M-Fuge
So it's been a while.
...okay no it hasn't, it's barely been 2 weeks.
Anywhooooo.
Last night I got back from Nashville, Tennesee. I was there for a week with this youth group from a church in Milford called SonRise Community Church. My friend (her name is Lauren) doesn't have anyone her age in her youth group and she wanted me to come, so I agreed. I didn't know anybody except for Angie. Well that's not true, because I knew a lot of names/faces, because a lot of them go to my school, but I hadn't really talked to most of them before. So you could say I was nervous...extremely nervous.
We we were staying at Belmont University. For those of you who watch American Idol, it was the college that Melinda Doolittle (spelling?) went to/revisited, and the place where they renamed this "street" on the campus Melinda Doolittle Lane. And yes, I actually saw the Melinda Doolittle Lane sign. I got pretty excited =) Anyway, the drive down took about five hours, then we got there and checked in, dumped our stuff in our concrete dorm rooms, and proceeded to go to Walmart, where Lauren and I got mass amounts of Special K bars, water, Lean Cuisine, and this tub of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (that was a BIG mistake, we downed it within the first 2 days. So not healthy).
So this camp was called M-Fuge. There are lots of "Fuge" camps, such as X-Fuge (which is a camp where you spend the majority of the time doing fun stuff and serving others w/your youth group) and Centri-Fuge (kind of like Elevation with tons more people). M-Fuge was a mission camp. There were five hundred people there, and youth groups came from all over the country, it was so cool. Let me just be the first to say that worshipping with 500+ people was probably one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had. It's loud, insane, and completely sweet =) Anyway, there were six different Ministry Tracks you could choose from: 1. Social (interacting/serving all kinds of people) 2. Creative (singing, putting on puppet shows, and doing lots of other things for little kids and the elderly) 3. Games and Rec (basically playing games like kick ball, basketball, etc. with kids all week) 4. PCY (painting, construction, yardwork. Basically self-explanitory) 5. Peer (visiting juvenile detention centers/prisons/AIDS homes) and 6. Children's (basically, hanging out/playing with little kids all week long). I did Social with Lauren.
Now if you know me well, you know that I'm shy around new people. I mean, once you get to know me, I'm totally insane and not shy at all, but until then I tend to be kind of reserved and quiet. So when you're in Social (as would be expected, I mean look at the name of the ministry) you have to be totally cool and outgoing around/meeting new people. I only did Social because I didn't want to be all by myself and I wanted to be in Lauren's track group, but I didn't really want to to the track at all. So I find out what we're doing in Social, and whole going-up-to-strangers-and-starting-a-conversation thing, and I'm like "....Ohhh shoot, what the heck am I doing?!"
We met with our track groups after worship on the first night, and they seemed like a really cool group of people, so I was excited about that. Our group was called the Zoo Crew (don't ask, it's a long story), and there were about 15 or so of us. We were from all over the country: Ohio, Washington, Virginia, and Tennesee. Lauren, myself, and an adult leader named Julie were the only ones from SonRise. We were going to all these different places, and I was so pumped, but pretty nervous too. So here's a quick summary of my days:
Tuesday:
We went to a children's home/orphanage. Now when I tell people that, they all gasp and stuff, but you seriously couldn't tell this place was an orphanage. It's absolutely nothing like the movies, just let me say that. It was this pretty campus-like place with lots of cabins that five or so kids lived in with their "house parents", and all the kids would gather together for events and stuff like that. There were around 30 or so kids in the whole place, and it was obvious that they were really close. We made this massive-50 foot-downhill Slip and Slide with plastic wrap and tons of soap, and went down it with the kids, it was SO fun! We just talked with them and played in the pool, etc. etc. This one little girl named Natasha came up and just plopped down next to Lauren and me and starting talking to us, telling us how her brother had just gotten his driver's license, etc. We asked her where her brothers were (she had 2), and she said: "Oh, I have no idea. We were supposed to see them over the fourth of July, but it didn't work out." That hit me hard, because honestly, what would it be like not knowing where your 14 and 16 year old brothers were and not being able to see them for months at a time? She also had two sisters, and they had all moved into the children's home at different times, and been separated and stuff. And after all this, she was still such a happy person! That was what amazed me.
