Sarah Andersen

April at By The Hand

2010-04-15T08:55:00.000-07:00

So the last few months have gone extremely quickly! I can't even believe it! It's been quite a while since I've last sent an update, so I thought it was about time.

The kids at BTH were on spring break in March, and I had the chance to hang out with some kids while they were off school. On March 29, we did a special event for some of our girls called "Color Me Beautiful". We talked about beauty, self-image, being African-American (sadly, many kids make comments that they wish they weren't black), etc. We talked with about 10 girls about how models don't necessarily look the same way when they get out of bed as they do in the magazines. We also showed them this video, created for Dove's "Campaign for Real Beauty". I HIGHLY encourage everyone to watch this short video. It's an amazing reality check for real women to see how people in magazines look the way they do.

April 8th was the By The Hand Spring Benefit. It went EXTREMELY well, despite the lack of enough valet parking staff. :) We enjoyed listening to student testimonies, hearing the choir sing, watching the Super Bowl Shuffle, and hearing about the students' 2009-10 newspaper writing project. Each student at By The Hand wrote an article on the Chicago Bears and winners were chosen from each grade.

We also had the opportunity to listen to Lovie Smith, head coach of the Bears, speak to us. Several Bears players came that night and benefit guests were able to meet Zack Bowman, Tim Shaw, other Bears players, and Staley the Bear (the mascot).

I'll post pictures from the benefit and from Color Me Beautiful as soon as I can. Please keep praying for By The Hand. It's really difficult towards the end of the year, because students want to run around outside rather than be in the program. Pray that students continue to come to the program so that we can pour into them. Also pray about many fighting issues that are going on in the neighborhood. We've had to disenroll quite a few kids lately because of fighting issues that were becoming a danger to other kids in the program. Also pray for academics. Towards the end of the year, it'd difficult for students (and teachers) to be motivated, and we really want students to continue learning and improving academically. And as always, please pray that students will come to know Christ and grow closer to him, because it is that relationship that will influence every part of their lives.

Thanks so much for your prayer and support!

-Sarah

Worry and Stress

2010-04-15T08:52:00.000-07:00

"Worry implies that we don't quite trust that God is big enough, powerful enough, or loving enough to take care of what's happening in our lives." (See Matthew 6)

"Stress says that the things we are involved in are important enough to merit our impatience, our lack of grace towards others, or our tight grip of control." (OUCH!)

-Quotes taken from "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan

Compassion

2010-03-23T11:54:00.001-07:00

Today in staff devotions, we had a local pastor speak to us. He talked about a number of different things, one of them being compassion. He said, "Compassion means, 'Your pain is my pain.'" If we're not making the pain of those to whom we are ministering our pain, we're not truly ministering. If we're not taking on the pain of others, we'd better just leave and get out of the way so that someone with compassion can take our place.

That's real talk.

God is not far away...A brief theology of suffering explained through rap music and a Swiss Reformed theologian...Yes, those two do relate.

2010-02-18T21:34:00.000-08:00

We showed a great music video in chapel at By The Hand today by the Christian rap group "Lecrae" (yes, I do listen to Christian rap sometimes...who would have thought).

They wrote a song called "Far Away". The song talks about how sometimes God seems like He's far away. The video is set against the backdrop of Haiti, and Lecrae's message is that in the midst of struggle, disaster, and tragedy, God is not far away. Scripture says that God will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5, Deut. 31:6). View the video here.

Psalm 16:8-11 says:

⁸ I have set the LORD always before me.
Because he is at my right hand,
I will not be shaken.

⁹ Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices;
my body also will rest secure,

¹⁰ because you will not abandon me to the grave,
nor will you let your Holy One see decay.

¹¹ You have made known to me the path of life;
you will fill me with joy in your presence,
with eternal pleasures at your right hand.

I know it's easy for me to sit here in my comfortable living room with my great roommates while planning fun wedding events and talk about how God is not far away. I do not have the slightest idea or understanding of what those in Haiti are going through. I cannot imagine the destruction, loss, suffering, and devastation that exists there and in so many places throughout the world.

Where is God in suffering? God is in the midst of it, suffering with us just as his Son suffered for us. He is not far away. God is promising that he will redeem all of humanity, creating a new heaven and a new earth. Revelation 21:3-4 says, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ⁴He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away."

We have hope in the day that the old order of things--the suffering, the pain, the loss, the devastation--will pass away and all things will be made new. We have hope in the new creation, when God will restore the earth and we will be able to spend eternity with him. We can have hope that this life does matter, but this life is also not all there is.

Karl Barth, a famous 20th century Swiss Reformed theologian wrote, "If we fix our eyes upon the place where the course of the world reaches its lowest point, where its vanity is unmistakable, where its groanings are most bitter and the divine incognito most impenetrable, we shall encounter there--Jesus Christ. On the frontier of what is observable He stands delivered up and not spared. In place of us all He stands there, delivered up for us all..." Understanding the depths of the suffering of God in Jesus Christ reveals the character of God.

God suffering with humanity is an essential theological theme to grasp if we are to wrap our heads around the suffering of the world and the suffering of Christ. The suffering God is the loving God. The suffering God takes up the broken state of humanity and fixes it. He does not remain distant but rather relates so deeply to the human condition that he became human. He addresses our suffering in reality. He relates to our suffering in time and space, in a way we can understand. He defeats suffering through experiencing it and overcoming it in the resurrection. "Christ alone can speak here as he along addresses the kind of suffering which ruptures language and meaning--not as the one who suddenly introduces meaning into stark meaninglessness but as the one in whom God enters into and takes to himself the very God-forsakenness of men and women, the very depths of Hell and the absence of God" (Torrance, "Does God Suffer?"). Divine suffering does not imply imperfection, instability, or weakness. Divine suffering implies a God who relates completely to his creation, heals the broken relationship between God and humanity, and remains ontologically and consistently love in Father, Son, and Spirit.

God is not far away.

Watch the Lecrae video here.

*For one (among many) helpful article on this topic, see Richard Bauckham's article "Only the Suffering God Can Help: Divine Passibility in Modern Theology". I have many other helpful books and articles if anyone hasn't fallen asleep by this point in my blog entry and is still interested. If we are to have hope in Christ, understand his death and resurrection, and live and minister in the midst of a suffering world, we MUST develop a doctrinally sound and practical theology of suffering.

"Ms. Sarah..."

2010-02-04T19:56:00.000-08:00

Neyah: "Ms. Sarah, you don't talk like you're white.

Me: "Really?"

Neyah: "Yeah, you talk like you're one of us."

In graduate school, we call that contextualization. I take it as a compliment. :)

Why I Should Be President...

2010-02-04T19:54:00.000-08:00

Ms. Anna from the Yellow Team (2nd graders with a few 3rd graders) at By The Hand posted this...I thought it was very entertaining. :)

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This month's literacy lesson theme (based off of the LEAP curriculum for after-school programs) is government and community. This week my 2nd/3rd graders were working on mini speeches to read to their team, and then they were supposed to vote on a "President" of the Yellow Team based on the speeches. Here's some of my favorites (with most spelling/grammar fixed):

"If I was president I would give the whole world cookies and milk"-- no name

"Why I Should be President: First, I would help my country. Then, I would clean my town. Finally, [I would] help people get off the street. Because I can get people off the street. And keep people safe. And have pizza day. Vote for me!" -- Tyevell

"Why I Should be President: First, I would clean the whole world. Then I would clean my town. Finally I would let people love everyone." -- Unique

"I should be President because I love Jesus and my country and team and Anna" -- Jamari

"Why I Should be President: First I would help my country, Then I would help the poor people. Finally I will get a big house." -- Justice

"Why I Should be President: First I will save Chicago. Then I will try to get people off of the street. Finally I will take a Nap. Thank you for listening to my speech." -- Shamar

*** And my all-time favorites:

"I promise I will make the day fun. I promise I will speak for people. If I was president I will give people food. I'll teach you Spanish. I will help people. I love people. My mom is going to be President. She is a good girl. My dad can be President. He is a good man. The end. By by. Have a nice day. Good job."-- Eddie

"I should be president of the Yellow Team because I am brave and not scared of anything, not even werewolves. So that's why I should be president of the Yellow Team. 1. I'm a girl. 2. I don't be bad. 3. I'll teach you Spanish. Gracias. Thank you for listening to my speech and vote for me."--- Nesitia

By The Hand needs your help!

2010-02-03T07:40:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

First of all, thank you so much for your continued prayer and financial support for By The Hand. God has blessed us through so many different people who have supported By The Hand in numerous ways.

With that said, I'm asking for your help in obtaining some supplies for our kids.

Every week, we have something called the "club store". Students earn points throughout the week by saying their memory verse, attending the club, doing homework, etc. They then spend these points on little toys and things at the club store. Unfortunately, we have not been able to offer the kids very much with the store, because we've had to cut down on the budget. We would love to make the club store really special for the kids so that we can reward them for their hard work.

If you would like to donate, we are in need of donations for our club store. Usually, we order little trinkety things from places like Oriental Trading and put those things in the store. It's just small toys and games and other things that would be fun for elementary school students to earn. There are a few ways you can donate. You can donate money and designate that it is meant to go towards the club store or you can order club store items yourself and just have them sent to By The Hand. Make sure that it's clear that you are meaning to donate to the club store so that the items go to the right place.

You can sent items to our director and the address you can use is:

Attn. Sarah James

C/O By The Hand Club for Kids

1000 N. Sedgwick

Chicago, IL 60610

If you live in the Chicago area and prefer to just give donations to me, I can make sure that they get to By The Hand.

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Thank you so much for your support and generosity!

Love,

Sarah

Pictures from Winning the Fall Fundraising Drive

2010-02-01T09:56:00.000-08:00

Dreona and Janiece with a filled coin jug

The Green Team!

More Christmas in the City pictures

2010-01-25T14:47:00.001-08:00

Cleara with her new coat

Makiya with her new clothes from Old Navy

Reggie and Jumar on the bus

L-R: Reggie, Jumar, Justin, Derris

Above everyone is Kavar

Pictures from By The Hand

2010-01-25T14:40:00.000-08:00

Here are some pictures from work. Most of these are from our Christmas in the City event.

Checking out the window displays downtown

Catching snowflakes

Catching snowflakes again

New clothes from Old Navy

Hanging out at McDonalds

Some of my boys at McDonalds

My boys with one of our new volunteers, Sarah

Makiya and Sherine, my girls

Jumar in his new coat, donated by members of Willow Creek Community Church

A long overdue update

2010-01-25T14:21:00.001-08:00

Dear Friends and Family,

I have not been very good lately about updating the blog, but I am finally getting around to it! We are back in the swing of things at By The Hand after Christmas break. The first couple weeks have been busy and rather crazy, but the staff and kids are getting back into the routine. The next few months follow a much more normal schedule for our programming (until we approach the spring benefit on April 8th--then it gets crazy again).

