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Our yearly event for going to Bob & Kaye Sim’s Hidden Hollows to walk through their woods in all our winter ware, including our boots, scarves and gloves with hand saw in tow was a wonderful event again this year. We waited for Joshua this year, because we wanted to! Last year we had Kim and two dogs accompanying Dan, Josiah & I. This year, it was once again the 4 of us with Joshua too! We found a beautiful “fir” tree, and cut it down.
The trip was not uneventful as Josiah at the base of the tree in the lead and Joshua at the top, but got going too fast on the slippy ice. Josiah kept going on his own, once he lost Joshua in his speed. But the fir on his hat kept slipping down lower and lower. Josiah miscalculated the distance he was from the big flatbed truck and crashed his elbow into it full force, causing the tree and he to bounce on the ground, while we all watched. Note to self: “when running and your hat slips over your eyes, stop running!”.
We have the tree up in the living room, lights, decorations on and the hot drinks have all been downed in the process . . . now it is time for Christmas! Let the celebrations begin!
Joshua came into Detroit Airport at 6:16 pm after about 24 hours of traveling including 3 flights. It is so good to have the 4 of us together again! We are enjoying him!
Last night and this morning, I was pulling things out of the archives that might make Josiah look like a “real woman”. The outfit we came up with, I just might try on a date night out with Dan (with a few less bling bling accessories).
As I was painting his fingernails bright red last night, I noticed what a great shape his nails are.
This morning as I was putting on his “smokey eyes” make up and lipstick, his gorgeous features were quite nicely accented. Good he wasn’t a girl, I am glad for my boy.
He headed out early to school, so he could walk the halls in his outfit of the day. Today is bigger and better than the other days . . . what will come tomorrow and Friday? It will be fun.
I love to see Josiah go all out for it . . . totally, holding nothing back!
You go Schmoke!
This morning, we focused on the Next Generation. It is our TUESDAY FOR TEENS” day, in which we focus on teens anyways. This morning we gave some background history on where the teens of this next generation are at, and the cultural / world changes that prompted the Character losses (or declining decades). Then we proceeded towards one of my favorite NEX GEN topics: Mentoring.
MENTORING is the process and result of a mentor helping bring out the potential in a still to be developed person. It can take place on an occasion, in a season of live, or over a lifetime. Everyone will focus on at least one person to mentor during their 6+ weeks here in Marlette. We have seen such an impact in the past on the impact in the lives of teens with imagiNations mentoring time. So, we are praying for the divine appointments with the right people for these ones here.
In the afternoon, we headed to Cass City, where my parents, Tim & Joan Thomas were waiting for us with a gorgeous healthy meal, much of which was grown from their garden and picked for this meal. We drank watermelon juice that moments before we arrived was picked, cut in half and plopped into a juicer, then to our cup on the table!
We also heard stories of God’s voice spoken to my parents, how we can hear God’s voice and were released to live freely! Dad Thomas reminded us of the importance of learning to hear God’s voice in temptation. Check out the “Hearing God’s Voice . . . from my Dad ” blog entry.
1 CORINTHIANS 10:13
“There has no temptation taken you but what is common to man. God is faithful; He will not allow you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But will with the temptation offer you a way of escape so that you can stand up under it.”
One of my favorite comments driving home after the visit to my parents by Lisa was, “I feel like going into temptation, so I can hear God!” That is a new perspective, but good to see it from that angle!
Today begins the week long preparation for the “Marlette Raiders Homecoming Football Game” on Friday night. Each day at school they have a special theme, where the students & teachers dress up. Today was “GET UP AND GO” day. Many of the students wear their pajamas (of course they have to be decent), but the usual is to wear flannel trousers / pants.
This is one week where Josiah shines at Marlette Jr / Sr. High School. He likes to go all out. Of course Dan also loves to pull things out of trunks, think of more parts to add to the costume, etc. Josiah boldly goes into the school totally decked out. Today was no exception, after he was 100% sure that it was actually “GET UP AND GO” day.
Those with good costumes are sent to the central place for judging. Josiah was the one sent from his class, and of course was the winner. Yeah Josiah!
One thing we do miss is having Joshua and Will Eppenbroch joining us for going all out on costume day. Maybe Josiah will find other brave ones to go for it with this year!
Darwin came back to Marlette, MI to visit us after his first visit here for imagiNations 4 years ago! Tonight was the last night he has with us and we celebrated by eating at Treves Pizza. He heads back to California where he is a Tennis Coach, and soon to be student there. We have been able to see him almost every year since we first met him in Uruguay for TeenStreet about 6+ years ago now. We have been able to have him as another “son” living with us for nearly 3 weeks.He and Josiah spent most of their time together and it was great for both of them. 
