Wednesday, 9 June 2004
midway through week 1 in Detroit
First of all I have to ask for prayers, this week I have been battling what is either a head cold or an unexpected allergic reaction to something in the environment here. I am hoping it's a cold that will go away soon and not allergies that will last all summer.
Wednesday, 23 June 2004
some pictures
Last Sunday John was preaching and wanted to have a powerpoint presentation with pictures of the kids and neighbourhood, so we drove around on Wednesday and took some pictures or the neighbourhood and downtown Detroit.
The pictures were inspired by Isaiah 61:1-4;
The spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me, because the LORD has anointed me;
he has sent me to bring good news to the oppressed,
to bind up the brokenhearted,
to proclaim liberty to the captives, and release to the prisoners;
to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor, and the day of vengeance of our God;
to comfort all who mourn;
to provide for those who mourn in Zion--to give them a garland instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, the mantle of praise instead of a faint spirit.
They will be called oaks of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, to display his glory.
They shall build up the ancient ruins,
they shall raise up the former devastations;
they shall repair the ruined cities, the devastations of many generations.
This is the church where we spend most of our days. It is in a primarily residential neighbourhood, not what I had originally pictured, but it is definitely impoverished, as you'll see in some of the other pictures.
This is about 1 block away from the church, there are so many houses like this.
Many of the houses, even though they don't look habitable, actually have someone living in them. This happens a lot in this neighbourhood, there will be a row of houses that look fine, and then a pile of rubble, a hole or an empty lot where a house used to be.
This was taken closer to the downtown area, it is crazy the conditions people live in.
This is downtown Detroit - it looks more like a war zone than a city where people live.
Here is a window in the church sanctuary. It is broken because of a bullet. (don't worry, we weren't there when it happened)
Here is John with some of our kids. They call him Pastor John or sometimes even Dad, since many of them don't have fathers. The kids think of the group that meets at the church as a family, which is an awesome way to build community.
Posted by shanneranner at 12:26 PM PDT
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update
Last week was busy busy busy. John, Jacob and I have been working hard and we actually have already made an impact up here. There was going to be a grant that is not available now, and instead of going ahead with an underfunded, secular peace camp we met with the mission centre president, Jerry Van Rossom on the 17th and talked to him about this idea we came up with for 3 1 week vacation Bible schools for three age groups. 1st through 5th grade the first week, 6th through 8th grade the third week and senior high in between. This idea came the day we had to tell our neighbourhood kids that their church, pastor john and Jacob & I would be used by someone else all summer (most of the neighbourhood kids are too old for the camp). I have never seen such sad faces. We realised that alienating them that way would ruin all of the hard work John has done so far. Jerry agreed with us about the underfunding, and now we have a manageable task for the summer and we will be able to share Christ with these kids. Also, our Bible school won't be all day, which gives us the opportunity to do ministry in the afternoons and evenings, and maintain pizza church, with our staple food: little caesars ready made pizzas. $5.00 for a large, always pepperoni or cheese, seemingly the cheapest food in michigan by our estimation.
I was happy to see the Pistons win the NBA championship, it is fun to be in a winning city, and it is good to see an often sad, depressed city get excited about something. We were even happier that there were no riots - proving to the world that Detroit can behave itself.
Another exciting thing about our new plan for the summer is that we will get to go to Flint reunion, a mainly young adult reunion at Bluewater campground our last week here. John stays with the director of the camp, Doyle Rice, and he has already recruited Jacob and I to help out. It should be a good time, a nice way to finish up our time here.
Posted by shanneranner at 11:40 AM PDT
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Wednesday, 16 June 2004
adrenaline hangover
Yesterday we went to Cedar Point - "Roller Coaster Capital of the US". It was a lot of fun for me, I love adrenaline highs, so the coasters were AWESOME. We went on one where your legs dangle, one where you stand up, and one that used to be the tallest (the line for the tallest one was too long). But today I kind of have an adrenaline hangover, it's exhausting going on those things.
The sad thing though was that Jacob couldn't go on most of the rides because he is too tall. The kids we took had a blast though, it was fun to hang out with them for the day.
Posted by shanneranner at 1:01 PM PDT
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Monday, 14 June 2004
monday monday...
