Dog Days of Summer

I feel a little weird about the title of this post, if not only because I don't think we should be allowed to have them in the first half of the summer. But I'm no meteorologist... If there is anything these ridiculous temperatures have done, other than scorch our lawns, it has driven us to the lake to escape the dense never-seen-A/C air of everywhere I live, work, and drive. I think I've been to the beach more times this summer already than probably the last 3 combined. Living in a small town means that often everyone has the same idea, which for us means huge ministry opportunities. 


Over the past few weeks, we've taken kids hiking on the mountain, to the beach, and met up with them at the skate park, pier, and lots of other places around Collingwood. What an incredible way to reconnect with our youth after 3 weeks away for training and holidays. Being able to meet up with them, planned or informally, during these times allows us to remind them how much we care for them and how much we enjoy being in their presence. We talk a lot about the sense of family and community, and how we seek to build positive memories with our youth, and these connecting points that we all share together. 


We have about 8 youth that we see nearly every day of the week. It's amazing how our relationship with them grows when it moves beyond our drop-in or high school connections to really living our lives together. We spend lots and lots of face time with our youth, and that is an incredible privilege. We find out what is going on in their lives. We support them as they need to find housing, jobs, or reconciliation with family and friends. But far more important, we pray for them, and with them, and we share the hope of Christ with them, in hopes that they receive God's strength to persevere for even the next minute. 


Those type of moments don't typically happen in the midst of a busy drop-in program (although they do), or a quick stop to chat on the sidewalk. They happen when we spend hours and hours growing closer together and sharing in this wonderful, weird community. 


In a couple of weeks, we will take a group of our youth to CampFire. My goal this year is to have 10. I'll leave that in God's hands, but we know that regardless of who comes, they will become a part of our wider Youth For Christ family. They will join the mix of crazy laughter, poignant stories, and sometimes intense self-reflection. And through it all will be a mix of loving staff and new friends who welcome them, no matter what is going on in their life, and who will become a part of that youth's summer story. The dog days of summer are so much easier when we can live them together. We bear the humidity a little more gracefully, splash each other in the cool water, and look forward to our days spent together. And that is why I love this time of year. 

I'm Going To Punch Her Face In...

Anger is nothing new to me. I dealt with it many times growing up, and it's something I'm not proud of. As with any struggle in life, I still see it creep up from time to time, and have to deal with it before it rears its ugly head. Perhaps its the heat, or the stress of the end of school, but anger has been a common theme here over the last couple of weeks.

I used to think that being filled with rage was just a matter of youth not being able to deal with their issues in a constructive and healthy way (although there is lots of truth to that). But as the years and number of youth that I see increase, I have realized something really important: sometimes they have a lot to be angry about. There are members of The Door community who have been told by their parents that they were a mistake, and that they shouldn't be a part of their own families. There are youth who have experienced years of abuse, bullying and neglect. Labels, names, and rumours begin to take their toll on these lives and souls. 

I sat down with a couple of our girls this past weekend, and as we talked one of them said to me, "I'm on my third assault charge. If I get one more, I'm probably going to go to jail." She breaks the idea of who we "think" should be angry; she has a supportive family, she does fairly well in school, and appears to have it all together. It's amazing how often we miss the fact that any youth can struggle with this, even when everything else seems all together. 

One of the painful parts of being a person in conflict is that often we don't reason well, or in my case anyway, keep people at arm's length because we are ashamed of what is actually happening inside of us. This is the ministry environment that we are working in right now: a number of very angry girls who can't see things objectively, or have the courage to walk away from a situation instead of making it worse. I've been there, it's not fun. 

We want nothing more than for them to experience true freedom from this weight in their lives. We pray that while they can't change all of the circumstances in their life, they can begin to face them in a more healthy way, one that leads to resolution and restoration instead of causing more pain and brokenness. And in our case, we believe that the only way to experience this is through Jesus Christ - I know this to be true because I have experienced it. I have experienced coming to a breaking point and giving up my anger to God, and experiencing the grace of having it replaced with, well, grace. 

Some of this is just stuff that needs to be worked out as our youth mature. But we are so honoured to be walking alongside them in this difficult time of sorting things out, and pray that we are making an imprint on their lives, equipping them to deal with conflicts as they arise. And we pray that they come to know the freedom of giving it up, letting it go, and experiencing transformation and becoming a new person in Christ. 

Transforming a Generation... One Life at a Time.

