Friday, July 17, 2009
Wrap Up and Beginning
This past week, we realized suddenly, was the last week of just the four of us volunteer staff. The next two weeks, the afor mentioned teams will be here, and shortly after that, a new staff member will be joining us (yeah Melanie!). And a few weks later, we'll have a whole new staff. And before long, it's time to get ready for the fall training. Which is a whole new beginning.
So here I am, the business of the past week or two having kept me 'till a few days ago unaware of the amount of jumbled upcoming transition. So here it comes. Perhaps it's better that way. Overthinking and overdreading is usually what makes change and transition difficult. So as things come, take them, and as they go, say "'till later."
So that's a bit of what I'm thinking about this morning. As for the past month and a half, well, lists are boring, so I guess it'll be a black hole in this blog's history. And hopefully there won't be any more that big.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Staff Extention
Sorry for the lack of updates recently, I'll try to remedy the fact after this weekend.
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Little Lessons from Turtles
Sunday, April 19, 2009
I returned to HDC Friday evening after being at home for a tad over a week. Much to my relief, nothing bad had happened. It has seemed that whenever I go home, something bad happens here at HDC (One of the YES participants breaking his toe, a van window getting bashed in, and the Carraige House flooding were all events that happened on weekends/days that I was home). The next moring was a Community Cleanup event which drew a huge crowd. We were split into groups of about 12 and sent to cover different streets. Trash bags in hand, we went after all the litter and garbage that is so common on the streets of Harrisburg. I haven't heard a number of how many bags we picked up all together, but it's quite an enormous number, I'm sure.
Last night I reminded myself how bad I sometimes am at decision making. I was in the side yard throwing a football around with a bunch of kids, and it happened. I don't even remember how or why I did it. All I remember is that all of a sudden, I was holding a kid by his arms and swinging him in circles. Fun for me, fun for the kid, how can you go wrong? I've found that swinging kids is like growing bacteria. One becomes two, which becomes four, which becomes eight, which becomes sixteen. Before long, I was surround by about 10 kids all saying that I had said they were next. In no time at all, I was dizzy and out of breathe. Yeah, I took breaks, but the problem with breaks is that they are like dying bacteria. Each break only has about half of the stomach settling, diaphram relaxing effect as the last one did. But needless to say, this is one area that I'm sure my decision making won't improve, nor do I want it to. There are plenty things I can't do, but I can swing kids in circles (all joking comments aside, I do think my dizziness tolerance/stability is above average) so, hey, why not?
I was reminded to be grateful for modern technology while I was home. Especially for digital photography. My family went to one of my favorite local hiking spots (tae quan glen-that spelling is not "Ben-guarenteed") and I took 87 pictures. Yup, 87. I think 4 or 5 are duplicates. If I would have had to worry about the cost and effort of changing rolls of film, my afternoon would have been much less enjoyable. So thank you, technology. In many ways, you've made civilization less civil and your labor saving schemes have just created work that's harder to understand, but never the less, you sometimes do work wonders.
Even as I write, I can see the clouds rolling in on the "calm" that we've had here for the past few months. Monday-Wednesday, we will be at the main EMM offices in Salunga all day for Action Week. We'll basically be parts of discussion teams on different aspects of EMM/YES. Thursday-Saturday, we'll be going to a camp ground near Jacki's house for Staff retreat. The morning after we return, we'll be heading to Indiana until Wednesday or Thursday (not entirely sure when we come back). The week after that, we'll be busy getting ready for a re-entry of 17 people, as well as do chapel at Christopher Dock on May 4. So there's a lot on the schedule coming up.
Monday, April 6, 2009
April Fools
I'm usually not much of a pranker. April 1 isn't ever highlighted on my calendar. However, sometimes things just fall right into your lap.
Audrey had a bad computer. A really, really bad computer. You might as well go take a quick nap after you started it (depending on how bad it decided to be that day). Then she got a new one. Audrey was super excited. As in, jumping up and down excited. Not only did she get a new computer, she also got a new monitor that didn't take up the entire desk like her old one did. When did she get it? March 31. Like I said before sometimes things just fall right into your lap. The video below shows Audrey arriving at her desk the morning of April 1 to find that her nice new monitor has magically transformed into her old tank.
(p.s. the music in the back ground just happened to be playing on my computer and I think it actually fits quite nicely!)
The great thing is, she assumes it was Andy Hock! (probably with good reason, given past track record). Hopefully this gave a glimpse into some of the fun things we do with...or to each other here at HDC. Oh, and no fears, her monitor was actually behind the conveniently piled high trash can on the left of the screen. Still plugged in and everything. I also fessed up before they did anything to Andy.
Friday, April 3, 2009
South Allison Hill
Monday, March 23, 2009
Random happenings
- We have continued doing some recruiting around here, including going to churches, the "Calvary Vision" event (I think that's what it is called), and manning the booth at the Celebration of Church Life weekend. We also have plans to do chapel at LMH on March 31 (probably only two of us will go, not sure if I'll be there) and Christopher Dock sometime around the end of April/beginning of May.
- I've started doing some work in the Carraige House thanks to the burst pipe a couple months back. Basically tearing down walls. Probably a good thing too, given that it's the drywall holding up the rotten studs rather than vice versa.
- All of the staff took the Strenths Finder test and my top 5 strenths are: Ideation, Strategic, Adaptability, Analyical, Responsibility. The odd thing was that in one of the action steps for "Ideation" it said to partner with an analytical person to question and challenge you, therefore strengthening your ideas. What can I say, I guess I can do it all. Jacki was also not quite sure what to think when the strength at the top of her list turned out to be "Woo."
- I've enjoyed some good times with one of the kids I've been tutoring at Center For Champions, the after school program I'm volunteering at, after we, to say the least, didn't get off to the best of starts. Quick recap, our first tutoring session he had the attention span of a goldfish with ADD. He interpreted that because of my efforts to try to get him to concentrate enough to get at least some of his work done, I must not like him one bit. So halfway through the session he stormed away. The next 15 minutes were me trying to explain to him why I was being somewhat strict and that he was a really cool kid. It didn't seem like he believed a word I said, but next week when I went back he appologized for some of what he said. So whatever the reason for the change, praise God.
- Saw a few random snowflakes fall...on the way to Rita's...on the first day of spring. Go figure.
- Had a good laugh at two sets of doors into LMH's chapel that were no more than 10 feet apart and opened into pretty much the exact same area. Above one set of doors, a sign read "Section A" and above the other, "Section B." Because clearly if you went in the "Section B" doors, there is no way you could possibly make it to Section A. One "Sections A + B" sign would have quite sufficed.
- I've been reminded why the NCAA basketball tournament is the only time I ever watch basketball. Maybe it's just coming from my days of playing goalie where you go up for a ball and bang into people and people bang into you and it never even crosses the ref's mind to blow the whistel, but in my eyes every other foul that's called looks like something field hockey players could get away with. And that's saying something. What's that? The guy brushing your shoulder messed up your shot? Well try jumping in the air and catching a cross while simultaneously colliding with all 180 pounds of the opposing striker, and the only way play is going to be stopped is if one of you two get hurt! (this is no exaggeration, by the way. On one such play I ended up with a minor concussion, but the other guy was slow getting up so I had to settle with taking a free kick from the spot rather than being able to punt it. Grrr...)
So...hopefully that was somewhat informative.