Halfway done

I can't believe that we are already past the halfway mark of the week. It has flown by! It has been a great week so far and I expect that to continue. Many of the students are tired, especially Taylor, who has been officially cut off from Monster drinks. He was bouncing off the walls yesterday afternoon when we got back from the ministry sites, so we made the call and had an intervention with him. Not really, but we did cut him off to preserve his young heart. :-)

I hung out with the Wheat Group yesterday for a very brief time. I ate lunch with them in the park, then went to their site. When we got there, we were told that we needed work gloves to pick up trash in a lot the organization owned, which we didn't have. So I headed to the Family Dollar to pick some up, except the store wasn't where I was told it was, so it took much longer than I intended it to take. By the time I got back, I was only able to work with them for a half-hour before I had to run to Wal-Mart for some supplies...and before it started to thunder, lightning, and rain. So they didn't work much longer either.

Last night was a treat as the Civil Rights Institute was opened for us for a little more than an hour. It was definitely not enough time, but it was eye-opening for all of us to see what went on in this country just a half-century ago. The museum is an excellent display of the injustices of segregation in the South and the steps that were taken to turn the tide. Earlier in the day, while having lunch in the park across the street from the museum, a gentleman from the area (he may have been homeless) gave us some of the history of that immediate area. Very enlightening! One of the most disturbing elements of the museum was a picture of two young black men being lynched, while a large crowd of white folk not only stood by, but posed and smiled and pointed at the bodies as they hung in the background. It was disgusting! And to see pictures of KKK members holding Bibles was a good wake-up call for the students. I challenged the students to think about what in our world today is the Church not dealing with that, in 50 years, we will look back on and say, "What were we thinking?!?" I personally think of the Darfur crisis in the Sudan where hundreds of thousands of people have been killed simply because of their race. May God open our eyes to injustice in the world around us, and increase our determination to do something about it.

Last night's Club had a La Croix feel to it as Anthony, Nate, and Lauren helped lead the worship time. Way to go!

Last night for our church group time we broke up into small groups for our discussion time. This worked well as many of the students that don't want to talk when there are 44 other people listening are more willing to amongst eight or ten. I heard some great reports from the SIMYs that God is really doing some working the hearts of our students. God is starting to blindside some of them. Praise God!

So who is YouthWorks? Well, here is a brief intro to our staff:

• Emily is our site director and is from Arab, Alabama. She has graduated from Moody Bible Institute with a degree in family counseling and will be moving to Miami after the summer to work in a children's shelter. This is her 2nd year with YouthWorks.
• Jori is our urban staff, which means she is the contact for the ministry sites. She is an education major at Cedarville University
• Andy is our program staff, which means he lines up the special events and club time for the participants. He is a sophomore at the University of Arizona studying English, Creative Writing, and Mandarin Chinese. He hopes to be a long-term missionary. He also loves DDR.
  
• Aaron is in charge of Kids Club, one of the projects our students do. He lives in Tucson, Arizona and is a former youth director. He is a crazy good NCAA 07 player, too.

Now that you know our staff, here are few anecdotes from the past 24 hours or so, some funny, and some inspiring:

• During small group time, our Andy told his group that he was going to Korea for a year to teach English. Sydnei asked, "For a year?" Andy told her yes, to which she replied, "Tell them I said, 'Hi.'" I guess she wants all of Korea to know that she said hi. Hilarious!
• Also during small group, Kim asked the question, "Why did God bring you on this trip?" When it came time for Michael to answer, he said, "I think God brought me on this cruise..." I don't know what kind of cruises he's been on, but they must have been different than the ones I'm familiar with.
• Ken got pulled over by the police yesterday because he was lost, was driving about 3mph, and looked confused. At the time, he was driving another church's van, so he couldn't even tell the officer what church he was with. Now imagine a guy with a shaved head and tattoos in a church van that he can't identify. Sounded suspicious, I'm sure. But the officer let him off. Ken's response: He nearly turned the wrong way down a one-way street. Funny stuff!
• Even though Myles got mocked by old folks while calling Bingo, he feels like not only did he come here to serve, but he feels like God really brought him here to teach him something about himself. I'm not sure what God is teaching him exactly, but that's cool to hear.
• Curtis mentioned that he feels like we could be here to be an encouragement to the people that are already ministering here.
• Nate Nunnery feels like Jesus is starting to blindside him. (Look back a couple of days to see what that's about)
• When we debriefed the Civil Rights Institute, Kylie said that she is sick of sitting around and that she wants to do something to make a difference. That was so awesome to hear! I nearly cried...but I kept it together.
• Emily told all of the leaders last night that she was impressed by how polite and nice all of our students were. She also pointed out that one of the La Croix students took her plate up and cleaned it off for her so she wouldn't have to. Great job!

One change in the work assignments: the Soybean and Corn Groups have flip-flopped so that the Corn Group is now doing Kids Club and the Soybean Group is at B.E.A.T.

So what is a Happy Fun Bag, anyway? The first night of a YouthWorks trip, they have all of the participants make a Happy Fun Bag. These bags hang in the Club Room all week. There are slips of paper in the room, too. The idea is that students and leaders can write notes of encouragement to each other throughout the week. It is a highlight each day to check out who has written you a note each day. (I got four notes yesterday!)

I'm off to hang out with the Barley Group. Don't forget to check out our new pictures. I wasn't able to upload all of the ones I took since yesterday because the camera battery died. but there are still some new ones to view. Keep praying for us and for the people we are ministering to and with and that are ministering to us...