We made it!

When we had to stop for potty breaks twice in the first half-hour, I thought we'd never get to Birmingham. I could just see me calling Emily, the site director, and telling her, "Sorry, but our people can't get their bladders and intestines synced up, so we're not going to be able to make it." But, despite the early setbacks, we made quite good time. We arrived in B'Ham at around 5:00pm, well within the time frame we needed to arrive. We unloaded quickly and then hung out for a while. The trip was pretty uneventful, except for one of the vehicles that now has van clean-up duty thanks to their desire to throw candy throughout the van they were riding in.

We are staying at Woodlawn UMC, an old UM Church. It's right across for a boarded-up Piggly-Wiggly, much to many students lament. The Pig was a popular junk-food stop each afternoon when we were here two years ago. Darn, less sugar for the students! What will we ever do?

Last night consisted of orientation for the leaders and the students, the main church leaders from each group - Gretchen and I for ours - breaking the team up into work groups (which is a lot easier when you have two students as opposed to 36!), Club (which is a mini-youth group) and church group time, during which we have time as a group to debrief. I asked the students, "Why did you come on this trip?" The most popular answers I heard were to serve God, to have fun, and to meet people. I asked them, "What if you don't have fun?" I was encouraged to hear so many students say that it didn't matter because they were still serving Jesus, and that's what counts. I then told them what I hoped would happen this week, and that is that they would all be blindsided by Jesus, that he would wreck their lives. It sounds harsh, but if they come away from this week realizing that the life of a Jesus-follower isn't about their happiness and contentment, that it's about serving the 'other' person, then I think that will be a very good thing.

Sleep was hard to come by last night as many of the guys had, shall we say, difficult times winding down. We'll put an end to that tonight. Not to mention the fact that Ken snores like a "wounded bear" (his words, not mine). So thank God for coffee even more today than usual! Currently, the students and SIMYs are at their work site. Here are the breakdowns and a brief description what they are doing:

Rye Group
Southern Environmental Center: Gardening with an organization housed at B'Ham Southern College whose purpose is to highlight and educate people on urban environmental issues. These gardens have provided hope and beauty to communities that have seen rough times.

• Wendy Blankenship - SIMY
• Danny Rees - SIMY
• Molly Powell
• Chelsea McDowell
• Matt Leimer
• Drew Nall
• Kylie Goodier
• Lauren Kalb

Soybean Group
Kids Club: The students will run a Kids Club each afternoon that includes skits, crafts, songs, Bible stories, and games. The theme for the week is "Be a Hero."

• Shelly Stone - SIMY
• Tyler Camp
• David Watts
• Adrian Gomes
• Mick Grace
• Sydney Ozbun
• Morgan Bean
• Blake Stone
• Matt Griffith
• and students from another church

Wheat Group
Restoration Ministries: The book I have doesn't have a description of the ministry, so I will try to update later.

• Kim Holman - SIMY
• Ken VanWinkle - SIMY
• Myles Edwards
• Nate Nunnery
• Curtis Mathson
• Michael Denmark
• Blake Ozbun
• Lexi Smith
• Julia Simmers
• Casey Mehner
• Taylor Quade
• and students from another church
  

Barley Group
Family Life Center: The goal of this organization is to provide supportive educational services for urban school-age children. The participants will be tutoring children.

• Gretchen Taylor - SIMY
• Anthony Watts
• Shelby Halter
• Nate Nall
• Kasey Rutherford
• Kara Goodier
• Derek Adams
• Ashley Curnell
• and students from another group

Corn Group
B.E.A.T. (Bethel-Ensley Action Task): They exist to provide low to moderate income houses for families in the Ensley neighborhood. Students will be painting primarily.

• Andy Stieff - SIMY
• Kristy Mehner - SIMY
• Meredith Grissom
• Cori Shockley
• Sydnei Lemmons
• Garrett Arnold
• Jacob Gentry
• Blake Kidd
• and students from another church

Some of the groups will stay at the same site all week; some change partway through the week; some change at lunchtime. I will try to fill you in later in the week on changes that are made. Also coming up in future posts:

• Meet your YouthWorks staff
• Inspiring stories
• Funny stories
• What the heck is a Happy Fun Bag, anyway?

Pray for our students and SIMYs as they serve. Now, I'm off to Wal-Mart to pick up supplies that people forgot - pillows, socks, etc. - and to take extra keys to one group that locked their keys in the van. Don't forget to check out the pictures on Flickr. I did something wrong so they loaded up into a different account than I told you about in the postcard you received on Sunday. They can be viewed here. I will try to fix things by tomorrow. Thanks, and be God's...