Tuesdays With Berto

 

Doing homework and reading before play time

Tuesdays I get the pleasure of going to the Seneca Center of The Bridge with Alberto.  I love it! He is such a great friend, a great person, and he interacts so well with the kids.  They love playing soccer with him.  Today, I was feeling a little tired, so I refereed the game.

Nights like this remind me of how much I want to simplify life.  It seems really important at this point in the college semester, that's for sure.  Whenever I am feeling stressed or upset, Berto always seems to sense it and pays me a visit.  "That's what friends are for!" is my favorite thing to hear from him!  He reminds me of how important it is to care about people, and how you can shine the light and love of Jesus in the simplest of ways. 

"Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of caring, all of which have the potential to turn a life around."

The littlest things can make a BIG impact.  So, be happy, and share your love :)

"This is the day the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it." Psalm 118:24

A Four-Year-Old's Sunshine

I have been very busy with college lately.  I tend to be caught up with the day-to-day of meetings, extracurriculars, class, homework, and studying.  Unfortunately, I haven't been able to devote as much time to The Bridge as I would like.  With my schedule, I am able to go to the Seneca Center once a week to spend time with the kids.  Getting caught up and bogged down in my own little world is so easy; I tend to forget about the bigger picture.

Today at Seneca, we celebrated the beautiful weather and played outside. We played duck duck goose, ring around the rosie, played on the swings, and sang songs.  I was singing "You Are My Sunshine" with a particularly adorable 4-year-old.  After we sang it a few times, I asked her, "Who is YOUR sunshine?"  Without hesitating, she proudly stated all 5 of her sisters' and brothers' names, and added, "AND I like my mom."  She then proceeded to tell be about the peanut butter sandwiches from preschool.

I loved her enthusiasm and love for her family.  Such simple things are such important blessings in our lives.  It's nice to slow down and enjoy them once in a while.  God is good. 

What is YOUR sunshine? :)

Food Ministry

Part of our service this summer has been helping with The Bridge of Storm Lake's food ministry.  Sodexo, Buena Vista University's food service provider, has been donating food that wasn't able to be served on that day.  These donations are all prepared food that volunteers pick up from BVU, take to the Methodist Church, package, and freeze.  This food is distributed to the community at the Methodist Church on Monday nights from 5-7pm.

Last Wednesday, some help was needed in picking up and packaging food.  Kirsten and I went to BVU to pick up the food and never expected to receive 17 pans of food! What a blessing!  In total, we packaged 107 Ziploc bags of food.

 

One cart of food heading to the freezer!

 

Second cart

 

3rd and final cart of food :)

 

The 17 pans that the food came in

We were so blessed to receive this food! This past Monday, Sodexo donated an additional 12 pans of food, and 98 people from the community came to receive it.  The large influx of donations was like God telling us that more people are coming!  He is good :)

Summer Sizzle: A Purple Viewpoint

Summer Sizzle

July 11-15, 2011

Definition: AMAZING

Summer Sizzle is an annual week-long camp held in Storm Lake for girls in 5th-8th grade.  This year, around 85 girls from Storm Lake, Newell, and Alta attended camp.  I was a senior counselor for the week and had a group of 14 spectacular 7th grade girls.  We were the "Purple Team."

Leading my girls to worship on the first day of camp!

 Most of my purple girls!

There was a worship service in the morning to start the day.  This was a great time to sing songs and pray.  At this time, the campers were also introduced to the theme and Bible verse of the day.  Each day they learned a new part of Psalm 16, which corresponded with the theme of each day: courage, friendship, loyalty to God, determination, and peacefulness.  By the end of the week, they had the entire chapter memorized!

 The tropical-girly sanctuary where worship was held! 

