WEEK THREE

I have already been in West Virginia for over a week and a half and things are getting close to full swing for our YouthWorks summer. We are moving into the new building today, the building that we have spent the last week cleaning and preparing. Things are really coming together and I am beginning to see what this summer is going to look like. Despite some recent drama, our team is doing relatively well together. It is always difficult when you put four people together on a team who have never met one another. Our leader, uses a leadership style that is unconventional and it has created a few misunderstandings. Things are alright though, and we are growing together as a team. Being as we only have a few more days before we start our ministry summer we are in the crunch time as far as our staff projects go. I am busy assembling CLUB times, and figuring out how those should look. It is more difficult that it looked at first. Our presence in the community is becoming more and more obvious to the residents who live in Lincoln County. We are making many new contacts throughout the area and it seems like many people are very excited that we are here. Some of our new friends are the Midkiff family, a family of older people who all live in the same neighborhood. We go over there quite often to do laundry, watch movies, and have bonfires. They are all older, like upper 60 and 70s but they are very nice. I never imagined that I would strike up friendships with older people on a youth ministry trip. It was with the Midkiff family that I heard my first banjo. We had a little worship session last Thursday after Bible Study. It was great to get a better feel for this community and its Southern heritage. I am enjoying myself immensely down here, and I know that God is going to continue stretching me in new and exciting areas throughout the next 8 weeks.