The Journey Home...

After our last (once again, incredible) week full of incredible youth, it is time for us to say good bye.

I have been so emotional the last few days.  I just couldn't imagine leaving this place.  I was so happy that we had such a great group our last week here!

After insane amounts of cleaning and packing and two of us staying up until 2:30 in the morning packing the kitchen... it was finally time to leave.

We got to San Juan fairly late, probably around 10:30.  After only getting 5 hours of sleep the night before, I was incredibly ready for bed.  However, once we got to the city I had to track down some TSA officers and talk to them about the fact that I didn't have any photo identification (because it had been stolen a few weeks prior) and see if what I had would suffice.  After that, I had to wait for my team to get back, to find out that someone had left some very important things back at the church in Arecibo.  So, Jenna and I went to the hotel and tried to take as much stuff into the rooms as possible so that we wouldn't have to deal with it after we took the van back to the rental place.  After getting that situated we got to the rental place, around 11:45.  Once we get there we have a very small debacle where they were going to charge us a ridiculous amount because we had returned the cars in San Juan and not in Arecibo.  But, we got that figured out and then had an awesome conversation with the lady that was working the counter.  After getting everything figured out and fixed we were then just waiting on the bus to take us back to the airport hotel.

Apparently Jenna and I are just incredibly easy to talk to because the bus driver decided to tell us his life story and we had a wonderful conversation with him as well!  We finally made it back to the hotel around 1:30 and tried to get some sleep...  I got woken up around 2 because I had to switch rooms.  Then had to get up at 2:30 so that I could make it to the airport by 3 so that I could talk to the security people about getting on the plane without photo ID.

FINALLY got through security (which took only 2 minutes and the website told us to prepare for an hour and a half long process...) and got to the gate and decided to try and take a short nap.  I got to nap for about half an hour and it was GLORIOUS!  I was pretty proud of myself because I had a ridiculous amount of stuff, mine and Adrienne's, to guard but I was so tired that I just wanted to sleep.  So, being the smart guy that I am, I put everything that needed guarded on one seat and then I sat in one seat with my legs over the other seat and held some stuff to my chest so that I could sleep and still make sure that no one took anything.  Worked wonderfully!

We made it to Minneapolis with little to no problems.  I tried so hard to sleep on the plane... but I was just too exhausted to sleep.

We had the rest of Sunday and all of Monday for Exit Ramp.  It was incredible!  I loved it!  I realized that I most likely have the best Area in the MidStates.  With some poor decision making on my part... I had some very late nights and some pretty early mornings at Exit Ramp... oops.

The last day I stayed up until 1:30 hanging out and saying good bye to everyone and then had to be up by 4:30 to make my bus.  I decided to go home by bus because it would be cheapest and I wouldn't have to deal with showing my lack of identification.  I BARELY made it onto my bus.  I showed up as it was leaving and thankfully it was waiting on someone else so I was in the clear.

While on the bus I was able to sleep... a little... but I missed my stop and stayed on my bus for far too long.  I ended up in Kansas City.  After sitting in the bus station for a while I got ridiculously bored and the fact that it was 12:00 and my bus wasn't coming until 10:30 was very daunting.  So, I decided to take a walk and walked around downtown Kansas City, Missouri for a little while.  I found a nice restaurant and ate there and used their Wifi for a bit.

Then when they closed at 3:30 I continued walking around to look for a grocery store with a coffee shop that the people at the restaurant told me about.  While I was walking a man asked me if I was homeless (don't worry he did ask me for a dollar after he found out I wasn't homeless)... I hadn't showered in a day and a half and also hadn't shaved for about 4 or 5 days and I had a backpack and a pillowcase with my belongings in it.  I was a little offended at first, but then I saw my reflection in a window and realized that I did in fact look homeless.  I found the grocery store then, I just hung out there for a bit so that I could get out of the sun and the heat.

After sitting at the grocery store for a couple hours I made my way back to the bus station for the bus at 10:30.  The bus at 10:30 was way full so they didn't let me on.  There was another one coming at 2:30 though so... you know no big deal.  Luckily I found some pretty cool people to talk to and that made the time for faster.  Although, at this point I was just so tired that I wanted to die.

Overwhelmed with many things

Today was an interesting day.

