Middle School Mission Trip

        After our day at LutherCrest we headed to Milwaukee on a CHARTER BUS (I was fairly certain we were taking a school bus). The trip was wonderful. While we played lots and lots of bus games, made many a good bracelet out of string, I welcomed the opportunity to put in a movie and allow the kids the chance to space out, be entertained, and sleep. While we were in Wisconsin we got to serve in six different locations, take in a Brewers game, play some putt putt, and enjoy some fellowship.
       
I love working with middle schoolers, they are at such a funny point in their lives, life is awkward and wonderful, life is what it is at that point. I also love that middle schoolers will always always always tell you exactly how they understand the world around them, they don't sugar coat it. When I first began working with middle schoolers this was a really really hard lesson for me to learn - they don't mean to be mean they rude or abrasive, they are just saying it how they see it.
     I was also impressed with how hard these youth were able to work. As projects were put out in front of them - they were determined to get a job done and do it well. This by no means that there weren't moments of complaining - but overall our youth were ridiculously hard workers. They got each and every job done that was set before them. One strange job that we had that fascinated all of us was that at a community garden in Milwaukee gets over 1,000 pounds (yes, 1,000 pounds) of crushed garlic and we got to help haul it and lay it down and incorporate it into the soil. Our hands smelled like garlic for days despite how much we washed them. Another project we had was to haul mulch for the foundations of an orchard that will be placed in the middle of the city. We had two huge mulch piles that we were got to spread around. It was a little nuts to see how much mulch these youth could haul. As we were getting to the bottom of some piles it was funny because the youth thought they had completed the job when another huge semi pulled up with more mulch and the youth rallied and got all the mulch laid.
      At a homeless shelter called "the Guest House" we got to make sandwiches for the residents and we got to prepare for a fourth of July party. The youth had an amazing time making cards and decorations for the house. I hadn't taken into consideration how much of a celebration I am accustom to, I gather with family and friends, enjoy a BBQ that is much more than we can eat, and enjoy watching the city fireworks. I can't' imagine not having those opportunities. I am excited that we were able to help these men be able to celebrate and enjoy the day like I will.
      All of our serving opportunities were great foundations for being able to have outstanding conversations with the youth. They were asking all sorts of great questions and have a great gifts and talents that they too get to offer to the world. I am thankful for the chance to help foster their growth, I am thankful for the parents who leave me with their most valuable (or one of) things in the world. I know that these youth mean the world to their parents and I am humbled to have the chance to walk alongside them in the midst of these important milestones in their lives. I am thankful for the chance to have these conversations with the youth as they discover the world around them. I am thankful for my call to serve.
     I will admit being married does make these types of trips harder. It was hard to be away from Marc for a week, knowing that he was back at the house with my sweet puppy. It was hard to not be able to go for a run with him as we normally would and to be able to share our days as we normally would. At the same time, he was over the top supportive and open to phone calls at crazy times and text messaging from time to time. He was sneaky and left notes in my bag, backpack, and sleeping bag.
   I also will admit that these trips are challenging because I don't get to control what I eat and have the opportunity to run, swim, bike, and workout like I would like it. It is hard to not have the chance to go for a long run during the week. Sometimes while I am away I do get in a run maybe two but they are never to the distance I would like and I can't fully relax knowing that I am ultimately responsible for these youth. But it is worth it.



 Do you get to travel anywhere fun soon?

Summer Stretch

While all the wedding chaos is happening I am still working and while balancing time with my family, friends, and work. It is interesting and I feel like I am running 12,000 places at once but actually enjoying it during the process - so we are going to go with it.

Today begins one of my most favorite things of the summer - Summer Stretch - six Thursdays out of the summer roughly 150 middle schoolers from seven different churches and four denominations gather together to serve our area. In the morning we all head out all over town and we do service projects of every shape, size, and in nearly every location. We walk alongside our nursing home friends, our fire stations, our animal shelter, other congregations and ministries, our food shelf, the middle school, and so much more. These kids make a deep impact on our community and people eventually start looking for the mob of kids all dressed in the same shirt to be around. (Not to mention it gives me an amazing excuse to wear a t-shirt to work one day a week) 

After our morning service project we find a park or some green space or link up with another church somewhere and we eat our bag lunches and do a bible study. EVERY church is doing the same bible study (obviously with our own swing on it) and this summer we are focusing on Jesus and our call to be the hands and feet of Jesus in the world.

The afternoon is spent as a ridiculously large group doing all sorts of fun fellowship. We live in a bit of a touristy area, however, most of our kids don't have the opportunity to do many of the touristy things. Soooo we make deals with the local places and they cut us great deals and let our kids come and play for a few hours in the afternoon. We spend our afternoons at a local water park, the big mini golf course, playing at the beach, playing games in a park, paddling down the mighty Mississippi, biking up the amazing bike trail, and eating copious amounts of ice cream. The local paper is even coming during our afternoon fun today to take pictures of our kids and put them on the front page of the newspaper. THIS is the kind of stuff I love to see in the newspaper!

The idea for Summer Stretch came out of a Summer Stretch ministry that is happening the in Minneapolis/St. Paul area. 

My youth look forward to Thursday every week and are VERY annoyed with me when they graduate out of the ministry and no longer can participate. I am always tempted to begin a Summer Stretch type ministry with the high school youth except they all have 12,001 things going on between work, summer sports, and vacation. 

Unrelated side note: my wedding to-do list is getting shorter and shorter by the minute and while I am off summer stretching my mom and dear friend are continuing to cross stuff off my list! GLORIOUS!