Doughnuts Anyone?

Reason number one thousand and ONE why I am in love with D.C.
Dan and I went to Dunkin' Donuts tonight at 9:15 and asked if we could take the doughnuts they were going to throw out... and they gave them to us. I have already eaten 2. We think this may just have to become a Saturday night ritual.

In My World

HELLO FRIENDS!
Via Facebook and the lovely letters I have been getting...I have been asked multiple times what a typical YouthWorks week looks like in D.C.

Sunday
Bible Study and Church from 9 to 12:00-ish.
Then we get busy converting the church back into our housing site. This includes hanging posters, setting out tables, getting directions and ministry crew binders ready, making sure the bathrooms are stalked and everything is in its proper place.
At 3:00 we start making the beef for taco dinner on Tuesday. Our oven is too small so it is easter to brown the beef on Sunday and then just have to heat it on Tuesday. Beyond that we also start prepping for dinner.
The participants arrive anytime between 4 and 6.
Everyone gets settled in and we eat dinner (BBQ chicken sandwiches).
Then at 8 we have youth orientation where Austin, Dan, and I make fools out of ourselves as a fun means of presenting the rules and expectations for the week. The adult leaders are in a meeting with Courtney.
Then we have Club which is a time for worship and a message from Austin.
Following Club is church group time. While the particapants are at that we have a staff meeting and go over the next days agenda.
We then hangout some more before lights out at 11:30-ish.

Monday - Thursday
We wake up and eat breakfast at 7:15
Tuesdays I am on breakfast prep so I wake up at 6:20 to get ready before my prep crew comes in to help make the meal. Every staff member has his or her own day to be in charge of breakfast
After breakfast we clean the building.
Devotionals are at 8:15.
We depart for our ministry sites at 9:50.
Each week we split up the participants into 6-7 crews. Each crew goes to their own service site. The staff and I spend the day ministry hopping and problem shooting with any ministry sites that may need extra assistance.
The participants finish at their work sites at 3:00 and go to showers at the near by high school.
Then everyone but the dinner prep crew has free time until 5. I lead dinner prep on Wednesday (cheesy chicken and rice) and Thursday (community cookout leftover heat up... Austin mans the grill).
Dinner is at 5-ish
After dinner we clean up and go to out evening activity.
Evening activities are:
Monday- Memorials and Monuments (Abe, WWII, Korean War, and Vietnam War)
Tuesday- Capitol
Wednesday- Krazy Praise (A worship service lead by youth from the district)
Thursdays is the cookout.
Club starts at 9
Church group time/staff meeting at 10
Lights out at 11 for the participants and we as a staff get breakfast stuff ready for the next morning.

Friday
Wake up at 6:20 to do a massive building clean up and pack the cars.
Say our good byes and get the participants on the road by ideally 9:30.
Then we have a staff meeting about the week as a whole and then go shopping for the next week.
Austin and I go to Costco. We are getting really good. Last week we got in and out of Costco in less than an hour!!!
We get back to the church, unload, do final end of the week stuff, and NAP!!!
We try to finish everything by 3.
We wake up and go somewhere for dinner then come back to the church and go to bed early.

Saturday
SLEEP IN! Take it easy and then usually do something fun in the evening. Saturdays are our days off. We take advantage of not having to do anything!

Repeat!

Not the most exciting blog entry to read... but I hope you have a little better grasp as to what I am doing with my life here in D.C.

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Let's Do 72!

My D.C. Staff Team: Austin, Me, Dan (with lens-less 3D glasses he found in a park), and Courtney.

Welcome to our largest week of the summer. We have 72 participants here this week... all from one church. This week has been a healthy D.C. mix of craziness, hard work, and grace!
The craziness can be seen just by the sheer fact that there are 72 participants in a building that is best fit for 60 or less. We have people crammed in to sleeping rooms. I am sure it is against some fire code, but just don't tell anyone. I also never knew 72 people could eat so much and so fast. I feel like there is always someone in the kitchen during dinner just cutting more lettuce.
Amongst the craziness there is also a LOT of hard work going on. I love this group for many reasons.. one of them being their deep desire to serve. They are constantly asking the staff if there is anything else they can be helping with... even after a long day of serving the D.C. community. It is such a blessing. We as a staff could not do this week without their servant hearts.
Lastly, with 72 people a lot of grace is needed. We are unable to do anything as quickly as desired. There are more dishes, more cars in the caravans, more people getting ready in the bathrooms, etc. The adult leaders have been so patient with us as we try to get everyone where they should be. I am so grateful!

The challenge of this week is getting to know that youth and adult leaders. Because they are all from one group I am unable to break them down into smaller more manageable clusters of people to get to know. I am tying... however there is a lot of "Molly, right?" "No, I'm Sarah" "AHH! I totally knew that." Again, lots of grace has been given this week.

I'll keep it on the short-ish side today. Thank you for following my summer. Feel free to shoot me an email, phone call, Facebook message, or letter updating me on your life.