I haven't updated in a while, but there has been a lot going on.  We have had so many amazing you people come through our site in the last couple of weeks.  I am overwhelmed with the presence of God that has been here these last few weeks.

I have been recently introduced to an AMAZING passage of scripture that I wish I would have known earlier in my life.
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal."

This passage of scripture has helped me in incredible ways the last few weeks.  Through some different challenges that I have faced these last few weeks I have found much comfort in this passage.  It gives me hope that even though there are rough times and bumps in the road that I can focus my time and energy on things that are more important.  I have wasted too much time and energy on things that do no matter, and on frustrations that are not important.  At times it feels like what we do here can go unnoticed, or unremembered.  But it gives me hope that even though we don't always see solid changes being made we are making a difference.

Tonight I was feeling overwhelmed with the presence of God in my life.  Each YouthWorks worker writes a few page note to the person who will be taking over their position the following summer.  At the very end we write a letter to the person.  I was writing my letter and just felt a crazy amount of love for this community!  I can't imagine myself anywhere else right now.  I can't believe that we only have one week left in this community!  I am ridiculously not ready to leave!  I have met so many incredible people in this place.  I am sad to leave relationships at Misión Betesda that I have made.  I am sad to leave friendships with community friends here.  I am sad to leave this city as a whole.  I have had such a wonderful experience and I will never forget it.  While writing this letter I realized how much I have grown this summer in some incredible ways!  I feel like a new person.  I feel confident in the person God has created me to be.  I feel confident in God's calling in my life.  My faith has grown tremendously and my reliance on God has also grown.

I wish that I was a better writer so that I could even begin to express the feelings that feel right now.  God is amazing and I love Him.  I love what he is doing in my life and what he is doing in the lives of the kids that he has brought here.  I am excited to have one more weeks at this place.  I can't wait to see how God will continue to work here and in the lives of the kids that will be coming here on Sunday!

A Few Bumps In the Road

Saturday was one of the first real days off that we have gotten in the 6 weeks that we have been here.  It was supposed to be a relaxing day of rest and rejuvenation and a day to not think about work.  It definitely started off that way!

To begin we went to a WONDERFUL beach and had a blast swimming and playing in the waves and talking and sun bathing.  It was just the best morning ever.  There weren't a lot of people at the beach, which was nice because it was a Saturday.

Then, we couldn't decide what to do so we went to some caves that are here in Arecibo!  We parked in the back of the parking lot because it was pretty full (bad idea), then headed back to the cave.  It wasn't anything super deep or anything like that but it has the most hieroglyphics in any cave in... Puerto Rico... maybe just the area.  So there are a bunch of carved hieroglyphics and they all looked like aliens!  It was crazy.  One was a baby in a bassinet but the other ones looked like aliens.

There is a place to get on top of the cave and look out at the ocean and it was BEAUTIFUL!  Oh my goodness what a view!  I loved it.  There was a place to jump in the water and swim a bit too... we indulged and did that as well. :)

When we got done in the cave and swimming we went out to our van and realized that we were missing a window... and a purse, wallet, and backpack.  There was glass everywhere.  Someone broke our window and stole one of our community friends' purse and also my wallet and back pack.  Really lame.  My backpack had my license and credit cards and some cash and my passport too.  Now I have to start the long process of getting all of that taken care of.  Cards are cancelled but I have to wait until Tuesday to do anything with my license and I can hopefully talk to someone about my passport tomorrow.  We shall see.

I was doing my best to try and look at the bright side of things, like the fact that I hadn't brought my computer or my camera.  But it was difficult.  I know that they are just things but a lot of what was taken had a lot of sentimental value for me.  Specifically, there was a rock that I found once, while having a bad day, and it was shaped like a cross.  I take/took that rock with me everywhere and it was in my backpack.  I'm really sad that I don't have it anymore because it was a sort of good luck charm (even though I don't really believe in luck, haha).  But then they also got my iPod.  I think that was the most frustrating part.  I had a really good Spanish/English dictionary (that I use all the time) on there and a list of names and descriptions for people at our ministry sites and Spanish words to remember and a bunch of little things that I had written... oh well.

