Week Ten

LAST WEEK!!!

Sunday

11-1 Church
2-5 Prepare for Groups
5-7 Prepare Dinner/ Mingle with groups
7-8 Leader Orientation
8:30-9:30 Prepare Club/Participate
9:30 Staff Meeting
10:30-11:30 Hang out with Youth/ get them to bed

Monday

7:30-8 Devotional Time w/ Students
9-3:30 Work Projects
4-6 Prepare for Hike (prepare water coolers, make snack, organize First Aid kits…)
7-9 Lead Hike/ Lead with Club (night service- lead worship, speak, coordinate)
10-10:30 Staff Meeting
10:30-11:30- Spend time with students/ get them to bed

Tuesday

9:30-11:30- Lead students to museum
12:00-3:30- Help with Kids Club
3:30-5:30 Give out snack/ take students to Wounded Knee/ speak
5:30-6:30 Hang out with Students (playing games, mixers, talking)
8:30-9:15- Lead Club
9:15-9:45- Staff Meeting
9:45-11:30 Hang out with Students

Wednesday

9:00-3:30 Inventory Work/ Random Site work (cleaning refrigerators and such)
4-6:30 Dinner Prep/ Make/ Clean-up
6:30-8:30 Coordinate Evening Activity/ Make/ Give out Snack
8:30-9:15 Lead Club
9:15-9:45-Staff Meeting

9:45-11:30 Hang out w/ Students

Thursday
9-3:30 Host Museum Tour/ Kids Club/ phone calls
3:30-6:30 Hang out with students
6:30-7:30 Dinner Prep/ Make/ Clean-up
8:30-9:15 Lead Footwashing Service
9:15-9:45 Staff Meeting
9:45-12:30 Hang out with students
12:30-1:30am- Inventory

Friday
7-8 Lead Clean-Up crews
8-9 Send off students
9-5 Clean/Pack up site
5-11 Pow Wow!!!!

Saturday
10-12 Clean vehicles/bathrooms

Total: 77 hours
(Running Total: 637 hours)

Personal Reflection
My summer is over! Weird. It has been one incredible ride. I’ve been a little disappointed lately in feeling like I wasn’t able to do much here. I guess it’s a struggle with what Short Term Missions should really be and how I feel about how YouthWorks does it. They are not concerned with how the community is changed but rather how the youth are changed and much of my job is making sure that they have an emotional experience and that is hard for me because I’m not under the belief that emotional highs are what changes us. I think challenges change us and I am not all that sure how the youth were challenged as much as they were spoon fed this summer. And some of them needed to be, but then is they’re place on a STM trip? I’m not sure and it’s a battle for me, if you have thoughts I’d love them. Youthworks is MUCH business and a small percentage effective ministry. *steps down from soap box

This week was a semi-tough week. I worked with another site staff and we had a good time. I really got to connect with students more this week and I loved that. We did have some difficult/disrespectful students this week. I still feel like God blessed it. It is hard saying goodbye to children I have connected with all summer at our kids club. Ionna, Kionna, Linda, Shiota, Jodee, Neve, Taneesha, Donovan, Jonathan, Samantha, PJ, Charles, Porscha, Luke, Stephany, Alanie, Martina,…yeah I could go on forever. I love them all dearly. Then there’s an even longer list of Lakota friends I have gained. I cannot wait to see them again. I plan on leading a team back here in May and I’m so pumped to do it! To close everything off we got to go to a Pow Wow with Sherri, one amazing/helpful Lakota woman who helped SO much. It was so amazing. This whole time I’ve been here recognizing the hopelessness, but seeing that really helped me to see the beauty in their culture. Maybe it is the fact that their culture is so strong and the US culture is so weak that soldiers became so fierce toward it. It’s nearly impossible to describe but they dress in their traditional dress and have a grand entry where each of them come in dancing old men and women down to toddlers. I had tears it was so incredible (p.s. I’m not a huge crier). I was so glad to see people I knew expressing their culture. I never wanted to leave. Amazing. Thank you Lord for an overwhelming experience this summer.



Spiritual Reflection

I am having a struggle understanding all of why God brought me here, but I feel Him revealing it piece by piece and I’ve come to the understanding that I may not realize for months or years why I was really brought here. I hope that in some way I was used this summer to draw someone closer to Him. At the core, I think that’s all I really desire.

