One Week Down...

We made it through our very first week with youth! It was incredibly chaotic and quite the learning experience, but it was a whole lot of fun. We were supposed to have 4 churches come, but for various reasons only two could come, so we only had 33 participants. It ended up being somewhat of a blessing because it would have been even more chaotic if all 60-some participants were here. And it would have increased the chances of more people realizing we didn't know what we were doing. lol.


Despite the craziness, the week did go pretty well. Sunday the participants came and we fed them dinner and then split up the youth and the adult leaders for separate orientations. After that we all came together and held Club (kinda like chapel- with skits, announcements, worship and a talk).

On Monday through Thursday, after breakfast and devotions, the youth were split up into groups- half went to 'work projects' and the other half went to 'kids club'. At work projects, they were again split up into two groups- one group went to God's Storehouse, a huge thrift store in town, and they organized shelves and things. The second group went out to our friend Hal's work place. Hal runs a camp/refuge near the mountains for troubled people who need a place to stay until they get their feet on the ground. So the youth helped clear brush and trim bushes around the camp. At kids club, the participants helped run a two- two and a half hour program for kids in the town. They do crafts, skits, music, games and other things for the kids.

In the evenings after dinner, we rounded up the participants for an evening activity- Mondays we took them to Smoky Mtn Nat'l Park for a little site seeing and a hike. Tuesdays we took them out to Hal's actual house and attended a blue grass concert put on by some locals- Hurricane Ridge. Wednesday we took them to another friend's house to swim in Douglas Lake. And Thursday we went to the city park for a community cookout and games and stuff.

After the evening activity each night, we came back to the church for Club. Evening activities and Club are really the two things I'm in charge of, so naturally those were my favorite parts of the day.

It was really great to finally experience a real YouthWorks week instead of just learning and preparing for it. We, the staff, learned so much and have already worked on changes for next week. Plus we have to modify a lot because 2/3 of last week's staff has left to go to their own sites. However, yesterday we picked up another staff person for our site- Erin. She will be with us at least through next week to help us move from First United Methodist, the church we're in now to Lincoln Avenue Baptist, the church across the street (we'll be at LABC for the rest of the summer). After the move she'll stay with us until she is needed at another site (she's kind of a YouthWorks floater).

Anywaysssss... the schedule for the week stays the same throughout the summer, except on Wednesday evenings we'll be at LABC's youth service for the evening activity instead of the lake. I'll definitely keep you guys on highlights of each week

In other news, Erin, Erik, Brooke, Daniel and I went hiking to the waterfall again and saw a mama bear and her cubs!!! It was sooooo awesome! But thankfully they were just far enough away that none of us were mauled or anything.....

Taking a break at the waterfall (photo by Erin)

Stream on the path (photo by Erin)

Bear cub!! (ultra zoom photo by Erin)

Also, everyone makes fun of my 'accent.' lol.

Also- if you want to send mail (which I would LOVEEEEEE) my address here is:

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

or something to that effect.

Now I am going to go work on some things for next week. I miss you all and I hope this finds you doing well!!