Thanks to your prayer and financial support, my team (the Green Team) raised the most money out of all the By The Hand teams in the Fall Fundraising Drive! Thanks so much! We are excited and I'm very proud of the students for working hard to donate out of their own pockets. They also earned money by doing their homework and completing writing assignments while at the program. Our team gets a gift card to go out as a team and do something fun (like go see a movie).

During programming time the last couple weeks, we've been working a lot on reading and writing skills, as well as preparing for the ISAT tests. My culture elective is finishing up talking about Mexico. In Bible study and chapel, we are going through the Old Testament. Last week, we talked about the Fall and Adam and Eve sinning. This week, we're talking about Noah's ark. Please pray for chapel and Bible study especially, as we really want to pour into our students the Word of God.

On a different note, my "Q" student has not been in the program for the last couple months because we really were not sure what to do with him. However, after meeting with his counselor making some changes, and coming up with some new ideas on how to help him, we've asked him to return tomorrow. PLEASE pray for this, because we really want him back, but at the same time, he is a difficult student and I'm honestly a bit nervous about having him in the classroom. Also pray that God gives my director, his counselor, and me wisdom as far as whether or not we continue to work with him in the program, or we try to find somewhere else for him to go that may be a better fit for him.

Thanks so much for your prayers and support!

Love,

Sarah

P.S. On a totally different note, you may know that Colson and I are engaged. You can view our wedding website HERE.

We're getting married!

2010-01-01T15:29:00.000-08:00

This post is LONG overdue, but Colson and I got engaged on December 12, 2009! We're really excited! Eventually (hopefully) I'll post some pictures of the engagement day. For now, you can visit our wedding website for more information:

http://www.theknot.com/ourwedding/SarahAndersen&ColsonHauser

Fall Fundraising Drive-Last Chance!

2009-12-23T08:23:00.001-08:00

Just so you know, there are only a few days left to donate for our fall fundraising drive! Any money donated to By The Hand will be matched dollar for dollar through December 31. If you would like to donate, you can write a check made out to By The Hand Club for Kids and then put CG-Green Team on the memo line. You can also donate online on our website at www.bythehand.org. Just make sure you indicate "CG-Green Team" somewhere on the online form. Thanks so much for your prayer and support!

A long overdue update...

2009-12-21T14:18:00.000-08:00

We have had a LOT going on the last couple weeks at By The Hand. I will be posting more updates and pictures later on, but I just wanted to update you in the meantime.

We had our Christmas Tree Giveaway event a few weeks ago, which was great. Families from all over the community picked up live Christmas trees that were donated, drank hot chocolate, and listened to our choir sing Christmas carols. After the Christmas Tree Giveaway, I found out that a mattress, box spring, and frame were being donated and we decided to give it to one of my families. The grandmother was so appreciative and gave me a huge hug after we set it up for her! (Now, if I didn't stick out in the community already, I stuck out even more carrying a bed frame up 6 flights of stairs in a high-rise apartment building. It's too bad I don't have pictures of that.)

We took our kids to "Christmas in the City". This was a blast! Yes, believe it or not, we take 125 inner-city kids downtown on the same day to shop, eat food, walk around, and experience Christmas in Chicago. Parents and volunteers joined us and we were able to split into smaller groups and take the kids around. Each child received a $25 Old Navy gift card and a $5 gift card. It was really fun helping my boys pick out some new outfits. It was also a blessing to see them give what was left on their McDonald's gift cards to a homeless woman on the street.

We had our Christmas Gathering on Thursday. This was the last day of programming before the Christmas break. We invited the kids' families to join us for a chapel service. We had the bucket drummers play, the choir sing, the praise dancers dance, and one of our staff, Franklin, present the truth about Christmas. It was a great night (despite frustrating technical difficulties).

Last night, we had our staff Christmas party. This was soooo much fun! We went to Maggianos and enjoyed some great Italian food. Then, we played some fun games (at one point, I actually got "accidentally" tackled in a musical chairs sort of game.) During another game, there was a tie between 3 staff members that ended in a dance-off. Not your typical office Christmas party...and believe it or not, we started out of Moody Church. :)

Anyway, it's been a very fun, very eventful few weeks. And, just to add to the excitement, I got engaged last weekend. :) Yay! Colson and I are very excited and are looking forward to our wedding on May 9, 2010. More importantly, however, we are looking forward to our marriage. :)

Please pray for our kids over the Christmas break! When they don't have the structure of school or our program, they can more easily get in trouble. Pray that they make the right decisions over break and draw closer to God, not turn from him.

God bless and Merry Christmas!

-Sarah

P.S. One last note, if you are still interested in donating toward our fall fundraising drive, please do so before December 31. You can mail checks or donate online. Please write CG-Green Team somewhere on the check or on the online form. Anything postmarked by December 31 will be matched dollar for dollar.

Today...

2009-12-10T19:36:00.000-08:00

1. I walked from train to work in -12 degree temperatures.

2. The pipes burst in the kitchen at work.

3. Because the pipes burst, part of the gym (next to the kitchen) flooded

4. Because part of the gym flooded, dinner had to be moved to the other part of the gym

5. Because dinner had to be moved, things were not quite ready and dinner was not set up for the kids when they came down to eat.

6. Because dinner was not set up, the kids were stuck having to wait.

7. Having about 125 kids waiting in one place does not make for a good, orderly situation. Rather, 125 kids in one room with time to kill means disaster.

8. We finally made it through dinner.

9. One team leader had to stand with his 1st grade kid and hold him back from running around the building and terrorizing everyone.

10. Our director had to do an errand downtown last minute with the high school kids, so she had to leave in the midst of chaos.

11. A parent called me and asked me to walk her daughter home, since that girl's brother was not here today.

12. I walked her home in sub-zero temperatures.

13. I returned back to the gym and was immediately greeted by a crying 6 year old with puke on her face.

14. I cleaned up throw up.

15. I washed my hands...thoroughly.

16. The same kid listed under number 9 in this list refused to go home. He spent about 10 minutes kicking our front door.

17. Myself and our director began to walk to his apartment to get someone to get him, since last week we literally had to carry this kid up several flights of stairs to his apartment because he refused to go home.

18. He finally went home, or at least went inside his building.

19. I walked to the train in sub-zero temperatures.

20. I gained feeling back in my hands.

21. I talked to my boyfriend who loves Christ and loves me.

22. I went home to warm apartment with wonderful roommates.

23. I went out to dinner and was able to eat until I was more than full.

24. I will not freeze.

25. I have an awesome winter coat.

26. I have gloves.

27. I have hot apple cider to drink.

28. I realized that I enjoy going home. I do not go home kicking and screaming. Home is a place of rest and rejuvenation for me, not a place of dysfunction, abuse, and pain.

29. I work in a community that is desperately in need. But I get to go home every night to a life that is so different than those with whom I work. They don't get to just hop on a train and leave difficult circumstances.

30. I am very thankful that I get to walk to work in a warm coat. I am very blessed to be able to minister to a 6 year old girl by helping her clean herself up after throwing up. I am very thankful for my boyfriend, family, and friends, who love me and are a source of joy, comfort, and encouragement. I am very thankful that I can pay my gas and electric bills. I am very thankful I have Trader Joe's spiced cider to heat up. I love my job. I love my friends and family. I am very blessed.

All things considered, it was a great day today. Psalm 116:7 says, "Be at rest once more, O my soul, for the LORD has been good to you."

The LORD has indeed been good to me.

ABC Party

2009-12-07T09:30:00.001-08:00

After every report card comes out, we have a party for all the kids who received all As, Bs, and Cs. We played games, did face painting, ate pizza, and had a great time celebrating good grades.

Face painting with Ms. Anna

Line dancing with Mr. George

Makiya and Dominique (Green team)

Daizhana and Daniel (Gold team-1st grade)

Garbage bag races

Reggie (from my team)

An update on my Q scrabble tile...

2009-11-24T21:33:00.000-08:00

One of my kids I've nicknamed "Q" (the scrabble tile that's nearly impossible to use, but once you do, it's worth a lot!) just got all As, Bs, and Cs on his report card! I couldn't believe it! Thanks for praying!

The other student is still on the verge of being disenrolled. Please continue to pray for him.

"When I came to By The Hand and heard about Jesus...

2009-11-24T21:21:00.000-08:00

...it was the best thing..."

-One of my boys said this to me today.

Some more info on "Christmas in the City"

2009-11-24T12:15:00.000-08:00

Christmas In the City

On December 8^th-10^th we will be taking all our kids (a different site on each day – see below) downtown to Old Navy on State St, giving them a $25 gift card to shop as well as $5 for dinner at McDonald’s. This is a really unique experience for the kids, especially because everything is decorated for Christmas. The window displays at Macy’s are always a big hit! We are looking for people to donate gift cards for both Old Navy and McDonald’s.

Tuesday, December 8^th – Cabrini

Wednesday, December 9^th – Austin

Thursday, December 10^th – Altgeld and Englewood

CBK (to Water Tower)

If you would like to volunteer, please let me know! I definitely could use the help for this day! You need to be an approved volunteer to help out, but I can get you a volunteer application or you can apply on our website. If you don't want to volunteer weekly and only want to do special events like Christmas in the City, please just mark that on your application. Then you can just join us for events when it works in your schedule (ahem...siblings--can I get anyone any applications? :) )

This Week at By The Hand

2009-11-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

There are only two days left until Thanksgiving! I can't believe it! Here are a few things to be praying about this week:

This Wednesday night: We provide an opportunity for the kids to symbolically nail their sins to the cross like Christ was nailed. Chapel will touch on holiness, closing our TORCH series (we've been doing a series called TORCH that stands for: Tell, Obey and Pray, Read the Bible, Church, Holy Life). In chapel, we will give the kids a minute to think of some things they have done that is not pleasing to God. Then during homework time they will write those things down on small pieces of paper. We will tell the kids not to put their names on the paper so no one knows who wrote it. But we will tell the kids that later on as we take the sins off the cross, we do read them so we can pray for them even though we don’t know who goes with what paper. These sins also gives us a better idea of what kinds of issues our kids are dealing with and what topics we can be teaching on the rest of the year using our other Bible study curriculum.

We will have a lesson about Christ, sin, and grace on Wednesday night. The kids will have an opportunity to nail their sins to the cross while we play part of the Jesus film.

This is definitely a powerful night, and a night that Satan has definitely attacked in the past. Please pray for this "Nail Your Sins to the Cross" lesson, which begins at 5:30pm on Wednesday night.

Recap from Boxes of Love: This past Saturday, some staff and volunteers delivered boxes of Thanksgiving food to families in our community. It went really really well, and I was really excited to have my brother, sister-in-law, their kids, my boyfriend, and a friend from church come and help out. They got to meet some of my kids and their families, which was really fun for me. There will be pictures coming soon!

Other prayer requests: Please just pray for this week with the kids (Tuesday and Wednesday). It's always crazy with the kids right before they go on a break for school. Satan also really attacks at times like this when we're going to do a lesson like the nail your sins to the cross lesson.

Also, please just be praying that I can get all my tasks done that I need to get done. We have quite a few things due by Wednesday, including write-ups on each of the students. I'm a bit overwhelmed by all that I have to do and I would really really appreciate your prayers.

As always, thanks for your prayer and support!

Love,

Sarah

Fall Fundraising Drive Update

2009-11-17T11:50:00.001-08:00

Thanks so much to those of you who have generously donated to the Fall Fundraising Drive! Because of your generosity, the Green Team at Cabrini (my team) is in the lead for raising the most money! Our kids are working hard to earn money. For example, an anonymous donor said they will give $1 for every kid who finishes homework while at By The Hand. This can potentially add up to $2000! Students on my team can also earn 25 cents for every journal entry they write. Some students take the money that they have and may spend on the store or elsewhere and decide to donate it.

In case you don't know about the Fall Fundraising Drive, here's some info about it:

Vision:

To help kids in critical need have abundant and eternal life.

Goal:

Our goal for the Fall Fundraising Drive is two-fold: to teach our children about stewardship and God's faithfulness and to raise a total of $1,000,000 for By The Hand by the end of the year. Every dollar given will be matched by an anonymous, generous donor up to $500,000, bringing our total raised to $1 Million. The goal for the children's coin drive is to raise

$50,000 and each individual team goal is $2,000.

What is the Fall Fundraising Drive?

The Fall Fundraising Drive is a collective effort of our kids, staff, volunteers and donors to raise a total of $1 Million in scholarship money for our children to attend By The Hand. Every $1 given will be matched.

When does the Fall Fundraising Drive begin and end?

The Fall Fundraising Drive was launched at Take a Child By The Hand on Saturday, Sept. 19.

The drive runs for fourteen weeks, ending on December 31.

Where will the Coin Drive be held?

Each team has a jug to collect donations. Teams can be creative in placing jugs at local businesses (Starbucks, Chiropractor, etc.), dorm room floors, Sunday Schools, volunteer's homes, etc. Donations can also be made through check or cash. Just designate which team the money should go towards (my team: CG-Green Team).

Will there be a team competition?

Yes, five team competitions will be held: By The Hand C-G, A-G, AU, EW and
CBK. The team which raises the most money in each competition will win a field trip to the movies. We will report team standings every week in Chapel.

How will we teach our kids about stewardship and monitor our progress?

In chapel, Meg will give several lessons on why God calls us to be good stewards. Team leaders will discuss these teachings with their kids.

Every week each team's standings will be displayed. To encourage the kids, the team which raises the most money (every other week) will receive a small prize. When we reach our final goal of $50,000, we will have a party to celebrate the success (most likely in January).

Culture Elective

2009-11-11T16:06:00.000-08:00

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I teach a culture elective for a few of the kids at By The Hand. We learn about different people and places around the world. A couple weeks ago, we had my friend Emily from Wheaton, who also now volunteers at By The Hand, teach an elective on Zambia. She taught elementary school in Zambia for several months last year.

Here are a few pictures of the kids wearing Zambian clothes and learning a Zambian dance:

Update

2009-10-31T11:24:00.000-07:00

A few people have asked for updates on one kid on my team, J. He was suspended last week, and technically after the fourth suspension, he is supposed to be disenrolled from the program. My boss and I discussed the issue and decided that he will not be disenrolled. Other kids who have been disenrolled after four suspensions have demonstrated that they are a danger to the other kids and their involvement in the program is detrimental to the other students. We felt like this particular student is not a danger and he desperately needs to be in the program.

Please continue to pray for him, for his mom, and for my boss and I as we try to understand how to help him best. Also, pray for the high school student I have assigned to work one on one with J. Pray that this older male student can be a good influence academically and spiritually.

As always, thanks for your prayers and support!

Hallelujah Fall Festival

2009-10-31T11:09:00.001-07:00

On Friday, Park Community Church put on a Hallelujah Fall Festival for the Cabrini By The Hand kids. It went really well and the kids had a blast! It was great to hang out with the kids outside of regular programming. And I won a huge jar of gummy bears because I guessed how many were in the jar! :)

George, first grade (Gold) team leader, working with Ladayza

More group games

Iris--Purple team

More group games

Sack races! (Far left--Gregory and Edward from my team)

Edwin (L) and Jumar (R) from my team doing a football toss game

Cedrick (from my team) bobbing for apples

Bobbing for apples

Dominique after bobbing for apples (she's on my team)

Hunting for candy in the hay

Magic show

Jariel--First grade (Gold) team

Prayer Requests for this week

2009-10-26T14:49:00.000-07:00

So things have been getting better, little by little. Sometimes I feel like our class takes 1 step forward and two steps back. Last week on Wednesday, our class had a much better Bible study than we've had in the past. However, when the kids were cleaning up after Bible study and getting ready to go to dinner, two boys got in a fight. It was very frustrating, especially because we talked about fighting during Bible study.

Please pray for Bible study this week. Pray that I will speak the words God wants me to speak. Pray that the kids get excited about learning about God. Also, please pray that the kids are able to focus and listen during this time. Every Wednesday night at 5:30, the devil seems to attack. It's usually the most difficult hour of our programming time.

Please pray for one of m kids, J. He's suspended (again) from By The Hand for fighting. My boss and I actually need to talk about whether or not we're going to allow him to continue, because according to our regular procedures, he should be disenrolled after 4 suspensions (and this was his 4th). However, we really really do not want to disenroll him so we're just trying to understand what would be best to do, especially considering he has been doing a little better in the past few weeks, despite the most recent fight.

Please pray for the Hallelujah Fall Festival this Friday at Park Community Church. The church is hosting a big day of games and stuff for the kids. Pray that that goes well, the kids have fun, behavior is good, and the kids experience God's love more.

On a personal note, pray that I can keep on top of all the tasks I need to do for work. Pray that I am able to meet with some teachers this week to discuss a few kids. I have been talking to teachers a lot through email and some on the phone, but I really need to spend more time talking in person and being in the classroom during the school day. Pray that I'm able to do that in the next couple weeks

I think that God is helping me have some endurance and strength. I'm not quite as exhausted at the end of the day as I used to be, which is great. However, I'm still a bit drained. Sometimes I just find it difficult to spend as much time in prayer and Scripture as I need to because there are so many tasks to accomplish. Pray that I will spend more time in prayer and Scripture, and also pray that I will have the energy to work hard and not be lazy in any of my tasks. Now that we're in the routine of things, I don't want to slack off at all. I want to work hard and do the best that I can; pray that I don't get too comfortable to where I become complacent.

As always, thanks for your prayers!

Prayer for By The Hand Kids

2009-10-16T10:04:00.001-07:00

Aelred of Rievaulx, 12^th century:

"Teach my your servant, therefore, Lord, teach me, I pray you, by your Holy Spirit, how to devote myself to them and how to spend myself on their behalf. Give me, by your unutterable grace, the power to bear with their shortcomings patiently, to share their griefs in loving sympathy, and to afford them help according to their needs. Taught by your Spirit may I learn to comfort the sorrowful, confirm the weak and raise the fallen; to be myself one with them in their weakness, one with them when they burn at causes of offence, one in all things with them, all things to all of them, that I may gain them all. Give me the power to speak the truth straightforwardly, and yet acceptably; so that they all may be built up in faith and hope and love, in chastity and lowliness, in patience and obedience, in spiritual fervor and submissiveness of mind. And, since you have appointed this blind guide to lead them, this untaught (woman) to teach, this ignorant one to rule them, for their sakes, O Lord, if not for mine, teach (her) whom you have made to be their teacher; lead (her) whom you have bidden to lead them, rule (her) who is their ruler. Teach me, therefore, sweet Lord, how to restrain the restless, comfort the discouraged, and support the weak. Teach me to suit myself to everyone according to his power of understanding or his lack of it, as time and place require, in each case, as you would have me to do."

Taken from Modern Psychopathologies, p. 36-37

Another week at By The Hand

2009-10-16T09:43:00.001-07:00

I apologize for not writing for a few weeks. Things have been pretty busy lately. However, you'll be happy to know that this week went pretty well. I think that the kids are starting to get the hang of how I do things. I'm gaining their respect (at least most of them) which is great. We've even been able to do a few games and fun activities, which we haven't been able to do because of behavior problems.

I think that I'm also simply getting used to the kids and I'm able to be much more calm in frustrating situations (I'm not great at it yet, but I'm getting there). Yesterday, for example, quite a few of my kids were not listening when we were supposed to line up. With God's help, I was able to deal with the situation calmly, without causing further frustration for myself and the kids.

On a different note, school progress reports came out this week. We got a chance to see the kids' grades before the actual report cards come out. There are only a few weeks until report cards, and at least half of my kids have at least one F (mostly in Reading). Several kids have 2-3 Fs and/or other Ds. Please pray that these kids can bring these grades up before report cards come out in a couple weeks. Pray that I'll know how to best help them in the program. It was a bit discouraging to see quite a few of the kids I thought were doing well actually having Fs on their progress report.

On the upside, a number of kids I thought were doing very poorly were actually getting all As, Bs, and Cs!

Thanks again for your prayers and support. Here are a few upcoming events for which you can be praying.

Tonight, Oct. 16—Junior high party

Saturday, Oct .17—Pumpkin carving day at Park Community Church put on by the volunteers of my class and the 1^st grade class

Friday, Oct. 30—Hallelujah Carnival at Park Community Church for all of the Cabrini-Green By The Hand kids.

Please pray that we are able to build deeper relationships for the kids. Pray for logistics and safety, and pray that at these events, we will be able to share God's love with these kids.

Bears Game with By The Hand Kids!

2009-10-05T11:02:00.000-07:00

One of the Bears players, Adewale Ogunleye (defensive end), donated 29 season ticket seats to our organization. We split up the games between all the sites, so yesterday, kids from Cabrini went. We took the kids to McDonalds beforehand and then took a bus to the game. It was so much fun! One of Lions players even gave one of our kids a football.

