bayou la batre

If there is one thing that I have learned during my time thus far about youthworks as an organization, it is the emphasis they put on training and properly equipping their employees for ministry. It is honestly somewhat exhaustive. We went through five days of training in Birmingham as an entire region, then did a prep week with just my team in houma, then went up to bayou la batre to work with the four teams in our area together and do an actual week of programming.

My time in the bayou was incredibly enjoyable. I was working with 15 other youth work staff members as apposed to the regular 3. So essentially we had four site directors, four work projects staff members, four kids club staff members and four program staff members. It was insane and somewhat chaotic, but i feel so much better about successfully completing a youthworks week at my site after doing it with all of them.

We were working with 56 youth from three different churches. On my first day my area director gave me instructions to pick up local kids for kids club. This task seemed nebulous and confusing to me at first, however, I followed instructions and what happened was incredible. I pulled my van and a church bus into a project looking apartment complex whare tons of Vietnamese children were running around. Because Youthworks has been in this area for so long many of these kids expect kids club each year and have either gone before or had siblings who have gone. As soon as I popped out with my Youthworks shirt and name tag we were bombarded by about 15 kids all eagerly awaiting to hop on that bus and head to kids club for the day, it was incredible. Moving on from the apartment complex with about 20 new 6-10 year old friends, we went on to a trailer park equally infested with children, they all also knew about kids club and hopped aboard our bus. All in all I think I picked up around 50 kids that day met with each of their parents most of whom lived in fema trailers.

As I was picking up these kids and visiting with their parents in their fema issued trailers so many thoughts began pouring through my head... whats going to happen to these kids when fema takes away the trailors in a few months? what kind of opportunities will they have? Will they stay in school? statistics say no. History says they will struggle to keep their head above water for the rest of their lives just like their parents and grandparents. Is it possible that these kids could be cycle breakers?

I spent the next several days overseeing work projects that were going on. We had three going on, each varying in the amount of work that needed to be done. I travled around to each of these sites and monitored progress, offered what help I could and spent some time with the families at each. I loved this job. It kept me moving, problem solving and building relationships all day long. The families were incredible to get to know, each had their own story and these stories just made everything so much more real.

I'd like to say that we finished every project, changed every kid at kids clubs life, left the community an excellent place for anyone to live and that every highschooler who worked with us this week now has a clear vision of what it is to be the hands and feet of God and pour out love onto communities like this one. I cant say that. What I can say is that we had a huge impact on about 56 students who saw for possible the first time in their lives what real poverty looks like and what it feels like to love them with actions. I can say that we had an impact on three families specifically who needed help and will continue to get help from the staff at bayou la batre. I can say that about fifty kids got to play four square with people who love them and care about their future, I can say that they saw positive role models and will continue to throughout the summer. It may not seem like much but they are small changes maybe they will lead to a bigger one.

I'm back in Houma now for another prep week, our first highschool group comes in exactly one week.