I just got back from Tim Horton's. In what was supposed to be a 2 minute pit stop, I left 20 minutes later, having run into 6 of our youth and one volunteer, all there for different reasons. Maybe this is why some weeks I don't get much work done. This is one of my favourite parts about Youth For Christ, that we are not chained to a desk, or even a youth centre for that matter, since we have the freedom to meet those we work with right where they are. There are definitely times where they come to us, The Door is a prime example of that, but the rest of our ministry involves meeting them at lunch for Campus Life, grabbing a drink at McD's, or even just running into them as we are out and around. And that is where our best ministry happens. 


I once read through the Gospels where I focused on all of the times that Jesus was interrupted in what was "important" and "necessary" ministry. It happened a lot. Think about all the times that Jesus and the disciples were interrupted by those needing real ministry, now. People crashed into meetings, grabbed hold of him while he was walking, and even dug through ceilings just to get his attention. How differently we would perceive Jesus' ministry if He had said, "I'm sorry, you'll need to wait. I'm really busy right now" instead of acknowledging their need in that moment. If he had ignored those who were unclean, broken, sick, and full of sin, what would His ministry have looked like? Would there have been any ministry at all, or would it have been lost in the midst of a fantastic miracle? 


And of course, I can't think about that without looking back at the times where I have been like that. Times where my to do list has outgrown my "to care" list, my "to love" list, my "to listen" list. That's happened often, and sadly, sometimes recently. But as we head into summer, where we always get excited for how much time we have with our youth, I hope that I can keep Jesus' example in mind. Some of the best times of ministry are the times separate of any program, free of any need to impress anyone, and with nothing planned. Some of the moments when we can be most present with our youth is over the simple things, where little thought is given to what we're going to do next, but instead turns to each other, and towards caring about our friends. I hope I have more days like today. And I hope that I am aware of the Spirit walking alongside me to lead me into those areas of ministry, where Jesus can shine through me and allow me to unconditionally love and encourage those I walk with. Our statement here in YFC is "Transforming a generation... one life at a time." Today, that is a good reminder for me. 

The Chance To Connect

Yesterday as I walked to the youth centre, I saw one of our young women walking down the street with her mom. I crossed over to the same side of the street and tried to catch up to them. But, by the time I got close, someone stopped me, and I noticed the youth I had been trying to catch up with had crossed the street and were now walking towards where I had just come from. For a moment, I felt a little regret for missing the opportunity. 


Opportunities are something we seek out regularly here at The Door. We pray that God shows us opportunities to minister and to speak truth to our youth. We create space for opportunities to connect with our youth. And most of all, we seek opportunities to pray for them, to lift up their concerns, and to pray for positive change in their lives. And every single week, God provides us with these opportunities. Of course, whether we take them is up to us. 


The beauty of working with these youth over a long period of time is that often we can catch up on missed opportunities. I was able to connect with this young girl today, and I'll see her tonight. We'll catch up on what is going on in her life, I suspect I'll hear about her recent struggles with depression, how much she loves babysitting her nephew, and the next tattoo she is thinking of getting. And in the middle of all of that, we'll probably talk about God. She asked me recently if she could come to church with Aaron and I, and I'd like to take her soon. She will never know how hard I tried to catch her on the street, but I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to remember to pray for her. I pray that God continues to open our eyes to the small things around us, and that we are faithful in moving towards them. 

Trusting to Take The Next Step

*This is not me.

Lately, I've had the privilege of being able to hike... a lot. Normally, this is something I am ridiculously excited to do, but translates to little time in my schedule. Part of my now weekly (*!!!*) hiking schedule has included hikes straight up Blue Mountain. These aren't my normal take-the-chairlift-ski-down or drive-somewhere-scramble-around-on-top-for-a-while jaunts. No, they are start at the bottom, pick a relatively straight, steep line, and plod my way to the top. It's not pretty, but in the couple of months since I've been doing it I'm wheezing and stopping less, and appreciating the view more (as opposed to being doubled over, which is my usual stance). 


Of course, since there is some unwritten rule about this in life, my desire to get in shape (and complete a 5k race up said mountain, but that's a different story) was beginning around the same time that we started to face lots of challenges in our ministry with YFC. At first, it started small: our youth were apathetic about lots and didn't really want to do anything. Then, we grew worried that we didn't have enough volunteers to meet our programming needs. Then, our financial situation took a dive far worse than we had experienced before. And I began to ask myself the question, "Am I insane?" 