Prayer Requests: For my continued devotion to doing the Lord's work and not getting sucked into the routine of the summer... but to earnestly seek Him and serve Him everyday. Thanks!

Love you all!!!!

In His Grip,
Bridget Ila

Smile...it's picture time!

Here are some pictures for you:

Playing Ninja with some of the youth in front of the Capitol:
I am in the gray on the right.


Saturday walk to The Mall

Art on the side of the road:


Dan asking Lauren (our area director) if we can get a dog:


D.C. Sunset:


Oh Hey Abe:


WWII Memorial:


My allegiance:


Sunset looking out from the Washington Monument:


Yes, I am a tourist... I had to:


Washington Monument:


Hope you enjoyed them. It was fun to have a relaxing Saturday enjoying our Nation's Capitol.
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Love and Water Bottles

HELLO FRIENDS!
It is mid week two and life is good!
It is late and I should be getting to bed but I though I'd give you just a little update before I hit the hay.
Today one of the groups that we sent out was done with their service project early. SO, they came back to the housing site where I was waiting for them to do a water bottle ministry. To be completely honest, I though this was going to be a stupid time killer. I hate the feeling of having my time wasted... and in this case wasting other peoples time. However, the Lord was going to prove my preconceived notions of handing out water bottles wrong. Here is how:
1.) We decorated pieces of construction paper to put around the water bottles. These water bottle sleeves consisted of information about out free community cookout we host every Thursday and a Bible verse. The Lord really blessed this time of preparing the water bottles. The group and I were able to break open the Word and look at what God's promises are for the city and His people. These verses were meant to be used as encouragement to the people getting the water, but I think it encouraged us making them just as much... if not more.
2.) While we were making the sleeves for the bottles a man named Nick came to the front door of the church and asked for water. I think that is way to ironic to be just a coincidence. As Kara Koerner would say, it was a God-incidence.
3.) After we finished preparing the bottles we went out in groups of 4 got hand them out. After we gave the person the water we told them about the cookout and then just asked if there was anything they needed prayer for... because after all the water was gone we were going to come back together and pray for the church we are living in and the community we are surrounded by. Man, it is crazy how people open up when we communicate fully out of love and true compassion. It was cool to witness how a bottle of water can open the door to deep meaningful conversations.
I would like to ask you to join me in continued prayer for some of the individuals we met. It's such a small but so huge of a thing we can do.
Mr. Ronald: Prayer for continued sobriety and thanks giving for health.
Mr. Martin: His sister Lenore is on life support.
Officer Robinson: He is a drug officer. He asked that we pray for the youth in the area that they resist the temptation to try drugs or any other kind of substance. Also for these young man and women to find positive role models and support networks in their lives.
Ms. Rose Mary: For a home and security.
Thank you for supporting the community I am falling in love with in prayer. Although there is a lot of tough stuff going on even on the corner of where I live... God is still doing HUGE things in the city of D.C.

I was not expecting this update to be this long. Whoops.
Thanks for your continued support and prayers.

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1 Down... 8 to Go!

It's Friday night. Our 1st group has gone, grocery shopping is finished, naps have been taken, dinner has been eaten, life is good!

The 1st week went great. The groups form Texas were really good. It was nice that there were only 34 of them. It made our lives easier as the staff. It was nice being able to get to know all of the students well. I was very surprised at how easy it was for me to learn all of their names. Pray that that continues throughout the rest of the summer. It was also fun to work along side the youth at the service sites. I feel so much more prepared for the youth coming this sunday because I can talk from experience about what they are going to be doing at the service sites... instead of going off of what other people say.

Highlight story of the week: I was at CCNV on Thursday. CCNV is a transitional homeless shelter. First of all, I really agree with the idea of transitional housing. Seriously, how can we expect people to get out of the cycle of homelessness if they are more concerned about finding a bed for the night instead of a job or any type of education. The residents at CCNV have a 6 month lease on a bed. If the resident proves that he is making considerable effort to life on his own this lease can be extended. ANYWAY... story time. While at CCNV YouthWorks hangs out in 1 South. This is the floor for men 50 years of age and older. Basically we are there to just be relational with the men: play games, hear their stories, and share our lives with them. The men of 1 South are chess masters! Dustin, one of the youth, was playing Mr. Edward. Mr. Edward smoked Dustin 4 times. It was really fun to watch. In between moves Mr. Edward even finished a crossword puzzle . A few times other men would come over and try to "help" Dustin out. I am not 100% sure, but I think their motive was to just confuse him even more. Laughter was had by all. Sorry, I am not doing a great job at articulating this story, but be rest assured that it was fun.

Moving on to this coming week... we have 66 youth and adult leaders on their way to D.C. as I type. They will be here at 4:30 on Sunday. It will be interesting to see how different next week pans out with having double the people. While shopping at Costco today I filled one of those big flat carts with bread (sandwich bread, hotdog and hamburger buns, dinner rolls, you name it). Added on top of that was another 2 full large carts of food. Who knew how much food it took to feed 66 people. The looks Austin, Dan, and I were getting were kinda funny though. You could read people's faces saying, "what in the world are those 3 kids doing with all that food?!?"