Wednesday:
We went to a soup kitchen in downtown Nashville. I'll admit, I was kind of nervous. I mean, we walked in, and they all stared at you, and it was rather intimidating. Our job was to take trays full of food and deliver them restaraunt-style to the homeless people, get their food ticket, and ask them what they wanted to drink. I encountered so many personalities, some people were friendly, some people didn't say anything at all. This one man named Atlas (is that a cool name or what?) was probably the sweetest person I've ever met. I brought him his tray, and he said: "Hi beautiful! Would you pray with me?" I'll admit, I was pretty taken aback at his total openess and kindess, but I said of course, and I said a blessing over Atlas and his food, etc. It was a simple thing really, but it had a big effect on me. Later, Pam (she was an adult leader in my group) and I talked for Atlas for a long time about his life. I don't want to post details here for everyone in the world to see because that's not very considerate, but if you ask me I'd be more than happy to talk with you about him. I'll just say that he had seen/been involved with a whole bunch of horrible stuff in his life, but he had found God three years ago, and was in the process of re-inventing his life and morals. He asked Pam and I to say what he called "The Sinner's Prayer", which is basically inviting Jesus into your heart, and even though he had already done that, he insisted that he needed to again, so we did. Again, small event, huge effect on me.
Thursday:
This was the day that we got to play with little kids =) We went to this massive park and some employees from a church called Grace Park were there, trying to do some outreach and interact with/get to know the parents and get them to come to their church, while we played with their kids. Simple as that. Lauren and I found this adorable boy named Bryn. He was three years old, blonde hair, huge blue eyes, round face, and absolutely adorable. He ran away from my friend who tried to talk to him, and then he ran away from me, but then Lauren and I decided to make him our mission, and we tried again. Eventually he opened up and talked to us and had us running alllll over the playground. He liked to play this game where he would go to the very top of the playset (which he called his car) where there was a steering wheel, and he would drive it. Then he would freak out and say that "There's no more gas!" So we would have to run ALL the way down to the bottom, fill up the "gas tank" with "gas" (wood chips), then run ALL the way up, and do it all over again 30 seconds later. Let's say that I definitely got a workout. There was also facepaint at the park, and we said "Hey Bryn, do you want us to draw something on you?" He had a different plan, and though it'd be better if he decorated us. Lauren and I ended up with paint ALL over our faces, it was absolutely hysterical. All the little kids (I'd say there were 20 there) absolutely adored painting us, and my whole track group went back covered in paint. I was so sad to see Bryn leave, and he was quite upset too. On his way out he was like "I'll see you later...right?" We insisted that we'd see him again, when we very well knew we'd most likely never see him again. It made me sad. Nevertheless, we all had fun, and it was one of my favorite days.
Friday:
We went to another soup kitchen and a nursing home. In the soup kitchen, we just served food to people coming through the line. Again, I encountered lots of personalities, because my happy/high pitched(my voice gets really high when I first meet/talk with strangers, especially on the phone... don't ask why.) "Hi there! How are you doing today?" was met with so many different reactions, some people didn't say anything, some people said "I'm doing great, thank you darling." A few said "Well, I'm alive, that's enough." After we were done serving, we sat and talked with them. We had to do the whole going-up-to-strangers-and-start-a-conversation thing a whole lot this week. It was hard at first, then it became much easier. Our leader, Dave, would say "Ok guys, go mingle," and we would have to go up to them and say "Do you mind if I sit with you?" then start talking. But seriously, I could hang out with homeless people all day long. They are very wise and have lived through SO much. They do most of the talking, which is fine with me, I'm a good listener. They're so open and honest, it's absolutely unbelieveable. Lauren and I sat with these two guys named Charles and John, who had known each other for years, and fought in Vietnam together. John taught me that it's not always the homeless person's fault that they're homeless. He fought in Vietnam, and they used this chemical called Agent Orange (I know I said Asian Orange before, but it's not. The guy had a thick southern accent and I guess I misunderstood. Thank you Chris for telling me that, hahaha) to kill foilage in the trees so they could see enemy soldiers. It turned out that the chemical was horrible for you, but it took 25-30 years to make you sick. So John got really sick in 2005, had to go through a year of chemo, and they wouldn't let him work for a year, so he lost basically everything. And all he did was serve his country! That seriously blew me away.