Today Bruce & Helen gave us a ride to the church. Our first day alone at the church, just Jacob and I and the kids. I'm not sure what route we took to get there exactly - but it wasn't the route John takes when we go with him. Today we avoided the run-down stores and buildings and stuck to residential streets instead. I guess it's easier to pretend the poverty and hardship don't exist when you can't see it. However, I know that I am guilty of ignoring those problems in my own city too. At least by driving alongs Hastings in Vancouver, one can't ignore the problems that are there. Isn't that supposed to be an important step in recovery - admitting there is a problem?
Today I found myself withing that I could promise these kids a bright future... there are a lot of things I wish I could promise them - like food and clothes and safety. I know too well, though, that many of them are headed for a future filled with institutions that will continue to take advantage of them. What I can do now is minister to them and with them through an institution that won't take advantage of them.
We played 'Trouble' for awhile today, me and some of the kids. We have no pieces for the game, though, so we used lego pieces instead. Thankfully the die is built into that bubble thing in the middle, so we didn't need to go looking for that. My favourite line was from the boy who kept talking about getting his pieces back to his "crib" - i.e. the home safe area. It was pretty funny.
The neighbourhood around the church is called "Hope Park", so John is thinking of calling the congregation "Living Hope Community of Christ" (or something close to that) which I think is a great name. If the church can provide children and adults at least with a sense of hope, then that is great. True, other needs must be met as well. Churches should not only cater to the spiritual needs of members, but to the physical needs as well. How is someone supposed to sit through a church service if they didn't have any breakfast and know they won't have any lunch? Churches also need to be prophetic - challenging the institutions that oppress the people the church works with. It is easy to identify these roles... it is much harder to fulfill them.
By the way, you can leave comments on here if you like, and you can email me... I noticed that homesickness was tapping me on the shoulder the other night, and I'm trying to ignore it by keeping in touch with some familiar souls.
Posted by shanneranner at 4:20 PM PDT
Updated: Monday, 14 June 2004 4:24 PM PDT
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Friday, 11 June 2004
an entertaining email
This is an email Jacob & I wrote the other day to the other volunteers in our program after they sent us emails about their trips through London, Victoria Falls and Australia. I hope you find it entertaining, it covers some stuff I'm too lazy to type out again - it's much easier to cut and paste! There are a couple of jabs at our fellow volunteers in more far-off places. For those of you who don't know, my partner Jacob is 7 feet tall - that might help you understand some of this...
June 10, 2004 4:48:59 PM
'Sup folks!
Jacob & Shannon here, relaxin' in the air conditioned computer lab in what has fast become "our" church. While many of you were visiting exotic destinations such as London, we had already:
-discovered that Subway is twice the price in Michigan than in Iowa and Missouri
-watched game 7 of the Stanley Cup final
-ate pizza and watched the Pistons game at the church on the big screen (after jerry-rigging a coathanger antenna through two vcrs to get the signal to the projector)
-while taking some kids home we drove through a neighbourhood where we learned that it's not safe to stop at cross streets
-played dodgeball in the sanctuary while listening to rap and hip hop music
-been repeatedly stuffed with food by our host family: this morning it was non-stop pancakes and sausages. Bruce (one of our hosts) is constantly concerned that "a big guy like Jacob" isn't getting enough to eat.
-had a water balloon fight with the neighbourhood kids (which ended in a bucket of water being dumped over "Pastor John's" head)
-went to potluck and bible study at Troy Oaks congregation
-Jacob is rediscovering his lego building talent with the kids and planning out the mural he's going to get the kids to paint on the church during the summer day camp
-Shannon hoping her stuffy nose is a cold that will end soon and not allergies that will last all summer
-We have scared our hosts - not realising that the phone we were using is about three feet from their heads as they sleep, or not sleep since "it's been ten years since we've had voices like that after midnight in our house!"
There are plenty of adventures ahead of us, next week we're going to Cedar Point amusment park - roller coaster capital of the USA - with some of the kids. and these are just a few snapshots after only three days of being here. Jacob's getting his birth certificate from home so we don't have to hide him in the trunk when we go up to Canada (not that we would actually do that...) to visit.
