The first "semester" as an HDC staffer has come to a close. Christmas break is here and each of us will go home for a few weeks over Christmas. Ryan is now finished as a staffer after serving for over a year (He started the day before I got here last year for training). It is a lot of fun to think back over the last four months, remembering some of the many things that have happened. Thanks for your prayers during this time.
After break, things will look a lot different. A lot of time and effort will be going towards two recruiting trips that are being planned currently. They would be about two weeks long, and at this point we are looking at going to Kansas and Iowa one one trip and Indiana and Ohio on the other (the second is less certain). We would be going to a few colleges and a churches where we have some contacts to recruit people for staff positions, team leaders, YES participants, and other EMM missions related programs. Details other than these are still being worked out, but it has given us as staff a sense of direction for the winter months.
I will also be volunteering at Center For Champions (an after school program) two days a week after Christmas break. This is the same place that I did community outreach during my training last year.
So that's a bit about what we will be doing over the winter months (since I've been asked a lot). Hopefully it gives you a better idea of what will be going on here.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Friday, December 5, 2008
The End
Well, since last time I posted, a lot of things have happened. We wrapped up the final few weeks of training, which offered a great chance to look back and see how far people had come from when they got here. God has done some amazing things here over the last few months, and it has been great to be a part of it. On the last day of training, we had a short wrap up session, using an old Gambian tradition. The tradition is that when you leave you village, you tear off a piece of clothing and hang it on a tree at the entrance to the community. The trees are a measure of the health and vibrancy of the village, because it has people coming and going (an empty tree would indicate that those in the village are old or sick). So we put up a tree branch in the back of the session room and had each participant make a little something that represents themselves to hang there until they return. It will be a good reminder to those of us who stay here to pray for those who have gone.
As of yesterday, we have said goodbye to five of the teams and sent them on their way. The Guatemala team will leave tomorrow, and the China team on Sunday. As the teams left one (or two) at a time and we said goodbye, it took me back to a year ago. The same atmosphere, the same excitement, the same sadness. Change. A large group of people that you had spent almost every day of the last three months with breaking up and spreading out across the globe, everyone awaiting completely different experiences and completely different challenges. I begin to realize that what we've had the past three months will never happen again. Yes, they will be here for re-entry, but it will only be half of them, and even more so, everyone will have changed, molded by their experiences. It will be great, but it will be different. So I have to remind myself that as much as I wish everyone was back to eat a meal in the crowded dining room, to have one more game of flag football, and to crack HDC jokes with, it's time to move on. Yes, to remember and celebrate the past few months, but not to dwell on them and wish things were the way they were then.
Things will certainly be different without a training here. Our roles will change a bit, we will be stretched in different ways, and we will get to do new things. I don't know what that will look like, but I look forward to a change.
As of yesterday, we have said goodbye to five of the teams and sent them on their way. The Guatemala team will leave tomorrow, and the China team on Sunday. As the teams left one (or two) at a time and we said goodbye, it took me back to a year ago. The same atmosphere, the same excitement, the same sadness. Change. A large group of people that you had spent almost every day of the last three months with breaking up and spreading out across the globe, everyone awaiting completely different experiences and completely different challenges. I begin to realize that what we've had the past three months will never happen again. Yes, they will be here for re-entry, but it will only be half of them, and even more so, everyone will have changed, molded by their experiences. It will be great, but it will be different. So I have to remind myself that as much as I wish everyone was back to eat a meal in the crowded dining room, to have one more game of flag football, and to crack HDC jokes with, it's time to move on. Yes, to remember and celebrate the past few months, but not to dwell on them and wish things were the way they were then.
Things will certainly be different without a training here. Our roles will change a bit, we will be stretched in different ways, and we will get to do new things. I don't know what that will look like, but I look forward to a change.
Monday, December 1, 2008
quick note
Just making note that to the left, I have added links to the team blogs from this fall's training. There are a few that havn't started one yet, but I'll put them up as soon as I get them.
I know, I'm long overdue for an update. I don't like breaking promises, so I won't promise, but I will try hard to have one by the end of the week.
I know, I'm long overdue for an update. I don't like breaking promises, so I won't promise, but I will try hard to have one by the end of the week.
Wednesday, November 12, 2008
Madagascar 2
We take a break from the typical HDC related events to share a short review of the new movie Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa. A lot of people in the HDC world has read this (since I wrote it Monday night after we as staff went to see it for staff cell, a very spiritual evening, I know) My review has gotten a very good review, so I thought I'd share it with you.
A brief disclaimer: the author acknowledges that some of the views expressed in this review are potentially somewhat politically incorrect. The author does not necessarily agree with all of the opions expressed, it is merely an attempt at pin pointing what the director was really getting at behind the mask of cute animals.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa by Ben Herr
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, displays a new approach at educating kids in today’s issues. It combines great digital animation and catchy humor to spice up an illustration of the situation our country is in.