In the afternoon we went to a nursing home. It was ok, I don't like elderly people that much, I don't know why. Maybe they don't like me. I don't know. But it was fun, we had an ice cream social and there was band of 3 middle-aged men playing. They LOVED to get my track group up there telling jokes, dancing, playing piano (Lauren and I played Heart and Soul, hahaha). There were these two ladies working there and they got my entire group up on stage dancing with them. It was basically hilarious, and the residents liked it a lot. There was this sweet old lady who actually came up on stage and danced with us, and she must've been at least 85! She was so sweet, giving us all this advice, like "Stay in school, stay in church, stay close to God, and you're going to do so much with your lives." I absolutely loved her.
Friday night, back at camp, we had a Mega Relay, which is basically like 10 follies that we do at Elevation all jam-packed into one event. Our track group really came together and had so much fun. We all dressed up in black and green, had black and green bandanas, and put "war-marks" on our face with mascara, it was soo much fun =)
* * * * *
So that's basically my week. A special shout out to my Zoo Crew: I pretty much adore you guys, we most definitely had the best group. We encountered so much together this week, and it was my pleasure to get to know you. I miss you all so much, and you were such a huge reason that my trip was so awesome. I LOVE YOU!
Now don't worry, just because I went on a trip with a different youth group does NOT mean that they can EVER replace all of you. You guys are well aware that you're as close to me as family, and you are most definitely irreplacable =) I just thought it'd be a good experience to go, and it was. But I'll admit, it was weird be at a youth group camp without all of you.
Okay, this blog is so incredibly long. But I had a lot to tell, so there.
Tons of hugs and kisses,
<3 Gaburrayy
...okay no it hasn't, it's barely been 2 weeks.
Anywhooooo.
Last night I got back from Nashville, Tennesee. I was there for a week with this youth group from a church in Milford called SonRise Community Church. My friend (her name is Lauren) doesn't have anyone her age in her youth group and she wanted me to come, so I agreed. I didn't know anybody except for Angie. Well that's not true, because I knew a lot of names/faces, because a lot of them go to my school, but I hadn't really talked to most of them before. So you could say I was nervous...extremely nervous.
We we were staying at Belmont University. For those of you who watch American Idol, it was the college that Melinda Doolittle (spelling?) went to/revisited, and the place where they renamed this "street" on the campus Melinda Doolittle Lane. And yes, I actually saw the Melinda Doolittle Lane sign. I got pretty excited =) Anyway, the drive down took about five hours, then we got there and checked in, dumped our stuff in our concrete dorm rooms, and proceeded to go to Walmart, where Lauren and I got mass amounts of Special K bars, water, Lean Cuisine, and this tub of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough ice cream (that was a BIG mistake, we downed it within the first 2 days. So not healthy).
So this camp was called M-Fuge. There are lots of "Fuge" camps, such as X-Fuge (which is a camp where you spend the majority of the time doing fun stuff and serving others w/your youth group) and Centri-Fuge (kind of like Elevation with tons more people). M-Fuge was a mission camp. There were five hundred people there, and youth groups came from all over the country, it was so cool. Let me just be the first to say that worshipping with 500+ people was probably one of the most awesome experiences I've ever had. It's loud, insane, and completely sweet =) Anyway, there were six different Ministry Tracks you could choose from: 1. Social (interacting/serving all kinds of people) 2. Creative (singing, putting on puppet shows, and doing lots of other things for little kids and the elderly) 3. Games and Rec (basically playing games like kick ball, basketball, etc. with kids all week) 4. PCY (painting, construction, yardwork. Basically self-explanitory) 5. Peer (visiting juvenile detention centers/prisons/AIDS homes) and 6. Children's (basically, hanging out/playing with little kids all week long). I did Social with Lauren.
