Week 1

Week One

Sunday June 10
    Our last day of prep was quite crazy. We were behind schedule so Sunday afternoon was spent in fast forward. I have never shopped for 20 people for a whole week before. Shane, Larissa, and I each took a cart and a third of the list. One hour later we had most of the stuff in three carts packed to the brim. I had the third of the list that had all the meat, eggs, and milk. By the end I could barely push my cart around a corner! So much fun. Checking out took another hour and we made friends with the lady at the register. Her name is Deborah and she asked us to find her when we came back. After Walmart we made a quick trip to Lowes and picked up a tarp to split the upstairs hallway in half.
    After rushing back to the CYC we had just enough time to get all of the food into the kitchen before the team showed up. Our first youth group showed up in two white vans. There were 13 teenagers and three adults.

The Week
The Work Project
    Shane, Larissa, and I picked to begin working on a house that needed siding. The house had metal siding that needed to be stripped and then we had to put new siding up. We weren’t sure what all needed to be done when we started, but we went for it anyway! The students were great. Because we’re trying to develop leaders each day on the work site Shane would divide the group up into teams and place one student in charge of each team. It was quite the experience! It was strange to be on a team led by a student who had never done the task before, or even construction in general! As leaders we are supposed to let the students do everything. We let them make decisions and solve problems. If they have never done something before (like siding the house) we would teach them, and then let them do it. Because I was on a team, whoever the student leader was had to tell me what to do. And even if they gave me a job that was wrong or counterproductive I had to do it anyway. Quite the crazy experience! The program is great though. The students were forced to think on their feet and solve problems that they didn’t think they could solve.
    The first task was removing the metal siding. We didn’t give them any ideas about how to do it, but instead turned them loose on the house. They figured it out alright! There was a lot of hammering, cutting, wedging hammers underneath nails, and sweat everywhere, but they got the job done. Was it done in the most effective and time conscious way possible? No. But a lot of good lessons were learned. :) I had a lot of fun working outside and challenging the students. Whenever they ask us a question our response is supposed to be “I don’t know, what do you think?” We say that even though yes we probably do have an answer to their question, but it is not necessarily the best answer and we want them to figure out what they thing. Beware family and friends, by the time I get home at the end of the summer I may have forgotten how to answer questions. :)
   
Vacation Bible School
Another part of every day is VBS for local kids. The students plan out the VBS before they come so all that has to be done when they get here is to pick up kids, and get going! We spent Monday afternoon passing our flyers and going door to door advertising for VBS, and then on Tuesday it began! We picked up kids from a local neighborhood called a Holler. A Holler is a long skinny neighborhood tucked into the side of a mountain. You turn off the road into the Hollar and drive back into it, sometimes for miles. They are almost completely hidden if you don’t know where they are. The families that live there are generally very poor.
    Tuesday VBS began. The kids are so sweet. We had the same 15 there all week. The students on the trip did an incredible job of planning out games, crafts, and even a puppet show for the kids. It was awesome! And better yet, I just got to play with the kids. I wasn’t in charge of anything. A few of my new friends from the Holler are Jada and Jacob, Blake and Blade (identical twins), Hazlyn, Destiny, Jasmine, Micky, Nicky Marie, and Savannah. I will probably be with them all summer so I’m sure you will hear about them again! Feel free to check out my facebook if you want to see some pictures of these precious mini-people.

Morning Devos and Team Time
    As I’ve mentioned before, morning devos are a big part of the LT program. Every morning after breakfast we all spent 45 minutes in silence completing a bible study and praying. It is powerful to look around the room at a group of junior high and high school students buried deep in their Bibles. That time made a big impact on a lot of the students and many of them set goals to continue spending time with the Lord every morning. Beautiful.
    Team Time is definitely unique. Every evening the group gathers to talk about the day. We start off by discussing things that went well that day. For example, maybe the students did a great job encouraging each other, or something else like that. It is awesome to hear the students pick out the good things in the group. It is even better, however, to hear them voice areas that they know the need to grow. From the ‘Doing Well’ section of the program, we move on to ‘Needs Improvement.’ Some things that came up in Team Time this week were being on time, having good intentional conversations to get to know one another, and searching out jobs on the worksite if you aren’t busy. It is so cool that these students are thinking deeply and working to improve.
    Next is Bible study. We go over what we did in morning devos and the students have the opportunity to talk about what they learned, ask questions, and be challenged by the leaders. A lot of really awesome questions and thoughts came out during that time every night. Again, it is incredible to see students grow and be challenged. We had some deep thinkers on the trip this week! Team Time is such a blessing.

Girls Night
    At the request of the adult leaders we decided to have a girls and guys night. After bedtime we curled up in our respective rooms and just talked. We opened it up for the students to ask questions. I have no idea how the guys’ talk went (obviously) but the girls had lots of great conversation! They asked lots of good questions and our conversation ranged across lots of aspects of life. We discussed divorce, purity, dating, college, and growing up. That night was a huge blessing to me because I have mistakes in some of those areas and learned a lot. I loved being able to share what I’ve learned and encourage the girls to make right choices. We stayed up pretty late so I was tired the next day, but it was totally worth it.