The three kids from my class that went: Janiece, Gregory, and Bettiejimae

U2 Concert

2009-10-05T10:41:00.001-07:00

Back in September, Colson and I went to a U2 concert. We had general admission seats, which meant we got great seats (20 ft. from Bono) but we also had to stand in line, and then stand at the concert (totaling about 7 hours of standing).

Another Day

2009-09-29T17:23:00.001-07:00

I'm not going to write much because I really want to get home earlier for a change. J Today went okay. On a scale of 1 to 10 it was about a 6.5. One boy who was suspended last week for two days was the best kid in my class the entire day. I was really excited because I know he's a good kid. I just think he was maybe trying to show off to others a bit.

It was a bit frustrating during homework time today…I felt a bit unorganized and so many of the kids were struggling to pay attention, sit quietly, and work. Please pray that homework time tomorrow goes better. They're supposed to have 30 minutes of quiet work time and it's just not happening.

Thanks so much for your prayers. Considering I've had days that were a 1 or a 2 on a scale of 1 to 10, today was pretty good.

Sunday we go to the BEARS game with our kids! I'm really excited because this will give me the chance to hang out in a more fun environment with three of my kids.

Thursday

2009-09-25T13:08:00.000-07:00

So praise the LORD! Thursday was the best day I've had in my class so far. For some reason, the kids were listening and behavior was not as much of an issue. I felt like I was able to actually have a little fun in my class, which was great. One of my kids even said, "This is how every day should be!" I'm glad that they got a glimpse of the fact that I'm not actually a crazy mean lady. :) Thanks so much for your prayers. Thursday was a huge encouragement, especially because now I know for sure that my kids are capable of doing well in my class.

More to come next week...please pray!

P.S. If my kids do well next week, I'm going to try to take some pictures in class so I can post those online. Also, October 4th, we're taking 20 kids to a Bears game. One of the Bears players donated 29 front row, end-zone season tickets to our organization. Pray that that is a great time with the kids!

My kids are like Scrabble tiles...

2009-09-24T09:28:00.000-07:00

So here's a little analogy we came up with at work...

My kids are like Scrabble tiles. Right now, I feel like I'm looking at all the tiles and I can't do anything with them...so I just want to trade them all in and get new ones.

However, sometimes we actually can do something. We just need to rearrange the tiles to try to make it work...so I need to learn some new "vocabulary".

Sometimes, we're stuck with that Q or that Z. It's really frustrating because you end up holding those letters for the longest time, afraid you'll lose points. You just don't know what in the world you're supposed to do with the Q and the Z. But when you finally get that Q and the Z to fit in, you end up scoring a whole lot more points and maybe even winning the game with the Q and the Z.

I feel like I have a bunch of tiles and I just don't know how to make them work. I feel like I have a Q and a Z that I'm stuck with and I can't do anything with. Please pray that God teaches me how to make these "tiles" work. Pray that these two kids (Q and Z) will fit in and end up being very successful in this program.

I know it's a cheesy analogy, but it works. :)

And I do love my "tiles". I just can't figure out what to do with them.

EZine Newsletter

2009-09-23T09:36:00.000-07:00

If you know anyone who would want to receive By The Hand's EZine Newletter (Email newletter) let me know. Immediate family and spouses, I've already signed you up for it. :) You can unsubsribe if you don't want to receive it. Because you love me and are related to me, you are stuck being on mailing lists for my job. :) Hehe. Sorry. :)

Fall Fundraising Drive

2009-09-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,

Please join By The Hand and double the impact of your giving through our Fall Fundraising Drive. Any gifts made before December 31, 2009 will be matched dollar for dollar up to $500,000. Our goal is to raise $1 million in scholarship money so that our children can attend By The Hand Club this school year.

Even the children are getting involved in the Fall Fundraising Drive and are giving sacrificially through a coin drive. Terin, who is on the Yellow team in Austin, said “I like the jug because we raise money to do lots of fun things.” She’s right. Without the Fall Fundraising Coin Drive, we wouldn’t be able to do nearly the amount of fun things we are able to do with the kids.

Each By The Hand team has been given a goal to raise $2,000. That means we're asking our teams across all the sites to raise $50,000. It’s a big goal and can only be met when people like you come alongside our kids. Please consider sponsoring one of our teams at any of our four sites – Cabrini-Green, Altgeld-Gardens, Austin, or Englewood. With 726 children to serve this year, your support is greatly needed and appreciated.

By The Hand can only serve as many children as the generosity of others allows. That’s why I’m helping The Club raise scholarship money this year for its children to attend. It costs $5,700 for each child to attend By The Hand, but thanks to the generosity of a donor, money given between now and December 31 will be matched dollar-for-dollar up to $500,000. That means for every $2,850 given, a child can attend By The Hand for a full year.

Will you help us sponsor a team at By The Hand? Every gift, no matter how small or large, will make a difference. Just make your check payable to By The Hand and mail it to me at P.O. Box 10043, Chicago, IL 60610.

If it’s easier, you can give online by going to www.bythehand.org and click on giving. Please remember to put the team color and location that you want to give to in the notes section. If it doesn’t matter which team your gift goes to, please indicate it is for the Fall Fundraising Coin Drive. (My team is the Green Team at the Cabrini site).

Thank you for helping us touch lives and change worlds for eternity.

Sincerely,

Sarah Andersen-Green Team, Cabrini

P.S. For more information, you can contact Meg at 312-636-4904 or email her at meg.robinson@bythehand.org. You can also check out our website at bythehand.org.

By The Hand needs your help!

2009-09-22T11:47:00.000-07:00

Today begins our fall fundraising drive! From now through the middle of December, all the sites will be aiming to raise $50,000. Each team has a huge jug in their classroom where kids, leaders, volunteers, etc. can put their coins. We also try to get churches, businesses, friends, and others involved in the process. Even though the goal is $50,000 for all four sites combined, our site (Cabrini) is aiming to raise $50,000 itself (the Austin site is setting the same goal). It is also a contest between teams, so whichever team at each site raises the most money, that team gets a prize. Sooooo, my team, the GREEN team, really really really wants to win! (I'm VERY competitive).

For those in the Chicago area, I can give you a coin jug thing to take to your places of work/houses. There is a note that explains what the money goes towards and how our fundraising drive works. For those who are not in the area, you are more than welcome to donate as well! We have emails, letters, fliers, etc. that explain everything. I will be posting this information and emailing it in the near future--I just don't have all the materials and details yet.

During this time, we also teach our kids about the importance of stewardship. Staff teach our kids the value of money according to the Bible and what it means to be a good steward of what God has given us.

Feel free to let me know if you want to get involved in creative ways--for example: You can say that you will donate $1 each day for every kid that does their homework on my team. You can do something like matching whatever the kids on my team are able to raise. You can say that for every day there are no suspensions, you will donate a certain amount of money (I have a lot of kids who get suspended, so this might be a huge incentive!) You can say that if the Green team raises more money than all the other sites, you will buy them a prize or put in even more money towards the fundraising. You get the point...I think it's really exciting that we're trying to get our kids involved. Since we're in a lower-income community, not all the kids have change to give, but all of them can help raise money by doing their homework, behaving, etc., so get creative!

Stay posted for more information on how to get involved!

Oh yeah, and if you're thinking a jug for coins is just too much of a hassle, feel free to simply use an envelope for checks instead. :) Hehe....

Go GREEN TEAM!

It can only get better from here...I hope...

2009-09-15T17:42:00.000-07:00

So, today was rough in my class. It seemed like everyone in the class forgot all the procedures and rules that we learned last week. Everything went out the window. I had one kid walk in late (which he's not supposed to do--he just showed up himself) and then about 10 minutes later, him and another kid in my class got in a fight. They had each other in a head lock and were throwing punches at each other. I had no idea how strong fourth grade boys were. I had to attempt to pull them off of each other, and it was not going well. A high school guy who is helping out with the younger kids ran in my class and grabbed the one kid while I held the other kid. During this whole process, I somehow got bit a little on my hand and had teeth mark indentations from one of the kids.

After all of this, I had to leave the room with these two kids for a while, which didn't exactly help the rest of the kids stay on task.

I need divine help, that's for sure. Please pray for J. and J.--the two boys who got in a fight. Pray that they'll be able to focus and that they will not be so angry all the time.

Today was rough, so I'm hoping it can only get better from here.

Bears Game this Sunday at 4:15 ET

2009-09-15T10:49:00.000-07:00

Be sure to watch the Bears game this Sunday at 4:15 ET (or at least watch the beginning). One of our kids from By The Hand (Englewood site) will be an honorary captain during the coin toss at the beginning.

Prayer requests for this week

2009-09-14T10:21:00.000-07:00

A couple things to be praying for regarding this coming week at work:

Chapel: We're starting teaching the attributes of God. This week's lesson is "God is Sovereign". I'm teaching chapel on Wednesday. My coworker (George) and another coworker (Anna) teach Tuesday and Thursday, respectively. Please pray for the three of us as we are all new staff this year and this is our first time teaching the chapel lesson with these kids.

Bible Study: The kids have Bible study with their team leaders every Wednesday night. They are learning the Kids Evangelism Explosion curriculum right now, so this week's lesson is "Heaven". I'm a little concerned because Bible study this past week did not happen as planned, so I'm a little behind. Please pray that we're able to catch up and that the kids grasp the lesson. It seems that Satan wants to do everything possible to distract from Bible study.

Other: There is a fundraiser this coming Saturday; please pray for God's provision financially.

Also, pray for one kid in my class, K. He's the only one who's a little new to the program in my class, and I think he's having a little difficulty grasping all that's going on and how he's supposed to do things. Continue to pray for J. and his family, who I mentioned in a previous blog entry. There are some major family issues there. Hopefully I'll get to talk to his Mom this week and get an update.

Day 3

2009-09-10T20:35:00.001-07:00

Thank you so much for your prayers. Today went SOOOOO much better (minus the fight at the end of the night (where a staff member had to tackle a kid) that led us to keep a bunch of kids late afterwards, suspend some kids from the program, etc.) So, not counting the end of the night, things went pretty well. The homework time in my class went so much better. I was more prepared for those kids who finished homework early. I was able to keep kids seated better. I had a great volunteer who was able to take a kid out in the hall and work with him for a while. He had been having trouble focusing on homework, but worked really well when he was away from the rest of the class. I talked to that same kid after he went into the hall and was able to encourage him a bit. I told him that he did a great job, but sometimes he just gets a little overexcited and has trouble focusing on work. He loves to be involved in the activities of the program, but has trouble doing things like raising his hand—he just gets too excited. Anyway, I told him he did a great job today but needed to work on staying focused and raising his hand. And he said, "Yeah, I know. Ms. Jen (his team leader last year) said that same thing." He had a great attitude about it and I'm really excited to working with him a bit more.