Now if you know me well, you know that I'm shy around new people. I mean, once you get to know me, I'm totally insane and not shy at all, but until then I tend to be kind of reserved and quiet. So when you're in Social (as would be expected, I mean look at the name of the ministry) you have to be totally cool and outgoing around/meeting new people. I only did Social because I didn't want to be all by myself and I wanted to be in Lauren's track group, but I didn't really want to to the track at all. So I find out what we're doing in Social, and whole going-up-to-strangers-and-starting-a-conversation thing, and I'm like "....Ohhh shoot, what the heck am I doing?!"
We met with our track groups after worship on the first night, and they seemed like a really cool group of people, so I was excited about that. Our group was called the Zoo Crew (don't ask, it's a long story), and there were about 15 or so of us. We were from all over the country: Ohio, Washington, Virginia, and Tennesee. Lauren, myself, and an adult leader named Julie were the only ones from SonRise. We were going to all these different places, and I was so pumped, but pretty nervous too. So here's a quick summary of my days:
Tuesday:
We went to a children's home/orphanage. Now when I tell people that, they all gasp and stuff, but you seriously couldn't tell this place was an orphanage. It's absolutely nothing like the movies, just let me say that. It was this pretty campus-like place with lots of cabins that five or so kids lived in with their "house parents", and all the kids would gather together for events and stuff like that. There were around 30 or so kids in the whole place, and it was obvious that they were really close. We made this massive-50 foot-downhill Slip and Slide with plastic wrap and tons of soap, and went down it with the kids, it was SO fun! We just talked with them and played in the pool, etc. etc. This one little girl named Natasha came up and just plopped down next to Lauren and me and starting talking to us, telling us how her brother had just gotten his driver's license, etc. We asked her where her brothers were (she had 2), and she said: "Oh, I have no idea. We were supposed to see them over the fourth of July, but it didn't work out." That hit me hard, because honestly, what would it be like not knowing where your 14 and 16 year old brothers were and not being able to see them for months at a time? She also had two sisters, and they had all moved into the children's home at different times, and been separated and stuff. And after all this, she was still such a happy person! That was what amazed me.
Wednesday:
We went to a soup kitchen in downtown Nashville. I'll admit, I was kind of nervous. I mean, we walked in, and they all stared at you, and it was rather intimidating. Our job was to take trays full of food and deliver them restaraunt-style to the homeless people, get their food ticket, and ask them what they wanted to drink. I encountered so many personalities, some people were friendly, some people didn't say anything at all. This one man named Atlas (is that a cool name or what?) was probably the sweetest person I've ever met. I brought him his tray, and he said: "Hi beautiful! Would you pray with me?" I'll admit, I was pretty taken aback at his total openess and kindess, but I said of course, and I said a blessing over Atlas and his food, etc. It was a simple thing really, but it had a big effect on me. Later, Pam (she was an adult leader in my group) and I talked for Atlas for a long time about his life. I don't want to post details here for everyone in the world to see because that's not very considerate, but if you ask me I'd be more than happy to talk with you about him. I'll just say that he had seen/been involved with a whole bunch of horrible stuff in his life, but he had found God three years ago, and was in the process of re-inventing his life and morals. He asked Pam and I to say what he called "The Sinner's Prayer", which is basically inviting Jesus into your heart, and even though he had already done that, he insisted that he needed to again, so we did. Again, small event, huge effect on me.