We could write forever, but that's all for now. It's time to send this email off and go back to following our calling to help build a christ-centered community here.
Blessing on your ministries too, friends, wherever you are around the world.
Love,
Jacob & Shannon
aka the G's who are down in the 'hood in D-Town
aka Grizzly Bear and Sha-nay-nay
ps if anyone needs a cheeseburger, let us know and we'll try to Fed-Ex it to you - John said he missed those when he was in the Phillippines. Or, we can just eat one for you and then email you about it.
Saturday, 3 July 2004
thursday report
Thursday was great, we had a good time painting and playing dodgeball with the brand new ball we bought. We played by the rules from the movie, which meant a longer game because in the movie, if you catch the ball, not only is the person who threw the ball out, but the team that caught the ball gets to bring one player back in who was out. We had lots of fun with that. Here are some pictures from our adventures on Thursday:
Then the ball popped, which was not fun. But, there are funny pictures:
After dodgeball we made some music again. The kids are so funny. This one kid, Dave, is very particular about everyone starting together on his beat, it's great. Here are some pictures:
The mural is coming along well, Jacob's doing a great job, and the kids are having fun helping out with it. It was so hot on Thursday, however, that we couldn't work for too long. Here is the in-progress mural:
Posted by shanneranner at 6:49 PM PDT
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Wednesday, 30 June 2004
sabbath wednesday
today we took a sabbath because we were exhausted and knew that we would have a hectic few days ahead of us. Weekends aren't exactly relaxing when you're doing ministry. So we went to Spiderman 2, which was tons of fun. It's a great story that even had some positive messages: sometimes you have to sacrifice some of your dreams in order to do the right thing.
I appreciate the comments people have been leaving for me, and I think I should clarify something for a lot of you. Your comment won't appear right away when you post it because I have to approve the comments first. When you post a comment, I get an email letting me know someone has left a comment, then I can choose whether or not it appears, that way I don't have any weird people I don't know leaving random comments.
Tomorrow is game day at the church and we are going to go out and buy a new ball so we can play dodge ball - the kid who owned the ball we used before took it home, so we thought we should get our own. I think we're going to try playing using the rules from the movie Dodgeball (if you haven't seen it, wait and rent it, it was funny, but not quite worth the admission price). In the movie, if you catch the ball, not only is the thrower from the other team out, but the team that caught it gets to bring back in a player who is out. Jacob and I are hoping it will make for a lengthier game with more chances for kids to participate.
Dodgeball in the sanctuary = fun times.
Posted by shanneranner at 6:26 PM PDT
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Tuesday, 29 June 2004
a kinda sorta bible school
So no one showed up for Bible school yesterday morning, which was a bit of a downer. But, we got some spraypainting done as the base coat for the mural Jacob is painting on the side of the church.
We kind of looked like hoodlums with our yellow rags to keep us from inhaling too much paint, but no one noticed us. The kids showed up after summer school got out at 12:30, and we played elbow tag for awhile, since it was a big hit last week. I took some pictures because they were having so much fun.
After that we fed them cookies and lemonade, here are a couple of the really little ones who are really cute. This first little guy just liked to lick the icing out of the cookie and then wouldn't eat the rest. He was cracking us up. The little girl didn't want her picture taken at first (I have one of her hiding under a table), but then she decided to strike a pose.
Then we shooed them out to try to decide what to do for the rest of the week. We decided to do activities in the afternoons - one activity per day - and if they want to be at the church they can participate, otherwise, they can go home. We really don't want to encourage them to just hang around doing nothing at the church. So today we worked on the mural with the kids - it looks phenomenal already, Jacob has done an awesome job, he is a great artist. I will take some pictures of it later this week. We also had the littler ones do some sidewalk chalk to brighten up the area. We used the Bible lesson we were going to teach yesterday at the bible school for pizza church this evening, which worked out well. Psalm 100 was the scripture we looked at and we talked about how you need lots of instruments to make a band, and you need lots of people to stick together and do God's work. Jacob had an awesome object lesson with a rock and some twine that showed the twine was stronger fused together than spread apart. After a bunch of the kids left, a group of boys stuck around and started their own little music group, with two playing heart and soul on the piano and the rest drumming beats in the sanctuary with whatever they could find. I brought in the rhythym instruments we'd used for the bible lesson and we had a little band going, it was a ton of fun. This week may not be shaping up the way we thought it would, but God works in mysterious ways and we are trying to let the Spirit move us in ways that will touch the lives of these children and build community in their neighbourhood. Coming together to do art, to study the Bible, to eat and to make music is a great place to start.
