steal your heart away

SPRING BREAK

2010-03-25T18:04:00.000-07:00

So I know that I have not updated in a very long time, and I am sorry for that. I think I even forgot I had blog for a while. But I have some exciting news to share. If you have seen my facebook recently, then you will most likely know that the camp I work at gets to take 11 of our middleschoolers on a trip to New Mexico for spring break this year. It seemed so far away, but I can't believe that it is now just around the corner! My co-workers and I made a pdf poster with info about the trip and how people can help donate, but, sadly, I cannot figure out how to post it on here. So the next best thing is to copy and paste the info.

The trip is less than 2 weeks away, but we still need to raise $1000-$2000 more. We can still accept money after we go on the trip, so if you are feeling particularly charitable, then here is an amazing opportunity! What better way to really try and engage with our kids on a spiritual level, then by taking them away over Easter and teaching them the true meaning of the Holiday. So this is what the pdf says (if you want a copy to show to people, let me know and I can email it to you!):

"Last year donors made an incredible trip happen for 21 Camden kids. This year we are hoping you can help us pull it off again. From the 3rd to the 8th of April, we have an awesome opportunity of taking 11 kids and 5 staff from our camp to Albuquerque, New Mexico for a spring break they will never forget.

On a weekend trip to Pennsylvania, one of our fifth graders refused to believe it when we left Camden--he had never been out of the city before. Imagine the excitement of being over 2,000 miles from home for eleven more kids like Ricardo! Even the plane ride offers a new and exciting adventure!

Some exciting plans we have include:... See more
- Hiking through the Sandia Mountains
- Camping under the stars
- Exploring the dunes of the White Sands desert
- Staying for 2 nights at Fort Lonetree Camp, which includes rock climbing, horseback riding, archery, zip line, and many other outdoor activities

We need to raise $9,000 to make these plans a reality. This includes $360 for each plane ticket and $90 a night at Fort Lonetree, as well as money for food, gas, and other necessities.

Without your help, this trip will not be possible. By sponsoring part or all or a child's trip, coming up with your own unique fund-raising strategy, or giving whatever God has placed on your heart, you can be a part of this amazing experience. Every gift, idea, or prayer is a tremendous blessing.

Ways you can donate are:
- Sending a check, made payable to UrbanPromise Ministries, with "Grace spring break trip" in the memo line, addressed to Garrett Poper, c/o P.O. Box 1079 Camden, NJ 08105.
- Online at http://upusa.servicenetwork.com/Donate2.asp?Purpose=UP&AdCode=CSP , making sure to put "Grace spring break trip" in the tag line.... See more

If you have any questions you can contact Garrett at 505-417-9767. Thank you for all of your love and support!!

Garrett, Lizzie, Matt and Rachel"

Thanks for being a trooper if you read all of that! I hope that you are all doing well and that you are enjoying this beautiful spring that God is blessing us with :)

Rach

2010-01-27T07:57:00.000-08:00

So we've officially determined that we're going to New Mexico for spring break! All of the older kids camps went there together last year, and we decided it was the best option for our camp to go back this year. We'll be by ourselves and take about 12 kids, so it'll be nice and small so we'll have a lot of fun activities planned. Plus, it helps that my director, Garrett, is from NM and can hook us up with lots of awesome things to do. We do, however, have to all start thinking seriously about fundraising for the trip. We're thinking the trip will cost about $8500 total, and I think we already have about $3000. So If any of you are feeling particularly charitable, let me know!

On another note, we had the junior high all-nighter on Friday night. 60 kids- skating, bowling, pizza, hanging out in the gym, bus scavenger hunt thingy at 4 in the morning. No sleeping, for anyone, whatsoever. It was actually a lot of fun. I started dying a little in the middle, but when we got on the bus for the relay I woke back up a bit. The kids all seemed to have a good time too. I thought 2 1/2 hours at a skating rink was a bit long, but they enjoyed it. I think one of my highlights though was all of my camp kids dancing to all of the music at the bowling alley: cotton eye joe, the electric slide, the macarena, etc. All very entertaining. And the bus rally (haha I think that's the 3rd different way I've referred to it) was really fun. We split up into 2 teams where we had different spots to go to around the city. The kids picked the order in which to go, and then we rode on buses to the different spots and all had to run out and do a task (jumping jacks, sing "funky chicken", do "the jerk") while someone took a picture. Sadly, my bus lost, but that means that my streetleader, Hassie, would get pied in the face, so that's not such a bad loss, ha.