The beginning of the movie was especially spot on as it depicted the main characters being launched in a plane that is just one more drop of bad luck away from crashing. One can’t help but see how this scene is mirrored by the declining state of our economy. We have built our nation in such a way that it balances on the ever weakening thread of economics. We walked blindly into such a fragile situation, so wholly immersed in soaking up admiration from neighboring countries and friends that we failed to see the disaster waiting to happen.
It is also important to note that the quartet of penguins controlling the plane have an astoundingly small knowledge of their craft and simply make decisions as situations arise, a style that may look good at first, but is flirting with, and eventually will collide with, utter catastrophe.
These four lovable flightless birds draw up a striking simile to those sitting in pretty little offices in New York (another location eluded to many times in the film as being a place a little…shall we say, atypical?) controlling our countries economy by tapping away at their cute little lap top’s.
As the plane takes off out of a giant tree, it immediately spins in a hopeless spiral down, and out of sight behind branches. All hope is lost. The feeling of, “Well it serves them right for going about their job so recklessly” is a quite natural reaction. Then, without any explanation whatsoever, it suddenly emerges from the branches, flying in tip top shape. Can anyone say, “Mega million dollars buy out?” A very controversial issue, many hard workers across the lower forty-eight, as well as Hawaii and Alaska, had to wonder, “We do our jobs better than anyone else, we put countless drops of sweat into our five figure salaries, and when they completely botch their job, a hand comes out of no where to pull them out of their tail spin and land millions of dollars in their lap.
The story progresses as Alex the Lion meets up with his dad; the alpha lion of the herd, and after a few minor events, Alex is given the task of completing a sort of initiation trial. Alex is a bit uninformed of the procedure, thinking it is a sort of dance off, when it is, in reality, a fight. After it goes horribly for Alex, there is a conversation between him and his dad in which Alex angrily says, “You could have told me!”
It is at this point that one realizes the director is making a daring comparison to the Bush clan. Looking back at George W. Bush’s early debates, it is quite easy to wonder if he really knew what he was there for. We have to wonder whether there was a brief confrontation between W. and Sr. in which W. said, “Why didn’t you tell me it was a debate! I thought we were just going to go out there, give our scripted answers and look pretty!”
Without going into the details (and therefore spoiling the movie), it is quite clear that the director is making a bold prediction. When a new alpha lion takes over the herd and everything goes wrong, Alex and his father join together and save the herd from certain doom. This is obviously implying that when our countries new president realizes he lacks the experience and know how, and things start going poorly, George W. and George Sr. will team up and split Sr.’s four years of eligibility for base a two year incumbency that will save the nation from all of it’s problems (all, that is, except for the economy which the people who wrecked it are still trying to fix, relying heavily on foreign labor to get things up and running, which will eventually lead to some major miscommunication and another almost catastrophe).
While these are the main points the director was trying to make, there are some other underlying parallels drawn. An old peppy lady with a nasty left hook leads a group of lost and confused tourists in an attempt to over throw the lions and the established way of life. She obtains followers by a combination of two methods: 1) appearing to look like she knows what she is doing (though she admits that it is not so) and doing it with a smile on her face, and 2) by finding followers so hopeless and confused that they blindly obey her every command. The old lady puts up a nasty fight and almost comes out on top, but in the end is left down, but not out.
In this way, the director points at how Hillary Clinton obtained countless supporters who were so unhappy and hopeless due to the current regime that they blindly became followers due to the fact that she was a woman and has some charisma. Just like the movie, she is currently down, but not out.
The film is stashed with tons of other illustrations, but to save some time and just name a few, some of the most obvious are:
1) The scene where Alex’s mother turns out the light by squishing the lightning bug shows how the people in high places love to use the little people for their own benefit, but once they are no longer of use to them, they will squish them and move on to new servants.
2) The giraffe is told that he is going to die in a few days, so he begins to make a series of rash decisions that almost get him killed, based on the assumption that he is going to die anyway. This is strikingly similar to the predicament that Harold Kamping, the horrifically off base radio evangelist, has put many of his followers in by predicting that Christ will return in 2011.
3) And lastly, the director offers our country’s leaders a piece of advice for foreign affairs. Alex and his father get caught in the middle of a camp of angry humans who want to eat them for supper. Alex’s father tries to intimidating them with his power and his roar. But it doesn’t work. Alex then saves the two of them by putting on an impressive dance show that wows the audience. This is a plea to the USA government to stop trying to maintain foreign relations by flexing our powerful military. It needs to get down on a personal level and do things that actually impress people, not frighten them. Things like dumping a couple million dollars in order to provide villages with clean water instead of adding another fighter jet to the air force.
All in all, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa shows some deep insight into our current political situation and brings it down to level even kids will understand and enjoy. This movie is the pinnacle of where politics meets family entertainment.
A brief disclaimer: the author acknowledges that some of the views expressed in this review are potentially somewhat politically incorrect. The author does not necessarily agree with all of the opions expressed, it is merely an attempt at pin pointing what the director was really getting at behind the mask of cute animals.
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa by Ben Herr
Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, displays a new approach at educating kids in today’s issues. It combines great digital animation and catchy humor to spice up an illustration of the situation our country is in.
