Exciting Things for Summer 2015!

For those of you who don't know, I will be working for a Christian organization called YouthWorks over the summer! I am SO excited to be entering into this season of ministry as I have the opportunity to work alongside high school students as we serve the people of Kansas City, Kansas! 

As I write this, I am in the midst of a week of training (called RAMP) in Minneapolis. My time at RAMP has mostly been spent getting to know my team and preparing for my role as a service coordinator. As a service coordinator, I will be working with different service partners (local ministries, homeless shelters, soup kitchens, etc.) within Kansas City to organize service projects for the youth groups and high school students that will be coming to our site each week. I will also be working with my team to run meal times, devotionals, praise and worship, and everything else that goes into a typical mission trip. While we still have a lot to learn and figure out before the summer officially starts (we still have two more prep weeks at our site), I can already tell that it is going to be an insanely busy, but incredibly blessed summer.

While Kansas City may not sound like the most interesting place, I am actually really excited to be serving there! Kansas City or KCK is what YouthWorks calls a Beyond Site. This basically means that we will challenge high school students to go deeper into the culture and community that surrounds our site. Somewhat surprisingly, KCK has a large hispanic population, so this summer we will focus specifically on Latino immigration. Not only will students work with immigrants and refugees during their daily service projects but they will also hear from several community members about how immigration has impacted the Kansas City area. 

It is crazy for me to look back and see how God has been preparing me to be at this specific site. From working with the kids at Puente and volunteering as an ESL tutor to the annual Chicago Eagles soccer camp, I can really see how God has placed this specific group of people on my heart. This past semester I took a course called Hispanics in the U.S. and we talked a lot about immigration, stereotypes, and other issues surrounding the growing presence of latinos in the U.S. This class definitely helped to open my eyes to see how these things impact the people within my own community back home, and I am so excited to learn more about how these issues can be reconciled and overcome as I serve in KCK. I desire that God will use me and the passions he has given me to glorify Him as I serve and build relationships with the diverse people in the KCK community.

For those of you who would like to support me in prayer, here are some specific things that I would love prayer for:

• For safe travels as my team leaves on Saturday to drive from Minneapolis to KCK and spends the next two weeks preparing our site
• For good relationships and communication among my team members throughout the summer. Their names are Josué, Ryan, and Charlyn (she is my Site Director and her name is pronounced Charlene), and they are all AWESOME people who already love to take selfies with me!
• For me to be confident in my ability to talk to people in Spanish throughout the summer. I really want to challenge myself with this and use my language skills to get to know people in the community :)
• For God to sustain us and provide us with all we need throughout the summer--physically, spiritually, mentally, and emotionally.
• For me as I have meetings with my service partners and as I am figuring out how to do my job in the next few weeks.
• For good, positive relationships with service partners and community members.
• For all of the students, adult leaders, parents, youth pastors, etc. that will be joining us this summer. 
• For God's work to be done in KCK this summer and that it will continue on long after we have gone.

I know that this is kind of a long list, but we appreciate any and all prayer! I am going to try my best to post throughout the summer, so please keep checking for updates! :)