Rain, rain, go away.

It's just before 8am here on a cold and dreary looking Wilmington day. I can't believe it's been almost a month since my last update, I guess that is a measure of how busy this little team has been! I don't even know where to begin but I guess New York would be as good a place as any...

Back in the first weekend of this month, we wrapped up some packed lunches, filled up the van with kids and took a day trip to the Big Apple. There were 8 kids and 4 interns and as many snacks as I could fit in my borrowed backpack. We caught the Megabus which was the cheapest and easiest option and arrived in NYC after about 2h30mins of traveling. The free wifi on board helped keep our kids entertained for the most part, though of course we had some of the usual; 'Are we there yet?!' every 30 minutes or so. At one point, one of the kids turned around to tell me (and the rest of the passengers upstairs) that he needed to do a number 2 which I informed him he didn't need my permission for.

Anywho, we took to the city on foot as the subway is quite expensive so we saw a limited number of monuments. Joni was our walking leader as I am not blessed with a sense of direction. The kids started to ask after every single block we walked, 'how many blocks do we still have to walk?' to which Joni's response was 'one more block,' every single time. 

Eventually, we made it to Central park to eat lunch:

After enjoying the park for a while, we continued to walk and headed to Times Square. That place was crazy! It was so busy and there was so much to look at that it was hard to take it all in. One thing I wasn't expecting was all the people who buy their own costumes and charge you to take a picture with them. Our kids started a new game whereby they would try and take a picture with one of the characters and then run away. I didn't know about this game until we were chased by Buzz Lightyear who informed us what was going on. 

 After we split in to groups and did a bit of shopping, we grouped back together and went to find the Empire State Building and Macy's. It was really hard to get a group photo there as the sun was in the wrong place, so you will have to take my word for it! By that point, the kids were getting tired and hungry so they got some food and we decided it was time to head back to the bus.

I think the most surprising thing for me once we actually arrived in New York was that it was exactly as you see in the movies. The cabs were driving like maniacs, horns beeping constantly, packed streets, huge overwhelming buildings. It felt quite bizarre to actually be there, living in it! We also managed not to lose any kids in the busy streets so I would say it was a great success. The biggest challenge was keeping them quiet on the ride home because people use that bus to commute between Delaware and NYC. The bus driver did help us out a lot though!

The following weekend was a chance for our team to get some well earned rest and enjoy a change of scenery. We took a trip to Lewes, (pronounced Lewis) Delaware where we camped at Cape Henlopen state park. The place was beautiful, as was the weather.
It certainly felt like the best time to get a break as I didn't realise how tired I actually was. It was great to spend some time together as a group of friends instead of colleagues and I got some really good time in to go for a long walk by myself and explore a new place. On the first evening, we took a walk together to the beach. On the way, the guys had all devised a plan whilst I walked ahead of them to disappear one by one into the forest so I was left alone. The joke was on them as I decided not to look for them but instead walked to the lookout tower whereby I watched the sunset with some strangers and a nice dog. It took them a while to find me but once they arrived at the top, I had already told said strangers how they all abandoned me knowing I was 99% likely to get lost on my own. Not that they felt bad, of course.

After the sunset, we went to the beach and I did some moonlight paddling in the sea. It was a bit brisk but not unbearable. They took a ball with them as men do and were taking it in turns to see how far they could kick it into the sea in between wrestling each other in the sand. We walked back to camp after that and lit a fire and ate meat which was very pleasant. Of course, the joke of the entire weekend was the 'tent' that was provided for me which I spent about 10 minutes trying to wedge my airbed into, which I could not physically lie down in and did not sleep a wink in. That, compared to the 8 man palace that the guys slept in was simply hilarious to them and all I heard was 'Sarah, where is your tent - I can't see it!' I couldn't even sit up in it. Not that I'm ungrateful.

On the Sunday, I got up and walked into Lewes to go to the beach. Of course, what I didn't realise was there was a half marathon going on at the same time as I was trying to walk in the cycle lane so I kept getting cheered on by families and had to inform them that I was in fact just walking to have a paddle. I made it to the beach and took a nice nap and then walked a little further to explore the shops.

