I wrote this blog like 3 weeks ago and never could get an internet connection to post it! so finally here it is...and now i have about a billion more things to blog about! so that will come soon hopefully :) but here it is...
So a few things first....you can probably tell how busy we've been by the fact that I have not updated since the second day of RAMP, which was 15 days ago! 2nd...you can probably tell by the fact that it's 2:30 when I'm starting this that I haven't been sleeping a lot. 3rd...this entry is probably going to be quite long. I really want to do my best to document this summer, so I'm basically going to try and recap the past 10 days. This is more for my own peace of mind than anything, so for those of you reading, feel free to stop reading at anytime :)
So...I suppose I should start at the beginning....
RAMP ended up being completely amazing of course. If I'm being honest, it was definitely hard at times. It was a lot of information and just a lot of realization of what a responsibility we have this summer. It definitely made me somewhat nervous. But in the end, I could not have asked for a better week of training. Kyle, our area director, also did my Program role training and he made me feel much more confident in what I'll be doing. I enjoyed getting to spend time with the other program staff SO much, especially some of the girls who I got to know a lot better. It was so nice to have people there to bounce ideas off of and that you knew were there to support you. I met so many amazing people at RAMP. It was honestly somewhat intimidated because everyone I met was just awesome! I don't even really know how to fully explain it. But I miss them all very much. It's sad that I won't get to see them until the very end of the summer at Exit RAMP. While at RAMP, every night we had a chance to have "area time", where we were able to spend some time talking and having fun with the staff in our area. The sites in our area are New Orleans, Bayou LaBatre, AL and Marvel, Arkansas.
We had an amazing worship time on Friday night that just ended the week exactly the way it needed to. I felt so encouraged, inspired, and prepared for this summer. Saturday morning, we woke up bright and early, packed up Wendy (The Windstar, our YW work projects van) and Cletus (our rental Cobalt for the summer), prayed with Kyle and Leah (our regional director), and were leaving Birmingham by 7am.
It was an eight hour drive from Birmingham to Carthage, TX, so we spent most of the day in the car, driving through AL, Mississippi, Louisiana, and finally TEXAS! having two vehicles, we had two people in each the whole way. This gave us all a chance to spend some one on one time with each of our other staff members. It was really great to have some time to get to know each other better, and hear each others stories. When we finally arrived in Texas, of course we HAD to get out and take a picture! So we now have a staff picture in front of the 'Welcome to Texas' sign. What could be better :)
After a few wrong turns, we FINALLY made it into Carthage around 5pm! Pastor Kirby, the Pastor at Southside Baptist(the church where we are staying for the summer), met us there when we arrived to let us in and give us our keys. We brought our stuff inside and started to set up the rooms we would be sleeping in. Kayla and I are sleeping in one of the nursuries for the summer. When then decided that we needed a good meal after a long day of travel, so we went to a small piece of heaven called "The Jalapeno Tree". It was there that I realized what everyone always says is true: Everything really is bigger in Texas. I've never seen so much food in my life. Then on our way home, we had one of our infamous backstreet boys sing offs. It's moments like those that make me realize how amazing this summer will be :)
When we got back to Southside, we literally explored the place for about 2 hours, because the church is HUGE! It seriously probably took me 4 or 5 days of living here to really figure it all out. We searched the whole building and our YouthWorks supplies that have been in storage here since last summer were no where to be found. After hundreds of doors and thousands of keys we finally found the right place.
On Sunday, we got to sleep in for the first time! When Kayla and I stumbled out of our room Sunday morning, in a still half-asleep daze, we were greeted immediately by about 4 ladies from the church. First, we met Pat, who had my heart from the beginning! She is wonderful. She made us feel welcome from the moment she met us. That morning we went to church here at Southside. I cannot even tell you how many people we met that morning, but I can honestly say I have never met a more friendly, welcoming, loving group of people. They were so happy to have us here and so happy to have YouthWorks back in the community this year. It was so comforting to see all the people that have been waiting for our arrival.
