This past year at Briercrest is a lot of things. Among them is growing, learning (tons!), and forming (both in near future and distant future). I could spend a very long time talking about all the things I'm learning.
This summer I will be on a first nations reservation with YW. I will be apart of a four person team. program coordinator, work project staff, kids club coordinator, and our site director. we will have youth groups come to us every week, and we host them, and lead them in ministry on construction projects, kids club, and other activities on the res. My job is leading the "chapel" part. we play games, silly songs, skits, worship and a talk. I also facilitate the evening activity around the res. There's more to it than I can explain now, and more seems to be coming every day.
I'm scared about this summer. I realized I have no idea what humility is, and recognize it will be essential that I am humble this summer for it to go well. I am completely overwhelmed with the amount of things I have to do, and prepare. I have never spent any serious amount of time on a reservation. I have never done public speaking. I have no major experience in leading senior high kids. What scares me the most is knowing I will be humbled, and finding a little more about humility. So, not knowing what it is, and knowing it will come and knowing it will be critical that it happens is daunting thought. plus a lot of the stories prepping us for what's to come are very sad and broken stories
However, I am also super-duper-uberly excited for the summer. I'm a part of a baller team, with AWESOME teammates. Although I feel overwhelmed and unqualified a lot, I am stoked to get my hands dirty. This stems from the fact that I have been learning and growing, and now I have a place to really use it. A place that needs a lot of everything. Forgiveness, grace, love, and much much more.
So please be in prayer for and with me.
3 comments:
BEN TEN!!
I am so excited to hear that you are going to be working on a rez! Words can seriously not express how happy reading this made me. I am super stoked that you will be working with the youth there. I worked for a summer camp on my rez last summer and I can honestly tell you that those kids I worked with poured so much into my life I felt so blessed being able to work with them.
I would suggest just loving on them, as many as you said in this post, are broken and fragile in someway (just like we all are) but seriously Ben, just love on them, be there for them, and have fun with them. If there is one thing I know for certain it is that we indians love to laugh, there are very few cultures I know of that love to laugh as much as we do, which should work out well as we all know how much you love the puns and dad jokes.
So Ben, I encourage you as you go to work with my people that you do not fear. I encourage you to go in with your heart on your sleeve and be prepared to have your life changed by these beautiful youth. Experience the culture and encourage them to grow as you grow along with them.
It will be a struggle, and you will get frustrated with them and not understand them but remember there are probably a lot of them that do not have a stable home life with people who genuinely care about them. I ask you Ben to just love on them as i am sure you will. You can not go wrong with loving them. I know each one of them is going to be special and will teach you something. I am as sure about that, just as I am as confident that you will show them a love that they have not experienced and they will take as much from you as you from them.
I am so excited about this Ben! I know you will do great, and I am very much looking forward to hearing about how your summer goes. I honestly can not think of a better person then Gentle Ben to work with these youth. As I remember you have a very interesting way of making people feel at ease and loving in a very gentle way. Much of what many Natives need.
Much love to you Mr. BenTen. I think of you often and hope all other things in your life are going well.
Abby.
aw Ben, this is fantastic, you're going to be great , dont worry about the future becaause you have no idea what its going to be like,haha
anyway really proud of you and this sounds wounderful!
That's great Abby! I loved hearing your excitement for my summer, which in turn really inspired me to, like you said, "love on them." I can feel you're excitement through the internet, and through your comment. I will definitely come back to what you said throughout the summer so I can get some perspective and excitement.
I'll defs let you know how it goes.
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