We have returned safely from a great week in Romania. We took 8 students from our community, 4 boys, 4 girls, and along with a couple hundred students from other military installations in Europe went to work in Romania. Our site was at a school. We built a playground, did VBS style relational ministry, and also did a sports ministry for a week. Seeing a hundred Romanian children running around and playing on the playground at the end of the week when we had completed it was an amazing thing to see. But more than the labor, the relational ministry is what I believed left the biggest impression. A Romanian Mom was talking to Aretta, and their conversation went along the lines of the Mom asking if we would return next year. Aretta said she hoped so and if we came back we could build some other things and do more construction. The Mom then said that this ws not the reason she hoped we would return. She said they really appreciated the playground and it will be really great to have, but it was our interactions with the children that make the biggest difference. She said people in that area, they don't smile a lot. After the first day when her kids came and played with the Americans, they went home and couldn't stop smiling and being excited. She said we had brought some joy to them. That was pretty cool to hear.
Sorry, no time to write more. I am leaving fro Greece in about 10 minutes. 21 hour bus ride back from Romania got us here at 7 a.m., now I am making a 20 plus hour car ride leaving at 1030 a.m. the very next day. Not sure if that is smart, but it will be well worth it. This trip is just vacation, and I will be officially using my first vacation days ever as a "professional". Fun stuff. I am hoping to get a few more passport stamps, I added two last week, we'll see which borders will do it now. I will write again when I get back.
Monday, July 4, 2011
Friday, June 24, 2011
Romania
Just a quick note. We are headed out soon for Romania. Please keep us in your prayers, that we have a safe trip, that we get a lot accomplished in the projects we are doing, that we have good interactions with the Romanians, and that the students learn more about God and having faith in Him through this project. I will update you on when we get back, but please keep us in your prayers until then. This is the type of trip that can change lives, and therefore is one I fully expect spritual warfare to be raging during. Help us fight the good fight with your prayers. Thanks.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
First School Year = Over
So I have now completed my first school year w/ Club beyond. HS graduation is tonight, last night was MS graduation, the night before was HS Baccalaureate, so fairly busy week with stuff to go to. Last week we had our end of the semester clubs for both HS and MS. We had mid 60 hs students show up and a number of family members, so it was a good way to end the year. We grilled, played some games, and spent some time saying good bye to those who will PCS this summer and to our graduates. We did something similar for the MS.
So now we are on to summer. The biggest thing immediately is the service project to Romania. We will be gone for about a week and a half early on in the summer (can't get more specific than that in a public forum). We have been doing a lot of prep work for this project, collecting supplies and taking donations and doing training with the students we are taking. We did an overnighter last weekend where we did team building exercises, did a Bible study on being a servant, spent time in prayer, and talked about expectations and what we all felt we needed to be successful. This will not be an easy trip. It is going to be long days and hours of tough work in extremely poor areas. This trip has the potential to push some of the participants to the end of their rope. But as I like to say being at the end of your rope is a bad place to be but a good place to have been. It is not fun in the moment, and very tough, but those are the times we see the most growth and development. Those are the moments when God does amazing things and changes lives. So please pray that we are challenged and pushed in such a way that it is only through God that we accomplish anything.
Back to the end of the year thing. This is something I am slightly torn about. I am really looking forward to summer and a change in routine. But I am torn about PCS season. We have a lot of students who are moving, and it will be really sad to see some of them go. It has already been sad saying good bye to some who have left already. But at the same time it is exciting to think about the new students who will be here. Part of this is out of selfish thought. With this last years group of students, I have felt more like "the NEW club guy", which is true and what I have been. Now, I will just be "the club guy." I am not new, and will have been here longer than a third of our kids. It will just be a different dynamic that I am looking forward to.
So now we are on to summer. The biggest thing immediately is the service project to Romania. We will be gone for about a week and a half early on in the summer (can't get more specific than that in a public forum). We have been doing a lot of prep work for this project, collecting supplies and taking donations and doing training with the students we are taking. We did an overnighter last weekend where we did team building exercises, did a Bible study on being a servant, spent time in prayer, and talked about expectations and what we all felt we needed to be successful. This will not be an easy trip. It is going to be long days and hours of tough work in extremely poor areas. This trip has the potential to push some of the participants to the end of their rope. But as I like to say being at the end of your rope is a bad place to be but a good place to have been. It is not fun in the moment, and very tough, but those are the times we see the most growth and development. Those are the moments when God does amazing things and changes lives. So please pray that we are challenged and pushed in such a way that it is only through God that we accomplish anything.