After church, it was time for YW inventory....we had to figure out everything that was left for us from last year's staff, and what we needed to buy. I'm not sure how we ended up with over 100 dish towels but I guess you just never know....
That evening, Southside had a gathering of food and fellowship to celebrate Pentecost Sunday. We shared a meal with several members of the church, heard some testimony, and heard some great music. It was so nice to have this time to get to know more of church members. After the dinner, we spent 4 hours in the kitchen talking to a great lady named Shelia and Alan, the Youth pastor. It was very evident even from this first encounter that they were going to be a part of what makes Carthage so great for us this summer. We also had a chance to meet more of the youth from here at southside, who are so excited that YouthWorks is back. Many of them got very close with the staff from last summer, and helped out so much during the YW weeks. So obviously, we could not have had a better first full day in this community.
I'm going to try and fill in the blanks as much as I remember from these past 10 days....
Monday 6/1:
On Monday morning, we hit the ground running. Breakfast at 8, devotions at 8:30, meeting at 9. It was time to start making our contacts and connections in the community and get everything settled for the summer ahead. Jono and I went shopping for the site, and by noon we had 3 meetings set up for the day. That after, Kayla and I went to meet Pastor Aaron and Pastor Scott at Northside Christian Center, where Kids Club will be held for the summer. We fell in love with Northside and the people there from the start. It's difficult to put into words how incredibly gracious and generous they have been. Northside, along with being a church, has a small Christian school. They are allowing us to use all of their facilities, including their school to make Kids Club a success. It is such a great place and will be so nice for the kids to have room for all their stations during the day. They are practically giving us their home for the summer so that Kids club can happen at a safe, fun place in the community. I just can't thank God enough for the blessing He has given YouthWorks through Northside. And just like everyone else we had encountered, they were so excited to have YW back in the community and offered to do anything possible to help. Kayla and I literally left practically speechless because of the grace and love they showed to two people who walked in as complete strangers to them. It just goes to show that God is so faithful and always provides!
Later on we met with Tonia, who works with a church here in Carthage. She was so helpful in giving us information on who to contact about what, and where to go, and what to do. She offered us everything she could. She has already been such a blessing. We then met with Jeremy, which turned into dinner with him and Alan, followed by a trip out to Lake Murvaul. Lake Murvaul is about 10-15 miles from Southside, and it is one of our alternate evening activities for the YW participants this summer. This was such an amazing time! It was so great to get to know Jeremy. We had heard from the former YW staff how great he was, and it was nice to spend some time with him. Tim, Kayla, and I threw frisbee with Alan down by the lake, and I think I can honestly say, that trip is going to be one of my favorite memories from this summer. You just have to know Alan to really understand, but all I can say is WOW! What an incredible blessing and gift from God that man is! He brightens so many of our days. He always has a joke and an encouraging word. His energy and excitement are contagious. And this was only the start of our friendship with him! After the lake we headed back to Southside and it was back to work for us!
Tuesday 6/2:
During the day Tuesday, it was more phone calls and prep work. That evening, we drove to Longview and had dinner with Jason, who is from Carthage. We got his name from last year’s staff and heard he was just a great person in to know in Carthage. Longview is about 45 min- 1 hour away from where we are staying, and we will be driving there every Friday to go to Sam’s Club and the super walmart to buy food and supplies for the next week.
We were going to go shopping for some supplies while we were in Longview, but we decided to head back early instead so that we could get more work done before bed. So we drove back to Southside, and probably not 15 after we got back, a bunch of the youth from the church showed up, ready to play hide and seek in the sanctuary. So needless to say we pushed our work aside and spent some time running around the two story building with the youth J They are so much fun. A lot of them were around a lot last year when YW was here. I have a feeling it will be the same way this year, and we’re definitely excited about that.
Wednesday 6/3:
Wednesday was again, a full work day. I went to Central Baptist to pick up board games for Kids Club that they are going to let us borrow, only to realize I was going back to the same church about an hour later for a meeting. So Tim and I headed back that way and met with Travis, their youth director to get the word out about work projects and to plan a Wednesday evening service that they are going to have for us. Travis was really cool and he was also excited to do some work with us this year. Hopefully the youth from his church will be around during the summer too.
