Last 4 Weeks!!!!

So a lot has happened in the past four weeks here in Steubenville. I have had my last two weeks of youth, and then the final 2 weeks have been multi-generational so I we have had a lot of families come to do missionary work here in Ohio with ages ranging from 5 to 80, so it has been an interesting last few weeks.

I have felt God's presence move in these past 4 weeks and it has been a blessing to watch the youth grow each week. But now it is the end of the summer and it is time to go home. It has been a looonnngggg summer but with all things God is faithful and I feel as if my time spent here has been a blessing in my life. It is one thing to hear about those who struggle, but to see it first hand and to live in that atmosphere, you start to realize how you can take things for-granted at times. This trip has taught me that God has a purpose for us and if you take that leap of faith, and step outside your comfort zone, God will show you some amazing things.

The last two weeks of youth were great. I had a few worship leaders bring their youth groups and help me with worship so that was awesome! Another crazy thing, one of the groups from the 3rd week of youth was from Appleton, Wisconsin, and I used to live in that area before I moved to Minnesota, so that was a crazy. Then, finally, the last two weeks of groups that came were multi-generational, so the last two weeks had a different feel to it. I was a little worried about having to give nightly messages to a group with such a diverse audience, but God worked through me and I was able to reach both young and old which was a blessing. God has shown me this summer that I can make a big difference in peoples lives by using the gifts he has given me, and using them to glorify him. I have been able to reach out to youth and help make a positive change in them, I've had the opportunity to reach out to kids in the community by helping with kid's club, building relationships with kids who may not be given or shown enough love at home, and I was given the opportunity to help re-build the community through work projects. God has shown me such amazing things this summer, and I am excited to see where he takes me next.

If you would like to hear more about my time in here in Steubenville, feel free to shoot me a message. Otherwise I would love to share more in person.

I hope God blesses your life and remember, don't be afraid to step outside your comfort zone to do things for God, he will show you amazing things if you follow that path he has set before you!

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read my blog, I hope to be seeing many of you again soon.

Peace,

-Joe

Week 1 and Week 2 down!!!

Ok, so I hate to admit, but I have forgotten about my blogging in the past few weeks, and will take a slap on the wrist so many apologies...however all is well, thankfully I remembered and will update you on my adventures thus far in Steubenville OH. So As my status says I have completed only my first two weeks, it is such a long process to get ready for groups to come, by the time you actually start, a good portion of the summer has already ended.

Anyhow, my first week here went really well, the youth that attended were awesome and I really felt God's presence here throughout the week. Being the first week there were a few hiccups, and a little trouble from a few of the adult leaders, but overall beyond the stress of a first week I was continually reminded why God has brought me here. The youth really reminded me this week that God has not only a plan for them, but my presence here is making a difference. The most powerful part of the week was the foot washing service, it is always a great time to not only feel God's presence, but to see it in the youth as they pray with their adult leaders and where I get the opportunity to pray with them. It is always my favorite part of the week because God's presence is so clearly evident and it is refreshing to be in that atmosphere. Also, Week 1's youth took quite an interest in the many riddles that I have acquired throughout the years. The one that stumped them the most was the "Stick Game." If you don't know what that is, don't worry about it, I'll tell you sometime in person,but I warn you, it will probably drive you insane! So a quick shout out to week 1's youth, you guys were awesome and God Bless

Week 2's youth was equally awesome. The groups that came the second week didn't quite enjoy my riddles as much as the first group, they couldn't stand being confused which I found amusing, but none the less it was also another great week. Week 2 went a lot smoother concerning organization. A lot of the hiccups associated with week 1's nightly activities and programing were corrected which was good. This week the youth had the opportunity to paint the house of someone in the community. Ishmael was the name of the man who owned the home. He is from Africa and has lived here in the U.S. for over 25 years. Ishmael has been struggling for money and can't afford to have running water in his house or to even have it painted, so we were blessed with the opportunity to be there to help him accomplish some of the things he couldn't afford to do. He is also probably one of the nicest, most generous people I have ever met. Ishmael has had a rough life, one of his sons was murdered in a drive by shooting right outside his house here in Steubenville. They confused Ishmael son with somebody else. Ishmael has gone through a lot but is still trying to be strong and live life to the fullest. Below his house, Ishmael used to own a store, some time ago, he left to visit some family and people broke in and stole everything thing in the store. Since then he has closed the store. The house looks great now after the youth painted it and Ishmael has found new pride in his home. There are a bunch of clothes that he raised money for in the store part of his house that he was going to send to a refuge camp in Africa, but he couldn't afford to send them. So God willing, we are hoping to spend some time clearing out everything in this store part of his house in the next week. If this gets done, Ishmael says he will re-open his business. It is awesome to see the difference something small like this has done to change someones life around. Ishmael was also very good with the youth and if was awesome to see him interact with them. The youth who participated in Kid's club also did great ministry this week as well. I was able to see growth in many and was truly blessed by this experience. Week 2 was also another God filled week. Another shout out to week 2's youth, you guys were great!!