As for this moment... I am taking time to rest. I am very tired from the week. I could go to bed right now and it is only 11:00... despite the fact that I took a 3 hour nap this afternoon. It was so nice to just have down time today. The staff and I went to a cafe for dinner and just sat there for a few hours and solved all of the problems of the world. Literally. I think the U.S. Government should just come to us for advice. Tomorrow we have a few minor things to do to get ready for next week but beyond that we are just gonna keep it low key and relax.

Sorry so long. I'll stop now.
Love you long time!
Comment!

In Him
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First Full Day

WOW MAN! Our 1st full day of programing has finished. The students are in bed, the lights are out, the kitchen is prepped for breakfast, and I am off to bed after finishing this. Today was full of its challenges. BUT, the Lord is good and for every frustration He has given even more peace and blessing. Here are 3 of the challenges and the blessings.

1.) Today is Monday and I haven't showered since Friday afternoon. (I did wash my hair in the sink before church though). I feel gross and my skin is sticky from spilling lemonade over myself. The place that was set up for the YW staff to shower has not been cooperating with us and wants to charge us a crazy amount to let us shower for like 5 minutes. However (PRAISE THE LORD) as of tomorrow we have staff showers! At 1:00 tomorrow afternoon I will be clean. You can't imagine how beautiful a shower sounds after days of hard work and humidity! I can't help but see the blessing though this. I will go 4 days without a full shower... but I have more than enough food, a place to live, wonderful people around me, and seriously... it's 4 days. I am working with people at the service sites who are without a house and the luxuries I take for granted. My unclean self has taught me about about how much the Lord has given me.

2.) I am itchy. I stopped by one of the service sites (Parks and People) to see how they were doing. Their afternoons task was to help trim back bushed in a park. (Cool stories about what this service site does to come in later entries). We were working a lot with poised Ivy and thorny bushes. I was wearing ungloved hands and shorts. Poor life choice. I don't think it is poison ivy, but my legs mush have touched something that my skin doesn't like. So I itch. BUT the grand part is that we have anti-itch cream! AND beyond that there is HUGE blessing in even being able to serve beside the students. It is so fun to get to know them, observe the hard work they do, and see their enthusiasm for being the hands and feet of Christ. The groups this week (they are both from Texas) are really great! They are setting the standard for the rest of the summer high!

3.) I apparently can't drive in parking lots. As I was trying to navigate the YW minivan through the gates of our parking lot and not hit the 2 other 11 passenger vans with students in them I turned too sharp and hit a parked car's bumper with my back wheel. It gets better. I hit the other car so perfectly that the corner of the other car's bumper was stuck in my wheel socket thing (whatever you wanna call it... the hole where your wheel goes). Because of that we had to get 7 of the high school guys to lift up the van and get it unstuck . Nothing like having 30+ people watch you make an idiot out of yourself. The good news is that the van has no damage to it and the jeep only has 2 very minor scratches. Plus, the owner of the jeep doesn't have insurance which makes YW's job a lot easier. Let's just say it could have been a lot worse.

SO, that was my 1st full day of YouthWorks! I am looking forward to seeing what else the Lord has in store for the summer.

FInal note: This morning in my devotional I asked the Lord to speak His truth to me though Scripture. One part of a verse that really stood out to me was Judges 6:24 "...The Lord Is Peace..." It was so cool to see the Lord answer my prayer. He spoke these 4 words to me all day. Through it I am able to just be. I have nothing to fear and only blessing to count.

I am the daughter of the King and I am full of peace.

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Getting Ready

This whole week has been BUSY! We have been working hard to get the site ready for youth to come next week. Out 1st group gets here on June 6th. We are SO looking forward to meeting the people we have been putting this work in for.

Prep week has consisted of spending hours on google maps getting directions to and from the service sites, working on skits we are putting on for the youth, cleaning, shopping, and having a lot a fun through it all. Although some of these tasks were tedious and boring it has been made a lot better doing them with my staff team. My staff consists of (from the left on the picture) Dan, Austin, Me, and Courtney.

Yesterday we went to the Capitol to make sure our directions to get there are correct before we lead 60+ youth and adult leaders to it. It is so cool! Our housing site is literally a 5 minute drive to the Capitol. We rocked it! I REALLY like Austin's shirt. He found it in the thrift store in the church we are living it. Not only is it a 90's muscle shirt but it also says "To Legit To Quit" ... AKA awesomeness! Be jealous. I am!

The rest of this week is going to consist of driving around D.C. making sure Google Maps gave us the correct directions, as well as meeting with all of the volunteer coordinators from the service sites we are sending youth to.

Thanks for following my blog! Feel free to comment... that way I'll know if anyone actually reads this :)

By the way, happy 1st day of June! Can you believe it?!? I sure can't!

PEACE
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