That night, we attended the youth service at Southside. If I haven’t said so already, Southside has some AMAZING youth that are involved. Several of the Youth actually have a praise band called “Audience of One”. They travel around to do shows and play at youth camps and things like that. They play at the youth services every Wednesday night. Lance is kind of like the leader of the group and he plays guitar and sings. He has been around a lot since we’ve been here. He’s a lot of fun, and it’s really cool because he’s a little older than most of the other youth involved at Southside, so I can tell a lot of them look up to him. It’s nice to see that they have a good influence and role model in their lives. Jason plays electric guitar and sings for the group and he is Pastor Kirby’s son. Kathleen is Pastor Kirby’s daughter and she plays bass for them. Chelsea and Laramie both sing for the group, and they are amazing! It’s just so encouraging to see youth who are so talented and are using those talents for good. I love listening to them! Alan gave the message that night, and talked about anger, and how when we have anger in our hearts it separates us from God. It really spoke to me. He is so great with the youth.
After the service we hung out with the youth around the church and played some games. Then we all had to make a run to the sonic for free root beer floats night. Let me tell you, in a town this size, you better believe you can find just about everyone at sonic on free root beer float night. It was the talk of the town. Then it was back to Southside for more work before bed.
Thursday 6/4:
Thursday morning I had a meeting with the president of the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame, Mrs. Ritter-Smith (who is actually related to Tex Ritter) just to work out details about our visits. We will be taking groups there every Tuesday night for our evening activity, along with learning some line dancing while we are there! I am pretty excited, I can’t lie. I’m hoping to be a line dancing pro by the end of the summer. After my meeting I headed back to Southside to do more work. I know you’re probably thinking….what in the world kind of work are you doing all day, everyday? Well let me just say, it’s more than you would ever guess. If there is one thing that RAMP and prep week have made it realize, it’s how much more appreciative I am for the YW staff I’ve had on past YW trips, because you have no idea how much work and preparation has to go into preparing for something like this. And not only that, so many people who work for YW are doing even more prep work all year long at these sites to get things ready for the summer. So if you’ve even been on a YW trip, take a second to thank God for the staff that we were because they worked hard for you! J
That evening, Kayla and I went out to do what I guess you could call promotion for Kids Club. We went to the baseball fields to hand flyers out to parents and tell them about the program, and then went to a couple parks we had been told about, and then ended up going door to door near the church to tell people about it. It’s strange, because before this summer, I would have been so apprehensive to approach random strangers with flyers about a program we were promoting. But it just felt natural. It’s crazy how YW will make you do things you never thought you would. Although I guess it helps that I feel so strongly about Kids Club (KC).
Friday 6/5:
This was mainly a work day. That evening we went to Tripleplay, where we will be going every Monday night for our evening activity. Tripleplay is a roller skating rink that also has batting cages and arcade games. It’s owned by a Christian couple in Carthage and they are normally only open on Friday and Saturday nights, but they have so graciously offered to open for us every Monday night this summer and host a skate night for us. It will be a great way for the participants to get to spend some time getting to know each other and some of the other youth in the community, who I’m sure will be joining us. It will also be a great way for them to experience a little of the Carthage culture and see what kids around the area do for fun in a small town. I’m excited that we get to support a local family business as well.
When we got home, we continued the process of making a billion signs for the site.