Week Nine

*I finally got to internet again!!

Sunday

11-1 Church
2-5 Prepare for Groups
5-7 Prepare Dinner/ Mingle with groups
7-8 Leader Orientation
8:30-9:30 Prepare Club/Participate
9:30 Staff Meeting
10:30-11:30 Hang out with Youth/ get them to bed

Monday

7:30-8 Devotional Time w/ Students
9-3:30 Work Projects
4-6 Prepare for Hike (prepare water coolers, make snack, organize First Aid kits…)
7-9 Lead Hike/ Lead with Club (night service- lead worship, speak, coordinate)
10-10:30 Staff Meeting
10:30-11:30- Spend time with students/ get them to bed

Tuesday

9:30-11:30- Lead students to museum
12:00-3:30- Help with Kids Club
3:30-5:30 Give out snack/ take students to Wounded Knee/ speak
5:30-6:30 Hang out with Students (playing games, mixers, talking)
8:30-9:15- Lead Club
9:15-9:45- Staff Meeting
9:45-11:30 Hang out with Students

Wednesday

9:00-3:30 Inventory Work/ Random Site work (cleaning refrigerators and such)
4-6:30 Dinner Prep/ Make/ Clean-up
6:30-8:30 Coordinate Evening Activity/ Make/ Give out Snack
8:30-9:15 Lead Club
9:15-9:45-Staff Meeting

9:45-11:30 Hang out w/ Students

Thursday
9-3:30 Host Museum Tour/ Kids Club/ phone calls
3:30-6:30 Hang out with students
6:30-7:30 Dinner Prep/ Make/ Clean-up
8:30-9:15 Lead Footwashing Service
9:15-9:45 Staff Meeting
9:45-12:30 Hang out with students
12:30-1:30am- Inventory

Friday
7-8 Lead Clean-Up crews/ Fax papers
8-9 Youth Enterprise work (selling T-Shirts)
9-10 Set up B-fast/ Lead send off prayer and final words
(NAP!!!! ☺)
12-11:30
- SHOPPING TRIP (drive to Rapid City/shop at Sam’s/shop at Wal-Mart/pack it all in/ drive back/ put away and organize $1,100 worth of food/merchandise)

Total: 70 hours
(Running Total: 560 hours)

Personal Reflection

With the many blessings of the last group, came many frustrations with this group. I’d just like to say that I don’t have anything against suburban Chicago kids, in fact, some of my good friends are from suburban Chicago. Some of our best groups have been from there. But if I heard one more complaint about how their maid should be here doing the painting or making their dinner, I think I may have just self-combusted. Two things that have been hard for me to grasp this summer are blatant disrespect and not knowing how to do basic jobs. This week I would tell students to do things and they would get in my face and just say “No.” then walk away. Many of them had no idea how to sweep, mop, wash a dish, tear lettuce, cut a tomato, stir pasta, clean a toilet…the list goes on and on. Am I alone in that my mom actually made me do things around the house?
Also, people tend to forget this is a mission trip, and honestly they are here for four days…what’s four days anyway? It’s not even a week and hardly enough time to really get uncomfortable. Our adult leaders were outrageous in their evaluations. We had a whole church group, the only ALs to complain about this, write their entire thing about how we should feel ashamed that we made them eat meals with paint and grime on them because they felt like they were being treated like dirt. They got to shower every day, but as we don’t allow them to shower with students for liability reasons they shower at night or in the morning. One actually wrote “SHAME ON YOU!!” Does it make me angry? Kind of. Does it make me sad. Mostly. Where along the line did the church begin this lie that it’s all about the warm fuzzies and making everyone comfortable? I know it didn’t start with Jesus. He was loving and blunt. I never recall him sitting with a group of people just to feed them some compliments and arrange their comfort. He gave them what they needed, first that came as his wisdom through words and second it came in his life on a cross. In light of that need fulfilled, who are we to whine about not getting a shower at the time of day that we want it?
So there’s the frustration of the week. But I realize that many of these kids, while they have money, probably have a lack of love. If mom and dad are making the money, who’s showing them love? So my job was to show them that iPods and Italian cruises aren’t the kind of love Jesus was talking about. He meant a love that was genuine and could break down walls of hurt. What an amazing opportunity it was to show that kind of love this week.