I saw a Union Jack outside this shop which intrigued me so I popped in. I was so glad I did because it was just like being at home!! They had everything from Birds Custard powder to Curly Wurlys. It was fun but rather expensive! I treated myself to a Fry's Turkish Delight bar and carried on my merry way.

I walked over the bridge and came to this lovely little harbor where people were fishing. It all felt very English to me which I think is why I liked it so much. It reminded me of Cornwall in a lot of ways, except from the pirates and pasties!

I found a nice book shop which I spent a while in and went in a few rather expensive clothes shops - I didn't buy anything!

This shop was lovely! I've never been in an American antique store before, I spent ages in there looking at all the pictures and baking things. They had loads of lovely quilts and cushions - I could've bought them all!

Since the weather was so nice, I had to get some ice-cream and enjoyed sitting outside eating it and doing some people watching. After that, I filled up my trusty water bottle and headed back to camp. I thought it was quite a long journey - I walked just under 8 miles that day but it was so nice to clear my head a bit! 

This picture doesn't make the weather look as nice as it was! I was rather red faced after my day in the sun and didn't spend much time around the fire that night! I arrived back at camp and caught everyone else napping after their bike ride. They woke up so I ate lunch and took a nice long cold shower and relaxed for a while. We were then joined by our boss's family which was lovely so we took another walk to the beach and then they left. 

We had a great time! And for the first time in my camping history, I didn't have to air my 'tent' out afterwards because it hadn't been rained on!!!! NO RAIN!!! Unbelievable. 

We were hosted by two lovely families for meals on Easter weekend which was wonderful. I ate so much ham that weekend but everyone knows I do love the ham! It was so nice for us to be looked after and I didn't really have to lift a finger so I found it very restful. I did get the chance to bake a cobbler for everyone which went down pretty well! We were given easter baskets too which was so lovely. I also got to watch Mary Poppins which I had been missing in my life! I am not sure why I don't own that DVD but it has been leant to me so I have watched it a few times since!

Following on from that, we had our Golf Outing which is our big annual fundraiser. The weather for that was amazing too and we were joined by nearly 100 golfers who helped to support our work. I enjoyed driving the golf cart even though my passenger was quite fearful of my corner taking because apparently those things tip over easily. I also managed to get completely lost whilst driving on my own and had to be escorted back to the correct place by a man driving a watering device. 

It was then Spring Break and the two German interns went on trips with Urban Promise; one to DC and one to Maine. I have to say, I missed their presence a LOT but remained very busy so time sort of flew. Sort of. I had a sleepover with 5 girls which was lovely because I currently spend the majority of my time in male company. It was nice to watch some girly movies, do some painting and crafty things and talk about nails. The girls made up a talent show so they all sung for me as I was the judge which was pretty funny! They did actually sleep for about 6 hours so we watched a movie in the morning and they ate Lucky Charms before helping me to tidy up. I then had a lovely night away from the Center and spent time with my boss and his family to get my energy back. 

The guys arrived home at the weekend and my heart was glad. 

Other nice things that have occurred:

This sunset in Old New Castle

This tree blossomed on our street

One of the girls brought me a flower

I baked scones and drank tea with a friend

The girls left notes for me on the board

I taught for the first time in Grace Cottage (the prison for girls) last week too, I spoke about leadership and how they can think about ways they might change their behaviour when they are released. I also made up a game of English words vs. American words which turned out to be quite a lot of fun! They said I should patent it. Maybe I will. 

I think that just about brings you all up to date! There have been other things in and amongst all of this but I have already been writing for over an hour! One thing I can't believe is that it is almost May, I would really like for time to slow down a little bit now as it seems to be running away a little. I am trying to take each day as it comes and enjoy every minute of the time we have together. I love this team, I love this place and I love these kids! 

I also love this:

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Cakes & Lasers

Well, things have been busy as usual over in Wilmington! All of a sudden, we seem to have an explosion of kids coming to the Center which hopefully means we are doing something right. We were able to do our first fundraiser a couple of weeks ago, for which we hosted a Bake Sale right outside the Center.
For me, it was doubly good because
I love baking and I really miss being
able to do it regularly!
The fundraiser was a real success and the kids really enjoyed helping us out. It was good for us to be able to meet people in our neighbourhood and I was personally blown away by their support of the center. One of the Churches that supports us also allowed us to sell the rest of our cakes and they were so generous. In the end, we managed to raise:

$265.70!!

