Two Left Feet and Learning to Stop

Or perhaps I should say, two right feet. Our youth have been off school for sometime with exams and the turnaround to the new semester. And with winter, the group of us is starting to get a little stir crazy. Last night we went skating.

It was a great night, not too cold, and having dodged most of the nasty snow that was expected (although it was still a snow day), it was the perfect night to hit the outdoor rink. We had a few kids interested, and after Soul Food, we packed into our car and headed to the rink. I haven't skated in probably 15 years, but I didn't figure it would be too hard to remember. Like riding a bike right?

Maggie (not her real name) also hadn't skated in a while, but figured that she could dig up some skates at home, so when she met us at the rink, we had to share a laugh about the fact that she couldn't find matching skates, so she grabbed two right footed skates. How she got them the same size, I have no idea, but she managed to get them on and not skate around in circles. Craig (also not his real name), our resident tall guy, who has to be near seven feet tall, had many years of hockey under his belt and soon took off, flipping around backwards, and zooming in close to all of us who were far less skilled than he was. 

As Maggie and I slowly made our way around, I finally stopped my feet from wobbling, and was able to crosscut the ends. Stopping however, was a much different story. If I wasn't near a board, I would eventually slow down to a point where I stopped moving. If I was skating along the boards, I'd kind of throw myself into them, and grab on to stop. But if I tried to hockey stop, my newly sharpened blades would skid across the ice, sending me into a panic as I could feel myself tipping back, or turning backwards. It was not good. And Craig was eating it up. As he lapped me again and again, I reminded him that he should relish this moment of me looking like an idiot on blades, until I would get good enough to beat him. 

Aaron was trying to teach me the technique, and refresh my very foggy mind. It's just like skiing, he said, but I'm quite proficient at stopping when I'm flying downhill. While I felt frustrated at my forgetfulness of this once familiar and necessary skill, I didn't feel bad. At one point, Craig joined up with Aaron and I again, and started to show me what I should be doing. I blathered on to him about how easy he made it look as again, I felt Aaron grab the back of my jacket before I fell over again. But when I let him and Aaron come alongside me to teach me how to stop, I found that when I got over my own inability, they were both patiently skating beside me and I was making some lead in this venture. 

Before you think that I became a pro at stopping, I should tell you that I am still far away. But I can can mostly stop, kind of. My goal by the end of the winter is to know how to stop, and to be able to cover Craig in my ice flakes as I do it (I know, bad goal). Lately, I've been focusing a lot of my reading and reflection on our presence with youth. One of the things that strikes me over and over again, is that I have so much to learn from our youth. Some ways, such as learning how to stop, are practical, others, are much more profound as I've learned to be more like Jesus while walking along with our youth. We build memories together, we challenge each other, and we ask each other deep questions - and then we look for the answers together. And through the fun times like last night, and the difficult times when none of us have words to express what is going on, we grow together, learning to skate on our two right feet. 

Art Appreciation

In the fall, I posted some pictures of graffiti art our youth had done. Here are some of the other masterpieces that grace our walls at The Door Youth Centre:

 

Sketches and paintings done by our youth

Our Tape Collection - Recycled cassettes and paint = amazing!

 More to come...

2011... A Look in the Review Mirror

Happy New Year everyone! After a busy close to the year, and some much needed time off, we are back in action today, looking forward to the year that lies ahead of us! But a brief look back, as we celebrate some of the things that left their mark in 2010.


The past year was the year that our youth really took ownership in the centre. This was the first time that many of them wanted to be involved in the operating of the centre. For some, it was as simple as taking on small volunteer roles during drop-in, such as equipment sign-out. For others, it was adding their mark to the walls of the centre with a painting or a sketch. Others still gave fantastic input into special events at the centre. One young guy actually spent a night as an acting shift supervisor (closely shadowed by the real supervisor) as an exercise in leadership and to better understand just what our staff do. As our volunteers and some youth who were in the know went out of their way to challenge him with cleverly disguised bottles of ginger beer (from a distance they look exactly like a bottle of beer), he commented, "This job is hard! There are so many things going on!" And in December, when we had to rearrange the centre to accomodate some new media equipment, one of our youth visioned and directed the whole layout, making the place truly their's.


This was also the year when Project Serve really became a part of our fibre at The Door. While we had run trips in 2009, this was the year when we saw youth participate in all three trips: Toronto, Huntsville, and Mississippi. We saw so much growth in the group of youth that participated in PS, and they blew us away by the time we had completed everything. The level of committment they had to complete Project Serve was incredible! Now we have youth who want to go through the whole process again, and youth who are constantly asking when the next trip is. It's now a part of who we are at The Door, and it continues to be a great experience.


2010 was a year where we saw our partnership with the town and community around us go to a whole new level. We had some high profile events (like the Canadian Idol concert), developed stronger relationships with local service clubs, and got some decent press on local radio and in papers and magazine. We hope to continue to build this even further. 


And of course, this past year was a year when we saw God work in the lives of our youth! We had record attendance to Soul Food, and more opportunities to serve youth in meeting their practical needs. We had opportunities to pray with youth, to encourage them, and to challenge them, and it was incredible!


So with 2010 behind us, now we open ourselves up to where God is leading The Door in 2011, and expecting great things!