Posted by shanneranner at 4:28 PM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 29 June 2004 4:47 PM PDT
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Saturday, 26 June 2004
Farenheit 9/11
Today I went and saw the new Michael Moore movie, "Fahrenheit 9/11". It is a very good movie - go see it! I cried through the part of it where they talked about and showed film of Flint, Michigan. It looked just like the neighbourhood we are working in here in Detroit. The movie talked about how many poor people have little choice but to join the military, then look what happens to them. It's as if the poor are disposable members of society whose sole purpose is to ensure that the lives of the rich and powerful remain as comfortable as possible. The movie showed how following the trails of money reveals just how inbred and corrupt not only the U.S. government is, but many of the multinational companies who fund the U.S. government and pour money into the U.S. and global economies. The reason to attack Iraq, as many people know, had little to do with terrorism and much to do with greedy folk who want Iraq's oil.
I know that the sensationalism of the movie was intended to rile me up, and it did just that, and I'm glad. It reminded me of part of the reason we are working with these kids - we want them to have options other than going off to get killed in a pointless war. We want to deal with their immediate problems but also begin to address and realise the institutionalized oppression that maintains the stratification of our society. This is not the way God wants the world to be. Anger at the way things are is a good thing when that anger is productive, when that anger sways votes and creates responsible citizens who are willing to take action to change the world. Too many people are complacently comfortable in their little gated communities. It is that complacency that ends up breeding generations of apathetic, ignorant people who continue to oppress the last, lost, labeled, least members of society.
Go see this movie. Go see what could happen to my kids here in Detroit. Go see how greed can truly be sinful when it kills innocent people. Then remind yourself of whose side God is on - those last lost labeled least.
Posted by shanneranner at 2:28 PM PDT
Updated: Saturday, 26 June 2004 2:31 PM PDT
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Thursday, 24 June 2004
O Canada
We spent Monday and Tuesday of this week in Canada, which was a nice escape for a bit. On Monday we visited Point Pelee national park, and I stood at the most southern point of mainland in Canada. I also listened to the waves crashing on the lake shore and was slightly homesick for the ocean. We visited John's parents and sister Karen, who were great hosts. It was nice to just relax and read. I finished the first of my three books I have to read for school: "Hard Living People and Mainstream Christians" by Tex Sample. It is a great book that had tons of practical advice and insight for the kind of work John is doing here. On our way back "home" to Detroit, I got a little teary-eyed due to being a bit homesick.
We had a great pizza church on Tuesday night, we brought out a bunch of Bibles and taught the kids how to look up verses, and challenged them to memorize the order of the first four books of the New Testament - an easy task for the older ones, but challenging for the young ones. Thursdays are going to be game night at 4pm for the summer, and today went well for Jacob and I (John couldn't be there). We played elbow tag, and the kids had a blast. I had a good time watching them laugh and laugh. We gave out flyers and forms for our Bible school, and took a pile of flyers to the community centre across the street. This was a big step for Jacob and I! Today was the first time we've walked off the church grounds (and not driven off), and we went by ourselves. It really is safe there during the day, but I was too scared to go door-to-door handing out flyers, so we decided the community centre was enough.
For the Canadians out there, a friend sent me this link which is kind of cool: http://www.politicswatch.com/VoteSelectorQuiz2004.html You take a quiz and it tells you which party you should vote for. Probably not a perfect way to decide how to vote, but an interesting quiz to take nonetheless.