Back to the end of the year thing. This is something I am slightly torn about. I am really looking forward to summer and a change in routine. But I am torn about PCS season. We have a lot of students who are moving, and it will be really sad to see some of them go. It has already been sad saying good bye to some who have left already. But at the same time it is exciting to think about the new students who will be here. Part of this is out of selfish thought. With this last years group of students, I have felt more like "the NEW club guy", which is true and what I have been. Now, I will just be "the club guy." I am not new, and will have been here longer than a third of our kids. It will just be a different dynamic that I am looking forward to.
Wednesday, June 15, 2011
Pep assembly
For blog post 2 this week I want to tell you about last friday. As I had mentioned before I was asked to lead the Pep assembly at the middle school. Now, I have led a lot of games, activities, events, etc. in my not very long life, but I have never led something for over 500 middle schoolers. This was a bit of a challenge and I was fairly nervous about it. I got things all prepared and had activities planned out, but the morning of, I get there and realize, this is not going to work as planned. One activity in particular was not going to work. I had a quiz show type thing set up where incorrect answers resulted in getting a pie to the face, and correct answers allowing you to pie a fellow contestant. The problem was we were outside (which I knew in advance) and had no microphone. I had been told i would have a wireless mic, but when it was set up, there was no mic to be found. So the whole assembly I had to yell loud enough that 500 plus energetic middle schoolers could hear me. This meant any type of game that involved talking was out. So that game was scratched. On the plus side, it will work great as a club game so it will not have been a waste of time planning the game. The competitions I ended up running were a walk off contest, where students and teachers from each grade acted as models and had to strike poses, which the other contestants would need to copy and elaborate on, then a relay race where a runner carries someone on their back and sprints, and then a big tug of war contest. All in all, I think it went pretty well. I was told by a lot of people how much fun it was, and the school already asked me to come back next year, so it must have been good enough. After the assembly, I ran dodgeball tournaments for the rest of the day and helped out w/ various other activities they were running.
As I said, I was not originally thrilled by this idea. It was a bit overwhelming, and I doubted that I could do it well. Was it the best assembly ever? Not even close. Will the students remember it for the rest of their lives? Probably not. But what it did was help me get more involved at the school and get the Club Beyond name and my face out there. Throughout the day, I interacted with hundreds of middle schoolers. I am guessing I talked to 100 kids who I had not had any contact with all year. It won me some brownie points with school administrators for spending a whole day there and helping out. I didn't mention God or Jesus once during the day (big no-no at school), but things like this help me get my foot in the door w/ students. It opens up communication, where I can say hi to more kids now and interact w/ them, and then down the road I am inviting them to Club and talking about what we do, and from those conversations I get to share the love of God with them. It is a process, and this is a really good first step to be able to take w/ some of the students. Sometimes, I just need to get out of my own way and let God work through me in ways that I might be too scared to try, but through him all things are possible.
As I said, I was not originally thrilled by this idea. It was a bit overwhelming, and I doubted that I could do it well. Was it the best assembly ever? Not even close. Will the students remember it for the rest of their lives? Probably not. But what it did was help me get more involved at the school and get the Club Beyond name and my face out there. Throughout the day, I interacted with hundreds of middle schoolers. I am guessing I talked to 100 kids who I had not had any contact with all year. It won me some brownie points with school administrators for spending a whole day there and helping out. I didn't mention God or Jesus once during the day (big no-no at school), but things like this help me get my foot in the door w/ students. It opens up communication, where I can say hi to more kids now and interact w/ them, and then down the road I am inviting them to Club and talking about what we do, and from those conversations I get to share the love of God with them. It is a process, and this is a really good first step to be able to take w/ some of the students. Sometimes, I just need to get out of my own way and let God work through me in ways that I might be too scared to try, but through him all things are possible.
