youthworks week 3

another week gone by. it's interesting really--the days are interminable but somehow you wake up & realize it's already wednesday & there's just one more day of ministry before things wrap up. it's been a bit of a rough week & i'm not entirely sure why. maybe we're stuck somewhere between the excitement of beginnings and the rhythm of mid-summer. we're toward the end of week 3 of 8, but overall we've reached the halfway point. factoring in a week of training & two weeks of prep is how we've gotten here, but it's been bizarre to be filling out mid-summer paperwork when things have really only begun to gear up.

another note on the week--my vague references to something big happening last friday can now be uncovered. we had to let go one of our staff members. on the same day that happened, our new staff, Liz, joined us...and we still had to finish Friday paperwork & shopping. it was quite the day. so it's been a transitional week with Liz learning her role & our site. she's been fabulous all things considered! i'm very encouraged for the rest of the summer--even though she's just arrived, we feel like more of a team already. responsibilities evenly shared. through this situation i think God had a lot to teach me about leadership through conflict--which is definitely something i was scared of as i trained for this job. and i got a huge dose of it. i think i'm stronger for it. and i was thinking today that the way this experience is preparing me for the future will only be revealed in months & years to come, but i know that i'm growing in ways that i don't even realize.

the hardest part of my week was definitely Monday afternoon at our adult leader meeting, which i lead each day. i actually really enjoy my interaction with the adults & have been glad that it's such a big part of my role as site director. but the meeting Monday turned into a complaint-fest. one of them started & the ball just kept rolling. quite a few of the ladies acknowledged after the fact that they had been overly crabby, and things have definitely been better since then. but it's led to a continued discussion about how YouthWorks does and does not encourage missional living. this is a mission field we're working on here. and to an extent, certainly, the youth groups know that because they are coming on a mission trip. but only some of them really get it. complaining about the water pressure in the showers & other little nit-picky things like that is extremely frustrating. sure, it's an inconvenience. but being missional is world away from being comfortable. and it's really dependent on the youth leaders' and groups' experiences and spiritual awareness of missional living--you either have an understanding of it coming in or you don't. so how do you teach it to those who don't? you can't snap back at an adult leader with, "well, we're trying to live out the Gospel here & Jesus probably wasn't focused on the shower pressure in Him ministry" or "you know, think about all the people in the world who don't have running water. consider what a blessing it is to even be able to bathe! no less on site and in private stalls." i hope that some of these concepts will work their way into participants' worldviews, but we may not see the fruit of it during this week alone. one of my fellow staff, Jake, & I have also been talking about the usefulness of our end-of-the-week evaluations. in making sure that we're doing our job--enough food for everyone to eat, safety, programming, etc--they're extremely helpful in keeping us on track. but Jake said he felt the evaluations were partially asking, "how was your stay at Hotel YouthWorks this week?" and neither of us felt that's really what it should be about. it's hard to walk the line between serving our participants & catering to them.

just fyi--this blog may serve as a venting outlet :) a lot of things have been going very well. we've had great energy at worship this week & a lot of focus during our times of reflection & teaching. most of the youth have big servant hearts & have gone out of the way to help out. we have an awesome adult leader who was actually a YW staff two years ago. she's been a huge blessing--mostly because she understands what it's all like behind the scenes. we're getting better at the less fun aspects of the job--Friday inventory & shopping, leading meal & clean-up crews. I laughed today, thinking how once we get it all down perfectly, it will be time to pack up & head out for the summer.

My focus verses this week have come from 1 Corinthians 13. I have been pursuing the most excellent way:

If I speak in human or angelic tongues, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging symbol. If I have the gift of prophecy & can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to hardship that I may boast, but do not have love, I gain nothing (vv. 1-3).