The beginning of the movie was especially spot on as it depicted the main characters being launched in a plane that is just one more drop of bad luck away from crashing. One can’t help but see how this scene is mirrored by the declining state of our economy. We have built our nation in such a way that it balances on the ever weakening thread of economics. We walked blindly into such a fragile situation, so wholly immersed in soaking up admiration from neighboring countries and friends that we failed to see the disaster waiting to happen.
It is also important to note that the quartet of penguins controlling the plane have an astoundingly small knowledge of their craft and simply make decisions as situations arise, a style that may look good at first, but is flirting with, and eventually will collide with, utter catastrophe.
These four lovable flightless birds draw up a striking simile to those sitting in pretty little offices in New York (another location eluded to many times in the film as being a place a little…shall we say, atypical?) controlling our countries economy by tapping away at their cute little lap top’s.
As the plane takes off out of a giant tree, it immediately spins in a hopeless spiral down, and out of sight behind branches. All hope is lost. The feeling of, “Well it serves them right for going about their job so recklessly” is a quite natural reaction. Then, without any explanation whatsoever, it suddenly emerges from the branches, flying in tip top shape. Can anyone say, “Mega million dollars buy out?” A very controversial issue, many hard workers across the lower forty-eight, as well as Hawaii and Alaska, had to wonder, “We do our jobs better than anyone else, we put countless drops of sweat into our five figure salaries, and when they completely botch their job, a hand comes out of no where to pull them out of their tail spin and land millions of dollars in their lap.
The story progresses as Alex the Lion meets up with his dad; the alpha lion of the herd, and after a few minor events, Alex is given the task of completing a sort of initiation trial. Alex is a bit uninformed of the procedure, thinking it is a sort of dance off, when it is, in reality, a fight. After it goes horribly for Alex, there is a conversation between him and his dad in which Alex angrily says, “You could have told me!”
It is at this point that one realizes the director is making a daring comparison to the Bush clan. Looking back at George W. Bush’s early debates, it is quite easy to wonder if he really knew what he was there for. We have to wonder whether there was a brief confrontation between W. and Sr. in which W. said, “Why didn’t you tell me it was a debate! I thought we were just going to go out there, give our scripted answers and look pretty!”
Without going into the details (and therefore spoiling the movie), it is quite clear that the director is making a bold prediction. When a new alpha lion takes over the herd and everything goes wrong, Alex and his father join together and save the herd from certain doom. This is obviously implying that when our countries new president realizes he lacks the experience and know how, and things start going poorly, George W. and George Sr. will team up and split Sr.’s four years of eligibility for base a two year incumbency that will save the nation from all of it’s problems (all, that is, except for the economy which the people who wrecked it are still trying to fix, relying heavily on foreign labor to get things up and running, which will eventually lead to some major miscommunication and another almost catastrophe).
While these are the main points the director was trying to make, there are some other underlying parallels drawn. An old peppy lady with a nasty left hook leads a group of lost and confused tourists in an attempt to over throw the lions and the established way of life. She obtains followers by a combination of two methods: 1) appearing to look like she knows what she is doing (though she admits that it is not so) and doing it with a smile on her face, and 2) by finding followers so hopeless and confused that they blindly obey her every command. The old lady puts up a nasty fight and almost comes out on top, but in the end is left down, but not out.
In this way, the director points at how Hillary Clinton obtained countless supporters who were so unhappy and hopeless due to the current regime that they blindly became followers due to the fact that she was a woman and has some charisma. Just like the movie, she is currently down, but not out.
The film is stashed with tons of other illustrations, but to save some time and just name a few, some of the most obvious are:
1) The scene where Alex’s mother turns out the light by squishing the lightning bug shows how the people in high places love to use the little people for their own benefit, but once they are no longer of use to them, they will squish them and move on to new servants.
2) The giraffe is told that he is going to die in a few days, so he begins to make a series of rash decisions that almost get him killed, based on the assumption that he is going to die anyway. This is strikingly similar to the predicament that Harold Kamping, the horrifically off base radio evangelist, has put many of his followers in by predicting that Christ will return in 2011.
3) And lastly, the director offers our country’s leaders a piece of advice for foreign affairs. Alex and his father get caught in the middle of a camp of angry humans who want to eat them for supper. Alex’s father tries to intimidating them with his power and his roar. But it doesn’t work. Alex then saves the two of them by putting on an impressive dance show that wows the audience. This is a plea to the USA government to stop trying to maintain foreign relations by flexing our powerful military. It needs to get down on a personal level and do things that actually impress people, not frighten them. Things like dumping a couple million dollars in order to provide villages with clean water instead of adding another fighter jet to the air force.
All in all, Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa shows some deep insight into our current political situation and brings it down to level even kids will understand and enjoy. This movie is the pinnacle of where politics meets family entertainment.
Monday, November 10, 2008
World Awareness Week
This past week (Tuesday through Friday) we organized a "World Awareness Week" designed to help participants (and ourselves) understand what a majority of the world lives like. There was a lot of things we did, from turning off all of the water except for a little bit in the early morning and afternoon, giving participants a chance to fill our big water barrel outside and refill buckets in bathrooms, to having them sit on some narrow, wobbly benches (that Ryan and I built from the old fence) during a session one day.