Posted by shanneranner at 12:33 PM PDT
Updated: Thursday, 24 June 2004 7:46 PM PD
Tuesday, 20 July 2004
what a day
These past two days have been exhausting. Yesterday was both emotionally and physically exhausting. We arrived Monday morning to find a huge mess had been left behind by one of the groups that uses the church on Sundays. There were dirty dishes all over the kitchen; food scraps on the sink, counter and floor; sticky, dirty floors; our craft supplies used; mess everywhere. I was so frustrated and upset that I cried. I worked so hard last week to keep that kitchen clean so I could cook good meals for our kids every day, and all that hard work had been ruined. In a way I felt personally attacked, it hurts to see hard work disregarded that way.
Bruce and Helen came to help us out, which was a wonderful blessing. I could tell that it was hard for them to see their old church in such disarray. We also have two other Michigan girls helping us out this week - we miss John C, Jordan and Linda, but they will be back next week. It was good yesterday to have lots of hands helping out. I was so upset about the messy church that I really needed to get out of the church and get some air. So when we needed to get water (I have probably neglected to mention that the tap water in that neighbourhood has often been muddy, so we only give our kids bottled water, or water that we cart over to the church from Bruce & Helen's), I volunteered to go. I had a good cry and a good pray in the car on my way to the store, and was able to calm down. It is frustrating because we are really only here to observe and help, not to question the system or petition for change. That means we're not supposed to contact the Mission Center (the next level up of church governance) to make suggestions about problems. We have to call John, who is at camp, and get him to contact the MC. For me, a person used to trying my hardest to make positive change happen, the process can be frustrating.
Once the kids arrived, though, my spirits immediately lifted. I had a couple of them help me put together the newspaper while Helen cooked lunch. It was fun to see their work come out on paper, and I am so incredibly proud of them. We had new kids come, which is always exciting, and everyone was very well behaved.
Today was a good day, though very hot and tiring. Tuesdays are pizza church and we are there longer than usual. My body is aching this evening, probably from tiredness and because I am on my feet nearly all day - cooking, cleaning, and supervising in the computer lab. We have shopping to do for tomorrow's lunch, but I have a feeling we will be doing it tomorrow morning and not tonight.
I'm off to change laundry loads.
Posted by shanneranner at 5:22 PM PDT
Updated: Tuesday, 20 July 2004 7:44 PM PDT
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Sunday, 18 July 2004
last sunday
Today I'm not at church for various reasons. It is actually nice to have a morning by myself in an empty house, I need time like this to reflect and think. I was thinking about last Sunday and decided to copy out my journal entry from last Sunday night into here, because the story of Sunday is a good one. Some background info: Highland Park is the poorest, most dangerous area of Detroit. Holk is an independent minister who has his own church called "Word of Power", one congregation of which meets in our building. The one time I met Holk, he reminded me of a used car salesman, very sleazy. So here is the story...
July 11, 2004
Snapshot: Highland Park area, strip mall, very few stores, right in the middle of the mall is a neon sign: "Army Recruitment Center"
We went to church at Highland park, a good speaker again. We eat lunch, change clothes, and head over to the church. We're waiting in the lobby for Dave, Le-Le and Dalila when Pastor James - Holk's minister - comes out of the sanctuary and invites Jacob and I in. We say we're just waiting for our kids, but, not wanting to be rude, we go in. There are three kids who are no older than 10, one teenager, and one older fellow who we find out later is 83 and a deacon. The kids and James finish up a song they're singing, and James says "We have a minister in our midst today, and she don't know it, but she's gonna bring us the word today. So come on up here!" I don't remember protesting at all, I felt like I was being challenged, like I, John's church, and the Community of Christ were being put to the test, so I stepped up. I asked if they were looking at a particular scripture, he said no, so I went with the lectionary that day - the story of the Good Samaritan. I'd heard it preached earlier that day and John had done the story for our "Gettin' Real with Jesus" time with our kids earlier in the week, so it was fresh in my mind. I told the story instead of reading it, being sure to bring in the lawyer's question to Jesus: "Who is my neighbour?" I made the story repetitive and built up the tension - the advantage of telling and not reading. I engaged all six of the people in the congregation, I couldn't tell what James thought since he was behind me. I talked about everyone being our neighbour, and Jesus calling on us to go and do the same. I talked about how Jesus calls us to love our enemies, not just the easy people to love. And I talked about how we are called to act on our love; not just talk about loving people, but actually do things to show our love. Mr. Deacon even gave me some "Amen!"s and I distinctly remember applause when I was done, which felt weird.
