Busy, Busy, Busy

My first week back in Philadelphia is turning out to be an incredibly busy one. I am still sticking to going to bed early and getting up early, which is helping me a lot, but each day is so full!
I had a full day of catching up on Monday before heading to After-School and then our Member's Dinner. Tuesday was another full day before After-school, then I headed to After-School and then hung out with Frankie for the first time in months. Actually, Tuesday was pretty exciting for the church. In the morning I attended a ceremony (that was on the news) where the DA in Philadelphia donated a house to us! The house has been boarded up for the last few months after the police raided it. For years it was a well known drug house, that now will be rehabbed and used to free people from addiction! We will spend the next few months rehabbing the house (it was damaged by a fire recently) and then AA and NA meetings will be held there, and we are praying that God will use it in amazing ways to free people in bondage. We are calling it the Miracle House, and I am so excited to see what God is going to do there!

I actually made the news myself, in South Boston, haha. While I was home over the weekend I was interviewed by the South Boston newspaper and the article appeared in the paper on Monday. The article was titles "Police Chief's Daughter Enjoys Work with Underprivileged Children in Philadelphia". While the article does not specifically state that I am support raised, my dad has already gotten a lot of response from it and he always makes sure to tell people that they can be involved. My aunt also got a hold of the article and is passing it around amongst her friends and church family in Richmond. I am really praying that this will open the door for me to gain more supporters. The response has been incredible so far, so we will see what God is going to do with it! (South Boston is in the bible belt and is full of people that want to be involved, at least financially, in missions. Hopefully, they will want to be involved with me, haha).

After-school started up again this week and its been going really well...although I forgot how draining it can be. I LOVE to program and the kids in it, but running it by myself is extremely difficult. I am taking it a day at a time and as tired as I am, I'm also having fun. After the kids finished their homework we all decided to work out together, haha. It was so much fun! I even had the kids running laps around the backyard. From there I went straight into Prayer Pals, which was really fun tonight. Carisa and I am implementing some new rules to the program that we are hoping will help control the kids and allow us to actually spend time with the kids rather than spending the hour trying to keep peace and discipline kids. Its going to take a few weeks for the kids to get used to it, but we are praying for God to do something big with it!

The difficulty of running the After-School program alone has really caused me to reevaluate my ministry. Actually, the Lord took me through a lot of that in Kenya and I am really praying through a lot of things, the biggest of which is whether or not to have the After-School program next year. At this point I would like to have that time freed up to be able to pour into more kids and teens one on one (going to their volleyball games, having them over for a snack and hang out, etc) rather than running a program. I have also really found myself LOVING working with people and being the behind the scenes person that you can depend on. In fact, I have always loved that and I really believe that is the role God has created me for. When I worked for AIM, Elizabeth ran things and I worked along side her as her support. When I moved to Cornerstone, I took that support role along side Carisa (and even Andy and Frank somewhat as I work with the teens) and I really enjoy that. I am much more comfortable, and I think better suited, for the support role. I would rather not be the one in the lead role. I have learned a lot from After-School, and I think the challenge has prepared me for the places God is taking me next, but I think its time for me to move on. I haven't made any decisions, but that's what I am praying through!

In the meantime, I have 3 1/2 months left of After-school and I am working on some new ideas to hopefully motivate the kids to learn, and actually enjoy it. Teen Club is the only other program that is starting up this week, but everything gets back into full swing next week. As of right now, I am the only female leader at God Squad, and I am adding Teen Club to my list of clubs. I don't know what God is going to do with me and the teen girls, but I want Him to use me however He wants.

My house is still an absolute mess...I haven't fully unpacked yet. I did make it to the grocery store, but that's about the only "personal" stuff I have been able to do. I get up before 8 and I work most of the day until I come home exhausted (its a good exhausted though...I actually get a lot done), so I don't really feel like doing much else. I'm banking on having some time this weekend to get my house together. Hopefully....