It took a day of sleep to recover, and now things are back to normal. Camp has gone well the past two days. We managed to suspend 3 kids from camp today because they were acting up a lot yesterday. It's always a shame to have to suspend kids, but I guess they won't really learn otherwise.

So here's some pics from the all-nighter:

2010-01-18T12:11:00.000-08:00

I'm really bad at this whole blog thing, I've decided. I'm sorry for all of you who check this every day (*cough*Katharine*cough*)in eager anticipation of a new post. I barely have internet these days, and when I do, I never feel like writing anything. But that makes it more special when i Do write...right??

Anyway, things are going well here. Still keeping busy. When we got back from Christmas vacation we had a week of activities and seminars/classes, ended by a intern/streetleader weekend retreat. The retreat was really fun. We went to a place called Camp Haluwasa (or something.it means "hallelujah what a Savior" in some language). On friday night everyone got together to play a big game of hide-and-go-seek. So much fun. It was also cool getting to know some of the streatleaders who I didn't really know at all.

Last week we had our 1st week of camp after the break. It was actually only the 2nd full week that we've had since I've been here, meaning we had camp Monday through Thursday, without any half-days of school, or other things getting in the way of a normal camp day. It's crazy...the kids here are always having days off of school for no reason. I hear that this semester will be a lot more consistent in the schedule, though. We had so much last semester keeping us from a normal week of camp- the banquet, the summit, Thanksgiving, etc. So it will be nice to have a more consistent schedule this semester, without so many big projects to take on.

This weekend was very busy but lots of fun. Friday night all the camps got together and took about 50 kids to see Peter Pan in Philly. I love Peter Pan (J. M. Barrie being my author in my senior English class...). All of the little kids enjoyed it so much. The stage was really cool and kind of in the middle of the auditorium so that the seats wrapped around it and everyone saw the play from a different angle. It was really interactive too. My kids who went, the 5th and 6th graders, were a bit too old and "cool" for it though, I think. The one girl in my camp I was sitting next to, Tyannie, kept yelling out different things like "Smee! Smee!" Or, as Peter and Wendy stood on the stage above us, sweating, "Yo, he's drippin! Hey Peter- You drippin!" It was a good play none the less :)
So all of the camps go on Spring Break for about a week to a destination of their choice. We've been deciding what to do, and how to raise money for it. Jessie, who works at my camp with me, is from Jersey and so on Sat morning her little sister and people from her youth group came to get a tour of Camden, hang out with some of our kids and have some lunch. They are thinking of helping us raise money for spring break, so it was cool for them to come and see some of the kids they'd be raising money for. We played some pool, Uno, and some hockey, which made me realize I am extremely out of shape, ha.
Saturday night I went with Chad and Matt Williams to see Turning Violet Violet play in Philly. It's this new, up and coming band that's awesome...and also happens to have my sister and brother-in-law in it. (Keep your eyes out for them!) So that was a fun night, I always love to see Sarah's band play :)
The not-so-fun thing was having to get up at 6:30 the next morning for church. It was an intern Sunday which meant that we all had to go to a church about 45 mins away to work for 3 services and try and sell our t-shirts and get people to fill out pledge cards. Some of the interns and I were in charge of leading the children's church for all 3 services which was fun but very exhausting. 3 rounds of skits, songs, a Bible message, and games with 1st-5th graders takes a lot out of you. When I got home I passed out for like 2 hours which made everything better :)

So now it's a new week. No camp today because it's MLK day...so we're gonna go hang out with our streetleaders in like 30 mins. Don't know what we're doing but hopefully it'll be fun. A lot of the streatleaders at my camp have left and so we have new ones, so it'll be good to get to know them better.

So things I can use prayer on...1st of all, that I continue to connect with my community her in Camden- with my housemates, with my kids, with my other co-workers. Sometimes when you're in a place for a while, it's easy to become complacent about things. Or when you do the same thing every day, it becomes a routing and you forget to treat every day as new and exciting. Pray that I continue to live everyday with dedication to these kids with energy and excitement. Plus, we're trying to really push the idea to our kids that when they ask God for something, he will provide. That he is there and he can do anything. He can move mountains. I think I need to work on believing that better myself before I can convince these kids it's true.
Second, that I would have a direction for this summer and for next year. There's so much that I want to do this summer, but I have no money. It sucks realizing that you can't do all the things you want to if you don't have the money to do it. Stupid money. And I have an idea for what I want to do next year, but I just want to really feel God pulling me in a specific direction. I don't want to do something just because it's the best option I have, but because it's the right option.

