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