As a well done to the kids, we used some of the money to take them to Laser Tag at a place called Boomers in Pennsylvania. It was nice for them to go have fun and get out of the Center. There weren't enough seats in the car for me so I just sulked at home and washed the dishes. Not really. Well, I did wash the dishes. Because no-one else does. Not really. Anywho...they loved it! 

Look at their little faces.

As a team, we decided this weekend that we should spend some time exploring a bit more of our surroundings too. The guys wanted it to be free seeing as though I suggested a museum and we came up with the Air Mobility Command Museum in Dover - Delaware's capital city. It was quite a trek and not the best idea I've had since it was raining and the majority of the fun stuff there is outside but I didn't step on my plane without a raincoat and umbrella so I was sorted. We enjoyed a packed lunch in the car and then had a wander around the museum. It was actually pretty fun, we got to go in the control tower and look out at the other planes and I flew a plane (simulator) but still it was pretty scary and I felt like a real life pilot. 

Here I am with Bill & Hillary's old ride. Aka Air Force 1. 

This is what I have to live with. Not the plane.

This leads me to the exciting part! Following our fundraiser, I got to book tickets for the 4 of us plus NINE kids to travel to The Big Apple this weekend!!We are going all day Saturday, so it will probably be quite tiring, but Ican't imagine a more exciting way to get my first experience of NYC than with a bunch of our kids! We are planning on seeing as much as we can in the hours that we have.

Last week, I said my goodbyes to the wonderful Urban Promise Wilmington which was an emotional moment but also a lovely one. The kids were asked to give me words of encouragement, which boy oh boy they did! They thanked me for teaching them to say please, thank you and you're welcome and one of them said I had a strong faith that encouraged them! They sent me away with a few tears in my eyes, kind words and PG Tips. However, it's not all over - I saw them the next day in Chick-fil-A at their fundraiser! Phew.

 

The final thing I would love you all to look at is our Wishlist. We have already received art supplies, games and other fun things from it and love getting to open these surprise packages in our morning meetings. If you feel like you can support our work, even in a small, anonymous way - it could make a huge difference to our kids. We get to tell them that people who don't even know them want to send them gifts, which for them - is an alien concept. We would LOVE to take them on more trips, even just to the movies or to a restaurant as well as provide them with creative/sports/community based projects from our Center. 
Follow this link and see how you can help us! 

Thank you ALL for reading this, I love knowing that you can keep up with my journey and seeing our work here develop. As always, if you're the praying type - please send a few up for us, that we will find time to rest as well as work and that what we do now has a long-lasting impact for these kids! 

                        "This is the day that The Lord has brought about. We will rejoice and be glad in it!"

Psalm 118:24

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DYFC Lately...

Well, the snow is back. I wouldn't be British if I didn't start with a moan. Now that that's out of my system, I can be positive. 

We have been even busier than before over here lately. We are now opening the center 3 days a week as well as having the kids hang around on a weekend. They just keep arriving, which I think is pretty nice! It's what we're here for after-all. We also have a new partnership that is now active on Tuesdays and Thursdays, with the guys starting to build relationships on a Monday evening to figure out what our new programs at 'Word of Life' Church in Newark, Delaware will look like. We have some plans ready to offer to the kids and we will run whichever programs have the highest sign-up rate. This is such an exciting opportunity because it means we can get more people involved in delivering programs such as sports, art and cookery and we can begin to develop a means of creating apprenticeship type relationships whereby young people can learn specific skills from adults that can help them figure out their futures. 

This week, I say my goodbyes to Urban Promise (Wahhhh) and will instead focus entirely on the work of DYFC. Though it is sad, I am happy to be using my skills to a higher potential and helping us to develop plans here that will be long lasting. We will also be working to develop our relationships with Urban Promise and other ministry sites, so it certainly is not the end for me there. The day I had decided to be pulled out of UP all together, just so happened to be the day that the kids in my camp wanted to call me to say they were praying for me and they missed me. I got to speak to most of the kids and had a small emotional breakdown afterwards. Ha. I sincerely didn't think they would notice I was gone. I guess Miss Sarah was wrong! I will get some pictures as I say ta ta for now!

