy Alders

Just Neighbors Helping Neighbors

While this is not one of our traditional NeighborLink projects, it is the epitome of what NeighborLink is all about. Neighbors helping neighbors. On Saturday, August 15th, a group of us headed over to help a family from our church. They are in the middle of a re-model and it's crunch time as the home they are currently living in has recently sold. We had a great day. Lots of hard work, laughing and lunch! We really wished we could have finished the siding, but there is some work to be done yet.

Before

After

You can see the rest of the pictures on our Flickr page at the top of the blog on the left.

In Him,
Larry & Judy Alders

Go Day 8-1-09

We had a great morning painting the house for our recipient on Saturday, August 1st. We got a lot done and had a couple of more volunteers join us. We were focusing on the front of the house. There is still much work to be done, but he is so grateful that work has begun. This will be the focus of our next few Go Days. We hope you can join us on an upcoming Saturday.


In Him,
Larry & Judy Alders

Alternative Spring Break Saturday

NeighborLink had an awesome day on Saturday when a group of college kids came down from Kalamazoo to serve a neighbor in need. They came down to help paint this house for a gentleman who is in code violation in Valparaiso. Let me explain a code violation. Each town has standards that home owners must abide by. When your home isn't up to "code," the town will send you a notice that you must make the necessary repairs. If you do not, they can then begin to fine you until the work is done. As a worse case scenario, the amount of fines could be so much that they then place a lien on your home. We had the privilege of helping this gentleman out.

This is Allison, she and some of her friends from the Learning Center in Chesterton came down to help as well.


Larry is teaching the boys a thing or two about painting. There are quite a few other pictures of just how much fun our kids had painting here at Flickr page.


This is part of the finished product and all of the dedicated volunteers we had to help us get this project off the ground. As you can see, there is much work to be done. We will again be painting this Saturday August 1st if you would like to come out and serve for a few hours.


Thanks to the Kalamazoo Crew for all of their hard work!

In Him,
Larry & Judy Alders

Great NeighborLink Project and Volunteers

On June 13^th, a group of helping hands answered a call for help that was posted to the NeighborLink Porter County website. They gathered in Wheeler to help a family in need. A wheelchair ramp to the back of their home was constructed too steep. So caring carpenters tore it out and built a better more useful ramp. Under the leadership of George Rieger, the Missions Committee of Ogden Dunes Community Church, organized the project and on a drizzly and cloudy Saturday morning, no less than 10 ODCC people descended on Wheeler to hammer out their faith and help out this needy family. Afterwards the team gathered at Quiznos for a celebration lunch. After a few blisters, bumps and bruises, the project was complete. Come join us for our next project!