I grew increasingly frustrated with the mounting issues we were facing, generally feeling, well, like I was walking straight uphill. The things that I was used to doing in order to operate the youth centre or raise support weren't working or at the very least were made far worse by hiccups that were met along the way. And then, like I did when I first started hiking up the mountain, I plopped myself down and I whined. 


Thankfully, I work and live with people who have little tolerance for whining, but are graceful enough to not laugh at me or shut me down. They reminded me that I needed to focus on what was important, not on the muck that was gathering at my feet. And when I began to pray, to give the huge burdens up to God, I found I could get up and take a few more steps. I could look ahead and see a way to get around the obstacles that seemed so huge without losing my mind.  Honestly, the financial burdened was the hardest. It seemed for a split second like everything was going to shut down. It was difficult for me to give up, since my whole life and being seemed to balance on our ministry. But it was amazing, once I began to intentionally pray, how God would give me peace when I needed it most, providing small graces to get me through the next few steps. 


Of course, I'd be lying if I said I no longer felt anxious, but as I read yesterday, "perhaps anxiety is an act of grace because it encourages us to face our fears so that we can then choose to freely follow God where He is calling us." (source). That's one side of the coin, and definitely something that I resonate with. But the view and hope that I hold to is this: "Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hears and your minds in Christ Jesus." (Ph. 4:4-7)


Things are slowly turning around. Or maybe they're not changing at all and I am able to see how they are moving us forward and not back. We have more people interested in joining our volunteer team. We're blessed with a centre of youth that while they aren't always the most motivated, really value the presence of The Door in their lives. This has led to some incredible ministry opportunities that we would have missed otherwise. And our finances are slowly turning around - but it's been a lot of work. I feel so blessed to be where I am right now, with the people that I am surrounded with. 


So as I hike uphill, things are a little different now. I see what lies ahead. I notice those that are walking along with me. And most of all, I see the beautiful view. 

Stories From The Road: Ole, Ole, Ole, Ole, Monstro! Monstro!

Estadio Ricardo Saprissa Aymá

This is the second installment of our "Stories from the Road" series on Project Serve Costa Rica. 


If you were to ask me the most exciting and most terrifying hour of my life was, I might just say the football game that we took in while we were in San Jose. It wasn't for any real threat to my life or anything, but simply the sheer energy of thousands of people shouting and screaming in a language I didn't understand. But let me back up...


We had a surprise for our Project Serve team late in the week. Even our leaders didn't know what it was until the last minute. Our hosts had arranged for us to go to a professional football game. Aaron and I are not huge soccer fans, especially to the degree of some of our friends back at home, but in our minds it was like watching a Canadian hockey game: something that had to be done in Costa Rica. What was even more ridiculous was that the ticket's were the price of a latte at Starbucks, which is completely unheard of here. 

Miraculously we managed to find 26 seats in the same section. Thankfully, our hosts told us which team to cheer for. We were a few minutes into the game by the time we found seats, but it didn't take long to find out whether or not the ref had made a good or a bad call, based on the reaction of the fans. At one point, the guy in front of me cracked his head off of my knee as he threw his hands and his head back in disbelief at a penalty. Our youth watched wide-eyed at the spectacle of the game and stadium, and then something interesting happened. 

We got into it. As the ball neared the opposing teams goal, all of the fans started to stand up. At first, we stood up because that was the only way we could see what was going on. But then, we started to stand to our feet with a similar excitement as everyone else (keep in mind that we had no idea what the Spanish-speaking announcer was saying). And we cheered. And we groaned when the shot missed. When a player was downed by a hit, we talked about it as if we'd been following the team for a long time. We loved it. 


It wasn't a great game by our host's standards. And to be honest, I didn't know that there could be a scoreless game (didn't there need to be at least ONE goal scored in overtime?). But wow, was it an experience. It was a nice surprise in the middle of our week, and the team buzzed about it all night. And, it may have just turned me into a soccer fan. 

Stories From The Road: Costa Rica & Tico Time

As promised, this is the beginning of a series of updates focusing on our recent missions and camp experiences, in Costa Rica and Florida respectively.

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Our Team

I will be honest, I was excited to go to Costa Rica at first, simply because it had been on my short list of travel destinations. We had looked at honeymooning there, and ever since, I've been itching to go. Of course, as Project Serve came together, my scope of interest became much wider, especially in the months leading into our trip as we got to know more about the country and the people we were going to work with. 