Tomorrow will be my first time in 'Grace' cottage which is the female prison. I am really looking forward to it and have been asked to observe for this one and then decide if I want to teach there. The hope is that out of this, we may be able to identify some potentials for the 'Parent Life' ministry we are hoping to set up in the near future. My schedule is beginning to look quite different to the other interns but I am glad we are all using our gifts in the best ways. I certainly am not a 'soccer coach' nor am I a pro basketballer. But I can make a good form so it's all good!

This past weekend I experienced my first 'lock in' which was titled (by the male interns, I was not a party to this decision,) 'YFC's Night of Awesomeness.' I'm sure you can all hear me saying the word 'awesomeness' in everyday language. NOT. I love you really, America. Anywho, we had such a wonderful time. A group of kids arrived that we had never met before so we let them stay until around 8pm but then kept the two boys who had signed up over night. We ordered some pizza, baked cookies, watched the 'Freedom Writers' movie, ate kettle corn, played games, ate pancakes for breakfast and went to Church in Downtown Wilmington.

Outside 'Loma' Church - this place is my dream, as it's in a Coffee Shop!

My personal highlight of the NOA was the 'name game.' All you have to do is guess the character or famous person that has been stuck on your head. We explained the rules to the kids multiple times and all placed the names on our heads. You have to ask questions to identify who you are such as 'am I male?' Tyree (who is stood next to me above) went first. His opening question was; 'am I a tie?' We quickly re-explained the rules and carried on the round. His following questions included; 'am I cholesterol?' 'Am I a pathway?' and 'Am I a finger?' By the end, I was crying with laughter. We started to film him each time it was his turn because we didn't know what he might ask next! This is why I love kids.

They didn't want to leave us!

This week we also managed to find time to fit in our surprise birthday treat for our friend Ro/Rashad. We had planned it a few weeks ago and managed to keep it a secret the entire time. Ro loves basketball so we all clubbed together and bought tickets to go see the 76ers vs Pacers. It was way more fun than I thought it would be and after being blindfolded for the entire journey to Philadelphia, Ro even shed a little tear. Ahh. 

It was more fun than I thought it was going to be, every time out and every quarter had some sort of entertainment to get the crowd excited. There was even a magician at one point! I also got to watch the dance cam, which I have seen on Youtube before but watching it live was more fun than the basketball! They did a 'Carlton Cam' based on the dance from The Fresh Prince of Bel Air which was hilarious!! It was a pretty close game but the 76ers lost 94-101. If they'd have got 100 points, there was a promise of a free Big Mac so the boys were gutted to miss out on that!

Group Selfie at the game!!

Throw in the odd birthday party, Bible study, trip to the gym, team meetings and lunch at someone's house and this is our average week! Thank you all for reading, praying and supporting me to come here. We are having a great time and I am loving being a part of this team! 

Until next time...

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Retreat.

Howdy partners! I will eventually stop apologising for the lack of updates of late and just start a post like a normal person, but for now - I am sorry for the break!

This weekend, I was blessed by the gift of a retreat in a beautiful center in Quarryville, Pennsylvania. Some of the women from a Church we have worked with before, in fact I met them the very first week I arrived in Delaware when I experienced my first retreat with our kids and theirs, invited me to join them free of charge on their annual women's retreat. This one was quite a different experience than the first! It was yet again in a beautiful area and was surrounded by woodland and a heck of a lot of snow. I was so ready for some rest and time in a different environment with new faces so I was really excited to go. 

I was able to travel with some of the wonderful women I get to work with at Urban Promise and had a great time hanging out with them some more. The schedule was pretty jam packed as these weekends often are so I was most looking forward to free time on Saturday afternoon. I absolutely love walking and exploring my surroundings so I was quick to take a hike! 

Saturday was such a lovely afternoon, the sun was finally shining and the snow was melting. Of course, I didn't consider the implications of ankle deep snow melting as I was walking but miraculously, I didn't fall over once! It was so muddy and pretty difficult to walk through the paths but that just added to the adventure. 