Our theme for the summer is "Be Different" and Wednesday's theme is "React Different."  I have been trying my best to react different and not be upset, especially because we had another theft incident at one of our evening activities this passed week where there was another an broken into and a girl's camera was stolen and she reacted wonderfully.  So I feel like I have some big shoes to fill!  I did get to take an impromptu road trip to San Juan with my Site Director and we had a pretty good time lol.  So yes, I also learned to always put my belongings in the trunk while I am somewhere.  Even if they are under a seat, people will be able to see them.

The 4th of July

Today was the fourth of July and yet again we have a wonderful group :)

Today was awesome because we spent the day at one of my favorite missions that we partner with!  We were at Betesda.  I can't remember if I have mentioned this one before but it is a rehabilitation center for men over the age of 18.  The majority of them are under the age of 25, although there are some that are older.  It is a rehabilitation center but it isn't just for drugs.  All of the participants at some point in time in their life have made a bad decision.  Because of that decision that they made they we sentenced to time in jail.  Israel (the man who runs the facility) hears about the guys and meets with them and if he sees potential and truly thinks that they would benefit from his facility he petitions for them to come to Betesda.  They live and work at this place.  In order to raise money for everything they make cakes and other pastries and sell them!  They are DELICIOUS!  I just love it.

The guys don't have many opportunities to see their families so they really enjoy having YouthWorks bring groups to meet with them.  It is difficult because the majority of them don't speak a lot of English and the majority of the YouthWorks participants don't speak a lot of Spanish.  It is amazing however, to see how relationships build between people who can't verbally communicate.  One of their favorite pass times is to play basketball with the students that come.  They are ridiculously good at basketball!  I love to watch and I even play sometimes.  I just love it.

So today, my group was there all morning and we played basketball and I explained (in Spanish - ps I'm pretty awesome I'm not gonna lie :P) how to play KEMPS to one of the guys and a group of us played KEMPS.  It was pretty fun.  He would ask some questions though and I didn't know what he said and that was embarrassing.   Lol.  I am getting so much better (mejorando - bettering) at Spanish!  I am loving it!  I am getting more confident at being able to hold a decent conversation.  I'm still not good by ANY means of the word but I am getting there.  I surprise myself sometimes.  I think that a big part of it is that I am finally getting used to the accent that Puerto Ricans have, so that helps a lot.  I can't believe that we just have a little under 5 weeks left.  It seems like we just got here.  I love it here.

After lunch we met up with the rest of the students and went to an awesome swimming hole in the river and went swimming.  It was disappointing because there were some awesome rocks that we really wanted to jump off of... but it is YouthWorks policy that you can't do anything potentially dangerous like that.  Lame sauce.  But we still had an amazing time!  I think that the kids did too :)

After this, we went back to Betesda and had a little cook out and ate hot dogs and hamburgers and played games and talked and just had an amazing time.  I love this ministry and everything that it does!  I am so happy that I was able to be placed there.  I'm not going there tomorrow but I will hopefully return on Wednesday haha :)

Miss and love you all!

Pranks!

This most recent group that we had was just absolutely amazing.  I am going to miss them a ton!

One especially awesome thing was that they included me in a prank on one of their leaders.  I was thrilled. It went well.

In payback, for their leader, I gave them a little prank of my own (insert evil laughter).  We have a Puerto Rican friend who comes and helps us out some nights and gives them information about Arecibo and Puerto Rico.  My team and Julio, our friend, have gotten pretty close so we like to joke around.  He was coming to give his talk to the kids at the Plaza one night and I told 5 of the guys on the trip that a really cool personal greeting that you give a good friend is "nalgas," which is something that you would say to a really good friend so show that you care about them!  They were so excited to use it on Julio!  Little did they know that "nalgas" actually is a word for your bum.  It isn't a crude word at all, just a funny one.  So, when Julio came up the stairs they all waved at him as said, "HOLA!!  NALGAS!"  Julio gave them the weirdest look and it was just priceless.  My team and I just started cracking up.  The guys didn't really realize what happened so they said it again in a slightly confused tone.  Then they realized that something was up and asked us what the word really meant.  SO FUNNY!  We got a real laugh out of it :D.  I love pranks.  It was especially awesome because we got to prank Julio at the same time by doing it!

I am really going to miss this group.

Sitting at Burger King using some Wi Fi

So... here I am, on my time off.  It is really weird having time off because I sometimes forget that this is really a job.  This is the first time that I have had "time off" so, I don't really know what to do.  I decided to come to Burger King and get on the internet because it has been a while since I have been able to do that.