However, the one thing that impacted me the most was the "World Awareness Meal" he did on tuesday. You may be familiar with these, I'd done one before, but the basic concept is that everyone pulls a piece of paper that puts them in categories: The rich, the typical westerner, the not so rich yet not entirely poor (rice and beans), the poor (just rice, with "dirty" water), and the beggars. As you may be able to guess, these categories get fed very different meals. The rich got something, I don't even know what, but it was really nice. The westerners had hamburgers, chips, and fries, followed by brownies and ice cream. The rest were already explained, with the one condition being that you couldn't beg from the rich.
After the meal, we had a short processing time, and I realized there were several things I could learn from it.
1. Whenever I read stories about people who go from rags to riches and are now living a high class life with ten cars, blah, blah, blah, I've always been confused. Did they forget where they came from? Don't they remember all the people they grew up with that are most likely in the same situation the were born into?
Last year, during my training, we did a world awareness meal. I was one of the rice people. We had eaten rice for breakfast and lunch that day, and despite liking rice and liking the way it was made, I certainly wasn't extremely excited about rice again.
This year, I got a lucky draw and was a westerner. After I pulled my slip of paper and saw I was at the westerner's table, I immediately started thinking some things that I'm almost embarrassed, well, I am embarrassed to share. My first thoughts were, "Okay, I'm looking forward to this meal. But what if the beggars don't give me a little space? What if they overstep their boundaries as beggars and become thieves? How will I keep them away and be able to enjoy the meal as well?" Yup, that's pretty embarrassing.
So back to my first thought on rags to riches. Maybe they remember their past all too well. Maybe, the only way to forget (or try to forget) those bad memories is to distance yourself from that situation. I knew all too well what it was like to be a "ricer" and I didn't want anything to do with it again.
2. There were enough hamburgers for each westerner to have two hamburgers each. As the meal progressed, I remember all of us westerners feeling quite generous after giving the beggars (I think there were five of them) a whole burger as well as bits of some people's second burger that was unwanted. I mean, they're just beggars and they got a whole burger! (boy oh boy, this is getting really embarrassing) Then the mathematical venue in my head started to kick in (it didn't really need to work a whole lot) and it calculated: 2 burgers per capita VS 1/4 burgers per capita. Hmmm.
So I thought a little bit. I've always considered myself a generous person. I hope and believe that if God ever asked me to give someone something I had, that I'd be willing to do it. But am I really doing justice to how generous I could be? Am I tearing off a corner of my second burger to give to someone, and puffing myself up for doing so? It's certainly food for thought, pun intended.
However, the one thing that impacted me the most was the "World Awareness Meal" he did on tuesday. You may be familiar with these, I'd done one before, but the basic concept is that everyone pulls a piece of paper that puts them in categories: The rich, the typical westerner, the not so rich yet not entirely poor (rice and beans), the poor (just rice, with "dirty" water), and the beggars. As you may be able to guess, these categories get fed very different meals. The rich got something, I don't even know what, but it was really nice. The westerners had hamburgers, chips, and fries, followed by brownies and ice cream. The rest were already explained, with the one condition being that you couldn't beg from the rich.
After the meal, we had a short processing time, and I realized there were several things I could learn from it.
1. Whenever I read stories about people who go from rags to riches and are now living a high class life with ten cars, blah, blah, blah, I've always been confused. Did they forget where they came from? Don't they remember all the people they grew up with that are most likely in the same situation the were born into?
Last year, during my training, we did a world awareness meal. I was one of the rice people. We had eaten rice for breakfast and lunch that day, and despite liking rice and liking the way it was made, I certainly wasn't extremely excited about rice again.
This year, I got a lucky draw and was a westerner. After I pulled my slip of paper and saw I was at the westerner's table, I immediately started thinking some things that I'm almost embarrassed, well, I am embarrassed to share. My first thoughts were, "Okay, I'm looking forward to this meal. But what if the beggars don't give me a little space? What if they overstep their boundaries as beggars and become thieves? How will I keep them away and be able to enjoy the meal as well?" Yup, that's pretty embarrassing.
So back to my first thought on rags to riches. Maybe they remember their past all too well. Maybe, the only way to forget (or try to forget) those bad memories is to distance yourself from that situation. I knew all too well what it was like to be a "ricer" and I didn't want anything to do with it again.
2. There were enough hamburgers for each westerner to have two hamburgers each. As the meal progressed, I remember all of us westerners feeling quite generous after giving the beggars (I think there were five of them) a whole burger as well as bits of some people's second burger that was unwanted. I mean, they're just beggars and they got a whole burger! (boy oh boy, this is getting really embarrassing) Then the mathematical venue in my head started to kick in (it didn't really need to work a whole lot) and it calculated: 2 burgers per capita VS 1/4 burgers per capita. Hmmm.
