YAV Retreat and week

I am back from New Mexico. I had a good trip. A good amount of time in the beauty of God's creation with good people. I was amazed at how different the retreat felt. My first year every one stayed in their groups. This year there was alot of mingling between sites. Granted the group was significantly smaller as well this year. The material was very similar as my first time, yet served as a good refresher. My favorite part was probably what is called open space technology. People write topics they want to discuss and then facilitate discussion. Both years amazing conversations have come from this experience. Obviously there is more to it than that, if you would like to know more ask.
This week I also shared my life story with my housemates. Prior to sharing, I was stressed out about it. I wrestle with how much to share and how to share my faith journey. I shared wtih how that impacts my challenges and struggles currently, and some of the identity challenges I struggle with. I am excited to go back to My Friend's Place tomorrow. I have found that I missed it over the last week and a half. Even in the short time I have been here in Hollywood, I feel very comfortable. It is home. This seems odd as I realize that I grew up 3 hours from here in a relatively small city. Yet as I think about it, it appropriate that I would feel at home here. My mom grew up in a town less than 10 miles from here. My dad less than 20. So in many ways I am returning to my roots.
In the next week, we will be starting to reach out to our neighborhood. I am excited and feel ready for this. What are we doing? I am not sure, my housemates have plans. I am ok with surprises. Please be in prayer as we are doing our outreach on sunday afternoon. Pray for wisdom in conversations, ability to begin forming connections with people, openness to what the neighborhood tells us the needs are. Thanks

Week of Firsts

I have experienced many firsts this week. Mostly good, some a little nerve racking. I had my first few days at my site this past week. It was good times. I was able to really connect with a few of our female clients. Hearing their stories helps me appreciate the people who chose to invest in me. I have become even more aware how easily I could have went down a path of poor choices. Yet people in my life loved me enough to go through the hard times with me.
I am also realizing the importance of self identity, both from my agency and from my team. Currently, we are the "new dwellers" to most of the neighborhood. I enjoy the community, but also know that it is important for me to explore and develop my sense of self. This needs to occur both within and apart from the community. How that will look is uncertain, but I know I need it to occur for my own growth.
I am wrestling with the idea culturally that poverty is solely related to money. This summer one of our premisis was that Everyone is rich and Everyone is poor just in different ways. We are called to share the areas where we are poor allowing those to be filled by others strengths and to share our strengths with those who may be lacking in those areas.

What a week

I have now been in Hollywood for one week. It has been quite the week. My housemates arrived on friday after some adventure with one due to missing a connection and a dead cell phone. This last week we have been able to really just hangout and get to know each other a bit. I was sick for most of this week with a nasty head cold. But I survived and am now fighting the last of it. We have talked about community and how to live in intentional community with one another. It is going to be a challenge with one of us starting work at 7am and another not starting until 10am, thus creating one person really tired. I know we will work out the challenges within that.
Today was the first day at our agencies. I work at My Friend's Place. It feels like it will ultimately be a good fit, but it is hard to jump in and start building those realtionships. Right now I am overwhelmed with the number of names being thrown at me, both of the clients and staff. I am wrestling with alot of questions regarding poverty that began this summer. Questions about why do we ultimately blame the individual for their poverty rather than invest in the person and hear their story. A significant number of the youth I work with have left dangerous or violent situtations, making the streets the safer place to be. I'm not sure how to challenge the stereotype of homelessness in the US, particularily to the church. The church is called to care for the orphan and plead the case of the widow, yet I see the church failing in this area. I'm not sure what this thought means for both now and long term, but I am wrestling with it

In speaking with Matthew (site director) today, I am going to be placed in an agency that works with homeless youth called My friend's place. I actually had a choice between this agency and Young Life. I feel that my friend's place will challenge me more not only emotionally but spiritually as well. While I have participated in street ministry before, it is never the same and it never stops breaking your heart. My challenge will be processing my experiences as well as sharing them, with both you and with my housemates. I tend to process internally first and then share. Sharing my thoughts and emotions as I am feeling them will be a stretch, but a good one. If you would like to find out more about my agency please visit the website www.myfriendsplace.org
Peace

The journey begins

I leave for Hollywood in 8 days. Overall I am excited. I have participated in similar programs and know the expectations. (lack of sleep, figuring out likes and dislikes etc.) In the same instance I feel like I have a lot of time to kill, but really I need to figure out what they essentials for this next year will be. Granted I can come home fairly easily, but over this last summer I saw and felt the importance of having downtime with my roommates. My largest concern is time of solitude. I am not sure what the room situtation is yet. Pray for wisdom and discernement. Thanks