Some of our team had travelled quite extensively, others had never been out of the province, so there was an interesting mix of anticipation among our team. Once we landed in San Jose we drove straight to the YFC House, right in the middle of the city and identifiable to us only by a local restaurant called "The Spoon" that happened to be on the next corner. Stepping inside, however, was a different story. Once we entered, we were in a hub of ministry and community. Many people come through this house owned by YFC: some for ministry, some for missions experiences like ours, and others to volunteer with the staff. Though some had moved out for the week to accomodate us, normally a handful of YFC staff live at the house, and from there minister through a variety of outreach programs, including their new skate outreach called SK8M.

Costa Rican & Canadian YFC Staff

One of the elements of our morning was "Tico Time". Ticos are what Costa Ricans call themselves, and for our team, this time was a time for them to encourage and share their hearts with us. Of course this was only a small part of our tico experience. Our hosts did a fantastic job encouraging community in our team. Early into our trip, they set up "Facebag" for us, recognizing that we were unplugged from Facebook for the week (the horror!). Reminiscent of Valentines bags that we all put on our desks in elementary school, it ended up being a memorable and meaningful way for us to encourage others and be encouraged ourselves. 

One of many, many van rides

By far, one of the most significant highlights for me was the unity our team experienced on this trip. Definitely, some of this can be attributed to the fact that we were together all of the time, but it was also very genuine. We wanted to be together. Like many of our YFC experiences, we incorporated small group time into each day, where smaller teams could talk about the day, and also focus on why we were serving and how this experience was changing our own lives. I know for many, this had great impact on their life and experience in Costa Rica. We became good friends with our tico hosts, and I think we will continue to develop a partnership and relationship with them. 

This was the basis of everything we did during our week in Costa Rica. I will be sharing about the work projects and some other specific stories. If we did not have this foundation underneath us, I'm not sure they would have gone as well as they did. I am grateful for our team and for our new friends in Costa Rica, they were an important part of this journey for me.

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To find out more about Costa Rica YFC/Youth Unlimited check out the following:

http://cryfc.wordpress.com/ (you'll need to translate this page if you can't read Spanish)

http://cr.yfci.org/ - Youth For Christ International's Profile on Costa Rica

It is time to catch up...

Ok, now that we have finished the crazy tour of February and March, we would like to take the next couple of weeks to catch you up on what's been going on. Watch this blog for stories from the road, Costa Rica, and SouthBound, as well as the amazing things happening at the youth centre. Remember those family slideshows after a big vacation? Kind of like that, only we won't force you to sit through a three hour tour...

One Month To Go...

It's been a whirlwind few months, and maybe this is going to explain why. In 25 days we are bound for Costa Rica. It's been just over a year since I last posted about Project Serve, so some of you might wonder if it's been off the radar. Quite the opposite in fact, 2011 saw one team go to Toronto, one team (made up of a few Toronto teams) do a work weekend in Huntsville, and team training beginning for our international trip this year. Our small group from Collingwood will  be joining a larger group from other youth centres to make up a team of 20 youth and leaders. 


February 12th we will be heading to the community of Cartago, located about an hour and a half outside the capital of San Jose, Costa Rica. While Costa Rica is a very affluent nation, the gap between the rich and poor is wide, and poverty is a significant issue in the community that we are working in. Our team will be partnering with a local church to build a room onto their building, and it will be used for serving meals to the community, outreach programs, and a variety of other things. 


What makes this trip unique is not the work that we are doing, but the partnership that we will have with Youth For Christ Costa Rica while we are there. There is a team of Costa Rican youth that will be joining our youth and we'll be working as a team for the week that we are there. What an incredible experience! For many of our youth, Project Serve has challenged them to grow in their practical skills, leadership, teamwork, and life skills, and it has made lasting friendships. 


We will definitely keep you updated as we return from the trip. If you would like to join us by financially supporting us, please use canadahelps.org, and after selecting "Donate Now" use the drop down menu beside "Fund" to select "Project Serve Mission Trip", then in the box beside "Message" type "Collingwood". Or, you can send cash or a cheque made out to Highlands Youth For Christ to the following:


Highlands Youth For Christ
9 Centre St.
Orangeville, ON
L9W 2W9

Please include a note that says "Project Serve Collingwood", and know that 100% of the money you donate supports the Collingwood team. 

We are so grateful for your support! We are looking forward to seeing lives changed as we serve the world around us!

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Check out our Facebook page for this group at https://www.facebook.com/costarica2012