sweat

I must tell you about my week! I spent it with 10 screaming middle schoolers from my church and 74 and a half screaming middle and high schoolers from across the country. States such as North Carolina, Washington and Pennsylvania included. We worked with YouthWorks, a group that is quite well known in the missions circuit.

The big group broke into small crews with reps from two youth groups combined. Our group was 8 youth and 2 leaders. (I'm a leader! How insane!) Neway, we were in Atlanta, we stayed in a church next to Grant Park, literally 3 blocks from the house where my grandmother lived! The pastor is from Fayetteville (next to PTC), went to Shorter, and so is my nemesis in that he has been separated from me by mere miles our whole lives yet our paths possibly never crossed till now. He also worked at the Chick Fil A in Rome. He graduated in 2002. The coincidences were just flying. Ok, well, anyway, we stayed there and went out to different sites around the city.

My group went to the Ammeus House which has a section that helps poor and downtrodden, a section for Seniors in the community and a part for kids. It is down the street from Turner Field. We did a bunch of stuff there, and handed out water bottles at the bus stop out in front of it. We played bingo with the elderly .. We did some dishes and organized a room and a closet. For one day, I was in the "Poverty Rights Office" with a couple of the kids and we helped fill out a few forms and things. We shredded a lot of mail as well.

Other groups went places like a food bank, places for elderly and kids, a garden...etc. A group or two painted. Good clean mission fun. In big group time we did some awesome singing and learning and devotion..ing. Last night we had a foot washing service. It was nice.

Our youth are a challenge. We have a couple that have adhd whatnot, and social issues but for the most part they did ok. well, we're all "spirited" I guess. :) I was a leader and it wasn't so bad. I'm not incompetent! woot!

Other things that happened were group trips each afternoon or evening. We went to Centennial Olympic Park, where some kids ran in the fountain, some played games; I played Ultimate Frisbee... We went to the Martin Luther King Jr Center and the church, etc. We went to a fun lively AME church on Wednesday night. Then yesterday we played at Grant Park (which is where Zoo Atlanta is). I played some more Ultimate. From early in the week I acquired the nicknames "French" and "Huguenot" and during the Ultimate game yesterday I was quite sought after! I was pleased to be thought of as awesome at Ultimate. One guy even said, when another leader came up to join in, "you guys have her (meaning me), so we get Wes!" even though my team was short a player. Now that kinda thing can give somebody an ego! :)

Well, that was my week!