Hey everybody! I haven’t written since I’ve been down here so I
wanted to update everybody. This is a long-ish blog, but I know many of
you have been wondering specifically what I’m up to, so here goes!
On January 9th, I moved down to Gainesville with the help of the very
studly Ryan Bodine and Chris Williams. I moved into my apartment and met
my roommate Matt. The next day, I started work at AIM. The
apprenticeship program is set up as follows:
I, along with 8 other apprentices, meet with our supervisor, Bill, 3
times a week to go through books, scripture, and do some leadership development
exercises, etc. However, each apprentice is also assigned to a department
within AIM where we work full time.
My department is Adventures Youth. We organize youth group trips.
I thought I was leaving youth ministry, but really, I’m just the other
side of it. My department is amazing. I get to work under Jimmy
McCarty, one of the most inspiring leaders I’ve ever met, and then I work with
SUCH cool people: ToniLyn, Cody, Sara, Josh, and Bri are AMAZING.
Seriously, I don’t think I could’ve picked a better team. I love
these guys and am committed to them, which is pretty incredible to say after
only having met them like a month ago.
From left to right: Top – Cody, Josh, Bri Bottom – Jimmy, ToniLyn, Me, Sara
Within the first couple of days being in the office, I found out that I
would be heading up four sites for ministry this summer. What does that
mean, you ask? Why, I’ll tell you!
Step 1: Site set-up
I need to go to each location (Puerto Rico 1 and 2, Appalachia (Eastern
Tennessee), and Atlanta), find ministry contacts, find a place for our
participants and staff to stay, find locations to do ministry, grocery stores,
transportation, etc. Basically, I have to find a place for 50-60 teens
per week to live and work.
Step 2: Writing curriculum/training manuals
I (along with Josh) will be writing our sports ministry curriculum for
the summer. We will be doing practices and drills as well as devotionals
for eight weeks, so we have quite a bit of curriculum to prepare.
Additionally, Josh and I will be working on a worship leader training
manual. We want one staff member on each site to be a trained and
proficient worship leader, so we will be developing that training material.
Step 3: Training
I will train the 16 staff members (4 for each site) that I will be
directly supervising during our staff training camp at the end of May, then I
will travel to my sites for each of the first weeks of ministry (for example,
Appalachia starts June 3, Puerto Rico June 10, and St Louis June 17th).
During those initial weeks, I will serve as the Project Leader (main
staff person on site) so that our hired project leaders can observe how the
position works. So I’ll serve as project leader from June 3 – June 17th
or so.
Step 4: Field Support
After
I get back around late June, I’ll transition into field support. I’ll
basically be supervising my four sites from afar, having skype meetings, calls,
etc. to check in with my staff members and making sure everything is running
smoothly at my sites.
So,
that’s what I’ve been up to.
Thanks so much for reading and supporting me. Please continue to pray for me as there is a TON of stuff to
do and God is going to have to come through to get us into some of these
sites. Thanks so much I love and
miss you guys!