I had two girls who got in a little fight and are now suspended for the next day of kids club, but it was not a huge fight. Please just pray for them, especially S., who has a major attitude problem.

My elective class that I'm teaching, which is on world cultures, went okay. It was the first day, so I wasn't sure who was going to be in my group (kids pick which elective they want to go to, and then attend that elective for 6 weeks). Some of the kids had trouble listening today, but hopefully when I am able to make the class more interactive, they'll enjoy it much more.

Thanks again for your prayers. Please keep praying…especially for those kids who were in the fight today, as well as for my boss who had to deal with the kids in the fight.

Second Day

2009-09-09T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today went a little better...I'm going to bed.

First Day with the Kids

2009-09-09T11:05:00.001-07:00

Well, I'm still alive…with God's help and the help of much caffeine. Yesterday went relatively well--at least that's what the veteran staff said. I had the whole afternoon planned out and didn't really do any of what I planned. We were supposed to go over the rules and procedures yesterday, which I did a little bit. I was attempting to go over how the discipline procedure works, but I found myself having to give up teaching them how discipline works and just had to go ahead and discipline kids. I definitely learned I need to be a lot more firm with the kids, and I probably should have disciplined them a lot more.

We did have a few hitches in the logistics of the day (i.e. transitioning to dinner time, bathroom breaks, water breaks, etc.) but I think a lot of that will get worked out much more easily today and tomorrow. The kids were lined up in the hall before dinner for much too long, so naturally, they start messing with each other and misbehaving (or calling each other very very bad swear words). Anyway, hopefully most of that will be worked out a bit better today.

Please pray for one of the families of one of my kids J. (I'm just going to use initials on my blog). The mom called today with a bit of an emergency in the family, so we're trying to help her as best we can.

Thanks for your prayers for yesterday. If you can be praying for J. and his family, as well as for logistical issues during our programming time, that'd be great. To be really specific, PLEASE PRAY THAT MY KIDS SIT IN THE SEATS THAT THEY ARE SUPPOSED TO SIT IN AND STAY SEATED, ESPECIALLY WHILE I'M TALKING! I feel like if I can get them to just sit down, I'll have won a huge battle. It's difficult because they've been in school all day, they're testing me as a new person, and our organization takes on the most challenging kids, behaviorally and academically, and puts 22 of them in a classroom with a 23 year old white girl who doesn't know what she's doing. Ugh. But I love my job…

Movie in the Park

2009-09-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

Every Tuesday night in July and August, the city shows a movie in Grant Park. We've gone a couple times so here are some pictures from the last time we went. Aniela and a few other people put together a whole big picnic and everything for us. It was so much fun!

First Day of Work!

2009-08-03T15:42:00.000-07:00

So today I had my first day at my first true full-time job. :) Thanks for thinking of me and praying for me. It went really well. This whole week is just training with all the staff, both returning staff and new staff. Today was basically about meeting the other staff and gaining an overview of the organization and how it functions. Towards the end, we got into some more specifics regarding some administrative tasks we have to do throughout the year to keep up with our kids.

It was awesome meeting all the staff today. They were all incredibly welcoming and encouraging. It was also nice to recognize a few people I met while I was volunteering last semester.

Anyway, I'm going to go take a nap...and it's nice to not have homework tonight!

New Life Community-Lakeview

2009-07-27T22:22:00.000-07:00

So myself and all of roommates are currently attending New Life Community Church-Lakeview. We're really excited about getting involved in the church here. New Life is a church with about 14 different locations throughout the city of Chicago. Each church is a smaller church with its own campus pastor and ministries, but works with the other churches throughout the city. The churches are connected under the umbrella of New Life and are in unity as one church body, yet each campus has a different feel, a different demographic of people, and exists in a different neighborhood in Chicago. We simply chose the Lakeview Campus because it is the closest campus to our apartment.

To check out more about New Life, visit http://www.newlifechicago.mobi/

Dallas

2009-07-23T09:43:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, Colson and I flew down to Dallas to visit Beth and Jake. It was so fun! Unfortunately, the only pictures I have on my computer are of us at Chik-fil-A because the rest of the pictures with Beth and Jake are on Colson's computer. Beth has posted a bunch on Facebook, though, so you can go on facebook and just look at pictures that have me tagged in them.

On Friday, we went to the Hurricane Harbor water park and had an awesome time. Later that night, we drove across the street to the Rangers game and watched the Rangers lose to the Twins. Afterwards, they had fireworks in the ballpark that were really good and synced to some great music.

Later that night, I proceeded to be like a little kid and had a stomach-ache because I ate too much junk food. You think I'd learn by age 23.

Saturday, we went to Chik-fil-A (a great chicken fast-food place for all you northerners who have never experienced it) and then Beth and I went to this AMAZING and cheap jewelry/purse/etc. store. We also experienced "Yogurtland"--this frozen yogurt place that was so good. And finally, to top off the day of eating, we made fondue at Beth and Jake's apartment and watched a movie. Good times...

The weekend was made even better by the fact that we got to hang out with Kellen and Kristina on Sunday. Kellen was Colson's roommate of 4 years at Wheaton who has now moved with his wife, Kristina, to the Dallas area. That weekend was their first weekend of being in Dallas, so we got to hang out with them a bit and all feel like outsiders in Texas. Here's a pic of the guys trying to fit it with Texas culture...

Chik-Fil-A

Oh and on one last note...the weather while we were there was AWESOME! It had been about 108 degrees the week before we were there, but the entire weekend in Dallas, it didn't get over 95. At night, it got down to about 86, which was perfect weather for the Rangers game.

Goodbye CR-V

2009-07-21T10:50:00.000-07:00

It was a sad day when I had to say my good-byes to the CR-V. :(

Chicago Summer Dance

2009-07-06T18:07:00.000-07:00

Colson and I took a free swing dance lesson in Grant Park, followed by a couple hours of free music and then July 3rd fireworks. It was so fun!

U2

2009-07-05T21:17:00.000-07:00

Hey...

My boyfriend is the coolest ever. We're going to a U2 concert at Soldier Field! Woohoo!!!

And he also suffered through free swing dance lessons in the park the other night with me. :)

Europe Pictures

2009-06-20T09:56:00.001-07:00

I've started to post Europe pictures on facebook. You can view them through this link even if you're not on facebook...

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2038098&id=187701557&l=6859f50769

I'm only posting a few at a time because it's going to take me forever, so check back for more pics periodically!

We're back!

2009-06-18T19:42:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone!

Aniela and I just got back from Europe tonight. I'll be in NJ until the 23rd and then back to Chicago...I'll post pictures soon!

Krakow, Poland

2009-06-13T02:17:00.000-07:00

Just a little update...

We're in Krakow for the next couple days. It's a very cool city with an awesome central square with a ton of cafes and restaurants and shops. We went to the salt mines outside the city yesterday. We did a tour that was like 150 meters underground. There's a cathedral, statues, and another chapel all carved out of the salt in the ground.

Today we'll hang around the city center and then tomorrow we'll visit Auschwitz. Then tomorrow night we take a night train to Berlin.

We're in Naples, Italy

2009-06-08T09:49:00.000-07:00

So I've been terrible about updating you all. Sorry. We are still alive. :) We're in Naples, Italy right now. It's been really good. We took the train to Sorrento, a smaller town on the coast yesterday and just relaxed by the water. Today we visited Pompei and Vesuvius, which were both really cool. Tomorrow morning, we take the train back to Rome and then fly out to Warsaw, Poland. Then we go to Krakow, then Berlin, then fly out of Munich to New Jersey!

The trip has flown by very quickly. We have had a blast. We loved Cinque Terre, Italy--an area on the coast with five small towns on the Mediterranean. We also loved Rome. We stayed at a great hostel there and met some really fun people who we ended up hanging out with quite a bit. We also got a great tour of the Colosseum and the Roman Forum, went to the Vatican and didn't have to wait in any lines for anything, and ate tons of gelato and pizza.

Sorry this update is short and lame. I'm really tired and my brain is barely functioning enough to write coherent sentences. :)

I love and miss you all! Sorry I haven't been able to post pictures...we usually don't have enough internet time or we can't do that on certain hostel computers. I'll make sure to post some when I get back.

Also, FYI in case anyone was curious, I fly back to Chicago the night of the 23rd...and real life begins! AHH!

Love,

Sarah

Europe with Aniela

2009-05-23T08:54:00.001-07:00

Hello All,

So Aniela and I are in Salzburg, Austria right now. We started in Munich and had an awesome time wandering the city, taking a day trip to Neuschwenstein (sp?) and Linderhof castles, going on a free walking tour, and eating lots of good pastries. We arrived in Salzburg last night and have had a great day in the city today. It's an awesome city with cool shops, markets, and cafes. We also visited Mozart's residence and went up this little mountain thing to get an awesome view of the city. We do have a tentative itinerary for the next week or so (the dates given are the dates we are sleeping in that city):

5/23-24: Salzburg
25-26: Vienna
27: night train to Venice
28: Venice, Italy
29-30: Cinque Terre
31-1: Florence
6/2-5: Rome, Italy
6/6-8: Naples/Sorrento, Italy
6/9-11: Warsaw, Poland
6/12-14: Krakow, Poland
6/15-16: Berlin, Germany
6/17: Munich, Germany
6/18: Park Ridge, NJ

This probably will change a bit as far as the exact dates, but this is basically the idea.

Love you all!
Sarah

Pictures of Apartment

2009-05-02T17:13:00.001-07:00

Aniela and Holly, 2 of my roommates

Ugly bathroom tile

Living room, looking into the kitchen

My Room

Living Room

I GOT THE JOB!

2009-04-28T17:18:00.001-07:00

I GOT THE JOB! YAY! Just to update you all, I got the job I've been looking at and waiting to hear from. It's for an organization called By the Hand Club for Kids. You can look it up online at www.bythehand.org if you want. I will be a "team leader" for 4th graders. In other words, I am assigned a class of 4th grade kids, kind of like a teaching position but it's an after-school program that does a bunch of different kinds of things. It starts around August 1st (I don't have the exact date yet).

I'll be in the Cabrini-Green location right downtown in Chicago. Fortunately, it's a straight shot on the Brown Line from my new apartment! :)

Thanks for your prayers. Love you all!