Tuesday, June 14, 2011
Auschwitz
So I have fallen a bit behind on the blogs, and there is a lot to fill you in on. So instead of writing one really long blog that no one reads all the way through I am going to post multiple updates this week.
So update #1: Auschwitz.
Over Memorial day weekend we went on a trip to Poland to see the concentration camp Auschwitz. It was a gerat weekend. There were times it was a lot of fun, there were other times it was very sobering and educational. The fun times were hanging out w/ the stuednts and families who came along. It was a lot of quality time w/ some great people. Each night we would do discussion time and debriefing from the day. After that we would hang out and play games.
Auschwitz is an enormous camp, w/ two main sections. There are a lot of parts to it, but the best known are Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau. We went to Auschwitz 1 one day and had a guided tour, and then to Birkenau the next day and went on our own. A lot of people will do both in the same day and do a three hour tour total. I would not recommend that. It took us three hours to see Auschwitz 1. It is also a lot to digest and is very overwhelming, so splitting it up worked really well. At Auschwitz 1 we talked a lot about Father Maximilian Kolbe, who is known as the saint of Auschwitz. He was a priest put into the camp for speaking out against the Nazis. One day a prisoner was to be executed and he stepped forward to ask if he could take the mans place. The SS agreed and put him in a room to starve him to death w/ other prisoners. Throughout the next two weeks Father Kolbe led prayer and singing while slowly starving to death. After two weeks he was still alive, and needing the room to punish other prisoners, they gave him a lethal injection. To be at a place, see where he stood, where he was punished and died for such a selfless act, to learn about something so amazing in such a horrendous place was awe inspiring. In the midst of one of the most evil events in the history of the world God used someone to inspire and give hope.
It was an experience I will not ever forget. It was also great to be able to share it with students, to be able to discuss it with them and see how they reacted to things we were learning.
Ok, enough for now. In the next few days I will post about end of the school year, leading a pep assembly at the middle school, and what is coming up in the near future.
So update #1: Auschwitz.
Over Memorial day weekend we went on a trip to Poland to see the concentration camp Auschwitz. It was a gerat weekend. There were times it was a lot of fun, there were other times it was very sobering and educational. The fun times were hanging out w/ the stuednts and families who came along. It was a lot of quality time w/ some great people. Each night we would do discussion time and debriefing from the day. After that we would hang out and play games.
Auschwitz is an enormous camp, w/ two main sections. There are a lot of parts to it, but the best known are Auschwitz 1 and Birkenau. We went to Auschwitz 1 one day and had a guided tour, and then to Birkenau the next day and went on our own. A lot of people will do both in the same day and do a three hour tour total. I would not recommend that. It took us three hours to see Auschwitz 1. It is also a lot to digest and is very overwhelming, so splitting it up worked really well. At Auschwitz 1 we talked a lot about Father Maximilian Kolbe, who is known as the saint of Auschwitz. He was a priest put into the camp for speaking out against the Nazis. One day a prisoner was to be executed and he stepped forward to ask if he could take the mans place. The SS agreed and put him in a room to starve him to death w/ other prisoners. Throughout the next two weeks Father Kolbe led prayer and singing while slowly starving to death. After two weeks he was still alive, and needing the room to punish other prisoners, they gave him a lethal injection. To be at a place, see where he stood, where he was punished and died for such a selfless act, to learn about something so amazing in such a horrendous place was awe inspiring. In the midst of one of the most evil events in the history of the world God used someone to inspire and give hope.
It was an experience I will not ever forget. It was also great to be able to share it with students, to be able to discuss it with them and see how they reacted to things we were learning.
Ok, enough for now. In the next few days I will post about end of the school year, leading a pep assembly at the middle school, and what is coming up in the near future.
Friday, May 27, 2011
Finishing up, sort of
School is beginning to get into the finishing up stages for the year and we are in Club as well, but this in no way means we are slowing down. We only have two weeks left of Club for the semester. Next weeks clubs are big end of the year ones, where we are having a big bbq for the high schoolers and inviting all families to attend, and then a "moving up" club for middle schoolers, as the 8th graders are heading off to high school.
