“Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love.”             I John 4:7-8  

10/08/09Friends and Family,

So the first two weeks of my yearlong internship have comprised of moving in, settling in (and realizing that my apartment of two years housed much more stuff than I ever imagined), getting to know each other and many members of the community, finding our way around the neighborhood (via bike, car, foot and, my favorite, the bus), learning how to be mentors, disciplinarians and schoolteachers (I know I am not the only one who never gave a thought to how much time teachers spend preparing for school!) It has been a whirlwind, but incredibly exciting and productive. As I begin this first official week of the Academy and CHAT after-school tutoring, I am ready to get my hands dirty and DO all that we have discussed, planned out and prayed about.

It is really difficult to sum up this summer.  I have so many memories and emotions and I am just starting to process them all.  I do not know how long it will take for me to fully process what God has taught me this summer and to realize the impact this experience will have on my life.  One thing I do know is that I want to continue to build the relationships that I have started this summer.  Relationships are integral to any ministry, but I have learned that without relationships this ministry would have never begun and would not continue.  I am thankful for everyone that supported me this summer both financially and in prayer.

yeah I said it

The title statement is in reference to a game of telephone picturaniytalilty pictantaray picturanary picshunary hungary uzbeckistani.  telephone pictianary, (spelling), and a short poem I wrote after the game.

but.... its over, and theres a sea of thoughts and emotions that my mind will shuffle through and conjure up as it sees fit.  I was thinking about that very idea tonight after the closing ceremony for the interns and street leaders.  Why cant figure things out or always live in a state of emotional clarity, always remembering and considering.  Why do emotions and convictions come and go almost externally of my psyche.  Maybe there is something that is.  

In approximately an hour and forty minutes, my summer internship will end.  

The common sentiment around these parts is disbelief.  We can’t believe the summer has flown by so quickly, we can’t believe the internship is over, we can’t believe we are going to go back to “normal” life.  Although I feel like I have been debriefing quite often, I know I will be processing this experience for years.  It would take me another two months to tell you all I have learned this summer.  Therefore, I will treat this internship like a weekly newspaper and leave my loyal readers with the headlines from the summer:

This summer has been an incredible experience and I cannot believe that I leave Tuesday! The summer has flown by,it has been filled with wonderful friendships, long bus rides packed with kids,pies in the face, weekly intern lunches, and “dunking” contests every pool daywhere I unfailingly lost miserably and feel that I will forever be waterlogged.But none of this would have been possible without all of your supportfinancially as well as spiritually..

So after eight weeks of day camp my eight middle school boys in my huddle group the "Swagg Surfers" was winnowed down to three on the last day of camp. The last day was bittersweet because of this. Sweet because I so appreciated the three boys who stuck with me to the end. Bitter because of the five that left my group either because of discipline issues or because they were transfered to another group. Looking back on it I wonder if there was anything more I could have done to help make my boys into more of a team. In the end I just have to accept I did the best I could and hope that something I taught will stick with all my boys.....even those who did not make it to the very end of camp.

Friday was the last day of “normal” camp.  Next week we are going to have camp, but it will be for the kids that are not going to the overnight camp in Pennsylvania.