Now that was a step out in faith.
James commended me for "really gettin' to the point" of the scripture. I'm just grateful God gave me the words to say, because it definitely wasn't all me up there. James kept complimenting me after the service on my ability to keep the kids engaged. (there were only three of them, it wasn't that hard) When he spoke after me in the service, he didn't even engage me, forget the fidgety kids he kept getting mad at. Afterward he wouldn't take the kids to see Spiderman 2 because one of them had misbehaved. I was not impressed with him at all. I did love talking to the 83 year old deacon though, he was great, really sweet, very funny, humble with a huge, genuine smile that lit up his face - a totally different vibe than from James. I guess this today was partially God saying "Shannon, when you pull out the seminary card," (which I did in a conversation with James on Monday) "I'm going to hold you accountable for it." Serves me right for opening my big arrogant mouth to proudly say that I'm a seminary student.
Back to July 18th
That was definitely a Sunday I will remember for a long time. I want to say thank you to all of you who are reading this who sent me notes from BC reunion, I got them in the mail yesterday and they made my day, I really appreciate your thoughtfulness. I missed you too very much and missed being at reunion. I'm really looking forward to spending a week a Samish for Kimtah when I get back.
Posted by shanneranner at 9:22 AM PDT
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Saturday, 17 July 2004
catching up
I've been very lazy about updating this past week. With only three of us working at the church is has been very tiring. Jacob, John Corn and I had a great week though. Other than a fight on Monday that resulted in everyone being sent home, the kids were great. We really feel like they've learned to trust us and we've learned to trust them. I was lucky enough to be the one who cooked lunch every day, well, maybe not so lucky. It's always hit or misss for how many kids will show up for lunch. We always seem to have enough food to go around though, and these kids aren't too picky.
This week the mural has been finished. It grew in the past 2 weeks.
Here is Jacob finishing up, with Teara directing of course. Here is a preliminary picture of the finished mural, better pictures will come soon:The other exciting thing this week was that we took them all on a field trip yesterday to Flint to a children's farm and a water park on a lake. They had a great time. All of the kids got to feed the animals, which was fun for them. It is interesting to think that kids who live in a dangerous neighbourhood like ours by the church, could be scared of some goats and donkeys. There was a brand new baby donkey at the farm: One of our girls decided it would be a good idea to braid the hair of one of the donkeys so it would have a "real pimpin' doo"
Here is the whole group. The tour guide didn't do a fabulous job of taking the picture, but it's not too bad. We certainly were not expecting 24 kids to show up for the trip (we take anyone who shows up with a permission form), but we managed just fine and they were very well behaved.
Here is a bunch of our kids posing on a tractor.
We ran out of bread for sandwiches at lunch, but the kids didn't seem to mind. Everyone had something to eat, even if it was cheese wrapped up in a few slices of ham. Thank goodness we had bought exactly 24 bottles of water.
Posted by shanneranner at 11:59 AM PDT
Updated: Saturday, 17 July 2004 4:19 PM PDT
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Thursday, 8 July 2004
exciting week
This week has been exciting. We have three new people helping us out who have been a great source of new energy. We have a planned-out afternoon camp that is going very well so far. Lots of progress has been made on the mural, and it looks like they will be doing a mural inside the church as well because we have lots more time for painting.
Updated: Thursday, 8 July 2004 6:18 PM PDT
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Sunday, 4 July 2004
4th of july fun
Today we went to Highland Park, the most dangerous and run-down neighbourhood in Detroit (our neighbourhood isn't the only bad one), for church. The neighbourhood is so run down that there are places where there are no street signs. The service was great. The congregation's building there is also the Community of Christ African American Ministries Centre. I heard the best sermon so far in my time here this summer, I felt like it was speaking to me personally where I'm at. It was both challenging and inspirational. It was a good place for our first communion service (since this is the first first Sunday of the month we've been here for) of our time in Detroit. Yesterday also marked the end of week 4, which means we are halfway through our time here, which is kind of sad.