Saturday 6/6:
Wow, Saturday was AMAZING! Earlier in the week, the Cox family asked us to go out on their boat and go tubing at Lake Murvaul with them. Kathryn is the daughter and she is 15, Robbie is 13 (I think….???), Christie is the mom, and Tommy is the dad. They are soooo wonderful! We spent the whole day on the lake tubing, and swimming. It was such a great time. It was so nice after a long week of work to get to relax and have some fun on the lake with some great people. It was Kayla’s first time tubing! Her and I went together and pretty much did not stop laughing the entire time. Tim got some sweet videos of us! I just love being on a boat at the lake so much. That was one thing I was really sad about was that I wasn’t going to get to go to the lake (meaning Rough River) all summer long, and it’s one of my favorite places in the whole world. So it was definitely a gift from God to get to spend the day at the lake J
After tubing all day, we headed over to the Cox family’s house because they had made dinner for us. Tommy actually cooked deer for us that he had gone out and hunted himself. It was such a great meal! It was so amazing to me that this family who barely knew us, took us out on their boat the entire day and then spent the time cooking us a wonderful meal. They have already blessed us so much. I am so excited that we get to spend the entire summer with them. I already feel like they are a part of our YW family. I have a feeling that many of our Saturdays will be spent with them, and I could not be happier about that.
After dinner, we just sat in their kitchen with their whole family and talked until after midnight. Praise God for wonderful people and great conversation!
Sunday 6/7:
We got to sleep in a little on Sunday before church, and woke up sooooo sore from tubing. By the time I woke up and left our room aka the nursery around 9:15, there were already a ton of people there for the 10:30 service. And who was right there outside our door….well Pat of course! J I’ve come to the acceptance that every Sunday morning when I come stumbling, half asleep out of my room to head for the shower, there will be Pat with a huge smile on her face, greeting us with, “Well hello! How are ya’ll!”. I Love it, and I Love her! She is the epitome of southern hospitality.
That morning, Kayla, Tim, and I went to Northside Christian Center for their Sunday service. Since it’s where we’ll be for Kids Club all summer, we thought it would be a good idea to go there for their Sunday service that weekend, and Kayla got to make an announcement about Kids Club, and Tim about work projects. I really liked the church and enjoyed the service. Afterwards, we met tons of people which was wonderful. They all either knew about YW from last year or wanted to know more. It’s so great how welcoming every church that we’ve attended has been. They were having their fellowship lunch after the service since it was the first Sunday of the month, and they were all trying to get us to stay and eat and talk and were even trying to get us to cut to the front of the line. We felt bad not being able to stay, but we had plans to have lunch at Pastor Kirby’s house with his family.
We headed over to their home and enjoyed lunch with them. It was good to be able to sit down and spend more time talking with them, because most of the conversation had been in passing throughout the week. After lunch we spent more time with Jason and Kathleen, Pastor Kirby’s kids. I know I keep saying this about everyone, but they are great! They are just so sweet and I’m looking so forward to spending more time with them this summer.
We headed back to the church and after a nice nap, I helped Jono try to put together the grill we had just purchased. I thought, oh this will be easy. After all I’ve helped my dad with these little “some assembly required” projects quite a few times. But this was no ordinary grill. If it’s possible for a grill to be created by the devil, this one was it. We didn’t end up eating dinner until about ten that night when we finally finished putting the grill together.
And that was Sunday.
Monday 6/8:
We were supposed to have lunch at the Panola nursing home, but that fell through, so we spent most of the day working. Kathryn came and helped us make signs because she’s amazing! That night she had a basketball game in Marshall which is about thirty minutes away, so we rode with her and her dad there and watched her game. She plays like 5 sports and every instrument so she is super talented and it was really fun getting to watch her play. Plus we got to spend more time with Tommy and Christie which is always great. That night it was back to work on signs.
Tuesday 6/9:
Tuesday was another busy work day. That afternoon I had a meeting with the youth pastor at Northside about having a Wednesday service there one week for the participants. Every Wednesday we’ll be attending one of the local church’s for the Wednesday service for our evening activity. Bob is their youth pastor and he was awesome! It was great to get to talk to him about YW last year and just everything they have going on with the youth in their church. He also gave us some great ideas on people to contact in the community. After the meeting, Kayla and I had the parent orientation for Kids Club at Northside. We had one parent come, but that tripled the attendance from last year’s parent orientation that no one showed up to! So we were pretty prepared for there to be few or no people show up. It was actually kind of cool because we got to talk to the lady a lot more, whose name is Donna. We actually got to hear more about her story which was pretty impressive. She brought her grandson Robert with her, who she has full custody of. I think she said she has like 5 children, 9 step children, 25 grandchildren, and 3 great-grandchildren. She was a pretty amazing lady.