So I thought a little bit. I've always considered myself a generous person. I hope and believe that if God ever asked me to give someone something I had, that I'd be willing to do it. But am I really doing justice to how generous I could be? Am I tearing off a corner of my second burger to give to someone, and puffing myself up for doing so? It's certainly food for thought, pun intended.
The HDC Olympics
Here is a clip from our HDC Olympic video. Continue to check this post in the future as I will continue to post clips.
The first event: Short Track Van Racing- Contestants advance through heats and semi finals in a 5 lap race. (not every race is shown, just highlights and the finals)
Saturday, November 8, 2008
The Catapult
Here is a short video showing the product of Ryan and I being a bit bored during our day off. Enjoy. I think this is working now, so if it wasn't before, try again
I don't know if this is working or not. I apologize if it isn't (or rather blogger should apologize for its many mishaps during my attempts to upload videos)
Friday, October 31, 2008
The World Series
Wednesday evening brought the conclusion of this year's World Series, the images of which will likely be imprinted in the minds of million's of people across the nation. I am not one of those millions. As a staff member, I could have watched it, but a mild interest in the series led me to witness to final strikeout in a way I never quite had before.
I was in the second floor of the Carriage House. With two participants who are Phillies fans. Listening to it on my radio. Which I was holding above my head in the one spot that it could pick up the radio station. We had gone through the FM and AM stations several times before we finally found the game (which we knew was in the later stages) as the ninth inning started. When we found the right station, I had to try to find a spot where the radio could pick up the station at least decently. I found a nice spot about two feet above my shoulder. I held it there, and the Rays put the tying run on second with two outs. The potential final batter came up to the plate...and the reception went to almost none. I frantically started lifting the radio up and down (mostly for the benefit of the Phillies fans there, not so much for mine) and finally found another spot that picked up the station. After strike three, the two Phantics ran out yelling and I was left to ponder the depth of my bad luck as a sports fan. I basically follow baseball and football, and follow two teams from two different cities (Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Eagles). As of Wednesday, I have, in my sports concious lifetime, witnessed championships by a Baltimore team and a Philadelphia team. But not the right ones. It's almost like missing a coin flip lottery twice. Hmmm...
But yet, somehow life seems to go on (to borrow a Phelpsulous line from Calvin and Hobbes). I'm still here at HDC. I'm still serving in the same ways as I was before. And life is still good. Maybe now I'll start following the Bass Fishing Championship.
I was in the second floor of the Carriage House. With two participants who are Phillies fans. Listening to it on my radio. Which I was holding above my head in the one spot that it could pick up the radio station. We had gone through the FM and AM stations several times before we finally found the game (which we knew was in the later stages) as the ninth inning started. When we found the right station, I had to try to find a spot where the radio could pick up the station at least decently. I found a nice spot about two feet above my shoulder. I held it there, and the Rays put the tying run on second with two outs. The potential final batter came up to the plate...and the reception went to almost none. I frantically started lifting the radio up and down (mostly for the benefit of the Phillies fans there, not so much for mine) and finally found another spot that picked up the station. After strike three, the two Phantics ran out yelling and I was left to ponder the depth of my bad luck as a sports fan. I basically follow baseball and football, and follow two teams from two different cities (Baltimore Orioles, Philadelphia Eagles). As of Wednesday, I have, in my sports concious lifetime, witnessed championships by a Baltimore team and a Philadelphia team. But not the right ones. It's almost like missing a coin flip lottery twice. Hmmm...
But yet, somehow life seems to go on (to borrow a Phelpsulous line from Calvin and Hobbes). I'm still here at HDC. I'm still serving in the same ways as I was before. And life is still good. Maybe now I'll start following the Bass Fishing Championship.
Wednesday, October 29, 2008
Volunteer Staff
Here's the funny bunch. Left to right: Myself (Community Outreach, House Keeping), Audrey (Kitchen Coordinator), Ryan (Manager of Maintenance), Jacki (Office Assistant, Hospitality), and Erica (Training Assistant). Monday, October 20, 2008
Ummm....Update #...4?
I'm feeling the need to update, but not feeling very inspired, so I'll just give a quick list of what's been happening and then rumble my mouth off about something.
-Teams Spain, Kenya, and Guatemala just got back from the Bronx, where they've been since Thursday evening on a mini outreach. From the few stories I've heard, it seems like they had a great experience and had some good chances to talk to people about what they're doing and why they were there.
-Teams China, Pakistan, N Africa, and Honduras are starting to get back from their backpacking/team building experience on the Appalacian Trail. I'm looking forward to hearing some of their stories.
-We as staff enjoyed a quite weekend with an empty HDC. Not to say we were glad to see the participants leave, but it was nice to have a bit more relaxing of a weekend.
So, yeah, I think we're all feeling a bit more refreshed after the weekend (staff that is, the back packing groups are in need of a little rest, I'm sure). Our activities included trying to give each other rides in a huge bear bag with shoulder straps. That was fun. I didn't really fit in it that well, so I didn't go very far, but Audrey (kitchen coordinator) gave Jacki (office assistant) a decent ride, despite almost launching her into a wall while trying to sit down on a sofa. That reminds me, I should really put a staff picture on here sometime. I don't think we've taken one yet, so once that happens, I'll try to remember to put that on here.