As the weather has turned nice, we have started doing a lot of games outside. The weather has been amazing here for much of the spring. I love after a cold winter the beauty of spring that comes, and in my opinion it can only be truly appreciated after a cold winter.
One exciting development here is the middle school has asked us to run games at the end of the year pep rally. Aretta will be gone on that day, so it is my show to run. I must admit that I am a little nervous about this. I have led a lot of games in a lot of settings, but never for over 500 students. At first when I was asked, my mind went straight to the "I am not ready to do something like that, that is too big a step for me. I have never done something like that and I do not know if I can handle it." Then, not so coincidentally, I did a club talk on Gideon for the middle schoolers, and as I was teaching them it was not by our might or ability, and not about how "good" we are or how capable we are, but in how great God is that we can do anything with his help, I was definitely humbled and was reminded I need to be practicing what I am teaching. So this is another example of where I need to rely on God. It is a great opportunity to be able to do this. We have a really good relationship with our schools, but that is not always the case. So to be able to help out and serve the school really helps put Club Beyond in a good light for the teachers and administrators. It is also a chance to get seen by lots of students, which is always a plus.
We are not into PCS season here. In the next next month, we will lose well over a third of our students from Club. This is something I am used to growing up a military brat, but to be honest it never really gets that much easier. You learn how to deal with it, but good byes are always difficult, and we are saying good bye to some amazing students. I will really miss them. But then at the same time in the next couple months we will get hundreds more new students here on post and have an opportunity to build new relationships. So that is exciting.
Ok, I am off to Poland with some high school students to go and see Auschwitz. We are doing a study on a Priest who was held at the concentration camp. I am definitely looking forward to this. I'll make sure to let you know how it goes. God bless.
As the weather has turned nice, we have started doing a lot of games outside. The weather has been amazing here for much of the spring. I love after a cold winter the beauty of spring that comes, and in my opinion it can only be truly appreciated after a cold winter.
One exciting development here is the middle school has asked us to run games at the end of the year pep rally. Aretta will be gone on that day, so it is my show to run. I must admit that I am a little nervous about this. I have led a lot of games in a lot of settings, but never for over 500 students. At first when I was asked, my mind went straight to the "I am not ready to do something like that, that is too big a step for me. I have never done something like that and I do not know if I can handle it." Then, not so coincidentally, I did a club talk on Gideon for the middle schoolers, and as I was teaching them it was not by our might or ability, and not about how "good" we are or how capable we are, but in how great God is that we can do anything with his help, I was definitely humbled and was reminded I need to be practicing what I am teaching. So this is another example of where I need to rely on God. It is a great opportunity to be able to do this. We have a really good relationship with our schools, but that is not always the case. So to be able to help out and serve the school really helps put Club Beyond in a good light for the teachers and administrators. It is also a chance to get seen by lots of students, which is always a plus.
We are not into PCS season here. In the next next month, we will lose well over a third of our students from Club. This is something I am used to growing up a military brat, but to be honest it never really gets that much easier. You learn how to deal with it, but good byes are always difficult, and we are saying good bye to some amazing students. I will really miss them. But then at the same time in the next couple months we will get hundreds more new students here on post and have an opportunity to build new relationships. So that is exciting.
Ok, I am off to Poland with some high school students to go and see Auschwitz. We are doing a study on a Priest who was held at the concentration camp. I am definitely looking forward to this. I'll make sure to let you know how it goes. God bless.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Staff conference and training, w/ some sights along the way.
Hello all. I am back in Graf after 10 days in Italy. It feels like everytime I write to you it is right after I have returned from somewhere. I was at a Club Beyond staff conference and training with all of the club beyond staff in Europe. It was a really good trip. I feel like I learned quite a bit during the trainings, from topics such as the differences of high school and middle school ministry, leading small groups, time management, running weekend retreats and more. My favorite thing about the trip was time spent w/ my peers. It was great hanging out w/ them, talking about how we run clubs, getting new ideas, bouncing ideas off of each other, but also just spending time together w/ people who go through the same things as me. I have grown really close to some of them and I really appreciate the time I get with them. It was especially nice doing so without students around. When I see other staff from different communities on trips, I don't get to really talk with them because my priority is spending times w/ my students. So it was nice just being able to hang out as friends.