That night we stayed up late working on more signs and setting up the site. Jono made a light night sonic run and brought us cherry limeades which was an awesome treat. I think at least one of us has been to sonic just about every day we’ve been here.
Wednesday 6/10:
Wednesday we got up and went to do laundry at Mr. Bubbles. I think this was actually my first experience doing laundry at a Laundromat. (other than in Boulder, CO with Katie when we went to visit Nick but I don’t think I actually did laundry…) We took work to do while we washed our clothes, but I didn’t get a lot of work done because there was a tv there, and I felt like a two or three year old that was seeing a television for the first time, just b/c it’s been like 3 weeks since I’ve watched one!
After laundry, we went back to Southside and Kayla, Tim, and I worked on our Youth Orientation and then ran through it for Jono to see. Every Sunday evening after dinner, Jono will have an orientation for the adult leaders, and the three of us will do an orientation for the youth participants, so we had to practice!
After our practice, we were supposed to do some more work, but we ended up sitting around talking and hanging out with Alan, Lance, and Nolan instead. Which is really more important anyway right? I love spending time with the people here. They make everything so worth it. Then at 6:30 we went to the youth service at Southside again and of course Audience of One was amazing as usual, and so was Alan’s message!
We had planned to go out to dinner as a staff as sort of a celebration of our hard work during prep week. So we went out to dinner at La Fiesta and Kathryn came with us! What can I say, we always have a great time. It really is amazing how well our staff meshes together. It feels like we’ve know each other for months not weeks. Christie came and met us at the end of dinner and to pick Kathryn up so we sat and talked with her for awhile too. It was kind of sad knowing we wouldn’t see them for a week and half! Which is crazy, since we’ve only known them for a week and a half! But like I said, they are already like family. We’ve already made plans to hang out next Saturday when we get back J
Thursday 6/11:
Thursday we had lunch with Almeria from Panola nursing home (PNH). We’ll be talking youth to the nursing home every Tuesday and Thursday morning, so Almeria wanted to take us to lunch to get to know us. Before we left the nursing home we met a really cool guy named Nick who volunteers there and spends most of his time talking and witnessing to a boy named Joseph. Joseph is only 25, but he is paralyzed from the neck down. Nick said it’s hard on Joseph being the youngest one there and everyone being so much older. He asked us to take the time to talk to him as much as possible this summer. So I’m looking forward to making that happen.
A girl named Kelsey who is volunteering at PNH also went to lunch with us. Through talking to her, we found out that she went on a YouthWorks trip with the former youth pastor of Northside who was the one who worked so hard to bring youthworks to Carthage after going on that YW trip. It was just sort of crazy that we happened to be at the nursing home the same day as her and then she ended up coming to lunch with us and we got to hear that story. I felt like it was God’s way of reminding us of our purpose here, and also that the youth that come on these trips will be impacted just like Kelsey was.
After lunch, we went back to Southside for a bit and then left to go to Arlington for the Texas Rangers game with Alan! It was a 3 hour drive there, but it was definitely worth it. It was cool to get to go to Arlington and near Dallas. We also got to see the new Cowboys stadium which was sweet. We got home really late and went straight to bed!
