Lessons Learned

For the past 4 weeks, I've interned at Arbor Place teen center, a God-loving organization dedicated to ministering to Southeast Lancaster's inner-city youth. I've been blessed by the faithfulness of Arbor Place's staff: Wayne, Pieter, Mallissa, and Dexter. They're incredibly welcoming and caring and all about being Jesus to their neighborhood and everyone who Arbor Place impacts. Me and my fellow Sidewalkers, Andrew and Kira, spent the first week of our internship planning a 5-week youth training program called "Gangs to God." The rest of our time has been staffing the program: going on prayer walks, leading devotionals, teaching lessons (money, self-esteem, etiquette, college), and doing fun stuff (rollerskating, swimming, going to Chocolate World). It's been awesome and challenging -- ask me about it; I have lots of stories.

Some things I've learned:

1. Go with the flow. And when I say flow, I mean Holy Spirit. Coming into my internship, I was all about preparation. So much so that I printed out the rules of basketball because I thought I'd be reffing their summer basketball league. Yikes. Leaving my internship, I'm all about flexibility. Whether it's leading devotionals without any preparation or eating lunch at 2pm or planning a sex talk that should've started 30 minutes prior, I have been stretched. I've learned (from Wayne's example) to trust that when I open my mouth to talk about God, the Spirit will do his thing. Praise God.
2. People are more than they seem. Looking at teens I work with, I don't know their story, their home life, whether they live with both parents, one parent, a sibling. I don't know how the inner-city has affected them; if they have a police record, do drugs, are sexually active...or if they're a straight-A student who's squeaky clean. From what the staff tell me, we have teens from both extremes. Most importantly, I don't know any of the baggage and brokenness from which they come from. When meeting someone new, assumptions go out the window.
3. I can dougie. And I can also teach you how to dougie. After laughing at me, the teens affirmed my dougie as legitimate and worthy of showing me off to their friends. Oh, the life of a white boy in the city...

Praise God for stretching us, challenging us, and teaching us!

BONUS PICTURE added on 7/13: