A Bieber Impression

Yes, I will get it out on the table right now, Justin Bieber impressed me. I became a Bieber fan last year during PT – my kids at Walnut Hill LOVED him. We listened to him during arts and crafts, made up dances to his songs, quoted his songs at lunch, sang them again at recess, etc. Like any teeny bopper pop star, he was all over, and I was ok with that. This summer, a month or so ago, I heard his song “Pray.” The chorus quotes, “I close my eyes, and I can see a better day, I close my eyes and pray.” You can google the whole song, if the Bieber fan inside you is itching. However, on with the story – the other day, I was at Elmwood, in arts and crafts with the kids, and we were listening to music. Our high school seek and serve, Emily, made a play list for the kids, and on the list was the song “Pray.” As the kids were sitting there, innocently making their arts and crafts and singing along, I was thrust into a much more deeper moment. Watching them in that moment, experiencing innocent joy, I realized that PT helps many of them close their eyes and see better days. Some of our kids come from hard backgrounds, and PT is a safe place for them to come. Others have great home lives and come to PT to learn and dream. I really cherish both circumstances and acknowledge that I am around them. Children really are powerful people – no matter where they are in their lives, they can close their eyes to see better things. I have been blessed to be a part of that for the last two summers.

At our family fun night last Thursday, I was talking with one of our fifth graders, Nahomi. She was telling me how most of the time she is really joyful, but lately she had been crying because she knows that PT is going to end soon. We were carrying on a long conversation about the summer and all things PT when I decided to ask her what she would like to be when she grew up. So, I asked the question, she thought diligently for a few moments and her eyes lit up as she said, “I want to be a PT intern, just like you!”

Ahh, I close my eyes and see better days. Better things – when Nahomi is an intern at Project Transformation. This is really what it's about, ya?

Chills

I was at the Village church this morning in Dallas and one of the pastors said something really profound. He said, "We are all called to a ministry of presence." It was not something that was the climax of his talk or sermon. He was actually just making announcements and was talking about helping one of their partner churches in Sudan. Partaking in the "ministry of presence" was something he actually mentioned in passing. It was so natural, so good, and it stopped me in my tracks.

We are called to be present. In all things. How many days do I wish would pass by quicker? Alot. I am doing Project Transformation again this summer and I don't know how many times during training week I wished I would have had a clicker with a fast-forward button. But whoa, people need us to be present. The children I work with every day need all of me to be present -- body, mind, spirit, soul.

I can be in ministry, just by being fully present. Mmm, it gives me chills.

Melissa

At PT, one acquires many friends, some of the same age, some much younger. It seems that, for the summer, I have a new good friend from site. Her name is Melissa. Melissa is a hilarious, rather dramatic second grader. Every day, I look forward to the random stories/comments that she has to tell me, or anybody else for that matter (she will talk to anyone who will listen). She loves to sing, dance, and talk about her exotic life. This week, Melissa has topped the charts in her hilarious comments, so I felt her comments were blog worthy :). Here it goes:

Monday: This week, our theme is "Let's Go on a Cruise!" One of my fellow interns at site on Monday, Telana, was explaining what a cruise was to the kids during our morning Harambee session. Telana said "Ok everybody, so today our first cruise stop is in...JAMAICA!!!!" Then, Melissa, standing there in a patient position with her hand straight up in the air said, "Everyone, I would just like you to know that my family and I are going on a cruise to Hollywood. I can't believe that we are all going on a cruise now, and my family is also going on a cruise. We will be meeting many famous people. My entire family is going very soon."

Tuesday: Josh, one of my fellow interns, asked Melissa if she would like some chocolate chips. He had given them to all the students after their science experiment for that day was over (the kids made chocolate chips "dance" in carbonated water with Josh at their science station). Melissa looked straight at Josh and said "Ew. There are two things you need to know. Number one is, I only like chocolate in a tootsie roll. Number two is...NEVER stand in front of a tree frog or it will PEE in your FACE!!!"

