Where I am - What I'm doing

Where I am- What I'm doing

I know that everyone already knows where I am, but I’ve just recently figured out what it is that I will be doing. Because I just jumped right into this internship, it has taken several weeks to mesh out all the details of what I’ll actually be doing. So… here it is:

*On Tuesdays and Fridays I will be answering the phones and doing office work.

*I will fill in as lodge supervisor as needed

*I will be the case manager for 2 ladies living here

*I am also going to start mentoring two of the older girls living here

*And because I am the new intern, I will do whatever else needs to be done

Oh, and fyi, I started drinking coffee again. Life is just altogether too stressful and tiring to not drink coffee anymore. According to some of the little girls here at the Mission “coffee makes you short.” But, I figure I’m already short, so it doesn’t really matter.

In case anyone would like to send me some snail mail- my new address is:

1003 ½ South 8^th Street

Springfield IL 62703

Here are a few pictures from where I now am:

Inner City Mission

The Office... where I spend countless hours

In the kitchen- about to eat dinner

Just a few of the kids- waiting to eat

Two of the girls living here

Mystery and some of the girls were listening to music videos

New People, New Problems

New People, New Problems

I have been working at the Mission for a little over a week now. At first, I was really bummed out about being there. I just felt like I wasn't doing anything- like there was no point in me being there. I would just sit around the office, not doing much of anything. I guess I was just observing or whatever. But I just felt so useless. I didn't do a lot while I was in Kenya, but I felt like I was getting more accomplished there than I was here. We did home visits, I met with people, got to know people, I was learning the language... there just seemed to be so much going on. And then I get here, and all I'm doing is sitting in the office. It was really frustrating the first couple of days.
But, the longer I've been there, the better it has gotten. I really love the people I'm working with. They make the place a great place to be. And while there is a lot of drama going on with all the people that live in the house, the staff really make it a great environment to live in.
So, this shelter can house up to 13 families and, as of right now, there are no empty rooms. Apparently it is always full. As soon as one family moves out, another one moves right in. I think there are like 15 kids living there at the moment. And someone told me that that's actually not very many kids. I guess there are normally between 20-30 kids in the house at any given time. YIKES! That's a lot of children running around- a lot of mouths to feed- and a lot of little voices yelling and screaming. But it's entertaining.

So, I was watching some of the older girls (about 11-13) and noticed that they really just seemed to get lost in the shuffle of the all the drama of their parents and the obnoxiousness of the younger kids. And I was just thinking about how they need a getaway. They needed someplace where they could just get away, maybe one day a week or something- where they could just have some alone time, some girl time, a chance to relax or vent or whatever. So I've been praying about starting a girls small group- where we could just hang out, that sort of thing. I was going to talk to Becky (my field mentor) about it, but before I could one of the other guys that works there asked me if I'd be interested in the mentoring program. Apparently he saw the same need a while back with some of the older boys in the shelter and he started this mentoring program to get some of the older staff members involved with hanging out with some of the kids- just meeting with them like once a week, taking them out for ice cream, to see a movie, or just chatting, whatever really. And I told him that I had actually been thinking and praying about that very thing. So... that's totally awesome! I can't wait to start doing that, I think it'll be really fun.
Well, that's all the news for now. I'll try and take some pictures so everyone can see the place and the people that live there.

Sarah