Yesterday afternoon, we went to Operations Manager Andy Hock's house for lunch and stayed there for a while talking and stuff. It was fun getting to know him and his wife a little more.
Okay, this isn't turning out to be very informative, so I'll put a cap on this entry.
-Teams Spain, Kenya, and Guatemala just got back from the Bronx, where they've been since Thursday evening on a mini outreach. From the few stories I've heard, it seems like they had a great experience and had some good chances to talk to people about what they're doing and why they were there.
-Teams China, Pakistan, N Africa, and Honduras are starting to get back from their backpacking/team building experience on the Appalacian Trail. I'm looking forward to hearing some of their stories.
-We as staff enjoyed a quite weekend with an empty HDC. Not to say we were glad to see the participants leave, but it was nice to have a bit more relaxing of a weekend.
So, yeah, I think we're all feeling a bit more refreshed after the weekend (staff that is, the back packing groups are in need of a little rest, I'm sure). Our activities included trying to give each other rides in a huge bear bag with shoulder straps. That was fun. I didn't really fit in it that well, so I didn't go very far, but Audrey (kitchen coordinator) gave Jacki (office assistant) a decent ride, despite almost launching her into a wall while trying to sit down on a sofa. That reminds me, I should really put a staff picture on here sometime. I don't think we've taken one yet, so once that happens, I'll try to remember to put that on here.
Yesterday afternoon, we went to Operations Manager Andy Hock's house for lunch and stayed there for a while talking and stuff. It was fun getting to know him and his wife a little more.
Okay, this isn't turning out to be very informative, so I'll put a cap on this entry.
Friday, October 17, 2008
Fun in the Leaves
Fall is here, all of the participants are away (in New York or Backpacking), and the yard was covered in leaves, so I spent this afternoon "re-greening" the yard. This resulted in several sizable piles, and afterwards, some of us staff and director Chris Epp's family took advantage of the opportunity.
Wednesday, October 8, 2008
jfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjf
Whenever I have a mind blank, or can't think of something to write, the result is usually: jfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjfjf. It is normally deleted (and sometimes repeated), but I thought it would be an appropriate title since I can't think of a creative way to say, "What has happened during the last two-and-a-half weeks that I forgot/was too busy/was too lazy to tell you about, but since a number of things have happened since then I'm not going to bore you with the minute (this is supposed to be the word that is pronounced "My newt" but I can't think of a different way of spelling "minute") details of each of our activities, so here is one of the last couple week's events (and maybe a few thoughts on some others):"
(note to self: just think of a title next time. Doing it this way is much more complicated)
Monday night started off as an interesting cross cultural simulation courtesy of Darryl Hostetter, our speaker that afternoon and a former missionary to Swaziland. We met in "the upper room," a room set aside for prayer and special events, in the setting of a church meeting in Swaziland. Participants were put in situations that they might (or might not) be in during outreach, such as being asked to give a short devotional on the spot.
The evening progressed from a time of sharing, to a time of worship and offering, to a time of praying for people. It was the prayer time that really made the evening memorable. The center of the room was opened up for anyone who wanted prayer. In the end, only a hand full of people were prayed for, but what a powerful time it was. I'm not sure how much I can really say, for confidientiality (wow, that's an awesome word) reasons, but some of those who were prayed for have been dealing with/working through some really, really deep stuff. I can't say how impactful it was for them; I'm not them. But I have a pretty good guess: incredibly impactful. For one participant, it was realizing that people believe in him and support him. This may seem simple or trivial, but for this individual, I think it was huge.
-Ben
(note to self: just think of a title next time. Doing it this way is much more complicated)
Monday night started off as an interesting cross cultural simulation courtesy of Darryl Hostetter, our speaker that afternoon and a former missionary to Swaziland. We met in "the upper room," a room set aside for prayer and special events, in the setting of a church meeting in Swaziland. Participants were put in situations that they might (or might not) be in during outreach, such as being asked to give a short devotional on the spot.
The evening progressed from a time of sharing, to a time of worship and offering, to a time of praying for people. It was the prayer time that really made the evening memorable. The center of the room was opened up for anyone who wanted prayer. In the end, only a hand full of people were prayed for, but what a powerful time it was. I'm not sure how much I can really say, for confidientiality (wow, that's an awesome word) reasons, but some of those who were prayed for have been dealing with/working through some really, really deep stuff. I can't say how impactful it was for them; I'm not them. But I have a pretty good guess: incredibly impactful. For one participant, it was realizing that people believe in him and support him. This may seem simple or trivial, but for this individual, I think it was huge.
-Ben
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
In the Beginning
Week 1 is complete, and we are two days into week 2. I had a great first week, and I think the participants would say the same. Activities ranged from fun activities (Olympics, flag football, and "Capitol Chase," an event in which staff and team leaders scattered ourselves around the capitol area, dressed up or disguised in some way, and the participants tried to find us) to powerful sessions, in which, as one participant put it, "the speaker said we were free to go to lunch, and no one moved."