Meal Time
    Another part of the experience is that we let the students take charge of the kitchen. Similar to the worksite, we let them do all the organizing and cooking. If they ask any adult for help that adult would jump in, but whenever they asked a question we make them make a decision. It was quite fun! Some of the students had never cooked before, and they made interesting decisions! An example would be that the morning I was in charge of the breakfast team and we made breakfast burritos. We had eggs, ground sausage, cheese, and salsa. The students that were in charge of the sausage decided to make it into patties instead of just cooking ground sausage. If I was cooking breakfast I would not have made that decision - but they were in charge! So we put sausage patties on our breakfast burritos that morning. So fun! Also on the first night the spaghetti was not stirred enough and part of it was burnt. Also, the end of the box was all cooked together. I have a feeling that throughout the course of the summer I will eat some pretty strange things. Bring it on! :D

Leaders Meetings
    Every night after Team Time the adult leaders from the youth group would meet with Shane, Larissa, and I. We had some staff snacks (shh don’t tell the students) and talked about the day. We talked about wins, struggles, how the students were holding up, and how each one of us was doing. It was a good time of fellowship. After that meeting Shane, Larissa, and I would meet. Sometimes we debriefed the day but mostly we just vented frustrations and laughed. By that point in the night we were pretty much slap-happy. We had tons of fun joking around. Staff meetings have been one of my favorite parts of the day. No matter how my day went every night ended with my stomach hurting from laughter. God is so good.

Our First ER Trip
    Yesterday on our ‘fun day’ hike one of the students hit her head. Coupled with dehydration she was very weak and felt awful. As soon as we got back to the CYC we took her to the ER. She turned out being just fine, but she took a whole bag of fluids in half an hour. Just to be safe the doctor ordered a CT scan. It was AWESOME!! I was with her the entire time, so I got to go with her to get the scan. I told the technician that I was a first year nursing student who had just taken A&P so he went really slow to explain everything to me. He showed me her brain, skull bones, and her cervical vertebra. SO COOL!! The best part was seeing the atlas and axis (the connection between the vertebrae and the skull) through her face bones. The sinuses were also pretty sweet to see as he scrolled up. WOW! I’m sorry she got hurt, I’m glad she’s ok, but that CT scan was definitely a highlight of my week. :D

What I’m Learning
    One of the biggest lessons I am learning is patience. It takes patience to watch a group of students struggle with completing a task I could step in and finish quickly. The funny thing is that this is both easier and harder at times than I thought it would be. Sometimes I just laugh and sit back while they figure out what can and cannot go in a microwave, other times I want to grab the hammer out of someone’s hand and put the piece of siding where it really needs to go. Then I imagine God watching me struggle through life. I have an amazing heavenly Father.
    Right along with patience is perseverance. There was a specific time this week where I was working with one student leader who was definitely struggling. Honestly, I had thoughts of trying to sneak off to work with someone else. But I didn’t! I worked with him all day. It was hard. But I learned a lot! I learned how to get my frustrations out of the way in order to actually help him learn. God is so good to help me learn these things. He has had to give me a lot of grace this week.
    Another thing I’ve been learning is what it really takes to be a leader. I am learning just as much as the students! Something I have struggled with is thinking that when you get into a leadership role you somehow ‘snap’ into place and have an awesome walk with God and are automatically a great leader. I now know that is not the case! I pray that God can still work through me even though I am totally inexperienced and have an incredible amount of growing to do. This week I blessed to hear the stories of all three of the adult leaders on the trip. All three of them had strong non-Christian backgrounds and made a lot of mistakes. That was encouraging to me because I see the incredible leaders that God has made them into. God blessed me this week by helping me grow in the way I think about leadership.

Prayer Requests
Please pray for the kids from the Holler. They are so sweet, but they have hard lives. Their living situations are not the best, and a lot of them do not have parents that are present in their lives. Most importantly, though, is their salvation. On the first day of VBS we asked the kids if they knew how to get eternal life. While some of them said ‘Jesus’ a lot of the kids gave other answers. Destiny said to me “you have to be nice to everyone.” And another answer was ‘you have to pray every day.” Please pray that through the course of the summer the LT staff and youth groups that come would be able to clearly communicate the gospel to these incredible children.
Pray for the team of students that just left. Coming back from a missions trip can be challenging. Especially if you’re trying to hang on to lessons that you have learned! Pray that God would give the students strength to cling to the things He has taught them through this week. Pray also that He would grant them loving friends who want to hear about the trip and who are encouraging about what God did in their lives this week.
Please pray also for the upcoming group of students! A new team comes in Sunday evening. Pray that God would be preparing their hearts for a life changing week.
Along with that, pray for the adult leaders of the trip. Another thing I learned that week is that the LT model is very hard for some adults to adopt. Especially since their job throughout the year is to teach the students. Pray that God would prepare them to try out the new role of letting the students lead, succeed, and fail right before them.
Pray for my, Larissa’s, and Shane’s growth as leaders. While the first trip was definitely a success there were still some rough spots and lots of areas that the three of us need to grow in. Please pray that God would work in each of our hearts over the weekend so that we can be used by God in a very effective way this upcoming week.
Please continue to pray for our team dynamic. As I said last week we are still growing closer and becoming better friends. Praise God for answering that prayer request from last week! This week please pray that God would fit the three of us together in such a way that the impact He can have through us would be multiplied.
For me specifically, please pray that God would continue to develop me as a leader. I would like to improve in my ability to build strong relationships with students quickly and also in my ability to challenge them and speak truth into their lives.
Pray that God would humble me in order to be used by Him.
Another struggle is being so far removed from everything I have come to know as home. Every single person this week asked me about college and it has made me realize how much I truly love Cedarville and my friends there. This has led me to think about all the ways I am growing this summer. I am already planning out the ways my sophomore year will be different from my freshman year. Pray that I would truly be changed this summer and come back to Cedarville with a renewed vigor to live out truth, and work hard to serve my heavenly Father.

Thank you so much for your prayers!! I so appreciate hearing back from you that you are praying for me. It is such a blessing.

Also, today Shane, Larissa, and I opened a P.O Box! If you feel so inclined to write to me (or in other words, to bless me beyond your wildest imagination) you can address the envelope to:
Nicole Giraud
P.O. Box 66
Fall Rock KY 40932