So there's finally a bit of an update for you. I can't promise I'll start writing more on here, because I know myself. But I'll try my best. Hope everyone's doing well and enjoying your January.

Love you all,
Rachel x

PS if any of you who read this would like to contribute financially to my year here, or to our spring break trip, you can go to http://upusa.servicenetwork.com/donate.asp ... choose general donation and you can either put "Rachel Allen" or "Grace Spring Break Trip" in the memo box. It would be much appreciated! :)

2009-12-21T09:59:00.000-08:00

I'm sorry I haven't updated in like a billion years. I've been busy, and whenever I've had time at to go online at Urban, I have been too lazy to update. I'm home for Christmas break now, so I don't really have an excuse. But since I'm still lazy, I'm gonna use an excuse anyway, and say that I just got home, so I'll update for real in the next couple of days. I promise.

2009-11-26T08:12:00.001-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. For real this time.

Only one more round of turkey to go :) (...apart from the leftovers)

2009-11-20T09:27:00.000-08:00

Let the week-long Thanksgiving celebrations begin. I will have a total of 5 Thanksgiving dinners this year: Friday, Saturday, Monday, Tuesday and, of course, Thursday (with my family!!). Each of the afterschool sites hosts a dinner for the kids and their families. My camp's dinner is tonight. We're combining with camp Saved (one of the little kids' camp), so we're expecting close to 150 people. It's gonna be a hectic week, since all the interns have to prepare and help out at all of the dinners, but I'm really looking forward to tonite.

My mom and Dave are coming tonight to help out, so I'm excited they'll get to meet all of my kids. We told the kids that they must bring an adult to come, because we're trying to stress that this is a dinner for their whole family. I barely have met any of the kids parents, so I'm interested to meet all of them and get a bit more of a glimps into their lives apart from what I see at camp every day.

We have off from Wednesday to Monday, so it will be really nice to spend time at home and relax...oh, and recover from so many turkey dinners. I better start loosening the notches on my belt now! ha.

2009-11-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

This has been a pretty good week. On Wednesday, the kids didn't have school, so we decided to take 11 of them on a trip to Philly for the afternoon. We were planning on playing "red light, green light" on the art museum steps, or going into the Comcast building to let them see the massive screen thing in there. But it was a MISERABLE day, so we thought that going bowling might be better. I was happy we were going bowling, since I haven't been in a long time, and it would be fun to brush up on my skills from when I was in the Nickelodeon league with David (ha!). But after we picked up all of the kids, half wanted to go bowling, and half skating, so we took a vote. I don't know who really won, but we ended up in Millennium Skate World for the second Wednesday in a row. Although I had my heart set on bowling, and I had a skirt on which i thought might make skating difficult, it was a really fun afternoon. More kids seemed to get into it then the kids we took last week. And a lot of the kids who had never been skating before persevered the whole time. I have twin boys in my class who went, and every time i turned around, one of them would be pushing forward slowly, flailing limbs, and if he didn't recover well enough, would end out sprawled on the ground. But neither gave up...they would get right back up and try again. I think about all the times I used to go skating as a kid and realize that where I take these memories for granted, most of these kids wouldn't be able to go skating if it weren't for Urban. It still amazes me every day how many opportunities Urban provides for these kids that they otherwise wouldn't have.

Last night we had our weekly intern class. This week was on conflict resolution. Thankfully, by God's grace, there haven't been any major conflicts in either of the intern houses in the 2 months that we've been living here (that I know of). But Dana, the StreetLeader director, came and gave us really good pointers in how to manage conflicts with people, especially in our houses. I'm not really one who is good at resolving conflicts. I guess maybe I thought I was, but I' definitely more prone to be passive-aggressive towards a person over telling them what they are doing that upsets me. This is something I've realized I really need to work on this year. My stubbornness and passive-aggression has caused too many problems (and conflicts of their own) in living situations in the past, and so hopefully I will be able to work on being open with people, with misinterpretations and miscommunication, so that we all can continue to live together and love each other as brothers and sisters. I really value the housemates God has blessed me with this year and pray that we will all strive to live in a loving an open community with each other.