I am loving this new group.  It is so hard because the last group was so amazing, but this one is just splendid as well!  I am hoping that every group is just as awesome :D

The cool thing about this group is that they are all from the same church.  So, there are 29 people from the same church rather than 42 people from 2 churches.  It completely changes the dynamics and it is interesting.  I like it :)

This week I have been working at a place called Misión Betesda.  It has been awesome.  It is a rehab/jail alternative for adult males, the majority of who are in their late teens or early 20s.  I have been the main "translator" while I have been there.  That has been interesting.  It hasn't been going all that well :P but today, I explained how to play horse in Spanish and I think the guy understood haha.  That or he already knew how to play and was just humoring me while I was trying to explain it haha :D.

I haven't said anything quite as embarrassing as "quiere sentir" yet though so that is exciting!  The guys there are really great and I have enjoyed getting to know them the little bit that I have.  It is hard because of the language barrier, but they love playing basketball with the youth that come, so we have been able to get to know them through that.  They are SO GOOD!  Some of the things that they do are just incredible!  I wish that I was better at basketball, but it has been so much fun trying haha!  I am getting a little better, that or I am just playing and not caring quite as much haha :)

I am loving it here still and I can't wait to see what God has in store for the next 5 weeks!

This is just an example of the amazing skies that take place in Puerto Rico.

Breathtaking.  Especially at sunset.

Another example of the sky at sunset.

The clouds here are just ridiculously amazing.

This is our "fun picture" haha :)  I love my team (Me, Adrienne, Josh, Jenna)

We all went to a dam!

Becky (Area Director/Awesome Sauce), Julio/July (who is one of our friends from the community), Adrienne, Josh, Jenna, Me

I just had to add this one because I just now realized that Adrienne and I, and Josh and Jenna have the same exact faces... I'm not sure if this was planned...

The "good" team picture!

Day 32 of YouthWorks / Day 6 of Programming –

The groups left today.  It was so sad to watch them leave!  Such a great group of adult leader, students, and just everything in general!  So wonderful!  We did a quick clean up of the site and had a running breakfast!  Then off they went.  Afterwards we, as a group, finished what wasn’t cleaned and then we were able to read the notes that the students left for us, which was exciting :).  Each Friday we also get an hour to “rest,” or do what ever we find to be restful.  Today I found finishing some blog entries to be restful.  I also took a short nap and a shower, lol.

So, now we still have SO much to do today!  We need to do laundry, so shopping for the next group that is arriving on Sunday and get the site ready for them as well!  I hope that we get everything done today because if we do we get to have a whole day off on Saturday!! I could really use that.  I am thinking maybe a day at the beach or at the very least going somewhere with internet so that I can catch up on some facebook and e-mails.

Miss you all!

YouthWorks Day 32 / Programming Day 5 –

Today was AWESOME!! Not only was it my birthday, it was Josh (the other male leader)’s birthday as well!  So crazy!  We are exactly one year apart.  He is a year older than I am.  Today we drove around to three different ministry sites and just had an all around awesome day.  It was really nice because I was able to spend some time with some of the kids that I didn’t normally get to spend time with during the day.  I also got to see three ministry sites in action that I haven’t gotten to see yet.

Around 1:45 we ended up at Reto Juveniel, which is an awesome ministry that houses 10 guys under the age of 18.  They are at Reto instead of going to prison.  They work really hard maintaining their living area and learn about Jesus and how to fix their lives.  It also works as a rehab center.  This place is EXACTLY what I want to do with my life in the future!  It is so wonderful.  I would love to work at this ministry in the future.  The guys there are just awesome and the work that Gilbert (the leader) does is so amazing.  It is also right on the beach, which is nothing to complain about.  So for the afternoon we were playing with games with the guys and then we went swimming/wading in the ocean.  The waves were so intense so we basically just played in the waves, which was pretty awesome, I’m not gonna lie.  Then, the rest of the group came and we swam some more and then we had a cook out with them.  We grilled out with hot dogs and hamburgers and it was delicious!