Life Update

2009-03-25T08:38:00.000-07:00

A couple things...first, WE GOT AN APARTMENT! I am living with Aniela and another girl, Holly, next year. They'll both be in grad school in Chicago and we found a place in the North Center neighborhood (kind of near Wrigley Field). It's pretty much official; we're just waiting for our check and stuff to go through. YAY! Everyone needs to come visit! Now begins the VERY long task of repaying everyone for all of the time I've spent at each of your houses sleeping over and eating your food. It's 3 bedrooms and it's right near the brown line which would take me directly to where I will hopefully be working...

And that brings me to my next point. I had the final two interviews for this job at By the Hand Club this week. They went pretty well (I was much happier how the second one went compared to the first, but they were both fine). So hopefully I'll here back from them soon. Thanks for your prayers and I'll keep you updated.

Job Update

2009-03-18T20:30:00.000-07:00

Just in case anyone was feeling the suspense that I am feeling, my final two interviews for the job I'm looking at are Monday at 2pm and Tuesday at 1:30pm. Hopefully I will find out soon after that! Thanks for your prayers!

Which cheesy tourist apparel item describes you?

2009-03-15T14:20:00.000-07:00

Can you match the tourist-tshirt with the correct Chicago resident? Your choices are Eric, Krista, Jenn, and Paul. You can only use each name once, although I know that a couple shirts may apply to more than one person...

Spring Break 2009!

2009-03-15T13:53:00.000-07:00

This past week, Mom and I went to New Hampshire. We had great weather (except for one day) and enjoyed snowboarding (well, me--not Mom so much), snowshoeing, eating, and massages. :)

Snowshoeing

(Mt. Washington in the background)

Taking a break on the side of the mountain

I'm tired.

Snowshoeing---they had really good scenic groomed trails

Just driving around on a rainy day

Out for breakfast

Getting ready to snowboard

It's a good thing that Mom wasn't playing hide and go seek--I think I would have won. :)

Outside of our condo/room--we had 2 huge rooms with a full kitchen and everything--and 2 spa bathtubs

Scene from the top of the chair lift--Mt. Washington in the background

Colson got a (temp) job!

2009-03-07T13:08:00.000-08:00

A brief update email Colson sent to a few friends....
-------------------------------------------------------------------

Hey Studs and Ladies,

So God is faithful and answers prayer. Today i got a job!

Its just a temporary job probably through April. But its a job nonetheless.

It was kind of cool how it happened. Sarah was nagging me about checking out a posting on the career website (not all nagging can be bad). I checked out the posting and emailed my resume in last night. They called today and within 10 minutes on the phone I had an interview for this afternoon. They hired me on the spot. While the work is probably going to be boring (data entry), I'm so grateful. A full time job with a possibility for overtime is exactly what I need...

Peace,

Colson

Job Update-Part 3

2009-02-27T09:57:00.000-08:00

I'm officially moving on to round three (out of 5) in the interview process. However, we're waiting until the week of March 16th because of scheduling stuff. This next interview will be with the director of the whole organization.

Also, they asked me if I could come downtown to Cabrini about once a week to volunteer and get a more in depth feel for the organization. I'm going to start doing that probably the week of March 16th, as well. Fortunately, I was able to reduce my involvement at my other internship from two days a week to one day a week, so I'm not really adding anything else to my schedule (Hallelujah!)

Thanks for your prayers!

Job Update-Part 2

2009-02-25T11:24:00.000-08:00

This week on Monday, I went downtown to By the Hand's Austin site (Austin is a neighborhood on the west side of Chicago) to shadow a couple staff members while they did home and school visits. I went with one guy to one of the inner city elementary schools to visit a couple students that he is in charge of as well as talk to their teachers. Afterwards, I went with another staff member to the home of one of her kids and I listened in as she talked with his grandmother (who he lives with). It was very interesting and it was very cool to see how the staff work with the kids' teachers and parents/grandparents/guardians. And since you stay with the same kids for up to 3 years, you get to know their families very well.

Tuesday, I went to the Cabrini site to attend and observe the after school program there (this is the site where I'd be placed). Within about 30 seconds, I had a couple little girls attached to me. :) It was awesome. I got to talk to the site director there for a while beforehand, and that went well, but I felt a little nervous at that point.

Throughout the day, however, I was able to ask a ton of questions to staff members and hang out with the kids. I helped out in a 4th grade classroom and did some 4th grade homework (I need to work on some math!) and then I went to a 6th grade classroom for a while. It was cool because I felt like I could jump right in and work with the kids like I've been doing all year at my other internship. I had more of a chance to talk with one of the staff members in particular and she was able to answer a lot of questions and just share her experience with this ministry.

The organization drives the kids home on buses/vans every day, so I tagged along with that, too. It was a very eye-opening and helpful experience to see these kids walk into extremely run down apartment buildings in Cabrini.

After the day was over, I talked more with the site director. By this time, I definitely felt pretty comfortable there and I felt much more like myself talking with her. She said that what she's looking for is someone who is able to help with preparing Bible studies and working on chapel, and someone who has administrative skills. I think that those needs pretty much describe my abilities and passions perfectly! I want to be able to teach Bible to some extent and I definitely am a type-A, administrative list-maker. We both got really excited because it seems like what they're looking for is exactly what I might be able to bring to the table.

Thanks so much for your prayers. I did have to miss a class but I met with my prof this morning and got some of the missed material. I do have a final exam in that class next week, so I'd love your prayers for that, too! I was up since 2:45am working on a paper the same day that I did my Cabrini site visit, so thank you so much for your prayers, because I didn't know if I'd make it through the day. I'm glad I drink coffee.

Anyway, things are looking very positive. They're going to get back to me near the end of this week to let me know what the next step is. Please keep praying for wisdom for the organization and myself to see if this really is the best way to go. They all told me to really pray hard about it because it's a very difficult job--it's a lot of work and can be emotionally and physically draining--and these kids have so many problems that it's hard to leave work and not bring those burdens home with you.

Thanks so much for your love and support! I'll keep you updated!

Job Update!

2009-02-22T15:14:00.000-08:00

So I have been in the process of looking for jobs after graduation, and I had my first interview last week. It went well, but it is just part 1 of a 5 part interview process. I go through part 2 this week, which involves visiting the sites and spending time shadowing other employees so that both they and I can get a feel for whether or not this job fits me.

PLEASE PRAY!!! I am VERY interested in this job. It involves working with inner-city kids (the site they're looking at for me is in Cabrini--well, what used to be Cabrini). It's pretty much exactly what I want to do. Pray that God makes it clear to both myself and the organization whether or not this job is right for me.

Also, I have to go downtown twice this week for part 2 of the interview process, and frankly, I have no time to do that. I am in the midst of finishing up a few classes and I have a number of papers and tests in the next few weeks. And, since it's an after-school program, I have to visit the site during the program one day--and I have all afternoon classes. So, unless I want to wait until after spring break (3 weeks from now), I have to miss a class or two in order to make this interview happen. And missing classes right now is rough since the classes that I'll have to miss are ending next week.

All that to say, the first interview went well and I'm really excited about this organization. However, fitting things in is stressing me out a little bit, so I'd greatly appreciate your prayers in that regard.

The organization I'm interviewing for is called By The Hand. Click this link to check it out.

Off to write another paper...

Valentine's Day

2009-02-16T10:33:00.000-08:00

I have been house/dog-sitting at the Flanigan's house this past week, so for Valentine's Day Colson and I decided to cook dinner together. We made an awesome chicken and pasta dish as well as homemade eclairs. Here are the links to the recipes...the chicken dish was definitely one of our favorite things we've made.

Just a few hints--don't worry about getting fresh herbs if you don't have them; we used the stuff in the cupboard and it worked fine. I used chicken breasts instead of thighs. Also, I made a bit more marmalade sauce than she calls for because I usually like more sauce. It's also really good if you sweeten the pecans a bit in a pan with some sugar or honey (I actually used maple syrup). And I used more cheese on the pasta and served the chicken on top of the pasta. Serving the chicken over the pasta made the flavors of the two dishes blend really well and it was really really good.

Orange-Balsamic Chicken Thighs with Pecans and Sage Butter Pasta

Eclairs

We had to share our Valentine's Day with Tippet, the Flanigan's dog.

The finished product---homemade eclairs...And one in the shape of a heart. Yeah, we're cheesy like that.

Dipping the eclairs in chocolate...yum!

The main course masterpiece...note the wonderfully folded napkins (Colson did that) and the roses that Colson bought for me. :)

The master pastry chef at work

Making some dessert

"Who am I?"-An excerpt from a poem by Bonhoeffer

2009-02-09T19:36:00.000-08:00

“Who am I? This or the other?
Am I one person today, and tomorrow another?
Am I both at once? A hypocrite before others,
and before myself a contemptibly woebegone weakling?
Or is something within me still like a beaten army,
Fleeing in disorder from victory already achieved?

Who am I? They mock me, these lonely questions of mine.
Whoever I am, thou knowest, O God, I am thine.”

Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, 348

2009-02-09T19:22:00.001-08:00

Even though I don't have fun pictures to post right now, I ran across a few quotes that I had used for a project a while ago...I thought I'd start sharing some of them...

My life so far this year...

2009-02-09T19:12:00.001-08:00

So I haven't posted anything on my blog recently--and not because I don't want to...it's just...well, all I've been doing is studying for the last month. So, if you really want, I can take pictures of me falling asleep on top of my books, but I thought I'd spare you.

Oh yeah...and I'm also addicted to caffeine again.

But on a good note, I could tell you all you ever wanted to know about ancient Greece and Rome from about 100 BC to 100 AD. Exciting, huh?

I have taken some fun breaks from studying that included visiting the rest of the Chicago family (and playing Rock Band for a whole afternoon), going out to dinner and a movie with Colson, seeing Wicked with Colson (I forgot my camera so I don't have pictures of us!), and planning a Valentine's Day Competition with Colson (we're getting a bunch of people to do somewhat of an Amazing Race type competition in Chicago). So there definitely have been REALLY fun things in the midst of all the studying. But even in the middle of the movie Colson and I went to, I made a comment like, "Oh my gosh! They totally got that idea from ancient Roman practices!" And the worst part was...it was a cartoon and I was making that comment.

I am such a dork.

Okay, I'm off to write a paper...and it's on ancient Greece and Rome. Go figure. This class is going to be the end of me...

Christmas Break with Colson

2009-01-19T14:48:00.000-08:00

We went to a Rock and Roll Museum that is in conjunction with the R&R Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Before Colson arrived, I stayed at Matt and Jess's to watch the girls for a little bit. Ella, Sparky, and I snuggled in the morning. :)

Meeting Bonnie for dinner...