And now for some pictures!

Ashley, Kelly, Angelica, Moochie, and Dariana in opening program

James doing a flip in the pool at the hotel during the Messiah College trip

Me and my housemates

Moochie, Kelly, and Arlenne at camp

Playing games downstairs before snack time

2009-11-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

Man, I've been busy lately. We had our first normal day of camp today in what seems like forever! It was really nice to be back. Last week was the annual summit, where staff from all the different UrbanPromises (Wilmington, Toronto, Vancouver, Honduras, Malawi) get together and have a 2 day long conference. The summit was really good and it was awesome to get to meet so many people doing similar things in other parts of the world, but 2 days of meetings and workshops from 8am-6pm takes its toll.

Since we didn't have camp on Thurs or Friday because of the summit, we had a "special week" for the kids. We got to take some of them to a park in Collinswood on Tuesday which was fun. I taught some of the girls "Pooh Sticks"- where you pick a stick and drop it in the water on one side of a bridge, and whoever's stick comes out the other side first wins. They seemed to enjoy it, but we were all quickly distracted by the urge to want to climb some nearby trees.
On Wednesday we got to take our 6th graders roller skating, since they didn't go on our trip to the haunted house or the weekend to Messiah College. Some of them had never roller skated before and weren't too fond of it, but all the kids seemed to have a good time, even if it was just to hang out and eat lots of nachos. I hadn't been roller skating in sooo long, and it reminded me of the days when we would go skating with AWANA, and I would win the limbo competition (and therefore a free soda!) every year. I didn't do so well on the skates this time around, but when i switched to blades it was like going back to when Sarah, David and I would roller blade around our neighborhood all the time.

So as I said, today was a normal day of camp. Since it was nice out, we got to take the kids to the park down the street, where i helped some of the girls make a giant pile of leaves at the bottom of a slide. The kids took turns barreling down into the pile, which was entertaining to watch. The rest of camp went as smoothly as could be expected...there were the usual kids who claimed they didn't have homework, and refused to do a worksheet, and the kid who sits at the girls table and annoys them the whole time, and me trying to get him to focus on his own work (and failing). But overall it was good. We also had camp night, where about 10 or so kids stay after, hang out, and we make them some dinner. I like camp night because I feel like I can hang out with the kids more easily without feeling like I'm always telling them not to do "this" or "that".

I'm sorry I haven't really posted much lately. As I said before, I don't have internet at home, and I'm usually too lazy to write a post when I'm at Urban. I'll try to be better! I just wrote my 2nd news letter, and I think I'm gonna start posting them on here regularly. That way, those of you over-seas can get them without me having to mail them to you!

I hope everyone's doing well and enjoying this beautiful autumn!!

no internet :(

2009-10-29T17:54:00.001-07:00

So I've lost my internet at my house for the past couple weeks, and thus the lack of update. I'm very sorry! I have lots to update on, too. Right now, however, I have to help set up for our "harvest carnival" that we're having for the kids tomorrow night- a bunch of 5th and 6th graders in a gym with lots of games and prizes. It's gonna be chaos but lots of fun. We're also taking 4th and 5th graders to Hershey Park and then to Messiah College on Saturday and Sunday (more chaos!), but hopefully I'll be able to find time to update before the weekend ends.

I hope everyone is doing well! And that you all have a lovely halloween :)

Dance Party

2009-10-16T07:14:00.001-07:00

Yesterday was a good day. For internal community service in the morning, I was working with Josh to get things together for the harvest carnival coming up in a couple weeks. The harvest carnival is where a bunch of kids from each camp come and each camp runs different carnival games which are spaced out in a big game. So yesterday I went with Josh to Wal-Mart and the dollar store to pick up things we need, like streamers, face paint, jars to put goldfish in, etc. Pretty fun for "community service". I even got to pick up a washing-up basin for our kitchen sink (even tho everyone was like 'why the heck is there a bucket in our sink??'). And for lunch Charlotte and I made my Rachel Allen recipe- pasta with spicy sausage and cream. mmm. That's always a winner right there.

