Promiseland: week 1

It's hard to believe my first week here is almost over! It's been amazing so far. The Bauer's have adopted me for the summer and their family is so great. Beth and Karl have two girls, Mattie who is 11 and Jaynie who's 8. I've connected to both really well. Tomorrow I'm going to Mattie's choir concert at school and Jaynie begs me to play the wii with her and to give her art lessons as well.

Last weekend was my first official one at church. I had my Promiseland interview at 4, met with Erin (my division leader/mentor) at 4:15, was in my first group huddle at 4:30 and took the safety class at 5. When that was finished I got my official picture ID and Erin had me sitting in on what is now called a 'super' group (a medium sized group of kids) before I knew it. Sunday was pretty much the same thing...I went to the huddles before both services, followed Erin around first service to get a feel for things and then second service I spent the hour with a couple special needs kids. It was a little challenging, but fun!

This week I started at church on Tuesday. It was a long day (9am-10pm), but I had a lot of fun. I'm learning so much already and we're just getting started. I'm learning a lot of the administration stuff that goes on here, but I'm also diving in right away on the art stuff. Right now I get the chance to create signs out of foam core that will be used for the mega fun move up weekend when the kids will move up to the next grade. It's a huge celebration weekend.

Erin and I also had a couple of meetings to go to. One was all of the grade level leaders. It was cool to hear all the ideas they had as they strategized and discussed the pros and cons behind the medium sized groups. I know once I'm more connected to things here I'll be able to add to the discussion more. The second meeting we went to was the one I learned the most at so far. It was all the K-1 coaches, administrators and trainors who came together. Erin explained some of the background of the group to me before the meeting and share with me her goals and strategies on how to get things back on track. There had been so many different division leaders over the years that eventually this group sort of lost sight of any clearly defined role of their positions. Erin had them brainstorming verbs that defined each role. At the next meeting she wants to lay down some clear expectations for what each role (coach, admin or trainer) does or is responsible for on a given Sunday (or Saturday). It was cool to see Erin's goal and how she kept redirecting the group in the process as they strayed off coarse.

Erin's been filling me in on a few of the things she wants to see happen with me this summer as well. I know there are some things that I lack confidence in, but she's hoping to stretch me and see me grow in these areas. I know she wants the best for me, which makes the possibility of failing a little less scary.

I'll end this post with the list of goals that she and I came up with for the summer.

-Learn the art aspects of ministry
-Develop leadership gifts
-Build confidence and gain experience in recruiting
-Work on building interpersonal relationships
-Gain more experience and knowledge in special needs ministry
-learn how to lead in different aspects (large groups, medium to small groups, huddles, service times, etc.)
-gain experience in relational and administrative aspects of ministry
-learn how to lead or relate staff meetings

I'll add more next week...