Friday 6/12 (TODAY!!) J:
This morning we woke up about 10:30, which was AMAZING! We definitely needed the sleep. We did our Friday paperwork, which includes a weekly check-in with a few questions about the week that go to Kyle and Leah (our RD and AD-regional director and area director-KEEP UP!), and then for me, a weekly snapshot of our inventory. My Friday role is inventory so I have to keep track of all our food, supplies, devotional books, reverb magazines, and the free tshirts we give out to the participants. Kayla does vehicle maintenance and Tim takes care of our YE inventory (Youth Enterprise, the tshirt company that YW pairs with to sell the One Word tshirts at the end of the week.) YE is an AWESOME organization. It’s an organization that employs inner-city youth in Minneapolis and teaches them business skills along with providing educational and spiritual guidance, all while making sweet tshirts that promote the gospel J
ANYWAY, after paperwork we all packed and then hopped in the van where we are right now! We are on our way to Marvel, Arkansas for what YW likes to call Early Bird. For our first week of programming with participants, we’ll be on site with a whole other set of staff, along with Kyle our AD. Its kind of like an extension of our training, so that our first time with participants we have extra staff on site to help. I am so excited!!! I’m so pumped to get to see Kyle and the Marvel staff who we haven’t seen since Ramp, 2 weeks ago. It will be a ton of fun. Most importantly, I’m just excited to FINALLY have participants on site after 3 weeks of training and prep. After all, this is the YW I know I love! The YW with participants actually on site! I’m slightly nervous but more excited than anything. It’s all about to begin!
I’m not really sure what all else I can say. These first three weeks have definitely been CRAZY. It has been an emotional roller coaster at times, going from being extremely happy and excited to slightly stressed, aggravated and homesick. But that is just all part of it. When it comes down to it, when I think about it all, and my reason for being here, I could not be more thankful or feel more blessed. I mean really-THIS IS MY JOB! How sweet is that? I think it’s pretty sweet. And I love God for bringing me to this point.
I have to say I feel like I’ve been kind of a terrible friend/daughter/grand-daughter/ niece lately. It’s been nearly impossible to find/make time to talk to everyone I love at home. I think about everyone CONSTANTLY. They are always on my mind and I’m always missing them, praying for them, and wondering what they are doing. I wish I could talk to them more. And as much as it kills me that I can’t, I have to keep my eyes fixed on why I’m really here, and that is to love and serve Jesus, this community, and the participants. I know my friends and family understand that, but I still can’t help but feel guilty at times. So if you read this, I love you and I wish I could make more time for you. But know that I think of you often.
I guess I will end this longest blog in history with a few thins…first our theme verse for the summer…
“You my brothers and sisters were called to be FREE. But do not use your freedom to indulge the sinful nature. Rather, serve one another humbly in LOVE. For the entire law is fulfilled in this one command: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’.”
This summer is all about freedom! Freedom from the desire for FAME, Freedom to share our WEALTH, Freedom to know God’s POWER, and Freedom to be REVOLUTIONary. Those are all our different themes for each day, just to give you something to think about J
We also had to write a short bio to go in the adult leader binders so that they Adult leaders that bring participants can get to know a little more about us at the beginning of the week, so I thought I’d include what I wrote…
Aloha! My name is Leah Cissell and I will be serving as your Program staff here in Carthage this summer! First, I would just like you to know how incredibly happy I am that you are here and how blessed I feel to have the opportunity to get to know and serve alongside you and your youth this week. I am from the wonderful state of Indiana (Go Hoosiers!) and have lived there my whole life. I just completed my fourth year at Indiana University as an Elementary Education major. I will be graduating this coming December after I move to Arizona to do my student teaching on the Navajo Indian Reservation. It has actually been through my past involvement with YouthWorks that God has grown in me a passion for Native American culture. Seven years ago, I participated in my first YouthWorks mission trip experience and my life has never been the same. My love, excitement, and passion for God and this organization has continued to grow over these past seven years and I cannot even begin to fully describe how excited I am about being a part of this amazingly, crazy journey this summer. I like to believe that life is too short to not give all you have and love all you can. So that is exactly what I am hoping to do this summer. Laugh, cry, sing, run, jump, sweat, work, give, love, care, cook, play, serve, paint, bless, read, smile, stretch, grow, humble, pray, receive, lift, write, change, open, create, stand, discover, act, go, pause, choose, hope, thank, and praise. All these things, I am expecting to do this summer, and my hope and prayer is that you will have the opportunity to experience all these things while present in this community this week.
That is all for now. Almost to Marvel!! J Hopefully I won’t wait three weeks to update again.
Til next time, LOVE YOU ALL!
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