Worship was followed everyday by Something Real time.  This was a time where I was blessed with the opportunity to lead Christ-centered discussion about some difficult issues my campers face as 12 year old girls. These girls AMAZED me with their thoughts and discussion throughout the week.  They were so energetic.  Each girl had a different viewpoint on issues.  Some girls had already known about Christ and God's love, but some were learning about it for the first time.  I could feel myself growing in Christ throughout the week, just as I hope some of my campers did as well.  

One event impacted me a lot from our Something Real time.  We did an activity on Monday where I had each girl go to a mirror, look at her reflection, and tell herself, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made!" The girls were unsure, quiet, and a little insecure with this activity.  I was endearingly referred to  "the crazy lady in the purple shirt," for the rest of the week :) However, on Friday, we did the same thing.  Each girl told herself, "I am fearfully and wonderfully made" with more confidence and fervor than on the first day.  I pray that each one of those girls truly believe that they ARE fearfully and wonderfully made.  Being a woman of Christ begins with confidence in yourself: God's masterpiece.

Purple Team during Something Real time: lots of smiles :)

The girls also participated in 4 workshops through the week: America's Next Top Role Model (they learned about what makes a good role model), babysitting (they were given helpful hints to be a successful babysitter), Top Chef(they made and taste-tested healthy smoothies), and art(we made necklaces).

There were 4 Special Skills sessions throughout the week, too. One was about goal-setting, another involving internet safety, praise dancing (led by the incredible Dominique Daily), and the final session was about etiquette. 

Girls learning the praise dance

The fitness activity for the week was Zumba dancing and some yoga.  This was some of the girls' favorite part of the day!  It was a great workout and the girls had a blast learning some new dance moves!

 Zumba class!

On Wednesday afternoon, the girls attended field trips to different places around the community. One group explored BVU and the wetlands.  Another went to Cool Cats Pottery.  Some girls also went to Faust for manicures.  My team paired up with Team Silver and went sailing!  This was a major highlight of the week!

 

Fun with a camper and her awesome sailing hat!

 

Going out sailing with counselor, Dominique, and some campers!

Silver and Purple Teams! Sailing experts :)

On Friday, we had a normal day of camp followed by some special events to conclude the week.  As a service project, each team painted a ceiling tile to be placed in The Bridge's new office downtown. The tile's are now in place and look great!  They add a great personal touch to the office.

Working on our team's tile

The finished product! So proud :)

After the service project, we went to the beach and enjoyed an hour of swimming. After swimming, we went to Roland's farm and had a bonfire and supper!  The girls loved roasting hot dogs and marshmallows, singing campfire songs, and interacting with all of the farm animals. :) At the bonfire, each girl was presented with a special opportunity.  They were given a heart that they could place by a cross as a symbol of giving their life and heart to Christ.  After a week of growing in Christ and opening our hearts to God's love, I was astounded by the number of hearts at the cross.  It was such a powerful night and I will forever be impacted by it.  

Praying as we gave our hearts to Christ

Hearts for Jesus

This was the perfect way to end an amazing week.  It was an uplifting 5 days full of prayer, powerful women, and glory to God.  Summer Sizzle will always hold a special place in my heart.

  

4th of July Parade: We ARE The Bridge

This year was a first for The Bridge to have a float in Storm Lake's Star Spangled Spectacular 4th of July Parade.  We worked on planning for the float and construction the week before the parade.

It began with putting up the wood and ropes to create our bridge!

Next, we primed the wood before painting it.

We also made blue waves of water and fish to go underneath our bridge. Instead of candy, we handed out water bottles with information about The Bridge and a Bible verse on them.  I think a lot of awareness and love from The Bridge was shared with the community through this endeavor!

We faced a lot of setbacks and challenges this past week.  But when everything started falling apart, we all came together.  It couldn't have happened without the collaboration and prayers of everyone involved.  We were all very proud of the finished product!