Afterwards, we came back to the church and had a foot washing service with the kids.  I don’t normally get choked up about foot washing but this time it was just so amazing.  We all had such an awesome connection with the kids and the leaders as well that it was just so meaningful and such an amazing experience.

Afterwards, Josh and I got called into the staff area for “one more short meeting” because Adrienne “needed to talk to us.”  I was a little nervous because my guilty conscience went crazy and I was going over everything I had done in the day trying to think of what I could have possibly done!  Then we walk in and our Puerto Rican friends yelled, “SURPRISE!”  Oh my goodness was I surprised!  Julio, Angie, Lucy, Daniel and Luigi were all there and they brought us two (delicious) ice cream cakes.  WONDERFUL!  They are all just such awesome people!  I loved getting to see them and they were the cherry on top of my already beautiful day!

Over all I would say this is definitely in the top 3 of my birthdays!

YouthWorks Day 31 / Programming Day 4 –

Today I was moved to our Salvation Army site rather than our site at CIIPAP.  I was really nervous at first because they originally asked for a Spanish speaker so that they could translate everything.  I’m definitely not translator material yet.  So the day started off kind of rough.  But, then when I finally got my head out of my bum and just did it, it was awesome.  I had a great time there and made some great friends with the kids!  It even worked out that I didn’t need to do any translating, except for minor things when the kids would want to say something to one of the youth kids.

Today I had an interesting experience that I thought had a nice parallel in my life.  We were having pizza for supper and we buy them from Sam’s Club.  So, I offered to go pick up the 13 pizzas.  We called ahead a bunch and told them that we would be there at 4:30.  Well, I got there at 4:15 and waited in line for almost half an hour.  Then I got to the front and told them what I was there to pick up and then I waited for another 45 minutes before actually getting the pizzas.  I was watching them SLOWLY go through the pizza oven, it was one of those on a conveyor belt type thing.  So as they were ever so slowly coming through and taking so long I took the time to pray and reflect because as staff we don’t get quite as much time to do that as you would think.  So I was sitting there praying and I realized that sometimes I am like the pizzas in the over and God is sitting in the lobby waiting for me to get done.  I’m assuming that he is a little more patient than I am though, lol.  It seems like while I am taking my happy time getting ready, or following his plan or doing what he has asked me to do, he is sitting there waiting for me.  Sometimes I take a while to get done, like the pizza.

Tonight, we ate pizza and then went to the plaza.  We heard about the history of Arecibo and a bit about Puerto Rico as well!  Julio, one of our friends from the community (who also runs Sicomoro) was the person who spoke for us.  It was great.  They are selling shirts to help to raise money for their organization and the kids almost bought them completely out!!  It was so awesome!  They have such a good cause too J  I can’t wait to buy some things to support them :).

YouthWorks Day 30 / Programming Day 3 –

I have been officially working for YouthWorks for 30 whole days!  WOW!  It feels like I just flew to Minneapolis and met my team for the first time yesterday.  We got to know each other quickly and became close friends in what seemed like minutes!  I could not ask for a better team!  BUT!  Enough about that, I have babbled on enough about that in previous entries!

After 3 weeks of preparation the groups FINALLY arrived!  Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED having three weeks of living in Puerto Rico with my team getting everything ready and getting to know the ins and outs of programming and the people in the community, but I was SO pumped when the groups finally got here!!!

Today was the second full day and I was back at C.I.I.P.A.P. and it was great.  The niños were super awesome and the youth were so helpful and excited and full of energy!  I loved every minute of it!  We got to hang out up at the cancha again and this time I ventured into the music room and got to watch the kids practice for an evening show they are giving for their parents.  They played the Chicken Dance, THE CHICKEN DANCE!  It was AWESOME!  They were playing on steel drums (which are bent metal garbage cans) and it sounded so cool!  These little kids playing an awesome song and they actually did really well!  They are all such fast learners!  They were super pumped about it too!

I loved playing with and attempting to communicate with them.  I am getting better at my conversational Spanish (a little) because I am forced to actually speak it.  It felt really good to translate for some of the kids there haha.  But then I was had a few hard times and I had to pull over one of the little kids that was bilingual and ask them to help me out haha.  Luckily there were a lot more bilingual kids there than we realized!  This one little boy named Edward (pronounced Ed-Ward with a hard A) is ridiculously awesome.  He had a Green Lantern ring and he was showing me some sweet moves.  I just love all of these little kids… they are all so awesome!  I am so pumped that I have been able to go there!  I really hope that I got back again soon!

