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.