We enjoyed him too! He also was able to go to all the Soccer Practices for Josiah’s Marlette Varsity Soccer Team . . . and be a great encouragement and support to all the guys on the team! We will miss you Darwin, come back and stay again anytime!
(Update on Dan & Suzie Potter . . . aka . . . DUZIE)
It is summer in our back yard, a time to walk among this year’s green growth. The flowers are coming and going. Almost every day there is a new view. Our fruit trees and berry bushes are picked, being picked or in waiting. Spring was lot of work and now we walk among the beauty, gather the harvest and view the daily surprises.
So it is with life and seasons.
This summer reminds us of our lives at the moment, which could be called “our summer”. Many of the people and projects we have poured ourselves into over the past 21 years are standing on their own, reproducing, and growing. The years we have planted have been picked, are being picked or are in waiting. There is beauty as we see our seeds growing around the world, but at the same time there is pain. There is harvest and loss. There is a mystery to ministry that we were not prepared for, like rain on a nice day or the pruning of a young apple tree. This mystery, our mystery, we would like to share with you.
First let us say thank you for your prayers, support and wisdom during these months of personal mystery. Some of you heard our fears, others our frustration and others only our silence. This paper began as a page about “our spring” in March, but as the days went by and the mystery remained unsolved, we never found the words to complete it . . . perhaps “incomplete” is part of the mystery.
In this spot we want to bring you up to date with three of our seasonal changes: OUR FAMILY, OUR FOCUS, and OUR FINANCES.
OUR FAMILY:
JOSHUA: now 19, is doing great on the Doulos, he needs us, but in a different way. He is a responsible adult, making great choices and we are proud of him, but we miss our “right hand man” a lot.
JOSIAH: now 16, just returned from visiting Joshua in Hong Kong. He now flies around the world solo, is very independent, and often we need him more than he needs us. He too is making great choices and we are proud of him, but being a very social teenager our “left hand man” is often hard to find.
SUZIE: now 46, often feels swamped as she juggles the house, hospice nursing, the e-mails, finances and her many friendships. She is trying to take time to stop and rediscover the artist she once was. She loves being with “her girls”, spending time with Dan, exercising and painting her flowers.
DAN: now 45, has a few great friends, spends a lot of time on his own writing, managing the web sites, creating resources and practicing his performing arts. He is mentoring a few young bucks in creative and life skills. His favorite thing is still being with Suzie, especially out in the garden.
PARENTS: age changes things and we find we need, or better put, want to be with our parents more, helping them as life and health changes around them. We are blessed to have such great parents.
GOD: we are in a time of renaissance. God is being rebirthed in us and we are seeking Him, more than seeking knowledge about him. We spend more time standing in awe of God and less just asking of Him. Our love of God seems to grow with the mystery.
OUR FOCUS:
A year ago, if you looked for us, you would find us somewhere around the world with a large group of teens. A conference, camp or church would be our location for impact upon the generation. We would have a list of places, high numbers of people and amazing stories to report. But God seems to have shut down much of the BIG in exchange for “doing the small things well”. This is very hard to get our heads around, but the impact seems just as important. We heard that Billy Graham once said, “if I were to do it all over again I would focus on mentoring 12 young men”. We never understood that until this year. Oh we still do the BIG, and love it, but the deepest impact at the moment seems to be in the small groups of youth workers like in Namibia, those we live near in our own small town, the missionary teens who seem to live on facebook, and the international artists of this generation we mentor both electronically and in our home. Our purpose and passion remains the same, but the target has grown from “teens only”, to parents, families, friends and communities of people. Ministry is not something we go and do, but it is happening all around us as we do life together with those we meet everyday.
OUR FINANCES:
This change took us totally by surprise. Within the first few months of 2009, our financial support dropped to almost half of what it was. This puts us at about a third of what we need to live and minister on each month. (Locally our economy is linked to the auto industry, which also recently declined so quickly.) “What happened God? What did we do wrong? Where have you gone?” and other questions led to attacks of panic and pain. Remember the phrase “God pays for what He orders”. Well what if He doesn’t? We felt God saying start supporting yourself! Not because He was upset, but because He was creating something new, something that would be enjoyable, but take a lot of work (like planting a garden). We launched 3 new business in about 3 days:
¨ “DUZIE Party Service” . . . Helping people celebrate www.DUZIEparty.com
¨ “DUZIE EduTaiment” . . . School & Church programs www.DUZIEedutainment.com
¨ “DUZIE Creative Crash Course”. . . workshops & skill training www.CreativeCrashCourse.com
All are aimed at serving people through our gifts and passion. It seemed that over night our international phone stopped ringing and our local phone began. Birthdays, fundraisers, family reunions, church programs and school assemblies began to open up. We are teaching magic, juggling, creativity and guitar to several local students for a fee. We began opening nights to develop friendships with young families and couples that needed to laugh, talk, cry and ask questions. Ministry has remained and grown, but now seems much more mysterious, wrapped up in something that looks much more like life.