Seeing the teams start getting to know each other and bond has been especially exciting for me to see after last year when my team leader got there three weeks after training started. I remember that during those three weeks my team mates and me being kind of unsure how to start to bond, knowing that someone else would be coming at some point. So to see teams already past just "getting to know each other" this early is pretty exciting for me to see.
One of my big projects this past week has been helping to set up community outreaches for the teams. I was kind of worried about my ability to adequately assist the teams in finding locations for outreach depending on their interests, but God has blessed me with an amazing contact for outreach locations, a little bit of personal experience and knowledge of outreach locations from my training, and some teams that have had the initiative to take some ideas and run with them themselves. So today, most of the teams started their community outreach assignments. We are still working to finalize and concretize plans (umm, put plans into concrete form), but we are farther along in the process than I thought we might be at this point, so I'm excited.
-Ben Herr
Seeing the teams start getting to know each other and bond has been especially exciting for me to see after last year when my team leader got there three weeks after training started. I remember that during those three weeks my team mates and me being kind of unsure how to start to bond, knowing that someone else would be coming at some point. So to see teams already past just "getting to know each other" this early is pretty exciting for me to see.
One of my big projects this past week has been helping to set up community outreaches for the teams. I was kind of worried about my ability to adequately assist the teams in finding locations for outreach depending on their interests, but God has blessed me with an amazing contact for outreach locations, a little bit of personal experience and knowledge of outreach locations from my training, and some teams that have had the initiative to take some ideas and run with them themselves. So today, most of the teams started their community outreach assignments. We are still working to finalize and concretize plans (umm, put plans into concrete form), but we are farther along in the process than I thought we might be at this point, so I'm excited.
-Ben Herr
Thursday, September 18, 2008
HDC Olympics
It has been a busy past couple of days, marked by the arrival of the fall training YES (and STEP) teams. There are a lot of things that could be mentioned, but I'll focus on one event that started as a passing idea a couple weeks ago.
We as staff were talking about who knows what when the idea of doing an Olympics with HDC related events came up. We did some brainstorming and came up with the following events:
Short Track Van Racing-Before you picture people driving vans in circles, this event is based off of short track speed skating. In this event, contestants raced around our big van, Oscar, five times, advancing through heats and semi finals.
Van Slalom-A timed run through the row of vans in the parking lot out back.
Team Leader Van Parking-Team leaders (being the only ones with driving priviledges) get twenty seconds to back a van into a parking space (a skill that they will have to use many times over the next couple months) and scored by how many inches off of the "perfect park" they are.
Round Robin Ping Pong-The classic ping pong for many people game.
Synchronized Laundry Folding-Different articles of clothing/laundry are given degrees of difficulty, and the performance is judged by synchronization, flair and creativity, and quality of folding. We had some doubts about how this would work, given that the teams only found out about the olympics a day ahead of time, but were very impressed by the effort put into it.
Country Find-Contestants try to be the first to locate a country (or landmark in the later rounds) on a large world map after it is called out.
Sword Drills-Contestants try to be the first to find a passage of scripture after the reference is given.
At the end, medals (circluar pieces of wood cut out with a circle drill and painted gold, silver, or bronze) were given to the top three performers in each event as well as to the teams that cululatively scored the most points (3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze)
In the end, I'm not sure who had more fun, the participants who competed, or us staff who got to see about two or three weeks of planning play out. For both groups, I'm sure, it was a fun evening with memories created. Following are a few pictures from the festivites. I don't personally have pictures of many events due to making sure everything was working, running some of the events, and judging some.
We as staff were talking about who knows what when the idea of doing an Olympics with HDC related events came up. We did some brainstorming and came up with the following events:
Short Track Van Racing-Before you picture people driving vans in circles, this event is based off of short track speed skating. In this event, contestants raced around our big van, Oscar, five times, advancing through heats and semi finals.
Van Slalom-A timed run through the row of vans in the parking lot out back.
Team Leader Van Parking-Team leaders (being the only ones with driving priviledges) get twenty seconds to back a van into a parking space (a skill that they will have to use many times over the next couple months) and scored by how many inches off of the "perfect park" they are.
Round Robin Ping Pong-The classic ping pong for many people game.
Synchronized Laundry Folding-Different articles of clothing/laundry are given degrees of difficulty, and the performance is judged by synchronization, flair and creativity, and quality of folding. We had some doubts about how this would work, given that the teams only found out about the olympics a day ahead of time, but were very impressed by the effort put into it.
Country Find-Contestants try to be the first to locate a country (or landmark in the later rounds) on a large world map after it is called out.
Sword Drills-Contestants try to be the first to find a passage of scripture after the reference is given.
At the end, medals (circluar pieces of wood cut out with a circle drill and painted gold, silver, or bronze) were given to the top three performers in each event as well as to the teams that cululatively scored the most points (3 for gold, 2 for silver, 1 for bronze)
In the end, I'm not sure who had more fun, the participants who competed, or us staff who got to see about two or three weeks of planning play out. For both groups, I'm sure, it was a fun evening with memories created. Following are a few pictures from the festivites. I don't personally have pictures of many events due to making sure everything was working, running some of the events, and judging some.