We had a little 4th of July party at the church in the afternoon. We bought lots of hot dogs and sausages and served them up to our kids and to a few adults passing through. I took some great pictures of the cookout, but the memory card they were on is corrupt, so I don't have them, which is sad. I do have a few pictures from another camera though. After eating, John and the two girls that went to camp led everyone in a few campfire songs:We also had some flav-o-ice freezies that we gave out for dessert. An older fellow from the Restoration Towers senior's home next door to the church came by, and for some reason I love this picture of him eating his freezie:
Posted by shanneranner at 12:01 AM PDT
Updated: Sunday, 18 July 2004 9:28 AM PDT
Sunday, 1 August 2004
the last Detroit entry
Since I leave tomorrow morning, I thought it would be fitting to write one last entry before I go. The final week here was a lot of ups and downs. The kids are really getting at each other, which I think is partially just what all kids go through when they are spending more time together during the summer than they usually would during the school year. We had a good Sunday at Bluewater a week ago. It was the start of Flint reunion, and I had the chance to visit with some Graceland folks. There were lots of young adults there, which is very inspiring, it's good to know that the church cares about young adults. It was a day of good conversation and good worship, which were things I was in need of. The worship service was in a tent overlooking Lake Huron, which was a fabulous setting for a service.
It was good to have John C, Linda and Jordan back at the church for the week, the five of us made a really good team. We had lots of fun with the kids, in spite of some crazy times. Wednesday morning John and I went shopping for supplies, sending two avid shoppers (I haven't been an avid shopper until recently, and now I can't get enough) out with a wallet full of money can be dangerous, but we didn't spend too much. We got back to find Linda in a kitchen disaster - burger grease everywhere from cooking cheap, fatty hamburgers on the griddle. So I left right away to buy two industrial sized jugs of de-greaser from a food-service store. Linda and I sprayed down the entire kitchen. We threw away the vertical blinds, which were disgusting from years and years of greasy cooking. The floor was even covered in grease, so we were slipping and sliding all over the place. We shut down that area of the church and the kids did craft time outside - tie-dying t-shirts. All we could do was laugh really, poor linda was covered in grease herself from being in the kitchen while the burgers were cooking. Thankfully she was able to rescue the chocolate cake that Helen made for us earlier in the week. Several times I had chocolate cake for breakfast last week, shhh, don't tell my mom;)
In the past two weeks Jacob painted another awesome mural, around the corner from the first one. This one is of Jesus:
A guy from this area came by with some games and lego to donate on Tuesday, which was awesome. I think Jacob & Jordan had just as much fun with the lego as the kids did:
And here's John playing twister with DJ:
And little John and Ariane playing a game:
On Thursday, which was our last day with the kids, we had a big water fight and grill-out party. Jacob and I had fun buying water toys and filling over 100 water balloons on Wednesday night. It was great because John A. was able to be there too. We had our cookout first, which was fun. Here is Linda cooking some corn:
And here is Jordan chatting with a hungry passer-by (we don't turn anyone away when they ask for food):
We bought some face paint too, and Dave wanted a tiger face:
And Britney wanted a poodle face:
There was a slip and slide:
Everyone looking up to see where the water balloons are coming from...
...from John, John, and Jordan on the roof:
the kids either had to trapse through the kitchen to fill their buckets and guns:
or bravely try to fill them from the hose, which John was in charge of, which meant the risk of having the hose aimed at them:
A fun time was had by all. We sent the kids home to dry off and put on dry clothes, and then they came right back to play games and work on the newspaper. To end off the day, instead of our bible lesson time, Jacob and I were presented with great big cards that the kids made for us, and we each said a few last words. John bought us ice cream cake as a send-off, which we of course had with the kids. When it was time to leave, we all took a picture in front of the mural:
It has been a summer of ups and downs, good and bad days. I am so sad to have to leave these kids, they have become very important to me. I do miss home though, and the people there. Being away definitely helps me appreciate what I have even more. The lessons I have learned this summer will be with me forever, and I have only just begun to process everything that has happened. I am sure that telling my stories when I'm back home will be a lesson as well. I can't wait to share with all of you, face to face, and not just through this blog!
Posted by shanneranner at 2:07 PM PDT
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Friday, 23 July 2004
how do you spell pon?
