Thoughts and insights from some of our youth...

Our kids are on a journey...one of learning, one of growth, one of building relationships. Although our kids have been made aware of world poverty through various experiences at La Croix (Feed My Starving Children, Hope Rising, or mission trips they have been on out of the country), many of them have not experienced the drastic gap between how some people live right here in our own culture.

Many of the kids we are working with do not have shoes...they eat once a day (and that's a government meal of bologna on stale bread with some mushy carrots)...they do not get the love and affection we are accustomed to. These kids are not just physically hungry - they are emotionally and relationally starving.

It's definitely making an impact on some of our youth. It may take a few blog entries, but I want to share some of the insights and thoughts that your youth have shared with me and the rest of our team so far...

I'm amazed at how the kids totally fell in love with us so fast - even though they don't even know us. They really just want someone to pay attention to them. Amanda Webb

I fell in love with this little boy who totally followed me around all day and clung to me constantly - it was awesome! Also, when the kids had to get on a bus to go to the pool, they were banging on the windows and hollering for me and Cody. They didn't want us to leave. Riley Knight

I was really surprised at how appreciative this elderly lady was - when all we did was simple stuff like clean and paint for her. Drew Wilson

I saw a glimpse of myself as a child...no literally, this kid looks JUST like me! Mason Turner

I just loved sitting and talking with and listening to the amazing stories of these people in the nursing home we visited today. Rachel Juhlin

I loved how the kids faces lit up as soon as we walked in the door on the second day! Sammy Rees

There were only two boys at the place my team is serving and I took them and played basketball with them all day just getting to know them and develop relationships with them. It was really cool. Parker Outman

I loved how all of the kids gave us hugs when we were leaving - after only hanging out with them for one day. Creigh Miles

I was just heartbroken by some of the stories these kids were telling me. Lauren Sides

Psalm 119

The theme of Youth Works this year is "Be Different". However, within our La Croix group (there are two other church groups serving with us), JT has assigned Psalm 119 to us to read. We are reading about 25 verses each day and discussing it as a group each evening. We will not be finished with the whole chapter by the end of the week, so we are hoping that they will continue reading once they get home. The entire chapter stresses the importance of God's word...thus we are using it to not only emphasize that importance to them but help them get in the habit of reading the Bible daily and taking the time to reflect upon it.

We would love it if you would join us in this experience. Pick up your Bible - flip over to Psalm 119 and spend a few minutes reading and reflecting on what God may be saying to you. When your youth get back in town, encourage them to keep reading and take a few minutes each night to discuss and reflect on the reading with them. I believe your relationships will be enhanced because of it...your relationship with God and your relationship with a teenager who needs to see that this is important to you too!

The Gandee Family

As I mentioned, all of the teams this year are called families, as we are named after popular names out of the phone book.
My group is called the Gandee family - led by me and Windall. It includes Emily Diamond, Jessie Muir, Taylor Janota, Amanda Webb, Riley Knight, Cody Likens, Caleb Likens and Riley Duncan.

Our family group is spending the entire week at the Charleston Boys and Girls Club. The CBGC is run by the Salvation Army and works with underprivileged youth and children in the area. In the summer time, they offer a day camp, which is what we are helping with.

We were divided to working with different age groups and will stay with our assigned groups the whole week. These kids need consistency, something many of them are lacking in the rest of their life. Our being with them for the entire week allows us to form closer and stronger bonds.

The age groups are 6-7 year olds (Cody Likens and Riley Knight), 8-9 year olds (Caleb Likens and Taylor Janota/Amanda Webb), 10-11 year olds (Emily Diamond and Jessie Muir), and 12-14 year olds (Riley Duncan and Taylor Janota/Amanda Webb). Windall is primarily with the 10-11 year olds, I am primarily with the 6-7 year olds - but we are trying to help out wherever we are needed most.

There is a crazy amount of kids shoved into this facility and they are extremely understaffed. Yesterday, my 6-7 year old group had 43 students with only 1 paid adult staff member! Without us...I think they may have not had a staff member at all by today:-)

That's pretty much the scoop for the Gandee family. I'm going to try to get all of the families listed tonight...so keep checking in...

Another La Croix First...