Above, the HDC Olympic logo projected for the opening ceremonies (in which we spoofed off of the Beijing Olympics with a drum routine, had a parade of nations, and lit the olympic flame below)
contestants round the first corner hard in a short track van racing heat
round robin ping pong
The crowd enjoys watching synchronized laundry folding
Oh, yeah, for those of you interested in how your Mountville Mennonite Church representatives did,
Jamila took the Bronze medal in the Country Find,
and Sarah took the Bronze medal in synchronized laundry folding, along with team mate Melanie.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
HDC
I'm not sure how many of you have been to/are familiar with Harrisburg Discipleship Center, so here are some pictures.
Out front
the living room
the dining room (these are the team leaders for this fall)
this is my office, or rather, my corner. 
This is "The Carraige House" the dorm house behind the main building
and these two pictures are of my room
So that's a brief and rather incomplete tour through HDC. Hopefully it helps give you a mental picture of the place.Friday, September 5, 2008
Getting Ready
The clock is counting down to the arrivial of the fall YES teams, which means a lot of preparation by us. We've been moving beds, chairs, and sofas to different dorm rooms, setting them up, realizing we want that dresser in a different room, moving more things around, etc. I've also been doing some painting in the Carriage House (the dorm house behind HDC).
This sunday evening (the 7th), team leaders will arrive (for the first time in quite a while, we have all of them lined up before training starts, praise God) and the participants will arrive the next sunday.
Thursday, I met with one of our main contacts for community outreach and we walked around the neiborhood a little bit and stopped at some places that are possible community outreach locations for the teams this fall. It was good to meet some people, and learn a little more about HDC's surroundings.
There's not a whole lot to talk about when you've been pretty much preparing for people's arrival and working on another special event (more on that in a couple weeks), so I think I'll wrap this up. I appoligize for the lack of pictures so far, I'll try to rememdy that sometime soon.
Ben
This sunday evening (the 7th), team leaders will arrive (for the first time in quite a while, we have all of them lined up before training starts, praise God) and the participants will arrive the next sunday.
Thursday, I met with one of our main contacts for community outreach and we walked around the neiborhood a little bit and stopped at some places that are possible community outreach locations for the teams this fall. It was good to meet some people, and learn a little more about HDC's surroundings.
There's not a whole lot to talk about when you've been pretty much preparing for people's arrival and working on another special event (more on that in a couple weeks), so I think I'll wrap this up. I appoligize for the lack of pictures so far, I'll try to rememdy that sometime soon.
Ben
Saturday, August 30, 2008
1st Week
Hello all,
Today marks one week since I arrived here at Harrisburg Discipleship Center (note: that will probably be the last time I write the whole thing out). So what have I done this past week?
-I moved in and am rooming with Ryan, the Manager of Maintenance from Kansas who was on staff during my training, so we already knew each other.
-I began getting accustumed to some of my new roles, mainly the house keeping ones, while I will become more involved in community outreach coordinating closer to and after the fall YES training begins.
-We went to Camp Hebron for Staff Retreat/team building "preweekend." We did the low and high ropes courses and other team building activities which created a few memories (such as me losing a button thanks to HDC director Chris Epp's over enthusiastic attempt at pulling me back by my pants after I had leaned far out over an imaginary tar pit to rescue a little stuffed animal during one of the low ropes events. Seriously, if you have to read that sentece three or four times, I will not be offended), and spent a lot of time sitting around the fire chatting. There will be five of us staff as of Thursday, and we are hoping for a cook soon.
-I helped with a few painting projects around the house.
and I think that's the big (and the slightly bigger than small) stuff. It's been a good first week, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming weeks and training. My fellow staff members are a fun group to work with, and it is exciting as my role here continues to take shape and fall into place.
till later,
Ben
Today marks one week since I arrived here at Harrisburg Discipleship Center (note: that will probably be the last time I write the whole thing out). So what have I done this past week?
-I moved in and am rooming with Ryan, the Manager of Maintenance from Kansas who was on staff during my training, so we already knew each other.
-I began getting accustumed to some of my new roles, mainly the house keeping ones, while I will become more involved in community outreach coordinating closer to and after the fall YES training begins.
-We went to Camp Hebron for Staff Retreat/team building "preweekend." We did the low and high ropes courses and other team building activities which created a few memories (such as me losing a button thanks to HDC director Chris Epp's over enthusiastic attempt at pulling me back by my pants after I had leaned far out over an imaginary tar pit to rescue a little stuffed animal during one of the low ropes events. Seriously, if you have to read that sentece three or four times, I will not be offended), and spent a lot of time sitting around the fire chatting. There will be five of us staff as of Thursday, and we are hoping for a cook soon.
-I helped with a few painting projects around the house.
and I think that's the big (and the slightly bigger than small) stuff. It's been a good first week, and I'm looking forward to the upcoming weeks and training. My fellow staff members are a fun group to work with, and it is exciting as my role here continues to take shape and fall into place.
till later,
Ben
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