I decided to follow the trail to see the lake as I had heard it was a pretty site. I will mention at this point that I had taken loads of photos on my camera but somehow my iPhoto imported and erased them all and they are gone from the memory card :( I guess those memories are to be stored only in my head, sorry! UPDATE: I found the photos! Alas, I always take pictures on my phone so there are some survivors. I arrived at the lake to see it was completely frozen over so I just had to imagine there was water under there:

I sat down on one of the benches like the one you see above for about 30 minutes. It was so nice just to hear the sound of the brook next to me and the birds singing. There was no-one around to talk to but I could just sit and lift my head toward the sun. It felt blissful.

The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing.
     He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
     he refreshes my soul.
He guides me along the right paths
    for his name’s sake.

Psalm 23:1-3

As I was looking up towards the sun, I noticed a rather large bird in the distance. I watched it for a little while thinking it was just a hawk or something but then it got substantially closer, to where it was circling right above my head and I realised it was an eagle. 

I don't remember seeing one quite like this before. The way it just silently glided through the sky was quite mesmerising. I was pretty blown away! 

Even youths grow tired and weary,
    and young men stumble and fall;
 but those who hope in the Lord
    will renew their strength.
They will soar on wings like eagles;
    they will run and not grow weary,
    they will walk and not be faint.

Isaiah 40:30-31

After a short time relaxing, I decided I should probably move on because I wasn't sure what time the sun would be setting. I walked towards the stairs you can see in the picture above, the snow there was much deeper than it looked and the bottom half of the stairs was engulfed in snow. I realised I probably shouldn't have decided to do that but, too late! As I was out of the danger zone, I saw a sign saying 'Do you have all of your belongings?' Always a good question. I turned around to check that I did and in the distance, saw my trusty companion to every journey - my purple water bottle sitting on the bench I had been sat at. Chaos ensued in my head as I debated whether it was worth climbing back down those stairs for something so easily replaceable yet so handy. In the end, I decided to leave it thinking that if anyone took that path, they may retrieve it and we could have a beautiful reunion. 

 On with the journey. I had a map with me and felt overly confident in my ability to navigate but thought there wasn't much chance of me getting lost because my trail was only about 1.5 miles. I started to follow the path down hill after seeing a sign for the trail I was looking for. I kept walking and then came to an area which looked like it had never seen a trail before. I stopped to look around but couldn't see a sign anywhere that would point me in the right direction. Everything sort of looked the same. I started to panic slightly knowing that I had walked a fair way from the lake, had no cell phone on me  and didn't know when the sun would go down. I started to climb back up the hill through trees and branches, ducking and climbing, trying not to slip. I reached a clearing and found a big hill that looked fairly dry and I just started to run. By this point I was envisioning bears. Lots of bears. Big, huge scary bears who would eat me. Then I realised, if I were truly lost - someone would see my water bottle, my saving grace, and would find this lost, terrible map reader and rescue her. As I reached the top of the hill, I bumped into someone else from the retreat who seemed to be having the time of her life so I realised that I wasn't really lost at all. I just have a wild imagination. She encouraged me to head back and pick up my waterbottle because it matched my jumper so well. Following this logic, I took her advice and attempted the stairs once more:

Target's finest waterbottle.

Now I was back on the path I knew and loved and was able to get back to the center. I stumbled upon a friend and a cute rabbit in the nature center who 'liked to have her nose petted.' She loved that nose rubbing.

The end of an adventurous day!

We also entered daylight savings time so lost an hour of sleep which is never what you want to hear when you're still playing a game at 12:30am and breakfast is at 8am. 

To conclude, I often find that I get more out of weekends like this one when I'm wandering around outside by myself but I did really enjoy my time there with everyone else. We focussed on beauty, how we were each created uniquely, born with gifts and talents that show our attractiveness not solely based on our outward appearance. We talked about ways to let go of our fears and strongholds and move forwards in the truth that we have a beautiful creator and we are made to reflect Him, no matter what words may have been spoken over us. We also ate WAY too many snacks. But, who the heck cares. We are women and we love to snack.  

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A few notable things...

Things have felt even busier this past couple of weeks. It's been a bit of a roller coaster as we try and figure out how to bring unity to our team and catch the vision together. I am both physically and emotionally worn-out but trying to find rest, peace and joy at the speed we are moving. I thought I would share some of the things we have been up to aside from the work with the kids because that is equally as important in my eyes! 