Tonight after Ministry Time we went to church with Pastora Eva and she talked about Jonah and the big fish and she had a really cool outlook on the story.  I really liked how she interpreted it.  She also talked about the big fish that would be waiting for all of us when we didn’t follow through with the plans that God had for us.  She said a bunch of other really cool things that I can’t remember.  I need to remember to take a pen and paper with me next week.  After church Pastora Eva gave us all ice cream and we had some time to get to know some of the people in the church.  Wonderful people.  Today went so well!  I am so happy with life right now.  Sleep is minimal but that is to be expected, lol.  The first morning I was on breakfast crew and I was up by 6:00 so that I could shower before.  Then this morning I was on wake up duty so I woke up at 6:30, kids lights out is 10:45 and it is not almost 1:00AM… oops.  Time for bed!  Hopefully next week we get a little more sleep time because we will have more of a knack for everything.  Early morning tomorrow so I should hit the sack! 

PS.  I never thought an air mattress could be so comfortable… when I lay down every night I just melt into it and pass right out.  It is awesome, lol.

YouthWorks Day 29 / Programming Day 2 –

Today was pretty great.  It was our first full day of programming!  We got to take the kids to the ministry sites and have a full on YouthWorks day!  So wonderful!  I went to this place called CIIPAP.  I can’t remember what exactly it stands for but… it was awesome.

I spent pretty much all day sitting up on a cancha (basketball court) playing with little kids and trying to speak to them in Spanish.  There were so many kids there.  It was great.  It is a summer camp for little kids and it is set up like a school, each grade has gym time, music time, gymnastics, and a bunch of other things.

My day was really great!  So many awesome little kids and a great group of students were there as well!  I also really enjoyed the Adult Leader that was there with the students.  She and I have almost the exact same sense of humor and she is just the funniest lady ever!  We had a few great conversations and laughs.

THE GROUPS FINALLY ARRIVED!!!

YouthWorks Day 28 / Programming Day 1 –

This day was a Sunday and it was AWESOME!  Our wonderful Area Director (Becky) arrived a while ago to help us finalize everything before the groups got here.  Then Sunday we went to Teefrans (which, if I haven’t mentioned this before it is an AMAZING panaderia [bakery] that is just down the street from the church that we are staying at) and had breakfast.  We got some delicious quesitos which are pastries that are to DIE for!  I will never find anything as delicious when I leave here.  Then we went to church and had an awesome time.  Then we did some last minute stuff around the site and then it was time to wait. 

I got put on arrival duty, which I LOVED!  Basically, what I was doing was sitting in a chair in front of the church (under some palm trees J) waiting for the groups to get there.  We have a big orange banner on the fence and when they got there I ran back to tell everybody that the first group was there and then had to run back out and greet them and give them all name tags!  It was AWESOME!  I loved being the first person that they saw.  Giving out name tags was great because I got to know their names pretty quickly (I am still working on some of them though, lol).  Then we got them all situated and had free time to just hang out and play games and junk.

Then the second group got there and we did it all over again!!  Then we had tacos for supper and our first Club (which is our evening worship service that I am in charge of and give the “talk” at).  It was a little shaky but overall it went pretty well.  All of the kids are awesome!  One group is a group of 9 seniors that have been together for 6 years and have gone on lots of trips and the other group is a group of 27 incoming Freshmen.  Needless to say, the dynamics of each group has been a little different!  It has been so awesome seeing the differences and getting to know everyone that has come!  I can’t wait to see what else happens during this week!  Such good groups!

One last post

Sorry that it has been so long since I have been able to update my blog and say something!

We have very little access to the internet which is lame, but also pretty nice at the same time.  It has been really hard for me to adjust to not checking my e-mail and facebook two or three times an hour.  But at the same time, it has been nice because I have been able to do other things rather than checking my facebook all the time.

My team and I have been setting up everything at our site and we are ANXIOUSLY waiting for the kids to get here this Sunday!  I can’t wait until they get here!  I am a little nervous because I am not going to be able to translate quite as well as I would like to for the groups that are coming.  But, it will be fine because people here love it if you try to speak to them in Spanish.  Then they will whip out perfect English and laugh at you because you were trying so hard to speak to them in Spanish.  Only about 25 percent of people in Puerto Rico speak English and the majority of them are under the age of 25ish lol.  The majority of the people here know a little bit of English though, so that has been helpful.