The float represented all of the different programs that The Bridge provides: After School Program, English Classes, Computer Classes, Neighborhood Centers, Food Distribution, and Summer Sizzle. We had a lot of kids riding on the float!  Some English students and teachers rode, too, as well as representatives from the food distribution center, Donna Musel and family.  Kristine and Ryan rode to represent ZAOkids.  We also had a lot of Summer Sizzle volunteers, campers, and counselors walking with us!  During the parade, we played songs that the kids new from ZAOkids and the 2 vacation bible schools they have attended this summer.  It definitely livened up our float! :)

While we were waiting for the parade to start, we were surprised to receive the "Admiral's Award" for the best float in the parade!  Our prayers were answered in so many ways that day, and this recognition made our hard work even more worth it.

Kirsten and I were so proud to be a part of this great event, and we loved sharing the excitement with the kids, Anne & Jay, Nellie & Rinato, and everyone else that had been (and always will be) supporters of us.

We ARE The Bridge, God Bless.

Summer Days and Bethel Baptist Vacation Bible School in Newell

Last week the kids attended the "Big Apple Adventure" bible school in Newell.  We had an average of 25 kids attend every day and we got to take the bus!

The kids had a blast learning about Jesus and singing, dancing, and playing games.  They were challenged each day to learn and memorize new Bible verses, and they all did very well (the candy incentives didn't hurt ;) ).

We ate lunch at Anne's on Monday and Tuesday.

If you look closely, you can see me inside, serving up plates :)

On Wednesday through Friday, the people at Bethel Baptist made lunch for the kids after bible school.  They loved it!

The kids have been finding some fun things to do during the summer days.  We made a trip to the beach a few Fridays ago.

 

Sincere got buried in the sand!

It has rained a lot here in Storm Lake, which means a lot of mud.  Some of the girls made mud sculptures.

 

Lilly with some mud artwork.

We made a trip to Carroll to pick up Bridge and Summer Sizzle t-shirts on Tuesday, June 28th. Mach and Nyathijin came with us!

They both napped on the way there!

After picking up the shirts, we went to play at the park and ate at A&W for lunch.

 It was a joy to bring them along; they are very sweet kids!

This afternoon, it was very hot outside.  Some of the boys and Nyathal washed some cars in the neighborhood and earned some money, too!

Sincere always has a big smile for the camera!

Now we are working on plans for the float for the 4th of July parade and for Summer Sizzle.  Each day brings something new, which is always exciting :)

Each Day A Blessing

In the spirit of my "coworkers," I have started this blog to keep my friends and family updated on what I'm working on through The Bridge of Storm Lake this summer.  My first two weeks here have been amazing; each and every day is a blessing.

*On Mondays, we help to bag food and distribute it to those who need it in the community. 
*Wednesdays, Kirsten and I teach an English class.  Our class consists of  7 women from three different continents! Their dedication to learning is amazing: some students attend 6 English classes every week! 
*Every Wednesday night, The Bridge hosts "Neighborhood Nights."  This is a grill out in different neighborhoods around Storm Lake where neighbors are encouraged to get to know one another.  There is always good food, good people, and great laughs. 
*I am also involved in planning a float for the 4th of July parade, as well as serving as a camp counselor for Summer Sizzle, a week long camp for 5th-8th grade girls.

My first week here, we took the kids to vacation bible school at Grace Lutheran Church here in Storm Lake. Each morning we gathered the children into two 12-passenger vans and they spent the morning at VBS!  We had lunch ready for them at noon when they came back.  We enjoyed some downtime with the kids in the afternoon.  Wednesday was my first day teaching an English class with Kirsten.  I am so excited to continue working with these women; their dedication to learning is amazing.  We also had a "Fun Friday", and  2 girls got to come with Kirsten and I to enjoy a movie and snacks.

 Nyakueth and I swinging. 

Neighborhood Night on June 8th 

 Neighborhood Night on June 15th

Kirsten and Nyakueth

Interest and involvement in The Bridge is growing!  I am so lucky to be here this summer.  I hope to continue developing these relationships and growing in my own faith. 

All my love,

Allison Jean