As we don't have a washing machine in the house, we all use the launderette down the road. I have personally come to enjoy the experience as they have a tv with cable and I can get an hour to myself where I can watch Ellen and wait for my clothes to dry. Last time I went, it was just after we'd had a load more snow and the owner wasn't particularly expecting anyone to drag a laundry bin through knee deep precipitation. He was wrong. I was out of dresses. We got talking and he enjoyed the fact that I was English, he was Polish I think and said that moving to America was the worst decision he made because it's crazy here. I didn't really know what to say so we talked a bit about me leaving a sock in the washing machine by accident and then watched a bit of the Winter Olympics together. 

I wanted to write about this a while ago, but just couldn't find the time! We are 'hosted' here by a local Church who wanted to offer extra support to us interns. The Church is Presbyterian, which is a popular denomination in the States but not so common in the UK. It is leagues away from what I'm used to, but I love it! The first time I went there, I had people running up to me after the service excited to see me because they had been awaiting my arrival. They quickly found the PG Tips and popped the kettle on, so I guess my reputation goes before me! We have dined twice at one families house, this Sunday was lovely because I went with them on a dog walk, we drank tea, played board games and I walked away with a huge pile of magazines full of recipes. I also got invited this week to join a lovely Canadian lady whose husband has just got a job that involves travel over to Sheffield, so we talked a lot about England. She put oxo cubes in our soup, so that was nice! We also drank tea. Not only that, but we go to a weekly group study at a couple's home not too far from us and enjoy snacks and tea. That time together has really helped us to grow as a team and I am grateful for that. Also, for all the tea I am offered.

Yesterday, we had most of the day off and decided to use that to go and have fun together. It just so happened that the fun was taking place in Philadelphia so it was nice for me to see some new scenery:

It was a bit rainy as you can see, but the weather is getting much warmer now so I'll soon be making the switch from boots to sandals in celebration. 

We went to a place called Dave and Busters which is a sports bar come amusement arcade come restaurant. We all ate together, watched some olympics and celebrated the fact that TEA WAS ON FREE REFILS:

Bravo, Dave. Bravo, Buster.

Everytime you won on one of your games, you were given tickets which turned into prizes in the store. We weren't there for that long but most of us managed to get some tickets:

 It was nice to get out of Delaware as I've not had chance to do much travel yet because there's so much work to be done. Which is fair enough, I'm here to do a job! I made the decision this week that I would cut down my hours at Urban Promise and use those hours to do more with YFC. As much as I love UP, I know that I could be doing so much more here at the Center as we try and put together solid programs and arrange summer trips. I'm just going to go to Urban Promise one day a week and they have asked that I help do some data-input which sadly, I love doing. I will miss 'Crafts with Miss Sarah,' though! The last time I did crafts, one of the kids asked if I was an artist! I loved it. 

Everything had to be made from hearts!

We're excited about where we are headed with our work here and I am looking forward to getting stuff on the calendar. Next week, we are having a whole day dedicated to planning and getting everything in place so I look forward to sharing with you all what that will look like. So many of our kids have hardly left Delaware so I am hopeful that we can give them some great experiences that could potentially be life changing. We have so much support which is very encouraging! 

As for me, I am feeling glad that it's the weekend and have so far today decided to do nothing other than wash. I have an engagement this afternoon to, guess what, DRINK TEA with a friend. Ha!  Have a great weekend!

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What a difference a day makes...

This week, I have been dwelling on the need to take each day as it comes. Youth Ministry often has no pattern, no set expectations and no guarantees. One week or even one session can feel like you've reached the top of a mountain and the next day feels like you're back in the valley ready to start again. The kids can arrive in a great mood, making planned activities easy and fun or, they can arrive in a mood whereby no activities can happen because your whole time with them is spent getting them to do as they are asked. You just never do know. 

I can't go into every day here expecting to see great results of the work I've put in. I can't expect that the kids will walk into this center, full of manners, calm attitudes, respect for the rules and full co-operation. If I expect that, I am going to be very disheartened very quickly. I may as well not even bother! The aim here, is to take each session we have as a fresh start. What happened with the kids on Monday is in the past, we do not dwell, we move on to today and we do so with renewed hope and enthusiasm. 