Wednesday: As we were in morning Bible lesson, we were talking about how God gives us friends. I asked the students to name off some characteristics of good friendships. They told me that friends were loyal, loving, caring, and people who make us laugh. After I was done asking for characteristics, Melissa, as she always does, sat patiently with her hand raised. I called on her and said, "Melissa, do you have something that you need to say?" She looked at me and said..."Well, yes. Miss Molly, everytime I look at that word 'laugh' on the board, I just---start---laughing!!!" and she burst into a fit of giggles.

Also, during our afternoon enrichment component on Wednesday, we were learning about the Mediterranean (that's where our cruise stopped for the day) and so we tried different Mediterranean foods and drinks. We had hummus, pita, and italian creme sodas. Melissa, for some reason, was very hesitant about trying the italian soda. So I encouraged her to try it. After all the other kids had tried theirs and looooved them, they encouraged Melissa to try. All of sudden, she looked up and just burst into tears. When I said, "Melissa, what is wrong!?" She looked at me and said, "Miss Molly, they are just looking at me and I am SO nervous. They just keep looking at me and I'm SO nervous." So I sat her in a corner where the kids weren't looking so much and literally, 30 seconds later, after sipping her soda, she ran over to me and said, "Miss Molly, my soda is SOOOOOO good. I'm making them when I go home!"

It's true what they say...kids say the darndest things!!!

PT Time

Howdy!! *I am in Texas, so I felt that that would be appropriate.* As many of you know, I am working down in Dallas this summer with an urban ministry called Project Transformation. I arrived in Dallas at the end of May, so this is my second week here. Currently, there are approximately 99 interns living here with me on the SMU campus in the fraternity houses. It's been great so far! Last week we all went through training, and oh my was that a long week. But, I am happy to report that I am CPR and First Aid certified. I know, I know, I should just probably hit up med school next. Anyway, I made it through training and then had the opportunity to relax this weekend, go out to eat, hit up an art museum and go to the North Texas annual conference. It was a good time!

Yesterday was my teams first day at our site. We work at a church called Walnut Hill. All together, there are around 70 elementary students and 30 youth. I work with the elementary students. I had the opportunity to meet them for the first time yesterday and I just got back from site today, about an hour ago. I feel like I've already known these kids for years! Most of them strive to be your instant best friend for life. It's quite entertaining. 100% of the children we work with are Hispanic so they Looooooooooooooooveeeee soccer. During team planning last week, my team held that in consideration and decided that our first theme would be "World Cup Week." It's been really fun so far, and the kids love it! We decided to break down our week and learn about a country that is popular in the world cup games each day. Yesterday we learned about South Africa (since that is where the world cup is being hosted currently). Today we learned about Italy (they won the world cup last time); tomorrow we are learning about Brazil, and Thursday we are learning about Japan! The kids are really enjoying the cultural diversity. During our afternoon enrichment today, I taught the kids an authentic italian song called "El Grillo." They looooooved it and really enjoyed singing. It was a lot of fun.

Those are some of the fun things going on in my life at the moment. I would covet your prayers for a safe summer and also for my kids! They are so bright and joyful and it's my privilege to be able to teach them this summer! They are learning about so many wonderful things, and PT is a true blessing in their lives. Here's to summer 2010!

The Adventure Continues...

