Summer Rewind - Week Three

Originally written on July 8th, 2012

Saturdays are always the hardest - Teams leave and my energy just drops, but I know the Lord sustains me as I continue to push forward and cross things off the never ending Trip Leader Check List.

Today, we said goodbye to a great team of 15 amazing people. This past week we became part of a team from Northwood, MN. Our 1st high school team of the summer and what a refreshment. 

This was also the first team to run an Educational VBS. Our Dayton missionary partners work mainly with African refugees who have been relocated here. There are so many needs for a person who is on the run from war and strife. One that we're trying to meet is the educational component for the kids. They are struggling in school because of language barriers, teasing and un-acceptance from american kids, and a general lack of care from the school system. So the students from NorthWood church were set up with the difficult task of taking a VBS and making it educational. Instead of crafts, skit & Bible Study - they taught math, reading, & writing. Games of course stayed because what's a VBS without a games rotation. This team really stepped it up. Everywhere I walked around at VBS I saw the students loving on kids, telling them they care for them, and teaching them in fun creative ways (reading stories, creating math games & writing about things they loved). By the end of the week, the students weren't just teaching these kids educational skills but fully communicating the extent of God's love.

We not only got to complete 4 work projects on Neil Street (a street with several refugee occupants), but also spent Friday morning building 3 new picnic tables for Emmanual Lutheran. This church has been such a blessing to me and my fellow staff members over the past 3 weeks it was fun to get to bless them with new, safe & pretty looking tables.

God also gave me an opportunity to think on my toes Friday night when a huge storm rolled in and knocked out the power around 5:00 pm. Luckily we were already planning to go out to eat to celebrate, but we had to get creative for our final team time (evening meeting where we evaluate, discuss scripture, worship & encourage together). I had planned to move the meeting to the church sanctuary for a more special night, but with the power out I knew it would get quite dark in there. So I pulled a Pinterest Idea out of my back pocket and attached my headlamp to my clear water bottle. The water in the bottle refracted the light and with about 10 water bottles we had enough light to sort of make out faces. Without being cheesy it gave us the right mood lighting for a great final team time. The power stayed off all night, but luckily came back on shortly after the team pulled out so we will hopefully not have the same challenge as we greet the new team on Sunday.

Summer Rewind - Week Two

Originally written on June 25, 2012

Well Gang,

The weekend flew by and here I am with only 13 kids sleeping in my church hallway home. Crazy how sleep and laundry take up weekend time. But I wanted to keep all of you up to date on what God has done this past week

This past week was a difficult one. The group was completely different than the week before and the switch over was more difficult for myself and Adam and Alissa than expected. There were some great moments that the team was working perfectly together and everything was running full force while other times we as adult staff felt like we were pulling teeth. Definitely found ourselves on a roller coaster of emotion - real glad God is my track and that this roller coaster will never break down.

Bright Moment of the week: We built 4 new fowerbeds for families. I decided to wait to buy the flowers and take a team of students with me to Home Depot. This was great because these students got to meet my friend Kat and allow her to see the leadership development process. It also gave them a safe place to make choices that really helped them own this project. During that trip two students really shined and I ended up placing them into Leadership roles over the flower beds for the final day. God definitely showed me the pearl within the clam this week as I pried and pried just to see those priceless moments.

Summer Rewind - Week One

Originally written June 21, 2012

Well Ladies and Gents,

I survived the first week. Heck, I wouldn't even call it surviving - it was more like thriving. There were so many points this past week with 30 middle school students from Hudson, OH that showed me so strongly that I am exactly where God wants me to be.  From the three amazing adult volunteers to every student there is so much joy I'd love to share with you… however, it would take a whole book to describe the adventure God just took me on.

So enjoy the few pictures I snapped of different parts of my week.

What I do want to share with you is the relationships I've begun to build with people I was not expecting. Part of my job requires me to purchase many an item at the grocery store and the hardware store. Kettering (the Dayton suburb we live in) has several options for both. 

So Saturday came around and we decided Mejier would be a great spot to make our local grocery store. After 2 hours of shopping, I went in search for a lane and a sweet cashier to ring everything up. This is how I met Morgan. In her early 20s, Morgan has lived in the Dayton area her whole life and is not super excited about her job as a cashier. It took her an hour to ring us out, and during that time we got to know her a little better.

On Sunday morning we decided to handle our work site shopping at Home Depot before church. A couple days before I had had Adam and Alissa go into Home Depot to map out the basic sections in hopes of making the actual shopping trip a little faster. It did, but soon our odd shopping mound brought the attention of a store employee who offered us a personal shopper - we were almost done with our list, but decided to say yes anyways. This is how I met Kat. She's a woman in her late 30s who's a little rough around the edges. She took us all around the store, introducing us to everyone in the other departments and was simply a huge help.

Since the team last week was so large I had to make several more runs to both locations for supplies and God happened to bring them both back into my path. It's been quite fun to make friends who brighten my day as I cover the logistical side of my job, and both of these women's faces brighten when they see me also. Yesterday while Morgan was ringing up our 2nd weeks worth of groceries I asked her if she attended a church in the area. She said not anymore since she moved in with her boyfriend. I invited her to come to Emmanual Lutheran to join us for Sunday worship. She didn't show up today, but I'll keep trying.

I don't know Kat's religious background yet, but I feel so blessed that God is using both of these women to bless my week, and will you please join me in praying that if they do not know God personally themselves, then he might deem me, Adam & Alissa worthy to show them how deep, wide, high and unimaginable God's love truly is. Pray that he continues to give us opportunities to see and talk to them both as we continue our ministry here in Dayton.

Summer Rewind - Intern Training

Originally written June 9, 2012

Hello All!

I am at the end of my pre-summer week. It has been absolutely flying by. Interns arrived on Friday afternoon and we all got to hang out and get to begin building relationships at a barbecue held at Doug Franklin (LeaderTreks Founder & President)'s house. Saturday thru Tuesday the Interns were up at a camp in WI getting oriented to LeaderTreks... or as we affectionately called it, the fire hose of information. This gave me some time to get a little more prepared to leave the Chicago area for 10 weeks, finish my site specific intern training plan and finalize some logistical information for our arrival in Dayton.

Thursday morning rolled around way too quickly and before I knew it, we (Adam, Alissa & I) were packed in the van and headed to Dayton, OH. God blessed us with some caravan buddies. The team headed to Kentucky were traveling the same roads until Indianapolis. We took a slight detour off the highway to a random dairy farm in Indiana, and shuffled cars a little bit so that all four interns could ride together and Shane (the LT staff running the Kentucky site) and myself could get some last minute encouragement and prayer for each other. (We'll see this team again in the middle of July while the Dayton site has a hiatus). 

Since our arrival in Dayton, nothing has gone according to my plans.. ha ha - but I am living in continual trust in God that he is directing my steps. Today was quite the adventure with our first grocery shopping trip where we bought 75% of the needed groceries for the week, and scoped out our work site options and got introduced around the whole neighborhood where we will be working this summer. Tomorrow still holds a full day with work site supply shopping, one-on-ones with interns, an encouraging visit from John (the LT executive director), and rearranging church rooms to prepare for the team's arrival. This time tomorrow night hopefully we will be finishing our first team time with 30 amazing 8th graders and slipping off into peaceful slumber. 

The emotion "overwhelmed" would be an understatement. However, I came to the realization yesterday and today that I'm here to help students and interns grow this summer, but I believe that I'll be the one growing the most. There will be a lot of risk taking for me this summer and I'm praying that I continue to live rooted in my trust in God that he will work out all of my words, actions, and decisions for his glory and that I might see him work more clearly than I ever have before.