Lunch at Lombardi's Pizza in Soho--supposedly the 1st pizza place in NYC

Chicago with Aniela

2008-12-30T12:29:00.000-08:00

Aniela was in town before school ended and we went downtown to see Dirty Dancing (which, to those who do not know is NOT a bad/dirty show...I just want to make that clear. It's a musical based off the 80s chick flick movie).

We also went out to dinner beforehand at the Berghoff and walked around the city and looked at the Christmas window displays.

December Grad Dinner

2008-12-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

Colson graduated in December and they had a dinner for all the grads...

Christmas Eve at the Andersen's

2008-12-24T12:56:00.001-08:00

Wonderful pics of a Christmas Eve well spent...it is starting to sound like a lumberyard in here, though.

Hope you're all enjoying your Christmas! I think I'm going to go find another couch for myself.

Heather's Pottery

2008-12-13T18:36:00.000-08:00

I know that a few of you have been interested in Heather's pottery stuff (like the mugs that I have and Bonnie has). I asked her about people ordering specific things and she said she would love to custom make some things for people. It's a little too late for Christmas this year, obviously, but if you want to order something for her next round of items, let me know (or I can give you her email address). Above are a few sample pics from her latest sale (I also bought a couple things so I can show you at Christmas when I come home).

If you want to order custom items, let me or her know specifics by January or February. This way through the course of the semester, she can make sure to fulfill the orders. She can do mugs, bowls, pitchers, vases, tea cups, etc. Depending on the size, mugs can be around $10-$15 and vases and pitchers are around $30 (cost could be more or less depending on any other specifics that you want, too.)

Chicago Parade

2008-12-05T07:09:00.001-08:00

A couple weeks ago, Colson and I went downtown to watch a Christmas parade in Chicago. While everyone was freezing their butts off on the street, we got to watch from the 18th floor of a building on Michigan Ave.

One of Colson's friends, Rachel, nannys for a woman who is an executive for AMC theaters so she let us hang out in her office. The other sweet thing was that they had all the movie candy we could want in the office and we were allowed to eat as much as we wanted. I asked Colson before we got to the office what we were going to do for dinner, and he said, "Dinner? Why do we need dinner? We get all the candy we could want!"

Both of us had a bad stomachache reminiscent of the post-Halloween stomachaches you get when you're a kid. And we didn't need dinner either.

More Conference Pictures

2008-11-27T06:28:00.001-08:00

Candace who lives in Canada but has done backpacking stuff in Australia and Austin who is from Colorado Christian and is leading a ministry team to Europe this summer

L-R Me with Tracy and Jamie Scott, and their son Ethan. They are from the UK, work in Australia, and are definitely people we want to partner with in the future.

L-R: Sarah who works in Spain, Scott who is coleading a trip with Austin, and Christa and Casey who live in Canada and work in Australia

Miriam-a woman from Germany who has worked in India for a while with travelers, nomads, and hippies.

Christa and Casey and me

Faith and Nate--Wheaton grads and YHM alum who are working to start a Christian youth hostel in Spain

Hanging out on a canal tour

Amsterdam Conference Pictures

2008-11-26T19:29:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures from the Amsterdam conference that I just attended. I had the first few days by myself to sight-see and hang out, and then the conference was the next 3 days. It was a great time to network with other Christian backpacking/hostel ministries around the world, share ideas and strategies, and work together to be more effective in this ministry in the future.

In the near future, we're hoping to put together a training manual for teams like the ones we send out from Wheaton. We've been in contact with a student from Westmont College who wants to start YHM there, as well as two guys from Colorado Christian who attended the conference and are sending teams out for the first time this summer. Hopefully we'll be able to help them in their ministries, and a training manual is one way that we want to do that. We're also hoping to build up a partnership with several ministries in Australia, since there is a great need for Christian workers and great Christian hostels where we can send students.

Brian, the director of the Office of Christian outreach eating fries by some shoe thing (maybe some memorial representing war orphans we think), chilling by Darth Vader, and enjoying fries again.

The "hiding place" at Corrie ten Boom's house--the hole in the wall on the first picture shows the actual hiding place. On the second picture, notice the guy crawling underneath the shelf--that's how they had to get into the hiding place--and they had to get 6 people in there in about 70 seconds. The last picture shows the front of the house, which is located in Haarlem, a 10-15 minute train ride from Amsterdam.

Around Amsterdam

Anne Frank House, Amsterdam

Amsterdam Conference

2008-11-20T09:53:00.001-08:00

Just a quick update about the Amsterdam conference. Things went well and I arrived safely, and the conference has been great. It has been really cool to meet people from all over the world that are interested in the same type of ministry. We've gotten some great ideas for how to improve Wheaton's YHM and we've definitely made a lot of new connections around the world...In other words, I now have free or cheap places to stay in Germany, France, India, Australia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Israel, Spain, Greece, and some other countries. :) So much traveling to do, so little time.

Anyway, I fly home tomorrow and arrive in Chicago around 5:30pm, so I look forward to catching up with people then!

Much Love,
Sarah

YHM 2009

2008-11-04T11:36:00.000-08:00

Just a little update for YHM this coming summer---applications have come in, and we have 29 applicants! Last year we had 10, so this is awesome! Please pray that we find another hostel to work at this summer since we have so many students (it's a nice problem to have!)

Bergen, Norway-Part 2

2008-10-20T11:34:00.001-07:00

Impromptu dance party

An awesome Italian dinner in our apartment with Marcello

Grace and Tom, from the UK

Marcello

The view of Bergen from one of my favorite hikes

More fall fun

2008-10-19T23:35:00.001-07:00

Enjoying fall...

2008-10-19T22:16:00.000-07:00

Beth is in town, so her, Colson, and I went to a nearby park for the afternoon to just hang out, climb a tree, and drink hot apple cider. It was really fun!

What a stud. :)

I was not very graceful while climbing.

Oh to be 17 again...

2008-10-03T17:49:00.001-07:00

So Colson and I had the wonderful honor of chauffeuring one of his high school students (that he works with at church) and this kid's girlfriend around for their high school homecoming. We decided to go all out...We got dressed up and went out to an awesome dinner that this kid's parents set up for us at a great restaurant in Wheaton. It was so fun! I felt really old though, when we went to a park where all the high school students were taking pictures...oh well.

Oh yeah, and please ignore Colson's ridiculous facial hair. Ugh...I'm happy to say that he has normal facial hair now. :)

Colson, Kyle (kid we drove around), and Noah (Colson's co-leader)

Colson and Noah

Really overdressed mini golf

At the park and then at the restaurant

Final Yankees Game!

2008-09-26T13:54:00.001-07:00

Matt in our season seats--goodbye to Box 651, Row D!

The final Yankee Stadium snacks

Bergen, Norway-Part 1

2008-09-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

Heather drinking an AMAZING tea latte at one of our favorite coffee shops in Bergen

Justin--making an amazing lunch for the group

The whole group eating lunch in our apartment

Hanging out at the hostel...this is a little reading corner near the entrance

The dining area at the hostel during waffle night

Mittersill, Austra-Midsummer retreat

2008-09-12T08:48:00.000-07:00

The whole group met up at the train station in Salzburg...well, almost. One team had a delayed flight which caused them to miss their trains, but they eventually showed up in Mittersill, fortunately. We stayed for a couple days in a castle in the mountains. It was really rough. :)

The dungeon of the castle--misbehaving YHMers had to stay there. (Not really)

A view from the courtyard

The view from Heather and my bedroom window

The whole group

Heather and me

Europe pics continued...Croatia

2008-09-12T08:32:00.001-07:00

We had to take this picture above because it was one of the few times we both were wearing makeup all summer. :) We had just gone to church at a really awesome little baptist church in Zagreb.

Plitivice National Park--It was awesome! There were a ton of waterfalls and lakes and the water was crystal clear.

Heather and me with a few travelers that we met--Riley from Colorado (far left) and Richard from Ireland (right)

We met a bunch more people on the way home from the park and we all went out for the best kebab ever!

Kate from Australia who we hung out with for a few days---she was so much fun!

First day of my internship...

2008-09-03T19:16:00.000-07:00

So today was my first day working at Outreach Community Ministries' junior program called Quest. There are about 15-20 students right now in this after school program. While the program meets M-F, I only work Mondays and Wednesdays. We do things like teaching life skills, mentoring, and tutoring. Most students are from minorities from low-income, often dysfunctional families. It is definitely a big (and exhausting) switch from working with Wheaton College students. We have some students who love you right off the bat (one 5th grader made a picture for me today) and we have other students who curse you out right off the bat (didn't happen to me today, but it did to the other interns). Anyway, I would DEFINITELY appreciate your prayers in this. And please pray for the students as well, because the situations that they go home to every night are unbelievably difficult. I am really excited about this ministry, but it is also very new to me, so I will need a lot of prayer. Thanks!

Amsterdam Conference

2008-09-03T19:10:00.000-07:00

Quick update: There is a backpacking/Christian hostel ministry conference in Amsterdam in November. Hopefully, hostel ministry people from all over the world will come together to share and discuss what's going on throughout the world and how to do this ministry better. Brian, from the Office of Christian Outreach, will be attending, and I just bought my plane ticket to go, too! YAY! After much debate about whether or not I was going to go, I finally decided that this is something that I really need to be a part of, since it has encompassed much of the last 3 years of my life, and hopefully on some level I will be be involved in the future.

Please pray that this conference will be a time where God is glorified, and the Church around the world is encouraged. Pray that people in hostel ministry around the world are able to attend, and that things will come together in the plans.

So, if anyone wants to come to Europe with me for a week in November, I'd love it! :) (Don't worry--I'm planning on being home for Thanksgiving).

Florida Weekend

2008-09-01T12:26:00.000-07:00

Colson's parents moved down to Sanibel Island, Florida this past weekend. Colson and I drove their car down there on Thursday and Friday and then helped them move in a bit...and spent a LOT of time enjoying the hot tub and pool.

No Longer Homeless!

2008-09-01T12:20:00.000-07:00

For those of you who have been following this story, Colson has had a bit of housing trouble. The house that he and his roommates were renting was really really bad. They thought that it just needed a good cleaning, but after giving it a good cleaning, they realized that it was in danger of, well, either blowing up or falling down. So they contacted the town and the town came and inspected it. This made the landlords really angry, because now the town knows that they are renting an unsafe place, so the landlords got really mad. Anyway, the landlords weren't willing to make the repairs necessary, so the guys are kicked out of there (which is kind of a good thing). After much frustration, angry landlords, house-hunting, etc., they finally signed on another place today! It's way nicer and it's still within walking distance to campus, and the landlords are definitely better.