Amazingly enough, today there is actually a cool breeze blowing and so I sat outside to write this out by hand and am now typing it in.
It was almost unbearably hot these past two weeks, especially since I spent a lot of my time in the kitchen with the hot stove and oven. I was proud of myself because last week I bravely lit the oven for the first time. It's a gas oven and you have to light it using a flame. So we bought one of those long-handled lighters and I lit it. I am now an old pro and had no trouble lighting it to keep the quesadillas warm that I made for lunch on Wednesday. I think my body has adjusted to the heat though, because this week I haven't noticed it as much. The humidity is really gross - I don't like breathing thick air when it gets really humid. For all you Mommy types reading this, yes I am drinking lots of water, I even caved in to the trend and bought a cheap, purple, Eddie Bauer knockoff of a Nalgene bottle at Target this week. We keep a big cooler filled with water for the kids all the time to make sure they stay hydrated.
We did a week-long pillow making project for crafts this week. The kids decorated fabric using puff paints and then made pillows by cutting a fringe and then knotting it to make seams. It worked ok for some, but others couldn't do it so we bought a cheap little sewing machine (the kind you see on tv) at Target to finish the pillows. Of course, as you would expect from a $25 device, about halfway through the afternoon it would only work by plugging and unplugging it instead of pressing the pedal, and the little hand-held sticher that came with it died as well. I still haven't decided whether or not we should take it back. I am sure all you sewing geniuses out there who are reading this wish you could help! Next week for crafts we'll be tie-dying t-shirts, which should be lots of fun and is a bit easier than pillows.
Today I am resting, which is nice. I could have gone up to Bluewater campground with Bruce, Helen and Jacob, but I decided to stay here and rest instead. I want Jacob to be able to spend time with his girlfriend Rachel (who is at that camp this week as a Graceland University Representative) without me hanging around. There isn't anyone up there right now who I know so I would just be following Bruce & Helen around. Besides, like I've said before, I'm the type of person who needs lots of processing time on my own. Jacob and I also need time apart - lately we've been bickering like brother and sister quite a bit.
Yesterday was a special treat - Troy, a good friend of both Jacob and I from Graceland, came to visit us at the church, hang out for the evening, and stay the night here at Bruce & Helen's before heading out of town today. He also taught our "Gettin' Real With Jesus" time in the afternoon at the church:
He likened the story of Jesus falling asleep in the boat to a Detroit Pistons basketball player falling asleep in the locker room, it was a good story and the kids were very engaged. I had a good talk with Troy about my time here, he is a good person to reflect with, and it was a much more beneficial conversation than my midterm evaluation was. It was fun to remember our time in university and remember things like the fact that Troy and I are both so competitive that he actually suggested we keep score while we watched Jeopardy and I seriously considered the idea. We didn't keep score, although Helen keeps insisting that I should go on the show since I'm always calling out answers when we watch. We got hooked this summer on watching the Mormon guy, Ken, who has been the returning Jeopardy champion for pretty much the entire summer. We keep making jokes about the bishop back in Salt Lake gleefully keeping a running tally of how much the Mormon church's 10% cut of Ken's winnings is growing each night. Yesterday the kids finished up their stuff for this week's newspaper (I am still struggling to upload last week's paper to the web, I really want you all to see it!). I have had a really good time working with them in the computer lab:
Some days I feel more like a teacher, especially when I keep getting asked things like Keiron did the other day:
"Shannon! How do you spell pon?"
"What?"
"HOW DO YOU SPELL PON?!"
"What do you mean?"
"You know, like 'once a pon a time'"
"OOhhh!"
And I try to stick with my usual rule for computer teaching: I will tell people how to do something, step by step, but I won't do it for them. It works most of the time, except for the long days when I've been asked umpteen times where the paint program is. I am so happy that they are getting the opportunity to just spend time on the computers and increase their comfort level. I even don't mind if they play games - I just don't tell them that when they play the "Mavis Beacon Typing Tutor" games, they're actually increasing their typing skills. hee hee hee.
Posted by shanneranner at 3:56 PM PDT
Updated: Friday, 23 July 2004 4:02 PM PDT
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