Thursday:
This was the day that we got to play with little kids =) We went to this massive park and some employees from a church called Grace Park were there, trying to do some outreach and interact with/get to know the parents and get them to come to their church, while we played with their kids. Simple as that. Lauren and I found this adorable boy named Bryn. He was three years old, blonde hair, huge blue eyes, round face, and absolutely adorable. He ran away from my friend who tried to talk to him, and then he ran away from me, but then Lauren and I decided to make him our mission, and we tried again. Eventually he opened up and talked to us and had us running alllll over the playground. He liked to play this game where he would go to the very top of the playset (which he called his car) where there was a steering wheel, and he would drive it. Then he would freak out and say that "There's no more gas!" So we would have to run ALL the way down to the bottom, fill up the "gas tank" with "gas" (wood chips), then run ALL the way up, and do it all over again 30 seconds later. Let's say that I definitely got a workout. There was also facepaint at the park, and we said "Hey Bryn, do you want us to draw something on you?" He had a different plan, and though it'd be better if he decorated us. Lauren and I ended up with paint ALL over our faces, it was absolutely hysterical. All the little kids (I'd say there were 20 there) absolutely adored painting us, and my whole track group went back covered in paint. I was so sad to see Bryn leave, and he was quite upset too. On his way out he was like "I'll see you later...right?" We insisted that we'd see him again, when we very well knew we'd most likely never see him again. It made me sad. Nevertheless, we all had fun, and it was one of my favorite days.
Friday:
We went to another soup kitchen and a nursing home. In the soup kitchen, we just served food to people coming through the line. Again, I encountered lots of personalities, because my happy/high pitched(my voice gets really high when I first meet/talk with strangers, especially on the phone... don't ask why.) "Hi there! How are you doing today?" was met with so many different reactions, some people didn't say anything, some people said "I'm doing great, thank you darling." A few said "Well, I'm alive, that's enough." After we were done serving, we sat and talked with them. We had to do the whole going-up-to-strangers-and-start-a-conversation thing a whole lot this week. It was hard at first, then it became much easier. Our leader, Dave, would say "Ok guys, go mingle," and we would have to go up to them and say "Do you mind if I sit with you?" then start talking. But seriously, I could hang out with homeless people all day long. They are very wise and have lived through SO much. They do most of the talking, which is fine with me, I'm a good listener. They're so open and honest, it's absolutely unbelieveable. Lauren and I sat with these two guys named Charles and John, who had known each other for years, and fought in Vietnam together. John taught me that it's not always the homeless person's fault that they're homeless. He fought in Vietnam, and they used this chemical called Agent Orange (I know I said Asian Orange before, but it's not. The guy had a thick southern accent and I guess I misunderstood. Thank you Chris for telling me that, hahaha) to kill foilage in the trees so they could see enemy soldiers. It turned out that the chemical was horrible for you, but it took 25-30 years to make you sick. So John got really sick in 2005, had to go through a year of chemo, and they wouldn't let him work for a year, so he lost basically everything. And all he did was serve his country! That seriously blew me away.
In the afternoon we went to a nursing home. It was ok, I don't like elderly people that much, I don't know why. Maybe they don't like me. I don't know. But it was fun, we had an ice cream social and there was band of 3 middle-aged men playing. They LOVED to get my track group up there telling jokes, dancing, playing piano (Lauren and I played Heart and Soul, hahaha). There were these two ladies working there and they got my entire group up on stage dancing with them. It was basically hilarious, and the residents liked it a lot. There was this sweet old lady who actually came up on stage and danced with us, and she must've been at least 85! She was so sweet, giving us all this advice, like "Stay in school, stay in church, stay close to God, and you're going to do so much with your lives." I absolutely loved her.
Friday night, back at camp, we had a Mega Relay, which is basically like 10 follies that we do at Elevation all jam-packed into one event. Our track group really came together and had so much fun. We all dressed up in black and green, had black and green bandanas, and put "war-marks" on our face with mascara, it was soo much fun =)
* * * * *
So that's basically my week. A special shout out to my Zoo Crew: I pretty much adore you guys, we most definitely had the best group. We encountered so much together this week, and it was my pleasure to get to know you. I miss you all so much, and you were such a huge reason that my trip was so awesome. I LOVE YOU!
Now don't worry, just because I went on a trip with a different youth group does NOT mean that they can EVER replace all of you. You guys are well aware that you're as close to me as family, and you are most definitely irreplacable =) I just thought it'd be a good experience to go, and it was. But I'll admit, it was weird be at a youth group camp without all of you.
Okay, this blog is so incredibly long. But I had a lot to tell, so there.
Tons of hugs and kisses,
<3 Gaburrayy