Spiritual Reflection

I want to be genuine. In this job it’s so easy to fall into just doing the things I know need to be done and not just loving people. I don’t want to love others because I’m getting paid for it. It’s a strong fear of mine as a I head into vocational ministry. I want to love others because the love of God is so strong a force in me I cannot help but do anything else. I want to be like Christ throughout all of my lifestyle. I yearn for it.

Week Eight

Sunday

11-1 Church
2-5 Prepare for Groups
5-7 Prepare Dinner/ Mingle with groups
7-8 Leader Orientation
8:30-9:30 Prepare Club/Participate
9:30 Staff Meeting
10:30-11:30 Hang out with Youth/ get them to bed

Monday

7:30-8 Devotional Time w/ Students
9-3:30 Work Projects
4-6 Prepare for Hike (prepare water coolers, make snack, organize First Aid kits…)
7-9 Lead Hike/ Lead with Club (night service- lead worship, speak, coordinate)
10-10:30 Staff Meeting
10:30-11:30- Spend time with students/ get them to bed

Tuesday

9:30-11:30- Lead students to museum
12:00-3:30- Help with Kids Club
3:30-5:30 Give out snack/ take students to Wounded Knee/ speak
5:30-6:30 Hang out with Students (playing games, mixers, talking)
8:30-9:15- Lead Club
9:15-9:45- Staff Meeting
9:45-11:30 Hang out with Students

Wednesday

9:00-3:30 Inventory Work/ Random Site work (cleaning refrigerators and such)
4-6:30 Dinner Prep/ Make/ Clean-up
6:30-8:30 Coordinate Evening Activity/ Make/ Give out Snack
8:30-9:15 Lead Club
9:15-9:45-Staff Meeting

9:45-11:30 Hang out w/ Students

Thursday
9-3:30 Host Museum Tour/ Kids Club/ phone calls
3:30-6:30 Hang out with students
6:30-7:30 Dinner Prep/ Make/ Clean-up
8:30-9:15 Lead Footwashing Service
9:15-9:45 Staff Meeting
9:45-12:30 Hang out with students
12:30-1:30am- Inventory

Friday
7-8 Lead Clean-Up crews/ Fax papers
8-9 Youth Enterprise work (selling T-Shirts)
9-10 Set up B-fast/ Lead send off prayer and final words
(NAP!!!! ☺)
12-11:30
- SHOPPING TRIP (drive to Rapid City/shop at Sam’s/shop at Wal-Mart/pack it all in/ drive back/ put away and organize $1,100 worth of food/merchandise)

Total: 70 hours
(Running Total: 490 hours)

Personal Reflection

This week was rather rough. We had to send two people home due to family deaths. First came Roger, who lost his brother to Luekemia/heart disease. He was an older man though and while it was hard to see that happen for him he did get to say goodbyes before he left. However, the second death was not quite as laid out. A fourteen year-old girl on the trip got a phone call on Wednesday afternoon while she was at her work project that her mother had passed away due to a heart attack. What a blow to the heart… I can’t stand the idea of losing my mom now, let alone when I’m fourteen. This girl, Erin, will totally have to step up as she has an older sister with Down’s Syndrome and a much younger sister. This girl reacted amazing though. Her youth group is really her family so she decided to stay until the next morning and fly out then. She wanted us to keep everything the same so she went to our Buffalo Feed and then came back and even laughed throughout club. My first reaction was to take all the hilarity out of that club, but then I realized, this may be the last time for a very long time that she’ll be able to block out life for a while and just laugh and if she’s numb enough to it right now to do that, then okay, laugh. God really showed Himself to me this week through these groups. They were like family and so supportive.

Spiritual Reflection

This week there was a student named Max who has only been a Christian for three years. Almost directly after becoming a Christian the fire within him was so fueled that he stepped up in FCA and grew their group of 6 to a group of almost sixty. His passion for God and to communicate His love really hit me. The line from Create in Me a Clean Heart sounded in my heart and mind, “…restore unto me the joy of my salvation.” Oh, Lord that I could have an inextinguishable fire for you!