I said, Let Me See You Sanitize!

While I'll get to the other highlights of the week, this has to be the big one. On Wednesday afternoon, 47 of our 67 participants departed due to the potential threat of a fast-spreading flu virus....

I have to say, it was probably inevitable that we would encounter Mr. Swine Flu at some point this summer. Afterall, we have 70 kids coming in every week from different parts of the country. Facts that I learned about Swine Flu this week and Youthworks protocall:
-Swine Flu is no worse than any other strain of flu virus. But, it does spread more quickly and has no vaccine.
-The incubation period is 5-7 days, so we could be infected, but we won't show symptoms for multiple days.
-We had the honor and priviledge of sanitizing our entire castle of a church not once, but twice!

Once the group left, we sanitized before the other 20 could come back from ministry sites. And then we did it again when everyone was gone! I personally went through 4 bottles total of bleach spray. Finger cramps.
Of course now, our staff is a little paranoid, but not to the extent of being upset. Clearly, Kara and I got a kick out of it and so did John and Eric. Ultimately, we have absolutely no control over this situation. If we get sick, we get sick. We realized a lot of it is mental. It was funny after everyone left we were like, Wait, I have a sore throat and I'm hot....maybe that's because I just took a nap in my sleeping bag and haven't had water in a few hours.

Our beach day this week was successful. It was beautiful outside and the kids swam. The water was about 50 degrees...upgrade from 40. But it was super hot outside so it was bearable. Apparently, 80 degrees is hot for Duluth. Pastor John said it didn't break 80 two summers ago. We loved it!

Officially, we haven't had a full YW week yet. This was our first week with 67, as opposed to last week with 30. It's a lot more difficult to manage, feed, entertain, and send out 70 as opposed to 30. A lot more names to learn as well. It was great to have the whole group and there were some great kids. As unfortunate as it was having 2/3 of the group leave, having only 20 was great. It made for some closer friendships at the end of the week and more bonding time. Example. We do this thing called the Bugaloo, which is a marching chanting song. We did it in Ethiopia! It goes Let me see you Flop Like a Fish, and they respond, What's that you say? and it keeps going. When the smaller groups came back after we'd sanitized the first time, they were chanting, I said, Let me see you sanitize! What's that you say? Apparently they'd been singing it all morning down the street and in the park too. Made my day. These girls were hi-larious.

This week was frustrating and so challenging. I'm not stressed out by a lot, but I was stressed out. And it really wasn't even because of the swine flu. Many times this week, I felt like nothing I did or said was good enough. And that's a hard pill to swallow. I'm not perfect....a good, humbling reminder for myself. I had to go back to a basic lesson that I learned in jr. high and high school, coincidentally, the age group we're hanging out with. I am only one person. I have two hands and one brain and I cannot please everyone. That's hard when there are 16 adult leaders and 55 kids that are looking to you for guidance, leadership, and friendship. Out of all the stress and incidents, I again realized what a great team we have. We're all such proactive people and we never have to worry that someone isn't doing their job. And in the whole ordeal of the week, we still came together, were on the same page, definitely don't take ourselves too seriously, and we surrender everything we do and who we are to Jesus. We seriously have the best staff EVER.

After an exhausting week, we ran to Sam's Club and Wally World and then crashed for a few hours. I got my weekly Hot Dog Combo at Sam's for $1.70. Hey, better than a sandwich. We then decided to head up to the North Shore to get some fresh air and a place called Goosebury Falls. Best decision ever. We stopped at Betty's Pies for dinner. I had coconut cream. It was awesome to sit down and eat a meal slowly and eat until I was full...not something that happens during the week. It was great to put normal clothes on and some makeup even. Crazy! It was fun to just laugh and take a little road trip. It is so beautiful up here.

Pray! Yes please!

-Health. Health. Staying Healthy.

-For the next week of participants and their leaders.

-Continual strength and energy.

-Capacity to choose love over frustration.

Much love. Thanks for reading and sharing my summer with me. It means so much!

A Foggy Day in Duluth Town

I am currently enjoying my first day off since.....Christmas. I have absolutely no responsibilities today. I didn't know quite what to do with myself...so I went to Target for 2 hours! Target is everywhere up here because the headquarters is down in Minneapolis. I bought The Patriot for $3.49! Awesome.

I finished Angels & Demons. Now I'm going to see the movie. Maybe tonight because it's my day off! Can't wait.

The first week with kids was awesome! There were about 30 of them plus six adult leaders. It was a great week. We also had Nate, our site starter. He was a program staff in West Virginia a few years back and was around to help us with our first week of programming. So much fun. We went Sam's Club shopping yesterday for next week's food for 60 kids. $1,214.

One thing that I've realized about the weather here is that sometimes it's like summer, and other times it's like late fall, early winter. And then there's the Lake Effect. Downtown is at the bottom of the hill, right along the lake. When you go to the "top of the hill," (as the locals refer to it as, and what I now refer to it as since I'm a local!) there can be up to a 10 degree difference in temperature and humidity. And it can change daily. Yesterday, Kara and I went downtown, were walking and it was 45 degrees. We could see our breath! But people said it was like 55 at the top of the hill. And then today it's 75 and sunny everywhere!

