Week 1-Staff Training

Hello everyone! Let me tell you, it has been quite the week! I flew in on Sunday night and by Monday at 3pm, I had met over 90 new people. Talk about intense! Not only have I met many new people, the whole week we have been learning about all the intricate and important tasks and details that is crucial to facilitating a successful a and beneficial YouthWorks summer. We have been trained in everything from kitchen safety, youth ministry, serving the church and community, our specific staff roles, to games, and carivaning. All the while, we have been bonding with our site teams. :) The wonderful people that will be joining me this summer in Daytona Beach are Casey, our site director, Josh, our program staff, and Ben, my fellow service coordinator. So far, we seem to enjoy each other's humor and have been getting along well. We are anxious to see how things will go once we get on site. I am also anxious to meet the people of Daytona Beach! We will leave Saturday morning for Daytona and will have a week of prep, then we have the opportunity to get a feel for a program week by traveling to the site in Savannah, GA. We have bonded with the Savannah site team alot this week and we are extremely excited to serve along side them and serve the people of Savannah. When we return we will have our first week of program. I am so excited! :)

I can't even explain the way that I feel right now. The more they talk about YW and it's values and it's service and everything it stands for, the more passionate I become about this ministry. I truly believe in this ministry and the way it functions. I am full of joy!

The Lord has been showing me many things this week. It's been pretty intense and very overwelming, but I have a peace about it all. Psalm 46:10 has spoken to me in this time and has reminded me that I am not in control. The wonderful thing about working with this organization is that they know we cannot pour into people if we are not poured into ourselves, so they make sure that we have quiet time to spend with the Lord. There has been nothing better than that 30 minutes of peace and calm every morning with the Creater amongst such intensity and chaos.

Please continue to pray for the youth and their traveling safety, the staff and their nerves, and the communities they will be serving this summer.

Thank you and miss you all bunches!

In Christ,

Jessica

P.S. For a model "evening activity" we traveled to the Civil Rights Institute here in Birmingham. It was absolutely amazing. My heart was "messed up", as one of the full time YW staff would say.