Kids Across America 2008

As promised (finally) here are our pictures from our trip to KAA the first week of June!


Here's the whole group on our last day of kamp. We really had a wonderful time, but it was so hard for Benny and I to know that we wouldn't get to see these kids on a regular basis after we got back. Thankfully, we had some great leaders with us on the trip (Alicia and James), and they WILL be in Ruston next year!


Benny with Naeem, Solomon, Adam and Deondra.



Me with Tiera, Alexis, Aaliyah and Jaechelle.

Adam getting ready to go down the screamer. God did some really cool things in this kid's heart at kamp...he became a Christian, and the kids in his cabin started calling him "Pastor Adam" because he wanted to make sure they all knew about Jesus. Then, the day after we got home, he called Benny because he had a friend he was talking to about salvation and needed Benny to help him lead him through the Gospel.

All of the kaleos (group leaders) were blessed with a night out in Branson, and what's a night out in Branson without a Branson show? We went to the Acrobats of China, and let me say...it was AMAZING! Highly recommend it. Here are Benny and James (blue striped shirt) with some of the other Kaleos...two of whom went to Anderson University with Benny! That was a really fun suprise when we arrived.

Another Week of "Lasts"

This Friday, June 13th, we will be pulling our tightly packed U-Haul out of Ruston, LA...the only place Benny and I know as home as a married couple. Sunday, May 25th was the last Sunday we'd attend the worship service at Crossroads Church. Our good friend and Executive Pastor, Wade created a very humbling video tribute to us. (You can see it by following this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PHXoVsV6ow ) As you can probably imagine, I cried just a little bit during and afterwards :)

Wednesday, May 28th was my last day of work at Northern Louisiana Medical Center.

June 1-8th we took 18 kids from the under-privelaged side of Ruston to Kids Across America. (Pictures to follow!)

This week, we'll be tying up loose ends and packing up the last of our things. Thanks so much for your prayers during this fun, exciting, and some-what scary time!

New Blog Name

As our previous blog page name (The Ruston Bennys) will no longer be true in the coming weeks, we've changed our name to "The Bennison Family" and our blog address is www.bennisonfamily.blogspot.com.

Thanks for keeping up with our fam!

A Week of "Lasts"

Over the past week, Benny and I have started having a lot of "lasts" for our time here in Ruston. Sunday was our last Fusion meeting (our weekly Sunday-night meeting with our church kids), Tuesday was our last Community Group meeting (with a group of our peers), tonight was our last small group meeing (with our high school girls and boys), and Sunday will be the last church service we attend at Crossroads. There have definitely been lots of emotions felt in the last week, as the reality of our pending move is upon us.

Below is a picture of my small group (the girls) and Benny's small group (the guys) from our last meeting tonight. Our groups have met together for the past few weeks so that we could go through some great student-leader curriculum.



The next two photos are random...from a fun Friday night a couple of weeks ago with our great friend Theresa. Benny, Theresa, and I made dinner together and watched a movie.

(By the way...we DID sell our house!! It was appraised a few weeks ago, got inspected last week, and we'll close at the end of next week. Thanks so much for your prayers...God is so good!)

Spring Softball

Benny is playing on our church's spring softball team. I may be biased because I'm his wife, but I'm pretty sure he's the MVP. :) They had their first game on Tuesday.


Batting. (He hit a really great line drive after this and ended up scoring.)




On second base.



The supportive wives/fans.

Good sportsmanship!

Post-game prayer.

A Visit from Benny's Dad

In April, Benny's dad (Larry) and his fiance (Lita) came in for the weekend. We visited the batting cages and played a few arcade games to quench the athletic and competitive spirit in the boys.


Benny and Larry.


Pop-a-shot. I lovethe intensity on Larry's face.

Student Life Paintball

For our last big monthly event with our kids, we took them on a much-loved event in Louisiana--paintballing! We left the church at 7 in the morning and didn't return until 5pm. They were exhausted at the end of the day (and had some great battle wounds) and had a fantastic time.