We stayed just outside of Pisa. I went one morning and saw the leaning tower. I have always been amused by how people make such a big deal out of it. To me it seems like a celebration of workers incompetence. They failed at building a tower that stands upright. But it was cool to see. I do not feel the need to see it again though. Where we stayed was right on the beach, so I got some good beach time in inbetween the trainings. I really miss being by the water. There was a town nearby, Marina di Pisa, which was gorgeous. White rocky beach, rocks that you could walk out on, beautiful water, it was great to spend an afternoon there. We also took a day to go to Cinque Terre, which means the five lands. There are 5 towns connected by paths, and it is amazingly beautiful. I went hiking there between some of the towns. My favorite part was cliff diving. Cliff might be too grand a word. It was really a big rock, 40 or 50 feet up maybe. A few of us went and jumped off for about an hour. We got a failry big crowd watching us and people taking pictures. A restaurant from overhead threw down a few Coke's for us since we were serving as entertainment for their customers. It was fun.
We also went to a vineyard, who's owners are big in Youth for Christ in Italy. They were an amzing family. We got a tour of the vineyard while Giovanni (the Dad) gave a great talk about the vine and the branches and really helped bring what Jesus talked abot to life for us. They also made us an amazing lunch. If you think about Tuscany, and eating in Italy and idealize it, that is exactly what that experience was. But more than food or location, it was a day of talking about what God has done for us and what he is doing in us right now. People in youth ministry get burnt out very easily, and having a day like that was extremely refreshing.
On the way back to Germany a few of us went to Florence for a day. No biggie. Saw Michelangelo's David statue (which is amazing) went and some other works of amazing art at the Uffizi, the big art gallery there, and just enjoyed the city.
No new news about ministry here in Graf since I have been gone for a week and a half. As soon as there is new news, I will let you know. As I look back at some of my posts, it seems like all I do is travel. One of the many great things about my job is that I get to do so much travel as work and with students. In the coming blog posts, I will be sure to include more daily things from here in Graf, so you have that to look forward to.
We stayed just outside of Pisa. I went one morning and saw the leaning tower. I have always been amused by how people make such a big deal out of it. To me it seems like a celebration of workers incompetence. They failed at building a tower that stands upright. But it was cool to see. I do not feel the need to see it again though. Where we stayed was right on the beach, so I got some good beach time in inbetween the trainings. I really miss being by the water. There was a town nearby, Marina di Pisa, which was gorgeous. White rocky beach, rocks that you could walk out on, beautiful water, it was great to spend an afternoon there. We also took a day to go to Cinque Terre, which means the five lands. There are 5 towns connected by paths, and it is amazingly beautiful. I went hiking there between some of the towns. My favorite part was cliff diving. Cliff might be too grand a word. It was really a big rock, 40 or 50 feet up maybe. A few of us went and jumped off for about an hour. We got a failry big crowd watching us and people taking pictures. A restaurant from overhead threw down a few Coke's for us since we were serving as entertainment for their customers. It was fun.
We also went to a vineyard, who's owners are big in Youth for Christ in Italy. They were an amzing family. We got a tour of the vineyard while Giovanni (the Dad) gave a great talk about the vine and the branches and really helped bring what Jesus talked abot to life for us. They also made us an amazing lunch. If you think about Tuscany, and eating in Italy and idealize it, that is exactly what that experience was. But more than food or location, it was a day of talking about what God has done for us and what he is doing in us right now. People in youth ministry get burnt out very easily, and having a day like that was extremely refreshing.
On the way back to Germany a few of us went to Florence for a day. No biggie. Saw Michelangelo's David statue (which is amazing) went and some other works of amazing art at the Uffizi, the big art gallery there, and just enjoyed the city.
No new news about ministry here in Graf since I have been gone for a week and a half. As soon as there is new news, I will let you know. As I look back at some of my posts, it seems like all I do is travel. One of the many great things about my job is that I get to do so much travel as work and with students. In the coming blog posts, I will be sure to include more daily things from here in Graf, so you have that to look forward to.
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