The last night we went to an AMAZING church service!  We will be going there every Tuesday evening with the groups that have been coming here.  The services will be different when the kids get here, but last night it was nice because there were about 15 or 20 people and we just got in a circle and told everyone our prayer requests and what we wanted to say “Gloria a Dios” about.  It was SO interesting being able to hear these people be super excited about God and what He is doing in their lives and stuff like that.  It was interesting because it was all in Spanish.  I had to say what I wanted to say thanks to God to all in Spanish!  It has been scary because while I am here I am realizing how bad my Spanish really is haha :)

I have recently found out that the Spanish spoken in Barranquilla is slightly similar to the Spanish spoken in Puerto Rico, so God’s plan has really come shining through in the last few weeks.  I am so happy to be able to learn about this, I am going to have a funny accent though!  I love it!  They speak in such an interesting way.

Funny/Embarrassing Story...

On Fridays we do laundry.  It has been really interesting doing laundry here.  We are in this TINY little hole in the wall store front.  Not very big at all.  MAYBE 15 feet by 15 feet with 4 washing machines and 3 dryers, but only one of them really works.  So needless to say, we are there for a while.  There are a bunch of people that come in to do laundry while we are there and it is kind of awkward because we have taken over the whole store!  But it is fun!  There isn’t a window… there is just a HUGE hole in the wall.  But that is SO nice because if there wasn’t there would be no airflow what so ever!  If you know anything about Puerto Rico, it is hot and HUMID!  The humidity is ridiculous here!

At one point in our laundry adventure and older couple came in to do laundry.  The woman sat down and the man was standing in the door way joking around with the worker.  So I TRIED to offer him my seat so that he could sit down.  In my best Spanish (and confidence) that I could muster I said “quiere sentir?”  Um… if you want to say “would you like to sit” you would say “quiere sentar” with an ‘A’ if you say it with an ‘I’ you are asking if the person you are talking to if they would like to ‘feel.’  Needless the man gave me an awkward look and said “?Como?!”  Which basically means “what?”  I eventually just got frustrated with myself because I could not for anything remember what the word I was trying to say was and I just stood up and pointed at the chair with my hand outstretched and said, “would you like to sit down?”

Embarrasing.  Oh the joys of learning a new language.

Finally back on the internet!

We have been getting to know some pretty amazing people here!  They are so wonderful.  Two of the people that we are having the most contact with are two friends, who are our age – early 20’s – and their names are Julio and Angie.  Julio and Angie have been friends for a really long time and Julio is teaching Angie English.  It has been fun to try and work with Angie and convince her to speak to us in English.  One day, instead of her English lesson with Julio they came to the beach with us (PS it was so awesome being able to FINALLY go to the beach!  We had been here for 2 weeks and we only were able to go and look at beaches that were possibilities to taking the kids to.  We finally got to go and swim and spend some time there.  Wonderful).  While we were there Julio told us that we were only allowed to speak to Angie in English so we would have to stop her all the time and jokingly say “sorry, I don’t speak Spanish” then she would blush and say it in English.  So much fun!  It makes me feel more comfortable talking to her knowing that she is learning a new language too!  But she surprises me and I think that her English abilities are WAY better than my Spanish ones!  Haha

Julio and his mom created a wonderful non-profit organization called “Sicomoro” which is Sycamore in English.  They are trying to be like the sycamore tree in the story of Zacchaeus (LOOK UP THIS WORD!) helping people to see Jesus in their community.  They are mainly working with the kids in the community, they have Kid’s Clubs and a bunch of fun things for them to do.  They do a ton of other things too but I can’t think right now because I don’t have a lot of time lol.  But they are amazing!  They also make some sweet t-shirts to help raise support for their organization and I can’t wait to buy some.  Julio is wanting to open up a second hand store as a means of support which is SUCH a cool idea!  He has been taking small business classes for a while and has gotten a ton of ideas for that.  Second hand stores here have a really really bad reputation and they aren’t very good.  So he wants to make a good one!  I think that it will be wonderful.  God is working through them in some wonderful ways!  If you would like to pray for them I’m sure that they would love it!  Their names are Lucy and Julio.  Julio has been a great help for all of us because he has been working with us on our Spanish and has been showing us around the city a TON!