So since my two weeks of ministry here we've had a little down time. This being week 3, we have had no youth, but have continued to do Kid's Club which is one of the three ministries we do at this site. In Kids Club we feed and plan activities for younger kids, ages 4-13 that live in the projects, or poorer parts of the city. These kids can be pretty crazy but are also a blessing. A lot of them don't get to eat, so it is great that we are able to help provide them with food. A lot of them also don't get much attention at home. Many of them get attached to you right away, and if you give any of them a piggy back ride, you can expect to be giving them one the entire week for 3 hours every single day because they never stop asking for one, so other than that, they have been fun to be around. Other than kids club, the staff and I have been working on planning for our Multi-Generational weeks coming up here in a few weeks, and re-charging our batteries. We all went to Pittsburgh for the 4th which was tight, and have been watching a lot of movies, and I mean a lot of movies!..a looot of movies....

On one final note, tonight I had a God moment. Their has been a homeless guy, probably in his late 20's that has been continually wandering into the church at random times, constantly asking for money. The church warned us at the beginning of the summer to never give out money to the homeless people, but to offer them canned food that the church had in it's basement because we don't know what they are going to use the money on, and a lot of them use it to buy drugs. Well, this guy comes up to us tonight when we were outside after it was dark out (me and one of my staff members had gone to Wal-mart in town to return some red box movies) and the first thing I thought was, "oh no, he's gonna ask for more money and I'm gonna have to turn him away," because every time we run into this guy he asks for money, and we tell him the same thing, "we can't give you money, but we can feed you," and when we offer food instead, he run's off every time! Well tonight was different, as he is walking up to us he just yells, "I just got saved tonight!"..And he just went off talking about how great God is and the powerful feeling he felt when he accepted christ, that's all he talked about, and then instead of asking for money, he asks for food. Now this surprised us because he always ran off when we offered him food and whenever we ran into him before, that's all he talked about was how much he needed the money. This time I could see something different in this guy that I didn't see before. We gave him some food and he was telling me how he had found a place to live now, and that he was ready to make a change in his life. He said that he was sick of the streets, that their is so much evil out there and he was done with all that, he was done struggling and feeling sorry for himself, it was time to change. This just blew my mind hearing it from this guy, because we have run into him several times, and this is the first time he has ever sat and had a conversation with us. Now I don't know how much of what he told me was true, but I saw something different in this guy that made it believable and I believe that what he told me was true. So that's a testimony of what God has done this week and for all of whom may be reading this, continue to keep Steubenville, Ohio in your prayers, their are a lot of people that are struggling here and that need a change in their lives. So God's peace you guy's, I hope everyone is enjoying the summer and I look forward to seeing many of you soon in the near future!..so until my next post, God Bless and Peace out..

-Joe

Niagra Falls

Hey ya'll,

So it has been awhile since I've written in my blog, but I haven't been doing much but prepping the last few weeks. Nothing exciting has happened up until this past week. I just got back from Niagra Falls, New York. Never been there before but I loved the city. It was pretty sweet. I participated in Early Bird which is a week that two Youthworks site teams, team up together for a week. So it was my first week having kids and experiencing a Youthworks week. The kids were awesome. My main job this past week was just to interact with the kids and get to know them. The Niagra Falls Program Coordinator did all the other duties that I will be doing at my site so I got to see him in action which was cool. While at Niagra, I was able to see the kids really work hard at their work projects sites and dive deep into God's work. For some of the nightly activities, we went to see the Fall's in Niagra which were cool, also, we went and saw one of the sites of the underground railroad. It was pretty sweet. It was sad to leave Niagra, but my team had to leave a day early from the site to get back to Ohio and finish up a few preparation tasks. So far we have gotten a lot done, their has been some construction in the basement of the church, so it has put us behind a little bit but were getting closer every day.

This past week however, I really was able to see God work. One night our staff was able to pray over one of the youth girls who had a very traumatizing past. Keep this girl in your prayers. She confided in us and told us she was a victim of sexual abuse, more than once and she is only 13 years old. The night that this happened I really saw God in our staff. We all decided that we wanted to go and pray for her. Each and everyone of us had a completely different denominational background, but It was so cool to hear everyone praying in a completely different way over this girl. God was definitely present that night. The very next night, this girl accepted Christ during footwashing, (a very spiritual experience that we do every week), Isn't God good!

Anyhow, that is just a little update on me now, I will be having my first group of kids here in Steubenville this coming Sunday and I'm getting super pumped. Thank you for taking the time to read my blog, until next time!