Camp went really well too. What DID suck tho, was that it was FREEZING in the building (as well as outside, since it was pouring rain). I think rainy days are prone to have kids bouncing off the walls, but we were able to get the kids energy out by having a dance party at opening program. We started with individual competitions. I went up against Choppy, one of the boys (who actually lives in the house next door to me), as "worst dancer". Sadly, I didn't win, but I still think I was worse. There were lots of other dance battles, and you can see some pretty sweet dance moves by the leaders on my facebook. Soon, all of the kids were up and dancing and going crazy. By far, the best thing was Michael doing two backflips in a row :

We also have an intern class every Thursday night. This week we had the StreetLeader director, Dana, come and give us personality tests and tell us about what each thing means. I found out that I am an I.N.F.P. Than means introvert, intuitive, feeling, and perceiving. You can ask me what that means if you're interested. But the description it gave seemed pretty accurate. It was interesting to see where everyone else fit as well. I'm not really a fan of those types of test ("there's no right answer..." etc), but it is surprising how insightful it is into why you behave a particular way.

So now it's the weekend, which is always exciting. No camp on Fridays, so they're usually pretty relaxed. Hopefully we'll still be able to hang out with some kids this afternoon, though. And I might go with some of my kids and leaders to a youth group they go to on Saturday nights, which should be fun. I hope everyone has a good weekend. I want know know what fun things people do- I miss you all and want to hear about your lives too!! So keep me updated :)

2009-10-13T16:05:00.001-07:00

So I'm sure you're all wondering just what exactly my internship here consists of. Well, my after school program (Camp Grace!) is located in north Camden and I work there with 3 other people I live with. We also have an intern director and 4 or 5 "street leaders", who are Camden highschool students employed by Urban to help out at the different programs. Everyone I work with is awesome. The street leaders are all 11th/12th graders and are hilarious. When we have opening program at camp, they can often be seen doing crazy skits, or dancing while dressed in ridiculous clothing. I think all of the interns find them just as entertaining as the kids.

The kids at Grace are great. I heard so many stories about how “Grace kids” are the trouble makers, and how out of all of the camps that they are the toughest to deal with. That being said, I went to camp the first day with some apprehension, but I have grown to love all of the kids over the past few weeks. There have been a total of 31 5^th and 6^th graders and about 10 7^th and 8^th graders who have come to camp since it started, so it hasn’t been without its hectic “I want to pull my hair out” moments. But for the most part it's been a great experience. Their favorite game when they arrive is "come on over", where they have to run from one wall to the other without being tagged. No matter what new games we try to play we always resort to it. And they love opening program, where we have am ongoing competition between the boys and the girls while we watch skits, play games, and sing camp songs. We also have snack, homework time, and a final activity (art project, science project, etc)- there's a lot to pack in to 2 1/2 hours!

Another thing I do during the week is 2 hours of community service on Tuesday mornings. There's about 6 of us who are currently working on a mosaic mural in south Camden. I've been working on the tree that you can see on the right side of the bottom picture. Across the tree it says "art will save us". Let me tell you, it's not easy to try and find tiny tile pieces to fit around the words, but doing the mural is kind of therapeutic. Plus, I cannot tell you how many people walk/drive by and complement it while we're working. Everyone who lives there is so appreciative in the initiative in trying to rebuild south Camden...one building at a time.

There's also lots of other things that I have to do throughout the week, but most of it isn't as exciting, and I'm sure you'll hear about it at some point anyway. Sadly I've lost my camera charger (thus the not-so-good phone pictures above), but when I get a new charger, I'll make sure to put up lots of pictures of camp kids and all my exciting adventures. So stay tuned :)

Steal your heart away

2009-10-11T07:57:00.000-07:00

While thinking of a name for my blog, I stumbled upon New Jersey's state song. I didn't even know New Jersey had a state song. Well, I won't go through all of it because if you are really curious you can look it up yourself, but the last 2 lines say:

"Each little town has got that certain something, from High Point to Cape May;
And some place like Mantoloking, Phillipsburg, or Hoboken will steal your heart away."

Now, I've never been to Mantoloking, Phillipsburg, or Hoboken, but I'm not so sure that any of these places would 'steal my heart away'. Camden, however, is proving to be very different. I've lived here one month, and I know I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. Filled with violence, poverty and crime, my heart is being stolen away to this city in need.

I hope that over the course of this year I can capture even a glimps of the experiences and stories I encounter- from living in a row home with 10 other people, to the after school program I help run in North Camden, where we meet in a church that's falling apart around us. God has definitely placed me here for a reason; I'm excited to see how this year unfolds, and I'm happy that I get to share my experience with all of you.