Being here has been so nice!  It is gorgeous, our host church has been very fun and helpful and it has been interesting getting used to going to church on a regular basis in a completely new culture!  I have loved getting to know Julio and Angie and all of the other people that we have gotten to know here!  It will only get better as the time goes on!

Last Day of RAMP!

RAMP is a training week that takes place in Minneapolis, MN (and a few other places).  We have been SO busy this week!  It has been intense.  Basically from 7:30 when breakfast is, until about 11:00pm when the very last group meeting ends we have had something scheduled.  It was like this basically every day that I have been here.  It has been great though!  We have gotten a few short breaks and things like that but otherwise, we have been ridiculously busy and I have learned SO much!  I am feeling way more prepared for my position as Program Staff.

My position as Program Staff has me in charge of morning devotions, the evening worship service (Club) and helping out at the different ministry sites and Kids Club through out the day!  I will be incredibly busy, but it will be worth every tired second!

I got on a plane Monday morning and flew from Peoria to Chicago and then had a delay with my next flight.  But luckily I met some pretty wonderful people who were also headed to Minneapolis for YouthWorks training.  We had some nice chats and even played some euchre!  It made the time go by much faster.

After being delayed from about 11:00am until 3:30 or so pm, we finally got a plane!  We made it to RAMP around 5:00 or so.  It was so nice to get there!  I met my fellow site mates and they are all so awesome.  Within 24 hours I felt as though I had known all of them my entire life.  I am very excited about getting to know them over the summer and seeing what adventures we will have :).

How I came to YouthWorks...

After graduating from CMU I spent the summer working in Winnipeg.  After a trip to Ecuador I felt God telling me that my time in Canada was over and it was time for me to move on to the next chapter in my life.  I didn't know what that chapter was going to be.  So I decided that teaching English over seas would be a great idea!  Little did I know... God had other plans.

I moved home at the beginning of September and took a month off just to chill and reconnect with my family and friends.  Then I started applying to seasonal jobs because I was under the impression that I would be moving to Korea for a year to teach English.

When that fell through I had no clue what I was going to do!  So I eventually applied to Mennonite Mission Network and got accepted for a 2 year stint in Colombia.  When they asked when I wanted to leave I said that I wanted to leave as soon as possible.  Unfortunately, as soon as possible was going to look something like July (this was October).  So God put back in my mind the job at YouthWorks, that I kind of forgot about.  I had applied the previous summer but wasn't able to go because of a trip to Ecuador.  So I applied to that and was accepted!

When I was first accepted I was asked to be a part of their Canadian staff, which was awesome!  I was under the impression that I would be going to Canada for quite a long time.  On April 29th YouthWorks called me and asked if I would be willing to switch positions and become a Utility Staff member in the Western US.  I assumed that this was a part of God's plan so I just said "SURE!  Why not?"

After this, I was extremely uneasy for a whole week!  I couldn't think about anything else but how I really didn't want to be a Utility Staff.  As a Utility Staff member I was going to be traveling around to different sites and filling in where I would be needed.  I was really looking forward to just being in one spot for a while.  Then!  On May 16th (one week before leaving...) I got a WONDERFUL phone call!  The lady on the other end asked me if I would be willing to go to Puerto Rico for the summer rather than being Utility Staff.  Obviously, I said yes.  I would have been crazy not to!

Finally I understood why and how everything happened.  Perfectly according to God's plan.  This definitely helped me to learn a lesson.  God is in control, not me.  If things went according to my plan, my life would be way less interesting!  God always comes through at the last minute and this experience has helped to strengthen my faith and stretch me in crazy ways!

So you've decided to stalk me!

Thank you for wanting to know more about what I am going to be doing with my life in the future months!

I am currently going to be working with a program called YouthWorks in Arecibo, Puerto Rico.  I will be working with YouthWorks from May 23rd to August 9th.  I will hopefully be blogging about my experience to keep everyone updated on what I am doing and I hope to stay in contact with everyone in this way as well!

I hope that this proves to be entertaining for you!

Thanks again,
Scott