So, last Tuesday afternoon, all of us Children at Risk travelled to the nearby town of Sun Prairie to have orientation for what will be a regular local outreach. It is at a local apartment complex, where an elementary school teacher has started a homework club called Club Tuesday. We are going to be going every Tuesday from now on and being mentors to the kids. Some of us will be one-on-one with a child, helping them with their homework each week, and others will be going to the actual school and leading different groups, such as sports, arts and crafts, and music. I'm looking forward to it! It should be a really good ministry!
Last Tuesday there were only about 6 or 7 children at the club, since it was the first day. Therefore only some of us got to actually spend time with a child, and we did so in pairs. I was one of the ones who did get to spend time working with a child. I paired up with Anna and we were getting to know Tevin, a 5 year old boy. At first, he wouldn't say a word. He wouldn't even shake his head yes. Anything we asked him he would answer with his head shaking 'no'. His mom was there, and she would let us know the actual answer. So when we learned that his favourite animal was a horse, we each drew one and asked him what we should name it. We ended up drawing all sorts of different animals (and trust me, neither of us have much artistic skill when it comes to drawing!) and he would help us come up with names by the end. When it was time to go, Tevin was laughing and engaging with us, and talking. It was great! So when we were then told that we had to choose the one of us who connected to him the most, so that they could stay with him as his one-on-one, Anna and I couldn't decide. We talked to the leader, and since English is Anna's second language, and she doesn't feel 100% comfortable helping a child with homework in English, we get to stay together and work as a pair, so we both get to continue working with Tevin! We will possibly have a second child with us, but we're excited to work together :)
On Wednesday night, we all went out for a fun night of bowling. I am terrible. I definitely... yeah. I'm just not a bowler (let's just say that I had the lowest score of all of us... and it was not very high. Like, at all :P). But it was fun!
Thursday night we had worship night with the GMC DTS coming here to the TC to join us. We finished the time of worship with a screamo song that one of the leaders got from God for our DTS before the school started (if you are interested in hearing what the song says- cause its totally cool!- it is called Army of the Chosen One by Sleeping Giant. Or you can just look up the lyrics).
Friday night was our only night off last week, so it was good to just relax. :)
Saturday was an awesome day. In Madison, every year, they have a Halloween even called Freak Fest. This is a big festival on State Street, downtown, where they have music and lots of partying. YWAM Madison has 3 locations- the GMC (Madison's headquarters), the TC (where I live) and the Phos house (Phos=light), which is student housing for the University of Madison. The Phos house is located just beside State street, so every year, we have a ministry during Freak Fest. So we got to participate in that, and it was awesome!
Saturday morning was spent working on my costume -Kayla, Kenzie, and I were minions. I was in the last car to leave the TC. Anna, Kenzie, and I spent a few hours hanging out in Madison, eating lunch outside of the capitol before heading to the Phos house for our 7:30 orientation. Our ministry began at 10pm.
Basically what we do is have free hot chocolate and hot dogs for all the partiers. This year, we also had some couches and games on the porch, and big heaters so that people could get warm. Another thing that was new to the ministry this year was the question board. Basically, we had large plywood sheets each with a question on it (What is your greatest fear? What is the purpose of life? etc) and we would ask the people if they wanted to write an answer. This could possibly lead to deeper discussions.
We had two shifts -the first was from 10 to 12, and the second was from 12 to 2. During the first part of the night, I held signs with my friend Amanda, advertising the hot chocolate and hot dogs a little ways down the street. It was really cool, because I got to interact a bit with people. A lot of people would ask why we were doing this, and we would respond with "Jesus loved and served, and He wants us to do the same:" or some variation of that. A lot of people also thanked us. It was great!
Out of the first 5 or so people to walk by, though, one tried to kiss me ("Oh, do you have free kisses, too" as he grabbed my face) and one literally picked me up and started walking away with me. That was not so enjoyable, but I wasn't about to quit! Other than that, things were pretty normal.
During the second shift, I was on intercession. I started in the prayer room inside the Phos House (it was certainly nice to warm up! The temperatures were below 0!). After awhile, I felt like God wanted me to go outside, so I did. I stood by the side, in between the question board and the food station. I talked to a couple people at the question board, but mostly I just prayed as people walked by. At one point, I started singing, and I ended up singing a few songs that I haven't even thought of in years! It was cool :)
Freak Fest ended at 2am (old time, not new, thank goodness!), and so that is when we shut down, too. Its also when we ran out of hot dogs and hot chocolate, so that's good! We had a quick debrief, and then we headed for our cars. Kenzie, Anna, and I had parked on the other side of downtown, about a half hour walk away. So we walked in the dark, with lots of drunk and high people around us, praying the whole time for invisibility. And I honestly felt invisible most of the time! It was cool. We made it home by 4am old time, 3am new. We were all exhausted and just collapsed into bed.
Except I felt like God was telling me to get up and continue praying. So I didn't get to bed until about 4 new time. And since the Rescue Ops people got back home on Saturday evening, and they started getting up at 8 on Sunday (which woke me up), I didn't get much sleep!
So that's about it for what's been happening here! Our classes last week were about spiritual warfare (yay!) so I'll write a post about that soon. I hope :P
Oh! Funny story before I go. Because the Rescue Ops folks were not around, Christine, who sleeps on the top bunk across from me, slept in the other room, on a bottom bunk. One night, I dreampt that I woke up to her trying to grab something out of her purse, which was hanging off of her bed post. But she couldn't reach, so she was about to climb down.
"Don't worry about it, Christine," I told her, getting up, "I'll get it."
I got out of bed and walked over to her bed post. There, I felt for the purse, since it was dark. I couldn't feel it. I sagged against the post, suddenly exhausted (I think that this is when I woke up), and just then, Anna, who couldn't sleep that night, turned on her flashlight to grab a paper and pen. She saw me standing by Christine's bed. "What are you doing?" She asked me.
"I... have.... no idea" I said, feeling a bit dazed.
"You should go back to bed," Anna told me.
So I did, while Anna just cracked up laughing for like 5 minutes.
It was quite amusing. The next morning, when I saw Anna, I asked her if it had actually happened, and she just keeled over laughing again, because yes, it had.
So yeah. Apparently I sleepwalk now :P
Me, Kenzie, Anna, and Kayla. Minions, plus Anna was the Grumpy Cat (she just doesn't have her mask on right now)
This is the whole group of us Children at Risk! All dressed up!
Annika, Britta, and Kayla holding some of the signs
Handing out hot chocolate and hot dogs
We had a movie night on Friday, as usual. We also have a lot of ice cream, and so we decided to skip the bowls. This gallon was done pretty quickly- BUT I was also not the only one eating it!
We woke up one morning to Bible verses on our mirrors in the bathroom! It is so nice!
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Just the sky at sunset one night!
Blessings,Katie
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