And the adventure continues. So much has been going on the past couple of weeks, I can't believe it's already mid-July and summer's closing up! Well I have done lots of traveling in the past few weeks. I went from Colorado Springs to Dallas to Joplin. I was the camp missionary at Cyokamo Camp about a week and a half ago. That was a wonderful time! I got to hang out with kids (400 or so to be exact) and talk a little bit about church planting with them. They were a pretty awesome bunch. They raised over $1,500 for Epic Missions. Such a blessing! Then, last Sunday, we partnered with the YMCA in Andover to do, what we call, "Summer Countdowns." Epic comes in and we set up our moonbounces, have free-throw contests, prizes, and homemade Italian Creme Sodas (My Personal fav). Yum, Yum! On Tuesday we hosted "Summer Fun Days" at the Andover Library and that was a wonderful time as well. Again, we set up our moonbounces, handed out free popsicles, blew bubbles, drew with sidewalk chalk and hung out with kids. We sat up to meet the kids and their moms right after story hour concluded. One of the coolest things about church planting has been getting out into the community and just meeting families. Jory, our brand new worship pastor also came on Tuesday. Our staff is now up to 5...woo! He's here for good and is preparing for launch. Wednesday night we had a "Welcome" BBQ for him and a bunch of people came over to our house for that. Also on Wednesday night, Trista and I attended our first midnight premier--yes, we went to see Harry Potter (nerds, I know)! We also went bulk shopping for our children's ministry. That was AWESOME. I can't wait to start up and meet the kiddos! As we are getting closer please be praying for this stuff:

• Perseverance, perseverance, perseverance and strength!!
• Our launch team and our new worship pastor, Jory
• The Epic community God is formulating...
• ANDOVER (seriously this is huge)
• Our mass advertising day on August 29th and youth groups/small groups to help us out
• LAUNCH on September 13, 2009 (Can't wait, I'm so antsy!)

An Epic Summer

I can't believe summer has finally arrived! It's almost JUNE! For the last few months I have been anticipating summer because of the work I get to do with Epic Church in Andover, Kansas. For those of you who don't know, Epic is a new church plant spearheaded by my high school youth pastor and his wife, Kent and Jenni Wagner. They moved to Andover in January and have been planning to do a church plant for quite awhile now. I am so stoked to love God and love people this summer and represent Epic in the most positive way possible! It's so great to be a part of team with a vision that is bigger than ourselves, and a vision that can only be fulfilled by God alone. It's amazing to see how God continually provides -- church planting is a scary thing, it's an ultimate step of faith, that's for sure. Today was my first day at work and I'm already exhausted! One of my best friends from high school, Trista, is interning with me as well so we've gotten right down to work. Both of us got jobs to head for the summer already and we've gone straight to work. Here's some of the stuff that we've worked on today and a few insights I've had already:

• I am working on heading the summer Mini-Mission teams and events that will be going on this summer. My job, in this realm, is to basically recruit groups to come help us advertise Epic to the community of Andover.
• Looking at this job, I realized how God has continually been preparing me in ways I didn't even realize throughout the school year. By being in Winfield at college for a year, I know of many potential youth groups in many of the surrouding areas that could come help us out. Everything just flowed today, it was sweeeeeet!
• I've also realized how important the power of prayer and personal relationship is during this season. I am already exhausted from work and I've only been here a day! Please pray for strength, guidance, perseverance and wisdom for all of us here on staff at Epic.
• I totally, totally dig getting to work in coffee shops and Panera bread. Woot, woot for free wi-fi AND building relationships at the same time
• Trista is working on planning block parties and other evangelistic things...pretty SWEET. This all leads up to Epic's launch on September 13, 2009. Can't wait!!

With that said, I will end this post on this note. The other day I was reading in the book of 2 Thessalonians 3:1-5, which states:

"Finally, brothers, pray for us that the message of the Lord may spread rapidly and be honored, just as it was with you. And pray that we may be delivered from wicked and evil men, for not everyone has faith. But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen and protect you from the evil one. We have confidence in the Lord that you are doing and will continue doing the things we command. May the Lord direct your hearts into God's love and Christ's perseverance."

Paul's request for prayer from the Thessalonians in this passage floors me, and it's really become my prayer for the community of Andover. May the message of salvation spread rapdily and be honored. And, as God's people, may our hearts be directed into his love and Christ's perseverance. What a b-e-a-utifully appropriate request!