Be true in Christ!

-Joe

P.s. I am posting a few picturs of the falls that I saw, I didn't use my camera much last week, I'll work on that!

Finally in Steubenville, Ohio

For anyone who is reading this, I apologize for the late post, I've been super busy with training and haven't had internet service until now. This past week I have been at RAMP which is a training site for the Eastern Region of the United States located in Philadelphia. The week of training was super long and draining but I met a ton of sweet people who are strong in their faith and are super excited to serve this summer.

So the site I was placed at for the summer is Steubenville Ohio, believe me, if you are laughing at the name of the city, I did too right away, I thought of about 10 jokes as soon as I heard the name.
Anyhow, we arrived in Ohio at the site and I was a little surprised at how big the city was. It is a lot bigger than I thought and has a lot more poverty than I realized. Steubenville is known as the city of murals, it has a ton of them all over the down town city. The city is also the home town of Dean Martin (they actually have a festival celebrating him every year and it is actually coming up this week I think).
As I said , the city has a high poverty rate and their are a lot of homeless people walking the streets. We were warned that they would come ask us for money and we were not to give them anything but to say that the church has food to feed them if they were hungry, and a pastor that would talk to them if they needed it, but if we were to give them money, they would continue to come back and hassle us for more.
The scary thing about this city is having to keep the doors locked at all times. We were warned that some of the homeless people would sneak inside the church and hide in their so we are to make sure to lock the doors at all times. There is also a lot of prostitution in the city that we were warned about. The city is safe to walk around in during the day, but it is suggested to stay inside at nights. A few things I learned about the city is that it had it's hay day period in the 1940's-1960's where it was known as "Little Chicago." It was notorious for its crime, gambling and corruption. It also has ties to the Wu-tang clan which still exist in parts of the city to this day. The downtown area is almost abandoned now it seems. There was a big factory that was closed down years ago and more than half of the city has left the area. As scary as some of this stuff sounds, this is just some of the history, not what the city is like today. The city has a lot of homeless people, but it is not as unsafe of an atmosphere as it sounds. Their is a fire department just across the street from the church I am staying at that has 24/7 firemen on duty watching over the church at night to make sure things are safe. My staff and I have met them, they are all really awesome guys. They told us not to worry about anything. They said that there are bad people in the area, but many know about Youthworks and respect us for what we are doing and will stay out of our way.

I met my team a week ago and we have been having a good time so far. I am one of four members and we are all very different people. My site director is from Ohio, and the other two are from Alabama and St. Louis Missouri. It is awesome to be working with people that are from all different parts of the country. We all come from different cultures and backgrounds, but our differences are a huge benefit as it will allow us to reach and relate to a larger variety of youth. It has been awesome getting to know them even more over the past few days hearing some of their testimonies. I am so blessed to be in such an awesome group that has such a strong Christ centered mission. I can see God moving in them and their desire to spread the message of Jesus.

So far we have a lot of preparation before the youth arrives for their missions trips here. I have a lot to prepare for my role as a program coordinator, we have lots of inventory to take care of, and organizing to accomplish. So far we have a bit done, but the next two weeks will be devoted to getting everything ready. In three weeks, my team will be joining another Youthworks team stationed in Niagara Falls. There we will be participation in Youthworks Early Bird week which is comprised of a large group of youth so twice the staff is needed. After that week we will be traveling back to Ohio and will be staring our first official week at our site. When the kids get here they will be doing community service throughout the city fixing up houses and painting them.

We met the congregation of the church we are staying at today, everyone is very supportive and thrilled to be having us here which is exciting motivation for my team.

Our theme for this year is "More Jesus, Less Me" (Jesus Must Become Greater, I must become less John 13:30).

Please keep us in your prayers for safety, and for the missionary work that lies ahead. I know God is going to do GREAT things this summer and I am excited to be a part of it all :)

P.S. Below are some photographs that I have taken of the downtown area of the city. Keep in mind that these pictures were taken in the poor parts of the downtown area. The other part of the city is actually very nice, but this is to give you a brief look at how abandoned and poor the area is. The last picture you will see is the church we are staying at...Thanks for taking the time to read my blog! :)

Until my next post, God Bless

-JB

Going to Philadelphia

Hey this is my first blog post. I just found out a few days ago that I will be placed in the Eastern part of the United States for my missionary work with Youthworks this summer, and I will start my training in Philadelphia. Since I will be so far away this summer, and probably won't have much time to keep in contact with many of you, my friends and family, I decided to post updates on my ministry in the Eastern region throughout the summer. I will post pictures and updates, so if you feel curious as to what I will be doing this summer, check out my blog and follow me on my journey.

Updates coming soon!!!