Totally forgot to mention this yesterday, but definitely worth mentioning...
Lights out every day is at 11pm, but it seems to be a very difficult task to get the kids to go to sleep - especially the boys - even though the rest of us are totally exhausted.
The first night we were here (after meeting at La Croix at 5:30am for quite a long road trip), lights out was at 11:15pm, as they are trying to fit in a few extra details. As it turns out the big detail is that the Youth Works staff comes around to each sleeping room and reads over the rules of safety for the week.
Apparently, our fearless male leaders - JT and Windall (this is Blake's first year, so he didn't know any better) - forgot about this minor detail and went ahead and turned the lights out early, in attempt to get the boys to calm down.
When the Youth Works staff came by to read the rules, they turned on all of the lights and nearly all of our boys were already asleep! Now, this could be the first time ever that the boys would have all been asleep, giving our adult leaders an opportunity for a full night of rest.
But thank you Youth Works for bringing that 'first' to an abrupt halt!!!

Charleston, West Virginia

This is Youth Work's 8th summer in Charleston, WV. There are lots of pre-existing ministries within the city ranging from Boys and Girls Clubs to elderly homes. Here's some info about the city we will be working in this week...
- current population is 50,478, which is down from 85,796 in 1960
- it is the largest city in West Virginia and is the state capital
- it is a river city at the junction of the Elk and Kanawha rivers
- 24.5% of those under the age of 18 in Charleston are living below the poverty line
the racial make up of the city is 80% white, 15% African American, and 5% other

Each year, after arrival, we are divided into groups based on the culture of where we are serving. This year is no different. Last year, we were in groups named after cheeses...this year, it seems there are some REALLY popular family names in this area - based on the number of times you find them in the phone book...so for this week, we have family names.

Today, each time I can get wi-fi (which may not happen again until tonight) I will try to post a family name, the group and tell you a little about where they are serving this week.

Also, I have a few other things to post - a little at a time.
So, keep checking in...

One day in Mission Field down...3 more to go...

Well, Monday day ONE is finished...although we still have a full evening of stuff going on...our mission projects for the day are finished. The first day is often the toughest, as everyone is getting settled in to new environments, learning what they are supposed to be doing, etc.

Once again, we need every single SIMY (servants in ministry to youth...a.k.a. adult leaders) leading a team at a site, there are none of us to spare. So, my visions of being able to update the blog regularly and upload pics, etc just aren't panning out as planned. So, whenever I get a few minutes, I'm trying to get you all a little info.

First of all - we are all safe - no injuries - no illnesses - no homesickness (except for the adult leaders, ha, ha).

Second - everyone is eating. No child is going to starve (now granted, some of you were smart enough to pack some food for your kids!) but seriously, we are across the street from a Kroger's, so the picky eaters in the bunch are in heaven. It seems that there is a HUGE attraction to going to Kroger's, so I decided to investigate. As it turns out, there is a self-check area there. Now I know that many of you shop at Schnuck's and I know these kids have seen these things before...but you would NEVER know it. They act like we brought them straight out of the back woods and this is their first visit to the big city! Quite humourous...

Finally - everyone is getting along great and the groups worked out really well. I'll post more about that later. I'm hoping I can get wi-fi at my job site, so maybe I can write some more stuff tomorrow during the day.

I'm having a difficult time uploading to the flickr account (by difficult, I mean - IT'S NOT WORKING...), so I am uploading pics onto my facebook page. If you are not friends with me on facebook, just send me a friend invite (Angel Hillman). Also, Shelly Stone and Carly Rees have been uploading pics to their facebook pages as well.

Stay tuned, I'll get you more stuff as soon as I can!

We made it safely...

We have arrived safely...four 12 passenger vans and a cargo van...with only 3 stops!!! If this is any indication of how the rest of the trip will go - we are going to have a great week!
Leaving at the crack of dawn has some advantages...a lot more 'quiet' going on during the first 3 hours of the road trip:-)

Our first stop was a bathroom break - and as luck would have it, we chose a gas station that had one bathroom - which gave us plenty of time to be the salt and light of the world to everyone that stopped, saw the enormous line, turned around to leave, and then were allowed to move to the front of the line by our amazing teenagers! (I know that many of you parents reading this right now are saying to yourselves..."why don't they ever act like that with their brother or sister?"...but seriously...they are a great group of kids!)

One stop for lunch and then one last stop and we arrived at our destination: Charleston, West Virginia. After setting up our rooms, we went to 'Club' (where we will have our daily devotionals, worship and debriefing each night) and played a few games before dinner. Tonight's meal was pizza from a local pizza place - Gino's - it was really good - so all of the kids actually ate tonight:-) Food tends to not be the yummiest (we are on a mission trip after all), so alot of kids survive on PBJ for the better part of the week.

We haven't divided into groups yet - so once we know who is in what group and what mission site they will be going to - I will try to post that info.