So now it's moving day! Again!

Thanks for all your prayers in this!

Budapest, Hungary

2008-08-21T09:41:00.000-07:00

We walked around Budapest one night with a girl we met at our hostel, Luciana

On our way to Calvary Chapel Budapest

Hanging out at another cafe

Bathroom signs at the cafe

Relaxing with a little LOTR

Prague, Czech Republic

2008-08-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

Eating a much needed hamburger

Statue of Jan Hus-14th century religious reformer who was influenced heavily by Wycliffe. Hus was excommunicated from the Catholic church and burned at the stake for his supposedly heretical ideas.

Yes, this is Heather eating ice cream off the ground. We treated ourselves at dinner one night, and after I had eaten my share of the ice cream, I accidentally knocked the whole thing on the ground before Heather could eat any. Eating off the ground is one of the many things that you do on YHM without any second thought that you would never even consider doing at home.

View of Prague

Studying a map, of course (I really like maps--I'm a nerd, I know)

Cesky Krumlov, Czech Republic Pics

2008-08-19T21:20:00.000-07:00

We had to take the bus in some random town in Czech...we were confused.

Me at the not very official looking bus stop

We met up with the Bergen 2 team in Czech and went out to dinner with them (clockwise starting from front left: Justin, Jeff, Jenn, Grace, Heather)

Cesky Krumlov

Out for gelato!

Pics from Munich

2008-08-18T21:27:00.000-07:00

"The Tent" in Munich...A 100 bed dorm room underneath a big-top tent. Needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.

"Work shall set you free"--The gate to Dachau Concentration Camp in Germany

Crematorium

Heather and I at Coffee Fellows--a cafe we liked to go to

Eating some good German pastries and looking confused on the train

Some more Europe pics...

2008-08-16T13:57:00.000-07:00

Fondue in Switzerland with a couple girls we met, Rachel and Cory, from Colorado

The family room in our amazing hostel in Gryon, Switzerland

Views from our hostel windows

Heather hanging out at a coffee shop in Munich

A few Europe Pictures...

2008-08-16T10:36:00.001-07:00

Our whole group at O'Hare before leaving for Amsterdam

Heather and I on our way to France from Amsterdam (right before we realized that we left all of our groceries for the next couple days in the hostel in Amsterdam...Oops)

Shelter City in Amsterdam-one of the Christian hostels that we work with--this hostel is right next to the Red Light District

Very lost in Grenoble, France

What country are we in?

YHM Pictures are Online

2008-08-14T11:00:00.001-07:00

Pictures from this summer are now online!
Visit share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=8AbMmLJk1bOHKw to view them.
(I will hopefully be gradually deleting duplicates and putting labels on the pictures, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.)
Enjoy!
-Sarah

Back in the States!

2008-08-04T11:42:00.001-07:00

Hey Everyone!

So we're all back on American soil! Thanks so much for your prayers this summer. God is good. I am not home on my own computer right now, but as soon as I can get to it, I promise that I will post pictures from this summer. Until then, you'll just have to use your imaginations. Sorry.

I look forward to catching up with people and having actual face to face conversations (over some good American food)! Thanks again for your love and support these last 2 months!

God bless.
Love,
Sarah

P.S. I am currently in the apartment hunt and I'm trying to get a few other loose ends tied up before grad school starts in a few weeks...I would really love your prayers for that. The fast pace of life has hit me hard, and I need to get stuff done but I also want to be able to rest and spend time with people without worrying too much about logistical stuff, so I could really use your prayers. I've learned so much this summer and I want to be able to reflect on those things and take time to rest, which seems to be rather countercultural. Maybe we should instigate having siesta in the afternoon like they do in Europe. Hmmm.... I guess my "PS" is longer than my actual post. Oops. I guess that's all for now. Check back later for pictures!

Update from Bergen 2

2008-08-04T11:41:00.000-07:00

To those we love,

We went to Europe with the many hopes, prayers and expectations, but mostly with our eyes tuned as best we could to see God work.
As most of you know we are back now. Hopefully, many of you have already gotten a chance to see and talk to us. It may or may not have been obvious with all that was going on in our heads when we saw you, but things have changed. We have changed. Sometimes the change feels ever so slight, maybe we don't even notice it ourselves. Sometimes it takes us by surprise, like the oddity of not having to go shopping for one's next meal (there exists a refrigerator which mysteriously refills itself), or maybe for some (Jen), no longer feeling the need to keep track of every dime spent. However, sometimes the changes are enormous, so big that we can't even wrap our minds around what God has done in us. Like looking out upon an ocean, we try to introspect and see the vastness of it all, but all we can focus on is the curl of one wave or the rough edge of an answered prayer whispered years ago (perhaps a prayer of finding identity, or strength, or knowledge of the Love God has for us personally). We have seen God work, and although we were not always seeing, he did the work in spite of us.
The first night I was back, I had a conversation with one of my closest friends from Wheaton. It was like two months of emotion were trying to escape in less than two seconds. Ever sentence seemed to lead to more insights and a handful of other epiphanies, and being overwhelmed with it all, I had to settle for incoherent streams of thought. It was wonderful. Probably a little unexpected for my friend, but wonderful, feeling so much passion and excitement fill my chest, and wanting nothing more than to run through the next five years of my life screaming with everything in me, "God is Good."
My friends, God is Good.
We knew that before we left. We knew that before seeing the red light district, or having a conversation with two Canadian brothers, or meeting Kellie our friend from London, or walking over the border of East and West Berlin, or tasting our first Kebab... or having our first "hard" team conversation... taking trains through the Czech Republic... seeing all our YHM friends in Salzburg... staying in a castle... meeting Marcello... leading Bible discussions... talking to Yanis for five hours, twice... climbing Floyen... jumping on trampolines... witnessing answered prayer again and again and again... falling for a Hungarian... running late for a cog-rail... dancing in our apartment... having dinner with Einar and his family... or riding bicycles though the streets of Amsterdam... or sharing the Gospel in Europe... or coming home after running a hard race.
We knew God was Good before all of that, we just know it a little better now.
And it is all for the sake of the Gospel,
the good news that Jesus conquered death, and we no longer have to live with the weight of sin. That on a cross, the son of God died so that we could again be in relationship with our creator, and all we have to do is ask to be forgiven and follow.
That is the good news, and we are each called to it, albeit it differently. For some, it might be the first step of belief,
for others it might be leaving all we know...
home, family, friends, paradigms, patterns of living of over forty years, lifestyles, addictions, and self-inflicting pain...
to follow,
but that step doesn't look all too different from the first.
Our step this past summer was going to Europe.
Thank you for supporting us through it. We know you were praying, and we know that without your aid, it would not have happened.
We are so grateful for your love, and we pray that God would bless you as you have us.

Grace and Peace to you all,
Jeff

PS Did I mention kebabs are probably an argument for the existence of God? They are that good.

Update from Bergen 1 team (now traveling)

2008-07-23T05:16:00.001-07:00

Dear Loved Ones,

Joy, Liz, Amy, and I are happy to say that we have made it safely to Como, Italy for our Traveler's Retreat! This retreat marks the halfway point for the traveling leg of our YHM journey. A week ago, none of us thought that we would need a retreat this soon into traveling (we've only been on the road for two weeks). But having arrived here in Como on Wednesday night, we realized that all four of us were ready for a physical and emotional break.

The last email update you received was from Munich, Germany, city of beer and sausages (seriously, now). From Munich, we had a very adventurous traveling day to reach Gryon, a small town high up in the Swiss Alps. On the way to Gryon, our team got separated not one but two times as various train mistakes were made, but thankfully nobody got left behind and we all made it to Switzerland together.

Our time in Gryon was much different from the times we have spent in other cities. The hostel we stayed at in Gryon, the Chalet Martin Swiss Alps Hostel, is a small, cozy place that is home to a group of regulars who come every year or two for the summer. We stepped into Chalet Martin as a group of outsiders on the fringe of an annual reunion, and we felt that we were immediately put into a box. Many of these regulars were at the hostel when our other traveling team for this year, Bergen 2, stayed in Gryon in the month of June. So as soon as we arrived and those staying at the hostel found out we were from Wheaton, they knew we were Christian and knew why we were traveling Europe, and generally avoided any in-depth conversation. We didn't feel ostracized by any means. We just continually felt the need to break out of the box the Gryon regulars put us in.

Chalet Martin, however, was definitely not a lost cause or disappointment for us. Despite any pre-formed opinions about us, the other guests in Gryon were willing and eager to hang out with us and hike and watch movies. The Alps were absolutely beautiful, and our time there was definitely relaxing. We managed to meet almost everyone staying in the hostel, and even formed a few deeper friendships with a couple of the guests there. Liz and Amy went hiking one day with a student from Virginia, named Margaret, and got a chance to get to know her. And the four of us all got to enjoy our final night in Gryon with Garrett, a student who invited himself into our team time and proceeded to read the Bible for us, despite labeling himself as non-religious. It was wonderful.

From Gryon, we traveled here to Como, and since our arrival have been having a great time relaxing and hanging out with Sarah and Heather, our YHM leaders. The Lord has definitely been using this down time to rejuvenate our spirits and our bodies. Sarah and Heather have been full of only encouragement for our team, and the Lord is continually using their leadership to strengthen our resolve to finish this summer strong.

As we enter our last two weeks here on YHM, we would like to continue to ask for your prayers. We are so, so grateful for the Lord's faithfulness in answering our prayers in the past, and we know that He will continue to be faithful in these next days. We would like to ask for continued prayers for boldness in the Lord and an enthusiasm for the gospel. We would also like to ask for prayer concerning inner peace and hopefulness in the Lord through these last two weeks, as we are nearing the end of our time here and it is tempting to mentally 'check-out'. The Lord has so much more in store for us these next two weeks, and we would love for you to be a part of that.

Thank you so much for your support! You'll hear from us in Slovenia!

In Him,

Stephanie Thomas

Team Bergen 1

YHM 2008

Update from Bergen!

2008-07-23T05:12:00.002-07:00

So unfortunately, the internet has not been working at our hostel in Norway. I'm currently at the library trying to type really fast because I don't have much time, but I just wanted to let you all know that things are going great. We have had an awesome time in Bergen. Also, Heather and I just got back from Como, Italy, where we met up with the Bergen 1 team. It was an amazing time of rest, good food, and lots of sun. We were able to talk with the girls on that team quite a bit and just try to encourage them in the last week of YHM.
Thanks for all your prayers. Please continue to pray for perseverance and endurance in the last 7 days. God has been good and he still has a lot to do on YHM in this last week.