Grandma's Marathon is this weekend. To eliminate confusion, Grandma's is a restaurant here. There are two of them-one at the top of the hill and one on the lake. Shout out to my fellow Cincinnatians--kind've like a more down-to-earth Montgomery in type thing where there's one in Montgomery and one on the river. So, Grandma's Marathon is a restaurant-sponsored marathon-not just for running grandmas, which was what I originally thought. We had at least five different people tell us not to drive anywhere before 12noon. True statement. There are so many in-shape people here this weekend. It would be a pretty route to run. Right along the lake. Too bad I hate running! I walked downtown today and watched for a while and then sat on the shore, talked to my dad, and caught some rays.

Duluth is starting to feel like my city. It's cool that I'm now getting comfortable just starting conversations with all kinds of people including the homeless. They all have a story. But not many people take time to listen. It's a completely different culture with a different set of rules that most people don't know, so those people can come off as scary sometimes. Even though they don't have much, they protect what they have and have respect for those who help them out. It's interesting--the more we talk to local homeless and ministries, the safer I feel. It's cool to drive down the street and see people we've talked to now and will see at Union Gospel next Tuesday when we serve a meal. They're as much a part of the community as we are.

Lesson from the week: Kids need a place to be kids. We went downtown to the lighthouse (where the above picture was taken) and the kids just ran around and were loud and obnoxious. One of them turned to me and was like, Thanks for letting us be loud. My mom would be mad at me right now. I just laughed and was like Sure thing! Yes, they were loud and really obnoxious and were probably pissing people off who were trying to enjoy the pier. But kids have so many serious things to deal with that they just need room to scream sometimes and sing songs off key at the top of their lungs.

Leading worship this week was great. It was a first for me leading a group and I loved it. While I love playing clarinet, I love that I've learned a more accessible instrument that I can worship God with and can help others do the same. I'm getting callouses and I feel so cool.

That's all I've got for this week. Kara and I took pictures downtown but she forgot her cord to download them. So they'll be posted next week!

Prayer for:

-managing 60 kids with 4 staff
-energy and good attitudes

-open communication

-boldness in conversation

Much love.

Avast ye, me hearties!

And now we're back in Duluth for the summer! And that's right, we're doing a Pirate theme! We thought it was sweet because we live in Duluth where ships and stuff still come into the harbor! Guys, it's sweet. I'll take pictures. Our attention getter when we want the kids to be quiet is, Avast ye, me hearties! (which according to the pirate translator we found online means, Listen up my friends) and they say Ahoy, captain! So cool, right? And our crew names are famous pirate captains, such as Barbosa, Long John Silver, Blackbeard, Hook, the one from Spongebob, and of course, Cap'n Crunch. P4J. Pirates for Jesus.

As I was pumping the air into my air mattress with my manual pump that was only $5, I realized that the next time I would deflate it would be for Off-RAMP at the beginning of August. But hey, there's only 7 weeks between now and then!

Early Bird was held in Minneapolis this last week. It's when 3 staffs come together to put on a Youthworks week. So, the Minneapolis, St. Paul and the Duluth staffs were altogether and there were 61 kids. The week was great. I'm finding that my life has now become defined more about relationships and people I meet rather than things I'm doing. So I'll tell you about those.

-Jordyn. She was about 13 years old and so sweet. I interacted with her a few times during the week, but we never had substantial conversation. On Thursday nights we do a footwashing service and it was really cool. After ward she was crying really hard and came up to me and gave me a huge hug. Teary eyed, she looked up at me and said, You're a really good youthworker. I just laughed and hugged her harder. Goes to show that I'm being watched...all the time...

-Melonie. Melonie was a lady I got up the guts to sit by at Loaves and Fishes, a feeding kitchen that we took the kids to help at on Tuesday evening. She was in a wheelchair. Conversation was awkward at first, as it always is, but then I asked her if she had any advice for a 21-year old college student. She said Don't be too serious. Learn to have fun. Good thing I'll be hanging out with Junior high kids all summer! They are prime-time fun.

-Robert. I think he was a freshman in college from the area. He came and helped out at Loaves and Fishes after class a few days a week. I don't think he was a Christian, but had been exposed to it. After some small talk, he goes, So you look like you're a churchy girl. Are you churchy? Needless to say, I've never in my life been called churchy. He said he just stopped dating a girl who was churchy. I said What exactly do you mean by churchy? And how was she churchy? He was like, She wore a lot of clothes. Like a lot of layers. I couldn't help but laugh. The cool part about the conversation was we kept talking about how I was churchy and how what mattered to me and how my life changed when I became a Christian was that I had something to live for. I know Jesus is real because my life changed. So instead of doing things how I feel all the time, I do my best to love Jesus and love other people and that's what matters in life. I'd never really done the one time talk about Jesus thing...as all of you know, I'm much more relational. I'm honestly always afraid of coming off "churchy," but in the pestering, pushy, obligating way. Talking with Robert was cool because you know he was searching and just wanted someone to be real. Later, one of the adult leaders came up to me and said, You were talking to that guy at Loaves and Fishes right? I said Ya, why? He goes, Well he told me to give you this. It was a piece of paper with his name, phone number and email address. Needless to say, I didn't come off as pushy, pestering, or obligating! Seriously, though, that was encouraging to me because when it comes down to it, I can let Jesus speak for himself and let my life of loving and serving show Christ without having to make a case for the Gospel.