This is probably one of the toughest places I will ever find myself. The environment here is such a tough one to crack, the attitudes that the kids have been taught, if they have been given the time by their parents to be taught; are very difficult to challenge. This can't be done in a day, but little by little; one seed at a time. Last week I was speaking to one of the guys who came to the drop in as he asked me to make some more popcorn for them. I told him that if he spoke to me properly, then I would do it. We went through the right way to ask for something and threw some pleases and thank you's in there. On Monday, he approached me and said 'can I have some soda, please?' That for me, was a success. That is the size of the success we have to take here. 

The kids who come here will never know the hours we agonise over how we can love them better, how we can change ourselves to better suit their needs, how to respond to situations they present us with, how to deal with things well so we don't risk losing them. But that to me is the true beauty of what we do. They think we just open up the center a couple of days a week and that's it. They will never truly know the personal sacrifices, the headaches, the sleepless nights and the light bulb moments at 2am that we go through to find the strength to open those doors each time. But they don't need to know. It is up to us to find the hope for each day and the opportunities that brings. It is up to us to celebrate every success, big or small. It is up to us to bring transformation drop by drop through our Faithfulness to this cause and remain prepared for anything. 

It's a good job that we believe in a great big ever-loving God.

Love, S x

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Recent Reflections.

After all the years I had been wanting to come to work in America, this would be the last place I would've thought I'd find myself. A tea-drinking, dress only wearing, Pride & Prejudice loving Yorkshire lass thrown into inner city urban youth ministry. In everyway, I am completely opposite to these kids but am compelled by a love greater than my insecurities and physical boundaries to do my best to give them some hope. 

Just yesterday, I volunteered to help at a different camp with Urban Promise as mine is closed whilst the leaders are recruiting interns for the summer. Myself and Joni had to walk to meet them at a designated point so that we could all walk to the camp together. I had never been to this camp before, and wasn't sure that I knew any of the kids. As we were walking down a street I had never before walked down, I suddenly heard a chorus of 'MISS SARAHHHHHH,' followed by two kids running towards me and throwing their arms around me. I guess I had met some of them before! The two of them came on the retreat I attended a couple of weeks ago, but never in my wildest dreams had I thought they would remember me. I think I sat with them perhaps for an hour that entire weekend. 

As we walked, one of the girls I had just met promptly grabbed my hand and would not let go for the duration of the journey. What really struck me was, as she was sweetly holding my hand - she was also making threats to one of the other girls if she 'rolled her eyes ONE MORE TIME!!!!' I had to explain to her that sometimes in life, we might have to learn to love people we don't like. That's a hard lesson for anyone, let alone a 5th grader I just met 5 minutes ago. 

'According to Jesus, in the hierarchy of spiritual acts and activities, love tops them all. Move over virginity, church attendance, group dating, morning devotions and crucifixion jewelry. Love is the new king of the mountain.

That means we don’t get to ignore the co-worker who drives us crazy, despise the neighbor who parties too loudly, condemn the relative who votes differently than we do or hate the boss who makes life miserable. Whether we like a person or not, we are commanded to love.

In the language of grace, love is both the exception and the rule.

If anyone knew how to love people who weren’t very likable, it was Jesus. After all, He spent three years in the company of Judas, who was stealing, manipulating and scheming to betray Him.' (Taken from here)

I was sat a few days ago at my own Urban Promise camp with one of the 5th graders who was writing down some goals for his future. I told him about how when I was in High School, I wrote a list like that of my own:

Eight years ago, I knew what I wanted to do and I worked hard to get there. I never knew how it would look, where it would take me or who it would take me to. It hit me in that moment as I told him about my list and how I had achieved it all.  I saw the smile appear on his face as he thought about the things he could do and that was so exciting for me. I realised as we were talking that I needed to add a few things to my list! 

Here I am, so far from home - knowing that I'm having these conversations with kids who might not hear a positive word that day, especially the kids who come to the YFC Center. I may think of these words as insignificant but to someone who has no or little hope, who knows what might come of that. This may not be a place that I would ever have chosen for myself, but I am sure that I can find enough reasons to love it, even if I don't always like it!

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