Youthworks in Cass Lake

2008-07-12T12:36:00.000-07:00

My team and I have successfully finished one of the toughest weeks of youthworks I have ever experienced. By no means was it a bad week but it was just really hard. I'm not sure how else to describe it. The groups we had were a challenge. They all came from extremely privileged backgrounds and walked in with the mentality that the world revolves around them. It took a lot of energy for us as staff to get them excited about serving the community here. By mid week we were emotionally drained. On Wednesday night we had a little bit of a staff break down... it was hard and painful but it was a very good thing. The evening ended with four out of the five of us in tears and an extreme new found respect and LOVE for one another. The week closed out on a very positive note. The groups left broken and a little messed up (which is what we are looking for!). The youth learned how deny themselves and live for others. My prayer is that it sticks when they head back home.

Yesterday just had to be one of the most amazing days I have ever had. Not good... not bad just amazing. The amazingness began, I believe, when I met three of my staff in the kitchen to help them unload all our groceries. Just a note we had been in a tornado watch all afternoon. When we started to unload it was just sprinkling but by the time we were halfway finished it was down pouring. Preeti opted to put away groceries while Jake, Jacob, and I finished unloading. After the groceries were all in as you can expect after all the food was in the three of us decided to play in the rain. After a while we coaxed Preeti outside and we all had way to much fun. It was about the time that it began to hail and the winds reached 50 miles per hour (Ok, I might be lying but there were trees on the ground afterwards!) that we realized that we were all locked out of the building with no phone... but we did have a set of truck keys. The four of us proceeded to pile into the cab of the truck sopping wet and we drove to Ila's house (our Cass Lake Grandma), during a tornado, to see if we could seek shelter with her. After tracking water through her house we realized that we left Stephanie's garage where she keeps her work project supplies. We were saved!!! And all was well.

I finished off my night by not putting the blender lid on tight enough and having hot chocolate sprayed all over my shirt, face, hair, pants and shoes... ohh well my staff at least got a good laugh out of it.

2008-06-27T14:40:00.000-07:00

This week was an amazing challenge. I'm not sure I can describe it any other way. My kids club staff, Derek, has been battling illness all summer long and he ended up in bed all week. As a result I ended up leading Kids Club in addition to being a Site Director. It was awesome! Kids Club was my first position with Youthworks and it was nice to be able to revisit it. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed spending time with the youth and investing in the community. As a SD it's very easy to get caught up in paper work, finances, pre-trip calls, checking in with adult leaders, and making sure that my staff are doing alright that its very easy to forget why we do youthworks at all... for the YOUTH and to serve God's people here in Cass Lake.

After one week with the kids I am in love. I know I'm not supposed to have favorites but I do... come one we all do. It's going to be hard to hand over the reigns of Kids Club on Sunday. Needless to say I fell extremely behind with my own work while taking over KC. Luckily, I have an amazing supervisor who took a lot of the burden off of my shoulders.

Tuesday my childhood dog, Ben, was put down. He was 13 1/2 years old (I've been working with kids all week the 1/2 is extremely important!) My parents said it went really well but it's weird to think about. He's been around for over half my life... I was walked in on during my "moment" (aka the time I was bawling alone in the janitor's closet) by and adult leader who in turn sat down and cried with me (I'm not sure why she was crying but I am very thankful she did!). That's just a glimpse into how amazing the adult leaders were this week. They were true servants in every aspect of the word. They made my week possible.

This morning Derek left to go home for the summer. As unfortunate and sad as the situation I that that everyone involved can agree that it feels right. There is peace in the pain. Tomorrow afternoon my staff and I will meet our new addition. I'll give you all the low down on whether or not I like him next week ;)

Last thing I promise.... I've officially decided to attend Bethel Graduate School next fall. It feels very good to have finally made a decision!! The down payment is in the mail!!

Welcome to Cass Lake!

2008-06-21T12:38:00.000-07:00

The last three weeks have been a complete blur. Week one my team and I worked very hard to set up our site here in Cass Lake. We got to know each other pretty well, while getting to know our community. The community here is extremely supportive. They love having us here. It's such a blessing.

Week two we drove up to the Red Lake Reservation to participate in a week of programming with three other teams. Our week in Red Lake was very interesting to say the least. I have never seen poverty so intense. Red Lake looks like any other small town Minnesota but it is unexplainably heavy. We ran a kids club program there and around 80 kids turned out. It was amazing. We also had a gang fight with 12 year olds. I couldn't believe it. Even though Red Lake is a small town in Northern Minnesota it has a lot of the same feel as an inner city.

This past week was our first week of programming here in Cass Lake. It went really well. We had some amazing groups from MI, IL, and KS. I was so proud of my staff. For weeks now we had been preparing for our roles, Stephanie with Work Projects, Jake with Outrageous Sports Camp, Preeti with Program, and Derek with Kids Club, and now we were able to see them in action. Everyone did a fabulous job. Our Kids Club and OSC numbers were a little low because of summer school but we were blessed with amazing kids. These kids are so beautiful and just eager to be loved. It's hard to keep them off your backs and out of your laps. Work projects went very, very well. We did a lot of work at a local logging museum to help them open for the season. It was a lot of fun and very educational. Stephanie even learned that a caribou is not just a place to get coffee after taking a stuffed caribou off the wall :) Beyond the work the Lord was moving. There were amazing relationships built between the youth and the community, and amongst themselves. Thursday night's foot washing service was very moving.

My staff and I are currently enjoying our day off by sitting in a local bar using their wireless... we were sitting in our cars outside the bar until the owner caught us, invited us inside and bought us pop. This is our first day off in weeks and it feels amazing. Jake and I went for a run this morning and almost lost our lives. We decided to take a trail I found earlier this week off the main train just to see where it went. We were going along the trail deep in the woods with Jake in the lead when FIVE large very angry dogs jumped out and starting barking at us and chasing us. We ran faster then than we had at any other point in our run. eekk!

We are gearing up for another group to come tomorrow. Please lift us up in prayer as we provide this mission trip for the youth coming. Also, Derek has been pretty sick for a couple of weeks now. Pray for his healing and that the doctors would know how to treat him. Also please pray for racial reconciliation within our community. I am very excited to tell you about our community as the weeks move along. There's so much to say and just not enough time. I love you all!