July 4th-YouthWorks Style!

The 4th of July has come and gone. My Green Bay staff had a different kind of week this week. Instead of participants coming Sunday and leaving Friday they had participants come Sunday, leave Wednesday morning, and then another set come Wednesday night who will be leaving Saturday morning. Because of this interesting schedule we didn’t know if we would be able to catch any of the fireworks (since the nights when participants come is spent doing dinner, orientations, Club, and then church group time). Fortunately the parking lot of our housing site has a nice view of most of them so after we got through all the things that needed to happen that night we all gathered in the parking lot to watch the fireworks exploding over the trees. We were able to see most of them from that vantage point and it was an added bonus that we didn’t have to fight traffic to get home. The weather was perfect out and it was a nice treat to the end of a long day.

One of my staff said that watching the fireworks made her homesick. It made me pause a moment. After 7 years of doing this I have become very accustomed to either not seeing any fireworks, or to watching them with a group of about 70 people that I have just met. I forget that in "normal" life people are gathered with friends and family, usually for a whole day celebration, to celebrate the freedom that we have. My 4th of July friends and family have come to be my staff (my summer family) and the participants (new friends that we have met). How lucky I am each summer to welcome 16-24 new people into my "family" and each week during the summer 50-70 new people into my group of "friends." In a year or 2 I won't be doing this anymore (or maybe it will be 3-4 more...who knows!) and I will only be able to look back at all of the July 4ths that I spent all across the country...Rapid City, SD...Pine Ridge and Rosebud Indian Reservations, SD...Bayou la Batre, AL...Chattanooga, TN...Green Bay, WI...with fond memories. During the pause I thanked the Lord for His abundant blessings in the people and places I have encountered on the many July 4ths spent away from home.

(My roommates, who are the prayer partners to my Green Bay staff, sent some fun goodies to them in honor of the 4th so I included some pictures of us sporting the glow necklaces, the light up flag, and the Uncle Sam hat. Thanks ladies!)

(Picture 1(top row) Catherine (urban staff in Green Bay), me, and Aaron (program staff in Green Bay) and (bottome row) Arsenia (utility staff) and Karen (urban staff in Green Bay). The SD was nowhere to be found when we took the picture...sorry Noel! Picture 2 is me, Catherine, and Karen. Picture 3 is me sporting my American pride. We are all waering matching shirts because we had a new set of youth and adults come in that evening...it helps them to know who the staff are when we all match!)