Highlights from Week 2

This past week was incredible! Somehow with only 5 of us on staff (instead of 13 the week before), we managed to be almost everywhere on time and only had a few minor hiccups- as in we ran out of milk halfway through the week. lol. But now that we've gotten an idea of how the rest of the summer is going to go with just the 5 of us, we know what needs to be done to make the week smoother.

There were several highlights from this week that I wanna share with ya'll (yes, I said ya'll):

We had one particular adult leader that we were very concerned about- she was a little bit spastic and temperamental at times and seemed difficult to handle at times. One of my life motto's though is to "seek to understand, not to be understood" so I took the opportunity to talk with this lady. I learned that while she is a little testy, she's been through a lot and she wasn't really that scary. She also opened her heart to me and shared that, while young kids aren't her specialty, she was incredibly touched by the kids at Kid's Club. God definitely altered my attitude towards her through our conversations and I was given the opportunity to wash her feet and pray for her at our Thursday night footwashing (every Thursday the staff washes the feet of the adult leaders and then the adult leaders wash the feet of the youth in their group).

The aforementioned lady's husband was also on this trip and he was most fantastic with the kids at Kid's Club. He is a huge guy and doesn't take crap from many people, but he's a real gentle guy and just loves on people. My favorite moment of the week was on Thursday afternoon. On Thursdays Kid's Club has "Big Fun Day" and this week it was all water games. Well there are two cousins in particular- Jesse and Austin- who are 12 years old and too old for Kid's Club. They come anyway and cause a lot of trouble. So Thursday we let them stay inside and play basketball with me and Dave (the adult leader) instead of being rowdy with the younger kids. It was going fine until Jesse decided he didn't want to follow the rules and tried to run away. Dave and I finally got him to settle down and Dave just spoke truth into his life- told him we loved him and that if he ever needed to talk that I was here all summer and then he gave Jesse his phone number. It was really great to see how firm Dave was with Jesse and still display Christ's love to him. I really wished Dave could stay the whole summer and just keep building relationships with these two kids because they respected him and he is the kind of role model they need.

One major almost- blessing was that because we were switching churches this weekend, the adult leaders decided they would stay an extra half hour Friday morning to help us move our stuff to Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church (it's only across the street from the other church). Unfortunately, some horrendous looking clouds rolled in and terrified us. I didn't actually see it happen because I was dealing with end of the week evaluations and stuff, but a few people said they saw the clouds rotating a little and both Brooke and Erin came to me all pale faced asking what we do in the case of a tornado. One of the adult leaders is a forestry dude and has to be able to predict weather for his job, so he was able to give us a real synopsis of what was going on in the sky. He said they were just like that because of the way they roll around the mountains. Weather.com didn't say anything about tornadoes either. Regardless, I wish we woulda taken pictures because those were the scariest looking clouds I've ever seen and for about an hour my heart got a pretty decent workout.... All that to say, there was a big storm system moving south of us and the adult leaders decided it was best for their groups to high tail it outta here, so they didn't help us move across the street. womp womp.

On an even more heartbreaking note: I realized this week just how much the kids in this city are hurting. Both Jesse and Austin come from abusive homes- physically, emotionally and sexually. Jesse's 10 year old sister, Brittany, and six year old brother, Skylar, also come to Kid's Club and just run rampant and don't pay attention to anyone. It's really difficult to get all four of these kids to cooperate at once, but we have learned that if Austin, Jesse and Brittany are allowed to help with the younger kids, they seem to work better. The problem is that they deal with their pain in destructive ways- Jesse is pretty big for a 12 year old and will lash out at anyone whenever he's upset; Brittany sasses back A LOT; and we just found out on Thursday that Austin escapes through Marijuana. He's only 12 and he's stealing weed from his aunt almost every Thursday. It just breaks my heart to realize that these kids are going through more crap than I ever will and the chances of them getting out of this cycle is incredibly slim. So please please please be praying for the youth in this city. They need Jesus real bad.

That's pretty much it for this week. God is moving in Newport and it's awesome, but the harvest is ripe. There is so much need here- so please be praying praying praying the city. Also be praying for team unity and rest for all of us this next week. We have 65 or so participants coming and we just moved to a new church, so pray that things go smoothly. Oh! And pray for my throat too- I have to use my "stage voice" every time I talk and I just feel like my throat is going to collapse. Thanks!

I hope this finds you all doing well. I miss you! Feel free to write/ email/ facebook or leave a voicemail on my phone to update me on your life.

~Sarah

Lincoln Avenue Baptist Church
Attn: YouthWorks- Sarah Scott
234 Lincoln Avenue
Newport, TN 37821-4048