Thomas-Thomas lives in Minneapolis and connected with Youthworks about 8 years ago. He lives in a home downtown and has a minor case of Cerebral Palsy. He has one tooth, always wears a bandana, and beats every person who plays him in King's Corners. He's very simple. At the park we went to, he beckoned me over and said, Look at the caterpillars! They're fuzzy and they don't hurt and I pet 'em. Then they turn into butterflies! Youthworks took him in, gave him a nametag and he comes and hangs out. He arrives at 630 am to make coffee for the staff, has breakfast, leaves when the kids go out to ministry sites for the day, and comes back for dinner and the evening activity. He's so simple and loves interacting with kids. He taught me so much about how love is a choice. I guarantee if we as a staff would have treated him poorly, ignored him, or shrugged him off, which would have been easy, the kids would have done the same. But by choosing to love him, we embraced him for who he is and so did the kids. And he always chooses to love as well. So awesome. We do happy fun bags which are a way to send little notes to each other in paper bags. (We're calling them Message in a Bottle to go with the pirate theme.) I put one in Thomas's bag that said, You're coffee this morning was the best. You rock! Later, he came up to me and said, I liked your note. It said I rock. I said, Well you do! And he responded with, You better believe it! Cool guy.

This will be our first week here with participants. Yesss.....

Pray that:

-we gel as a team

-we remember the little things

-energy and endurance

-choosing to love even when we're tired.

Miss you all and think of you often!

Much love.

This poster is in the children's room in the church. I laugh every time.

We Are Family

We've survived Prep Week! This week, we finally have gotten settled into our castle of a church. Kara and I got a night light for our hallway because to go to the bathroom at night, we get to go down 2 floors! Who needs to work out when we have a built-in, four-story stairmaster?
We worked on jr.-high-proofing the church, making signs and setting up clear boundaries. We ran through our CLUB times too.
Components of CLUB:
-A skit or game. We're doing a few different ones and needed practice....a lot of practice.
-Announcements in an entertaining way.
-Yea Gods: Kids have the chance to give a shout out to something that God did during the day.
-Songs. Upbeat, fast, medium, slow, or hymns. I'm finally getting callouses on my fingers!
-Talk. Given by me every night that relates to the theme of the day to the overall theme of FREE (fame, wealth, power, and revolution) Includes scripture and a vignette or two from my own life!
We've been practicing those from about 10 to 11 every night this week. That's joy, right there.
Pastor John is the pastor here. For all of you who have seen Big Fish (One of the two movies I brought with me. Love it.), he looks similar to and sounds exactly like the old Edward Bloom. Seriously.
There are officially zero restaurants in Duluth. Grizzly's is the prime time place to go. We figured that our choices are limited since it's snowy and miserable for about 9 months of the year, therefore people don't get out much, therefore there aren't a lot of restaurants. Good theory? We thought so.
The four of us are becoming like a family. We've been to Grizzly's twice, once on Sunday and once this evening. Sunday evening, they naturally asked how we watched the check split up. Makes sense with 4 20-somethings to ask. This evening when the waitress asked us, Ho we wOnt the bell splet owp? (Best phonetic spelling of Minnesota accent) and I responded matter-of-factly, It's all on one! Like I just assumed that everyone knows that we are like a family...we eat every meal together, we spend all day together, and we will be living in the same building together. Kara even said, When we go home tonight...I mean the church! It's happening...
We've all been getting to know each other through Eric's mealtime questions: What's the meanest thing you've ever done to your syblings? What are the top three fast food restaurants that you absolutely hate? Out of everyone in your family, whose farts smell the worst? Oh yes. We're getting to know each other really well.
Tomorrow we head back to Minneapolis for what is called Early Bird. No, there are no worms. In Minneapolis, there will be a group of participants at their site. The St. Paul team and us will join them to run the week. It's another learning opportunity for us so the first week with students isn't so overwhelming.
We went down to the beach last night. It was beautiful. I'm loving the sunny, zero humidity weather. It's still chilly here...in the high 50s, lower 60s but it's nice. I didn't take pictures yet because I will be going there about once a week for 10 weeks straight. :-) Don't worry, I'll share the Lake Superior Love.
I'm doing alright. Still tired. I'm ready for the kids to get here. It's going to be a sweet summer. I am also looking forward to my first Saturday after participants have come and gone. I am going to sleep in and lounge around all day. Kara and I decided we'll have an all day slumber party.
Prayer. Please.
-Rest. Always pray for rest.
-Patience with more preparation next week.
-Team bonding.

Much love.