We are still living on support, and are so thankful to those of you who have continued to give during these tough times. We are also seeking to self-support the half we have lost. This comes through Duzie programs, parties, sales of creative resources and the hospice nursing that keeps Suzie helping people in several local homes.
OUR UPCOMING SCHEDULE:
up to Aug 8 Local Ministry
Aug 9 – 18 MTO – Missionary Teens Only camp in Holland, Europe
Aug 19 – 31 New Missionary Recruits GO Conference in Holland, Europe
Sept 1 – 13 Local ministry and school visits
Sep 14 – 22 Missionary Teens Camp in Middle East – Jordan
Sep 23 – 30 Prep for imagiNations
Oct 1 – Nov 15 Local Ministry & imagiNations course for international youth workers and artists in Marlette.
We put out a YOU-tube video called “DUZIE What a Wonderful World” (usually weekly) on our blog sites to see and hear about our life wherever we are in our wonderful world. Check out: www.NEXGENeverywhere.com (the blogspot for teens) or www.MergingSouls.com (the blogspot for youth workers). We hope to see you there!
For us “Summer is exciting and mysterious”. We thought we would bring you up to speed with this season of our lives. Thanks so much for your prayers, support and friendship during these days.
If you have any questions or just want to connect with us, e-mail us at: suzie@duzie.com or call us at +1 989-635-3635. This is all for now we must water the plants . . . all the plants!
Standing Strong & Creating Hope
Dan & Suzie Potter . . .aka . . .DUZIE
(Joshua reports on his experience in Cambodia, which he and his friend James from Ireland were able to see in the community and organize!)
I was able to be apart of something, so much larger than me, in Cambodia. We were able to help clean, and paint a house, that was part of a local hospital. The first day that I arrived at this hospital, I noticed something very strange. The patients, even though cared for, did not have the same comforts that we take for granted. There were children walking around, most of them holding their own drips, and other antibiotics. When I finally walked to the house, I noticed how badly it was kept. Not because they did not care, but because they did not have even some of the things that we call necessities. I walked into the building and saw rat poop, and cockroaches in every corner and along most walls. We started work minutes after we entered. Immediately we saw a change in a colors of the walls that we were scrubbing. Continuing on we noticed a crowd of people starting to gather around the house. Lots of these people were patients, or children of the parents that were living in the hospital. By the end of the day we had put around 3 coats of paint on the walls. When back at the ship we were excited to tell people of our experience the day before. The first day, we arrived with about 30 people, the second day we almost had 50 people decide to volunteer. The second day we were able not only to finish the inside, but we had the chance to paint the outside as well. By the end of the day, we had finished cleaning, and painting the house. It was a great day, we were able to see so much changed in the house. Pray that God will continue to use me while I am on the ship, So that through me he would receive honor and glory.
Laurie Shaffer (my cousin) took this photo and wrote this on her facebook photo album:
”We stopped at Suzie and Danny’s in Marlette, they were holding a Duzie day camp and had 21 teens in their back yard 9:30-2:30, are they nuts or what! They even had the teens cooking their own meals, learning to water color, woodworking, etc. Very Cool!”
Mandy Gervasi (Dave’s fiance) flew into Detroit today. Dave and Mandy came to hang out with us tonight and see our house. So we invited as many of the Thomas family who could come to join us for our picnic supper! (They get married January 1, 2010!)
Here we were for a nearly successful timer photo of us all at the table. Left to right: Tim Thomas (and his first big outing after his Left Hip surgery), Joan Thomas, Suzie & Dan Potter, Dave & Mandy, Ben Thomas, Josiah Potter, Lynnae Thomas (with her head behind) Jim & Janayea, & Cathy Thomas. It was fun to all be together and share great food, especially the chicken and salmon that Dan grilled up!
Tomorrow 13 of us go to Cedar Point to hang out together! At least the young Thomas family members!