Beauty and Brokenness, Scars and Healing

Quite the week this week. There was a lot of stuff going on that stayed smothered until the very end and made this seem like an easy week for those not directly involved. Every Saturday night, though, we have what's called say-so, when we all get together and watch the videos of the previous week and spend time talking about what impacted us most. This week's say-so was the most powerful of the summer.

But first, work site updates. This week was crazy with how much we were trying to get done. we had a roof-over on the house of e tribal elder named Harrison, a roof-over and a carport to paint at the home of the tribe's coffin builder Ray, a bathroom to finish at Leslie's house, and exterior paint job at the Adams' home, two walls to frame at the Dempsen's, the youth working at the home of another elder named Iola and painting a couple rooms at the Adams' house, and a crew building decks at Camp Chaparral. Yes, 8 sites in a week, 6 for the team alone. I was on the roof-over at Harrison's home, and the crew Beth and I were leading absolutely flew. we were finished by 1:30 on Wednesday, quite a feat when the crew leaders are trying to slow the crew down so we can stay out in the community longer. The Adams' house was done by around lunchtime on Friday, Leslie's house was a one-and-a-half day job, the Dempsens' walls were done by the same crew as Leslie's floors, Ray's shop and carport took right up until the end of the workday on Friday, but they got finished. Iola's woodshed was completed Friday morning, and almost two cords of wood stacked by the end of the workday that afternoon. oh, I forgot to mention, there was a team in Warm Springs this week too. They painted the Early childhood learning center.
One of the most powerful things about the say-so was the effect kids' club had on people this week. as a bit of background, there are two separate locations where we hold kids' club. Totus Park in White Swan is the original location, and in the last couple years, the Sacred Road has started another in Adams View Park near Harrah. The people who have been working with Sacred road a long time have incredible relationships with the kids at Totus. They have been playing and talking with some of the kids there for five or six years, and seen kids who can barely toddle grow up. Because of the relative newness of the Adams View location, there are not those deep relationships (for the most part.) What this leads to is separation anxiety when someone moves, whether that someone is a kid or a staff member. Those most impactful stories this week came from the staff members who have historically worked at Totus, but this week were at Adams View. Stories of feeling ripped in two, because of how much they love the kids at both locations. Stories of realizing that they were trying to avoid getting really attached to the kids at one place because they felt they belonged at the other and failing because the kids were so desperate for love.
That desperation is what really breaks your heart. You see the kids that so need love, but are too afraid to get involved. They hang back at the edges of kids club and play a few games, but it will be a long time and take a lot of coaxing before they're able to trust.
prayer requests for this week: a sense of peace as we the interns prepare to go back into the rest of the world. After the next team week, we're done for the summer. Pray for the transition for the full time staff as well, as they go from a state of constant motion to relative solitude as the summer staff leaves. Pray for the kids at kids' club as the summer comes to an end and they face 9 months of limited contact with the 'Church People' they love to play with and who love to play with them. the ministry does not stop at the end of the summer, but the amount of work that can be done is so much less without the summer staff that it slows immensely.

An Intern on a Hot Asphalt Roof

There is a book by an author named Lemony Snicket called 'A Series of Unfortunate events.' This last training week has a couple days which could accurately be described by this title. on Tuesday  the 26th, I severely sprained my ankle while playing a game called steal the bacon with the youth group. On Wednesday, Justin and Taylor dove for the same Frisbee, after a ride to the ER and a couple hours, we ended up with Justin having 3 stitches over his eye, a nose broken in four places, and a concussion. Taylor got six staples in the back of his head. This left Justin and I out of action the next day, and I on light duty for the next two days. Justin then was barred from the roof for the upcoming team week. Essentially, the two of us were unable to help prepare for the upcoming team week, and we were down one  roofing intern (My ankle healed enough to work on the roof by Monday.) So, one of the major prayer requests this week is continued healing (we all seem to be recovering well.)
The Projects this week included a roofing project at the Dempsens' home on their home and on the clubhouse where they run an after-school program for kids in the community. At the same time, we were continuing a painting project there at the Dempsens'. The other crews were working at the house of a single mother on a roof-and-paint, and the youth group from the community was working on a shed at the Yarbroughs'. it was a long, hot week, but we ended up finishing the shed right on time, having only half an hour of work left on another, and finishing all but some cosmetic work at the third site.
Kids club went well this week too. Wednesday was the fourth of July, and kids' club is canceled every fourth of July for two reasons: one: very few people come. Two: we become targets for bottle rockets. Instead, we took the team to Toppenish to watch the fireworks display. Friday we had water games due to the heat (mid nineties.) Jesse and I both ended up utterly soaked. It was fun and entertaining and the kids laughed incredibly hard. It was great to see them laugh. They can be so somber when they show up.
There has been a focus this week on the family aspects of the teams. The teams that came this week included a group from Kentucky, a group from Covenant Presbyterian in Issaquah, and a group from True Light in Seattle, a mainly Asian church. On the night of the fourth, we were also joined by a number of the youth from the community. So, we had about 1/3 white, 1/3 Asian, and 1/3 Native Americans. We had some confused looks from people driving by when they saw a group of people that mixed all together playing, laughing, and watching the fireworks. The pastor from Kentucky put it well, I think, when he brought up the  passage about every nation coming together to worship the Lord. he called the fellowship this week a little foretaste of what heaven may be like.
Prayer requests: Healing for Justin, Taylor and I, Health and safety as temperatures soar this coming week (100+ the next 5 days), and passion for Christ that is seen by the community.