Staff, Shampoo, and Singing

There have been a few changes in my life in the past week. Sorry once again for the delayed update, but life has been too crazy to think about blogging. BUT... I am here now.

One huge change since my last update is my staff. My site director, Rosie, had to leave last Friday. As a result, Steph is the new D.C. site director. This is a very weird coincidence considering Steph is a good friend of mine from Eau Claire. When she applied for YW I never in a million years thought she would ever be placed at the same site as me. Although my worlds of "normal life" and YouthWorks have collided (Seinfeld reference... be proud)I am excited about what is ahead. I am nothing but optimistic for the rest of what this summer has in store for us as a new staff team.
The new D.C. staff:

Another thing that is new (as of today) is my choice to join the no-poo revolution. After months of blog reading and contemplation I have finally decided to go shampoo-less. This morning was my last official shampoo shower. I figured that a YW summer would be the best time to do this considering the fact that there is a good two weeks that my hair will be greasy until it returns to its natural pH and not dependent on the oil-stripping chemicals that are in shampoo. This may sound gross and I probably will look gross (thank goodness I am 950+ miles away from anyone that reads this) but hey... what's the worst that can happen... I go back to being a normal shampoo-using person in 3 weeks. For more info on going poo-less check out this blog: http://crunchybetty.com/no-poo-to-you-too

Fun story of the week:
This past Wednesday I had a pleasure of going to Clusters Downtown Geriatric for the morning. Clusters is one of my favorite ministry sites. It is a daycare for elderly who have Alzheimer's and dementia. My favorite part of going to Clusters is the first 2 hours when we get to simply go and talk to some of the Clusters participants during their tea and coffee time. This week was a little different than normal. We just did the usual tea/coffee time for a hour then the YouthWorks youth chose to sing for the Clusters participants. From talking to the workers at Clusters and some friends who have grandparents with Alzheimer's it has been made known to me that music is one of the last things to go for people with this disease. It was fantastic to see the whole mood of the room brighten up with the songs. Every one was clapping and singing. People who were not having the best of days had an instant and positive shift in behavior. Mr. Lemon even got up out of his chair and started to dance. It was so fun! I was laughing so hard and smiling so big. Best.Day.Ever!
As previously stated, this past week has been crazy, but my time at Clusters and the pure joy in the participants faces reminded me that the joy of the Lord is my strength (Nehemiah 8:10b). No memory loss, staff-team changes, or greasy hair can get me down. I have Jesus. Fact!

Peace and Love from D.C.

Daily Bread

Yesterday, after the kids were gone and the shopping was done I took a lovely 4 hour nap. AH, it was so nice. I work up, messed around on facebook, wrote a letter, and called John at midnight (he turns 22 today). Needless to say, after such a long nap so late in the day I wasn't tired enough to sleep when it came time for bed.
I have been reading through Proverbs and thought my awake-ness was a good reason to have an extended quiet time away from the chaos of the week. I read Proverbs 30. Verses 7-9 really stood out to me. Fun fact, this is the only section of all of proverbs that is a prayer.

"Two things I ask of you;
deny them not to me before I die:
Remove far from me falsehood and lying;
give me neither poverty nor riches;
feed me with the food that is needful for me,
lest I be full and deny you
and say, “Who is the Lord?”
or lest I be poor and steal
and profane the name of my God."
-Prov. 30:7-9 (ESV)

After reading this I remembered hearing pastor and author Francis Chan speak to these verses in a youtube clip. I was able to find it again. Here it is:
As I go to college in pursuit of a quality degree, work, save my money, and spend it by my choosing I find these verses really hard to pray. I want to save and not have to worry about paying bills and such, but just have the resources there waiting.
Then I look at how God is a God of provision. He will give us what we need. "Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"(Matt 6:23). Jesus even teaches us to pray like this in Matthew 6:11, "Give us this day our daily bread." Not our yearly bread or lifetime supply of bread, but daily. Then I look at Deuteronomy 8:12-15 and 23:15 and how easily the Israelites forgot about God when there was an abundance.

Where is the balance between being smart with the blessings God has already provided and living in the true heat behind Proverbs 30? Honestly, I have no idea. But I know that I do desire God more than riches and that He will provide for all my needs. Where knowledge takes my life I guess we will wait and see what God has in store.

Please comment. I would like to hear other people's perspectives.

In His Grip,
Bridget

Life Back in D.C.

Sorry it has been so long. These past few weeks have been crazy busy.
On May 23rd I set off for Philly for a week of training. It was legit. It was a LOT less overwhelming than last year. It was definitely nice knowing that I am actually able to do a YouthWorks summer, instead of just thinking I will be able to. As tedious as it was to sit through some (most) of the training sessions, I remember the pressure I felt last year not knowing what I was getting myself into, so I had patience.

The following week we set off for Washington D.C, my 3rd home(1=Apple Valley, MN 2=Eau Claire, WI). AH, It was go good to be back. Brother Thompson met us at the church to show us around and give us the keys. We then got busy unpacking and inventorying all of the YouthWorks stuff. Prep week was spent getting the building ready and meeting with our service partners for the summer with Noah. Seeing the people I started building relationships with from last summer again has BY FAR been my favorite part of the summer. As much as I hate prepweek, I really enjoyed the simple fact of being able to be back into the same city working with the same people and organizations I have fallen in love with.

FINALLY, after 2 weeks of training and preparation we were ready for our 1st group to come. We had an easy week of 17 youth and adult leaders. It was so nice to actually get to know all of their names and spend full days serving along side then, instead of the typical running from service site to service site for a 1/2 at most with one group. I know I should not have favorite youth, but I do. Deal with it. This week I had the blessing of getting to know a girl named Lindsay. She and I learned the Parent Trap handshake and rocked it! It was so fun! It's weird to think we have already survived our 1st week of programing. Only 8 more to go.

Thanks for following my blog. I hope to update about once a week from here on out.

Oh yeah, here is a picture of my staff-team for ya. From the left we have me, Savi (the program staff) Noah (my other service coordinator) and Rosie (my site director). They are legit. I am looking forward to seeing how we continue to jell as a team throughout the rest of the summer. So far so good!