Jacqui and I had just begun working at Abiding Harvest and at this point hadn't even met all of the youth yet. We were still working on names and getting to know the culture and atmosphere of AHYEAH.
May - Pink Flamingoing
May - Pink Flamingoing
When Jacqui and I came to AHYEAH, they were already involved in Flamingoing to raise money for Extreme Camp. We would go every Friday all the way through July to plant 20-30 pink birds in people lawns. Someone in the church would hire the youth group to do this. Ya it was a blast.
July 2nd - Ministry @ West Tulsa UMC
Within the first few weeks of working, I was introduced to a fabulous pastor in West Tulsa, Pastor Bill Welch. He had been working with 10-20 urban youth from the neighborhood around their church. Pastor Chris and I thought that this would be a great opportunity to expand the horizons of AHYEAH and slowly work together with Pastor Welch, perhaps mix services sometime in the future.
We felt the first step was for the leaders to begin working with Pastor Welch and build relationships with his youth. Beginning on July 2,2008 Jesse (a youth leader at AHYEAH) and myself began working together with Ashley, an ORU student who was volunteering her time to the ministry in West Tulsa. We would go hang out with them doing projects, bible studies, and playing football with them every Wed.
Our plan was for the leaders to build relationship with the youth, then start bringing some of the AHYEAH youth to hang out with them. Then after the AHYEAH core had built friendships with them, bring the urban youth to hang out at AHYEAH. This way they would already know the leaders and core youth and feel semi-comfortable.
Several months of volunteering on Wed.s and we were bringing more and more AHYEAH youth, but when school and sports kicked in, many of the West Tulsa youth stopped coming. Then track and school got hecktic with the Ashley the leader everything dispersed. Grunt.
July 4th - 4th of July Fireworks
We felt the first step was for the leaders to begin working with Pastor Welch and build relationships with his youth. Beginning on July 2,2008 Jesse (a youth leader at AHYEAH) and myself began working together with Ashley, an ORU student who was volunteering her time to the ministry in West Tulsa. We would go hang out with them doing projects, bible studies, and playing football with them every Wed.
Our plan was for the leaders to build relationship with the youth, then start bringing some of the AHYEAH youth to hang out with them. Then after the AHYEAH core had built friendships with them, bring the urban youth to hang out at AHYEAH. This way they would already know the leaders and core youth and feel semi-comfortable.
Several months of volunteering on Wed.s and we were bringing more and more AHYEAH youth, but when school and sports kicked in, many of the West Tulsa youth stopped coming. Then track and school got hecktic with the Ashley the leader everything dispersed. Grunt.
July 4th - 4th of July Fireworks
Our 1st Independance Day with AHYEAH was tons of fun. We went to Liberty Church for there fireworks show, which was awesome. We met some more of the kids, and had an opportunity to goof off with them. At some point we wrapped Spencer in caution tape and put a chair over him. hehe. Then afterwards we went to Steak n' Shake for some milk shakes and watched Rhema's fireworks in the distance. Pretty sweet.
July 10th - Camp T-Shirts
We spent all night till 7am cutting stencils, spray painting, running to the store to buy more paint, drying, and having a blast. We cranked out 15+ shirts. They were SWEET!!!
July 11th
More youth brought us more shirts and we painted more!
July 14th-18th - Extreme Camp 08'
Camp was awesome. We rented two vans and drove to Texas, of course stopping at the Texas statue which I learned was an AHYEAH tradition. Everyday we had excellent speakers, great bands, powerful altercalls, and ended the evenings with concerts. After everyone had gone to bed, Jesse and I would stay up and talk about each youth and their spiritual growth brainstorming how we could continue to partner with them through this week.
We saw bands like Skillet, Kutless, and Sanctus Real. We played extreme sports including paintball, which was my first time ever. I did terrible, but loved it!
We got home safe, and the t-shirts were a hit. We had some growing opportunities, and I felt that the youth took them in stride.
July 23rd - Extreme Bash
We saw bands like Skillet, Kutless, and Sanctus Real. We played extreme sports including paintball, which was my first time ever. I did terrible, but loved it!
We got home safe, and the t-shirts were a hit. We had some growing opportunities, and I felt that the youth took them in stride.
July 23rd - Extreme Bash
Immediately after camp, we wanted to prolong the camp high as long as possible. So we had an event remembering camp memories. We invited everyone (not just camp attendants) and split into teams. They would run around the church from station to station completing challenges. The challenges were teambuilding games, low ropes challenges, and it all ended with a service where the theme was Living Life Stoked. It was powerful!
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