Photo and brief job bios

So it just occurred to me that this is two months into the program, and you still have no idea who each of us are. So here is a picture of us....



From left to right, your interns are: Cari, Jessy (me!), Erin, Josh, Dan, and finally Jeremy in front.

Cari is a sophomore at Albion college from Clarkston, MI. She is working at St. Timothy's UMC with the Outpost teaching Spanish. She also works with the Brightmoor Community Center doing a sidewalk Sunday school program for kids.

Jessy (yours truly) is a nearly graduated super senior at Central Michigan University, originally from Brighton, MI. I'm doing my student teaching in the fall, and graduate in December. I am also working at the Outpost at St. Tim's along with Cari.

Erin is a junior at Eastern Michigan University from Canton, MI. She currently works for the Mercy Education project through University of Detroit Mercy.

Josh is a senior at Wayne State University, also from Canton, MI. He is working at the Joy-Southfield clinic this summer, as well as helping out with the Motown Mission Experience.

Dan, a Washtenaw Community College student from Brighton, MI also has two placements this summer. He works with the NOAH project out of Central United Methodist Church, which gives lunches out to homeless people, and also works with Josh and the Motown Mission.

Lastly, Jeremy is a junior at Western Illinois University. He currently lives in Macomb, IL, and works at the Outpost with Cari and myself.

So there you have it....these are your 2009 Transforming Leaders interns. We really cannot thank you enough how much you constantly send prayers our way. We love you all and cannot wait to meet up with you again once our summer comes to a close!

Art and cleaning!

The house is clean and the world is at peace. Hahaha!

But really, we had our Kingdom Assignment party this weekend, where we invited all Mission Interns and Young Leaders Initiative interns to our house to share stories of what we have done this summer and how we saw God move. The first thing that happened when I found out up to 25 people could show up, was a minor panic attack in my head. I immediately thought of all the dishes we had to do, the laundry that was neglected for far too long, and the rooms that needed to be taken care of. So on Friday and Saturday afternoon, all of the Transforming Leaders interns cleaned out our summer abode and prepared for everyone to come. It was definitely a bit hectic in the mere minutes before people arrived, but we pulled it together and the house looked quite presentable.

If anyone has ever told you that a clean home is a happy home, they weren't lying. Now that everything is picked up around the house, I have so much less stress in my life!

Overall, the party went rather well. We were able to see some great friends that we met back in May, and catch up on how things were going in our life.

Before the party, erin and Josh and I went down to Redford to their iArt, and interactive art festival they were having. I grew up in Redford when I was younger, so one of my neighborhood friends was actually in charge of it and invited me to com. They had tents with different vendors, performing groups, and different workshops for everyone. It was really a great time. One thing that we participated in was a didgeridoo workshop. For those of you that don't know what that is, its an instrument made by the ancient Aboriginees. You hear it played a lot in the Survivor theme song, Crocodile Dundee, etc. In the workshop, we learned to make one, and then received free lessons. It was great, and I think I got a really great start on the playing technique. Josh and I have been practicing a lot, so I think some of the roommates are getting a bit annoyed. I'm working on how to circular breathe, which is a bit of an advanced technique, but its coming along rather well. I'll make sure to keep you updated on all my didgeridoo adventures.

Thats all for now. Tomorrow two of my classes are starting to learn about symmetrical shapes, and then eventually making tessellations. Should be a fun week at the Outpost!

Cute kids.

Okay, Jessy again with a real quick update. So I just finished my first full week with kids at St. Tim's. These kids are a riot. Here's why:

Louie (age 6): He came to camp on Tuesday, and he is the real quiet type... at first. When we asked his name, he responded with Louie, or Lou was okay too. Today (3 days into him coming to camp), we were playing Bingo in math class. When I wrote down his name indicating he won, he told Cari that he didn't see his name. Louie's name was on the paper. It was then that we found out his name was in fact Tajuan.

Next example.

Layla (age 6): She came in today wearing the cutest outfit. Cari and I asked her if her daddy picked out her clothes today. She nodded "no". So we asked who did, and she replied with, "My daddy." Too cute.

And finally, Dayja (age 9): She was in the hall getting a drink of water yesterday when she saw the sign on a door that said "missions" on it. Naturally, a church will have some sort of missions going on. When she saw the door, she looked over at me and said, "Missions?!?! I didn't know you were a secret agent!"

First week on kids at St. Tim's

Hello again faithful blogging friends! This is Jessy, one of the interns updating you this week. Things are in full swing at the YLI house.

To explain my specific site a bit more, I am working at a program called the Outpost. Like I said before, I am teaching math to three separate groups. This week has been a little eye opening for me. I'm having a bit of a hard time especially with my 9-11 year old group because of the huge differences in what they now. A lot of my younger kids are still having a difficult time, whereas the older group is so advanced with fractions, it's almost ridiculous. So for the math teachers out there... any suggestions?

As far as playtime goes, I've learned real quick that my experience is really more one of a beauty stylist's customer. In my three days with the kids, I have had about 23 different hairstlyes a day. It's actually really cute. Today I was playing a sit down game, and I was attacked by 4 or 5 little girls. You can see the picture below!





They braid my hair so tight, and sometimes I think they forget that I'm attached to it! My roommate Cari, who also works at St. Tim's, tells me that I will probably be bald by the end of the summer. I hope she's lying.

Well, thats all I have to update for you right now. For all you tweeters, follow us @yli4detroit or by searching #yli for quotes directly from us. I promise that is updated FAR more often than this! (Sorry about no updates, by the way. I'll get on the other interns about it!)

Things to be praying for us about:
*Continued prayer for our placements
*Unity in the house: spiritual and others
*The City of Detroit, that people would see its beauty and God would make His presence known
*Family and friends back at home, that they would forgive us in times when we forget to call them back because we are exhausted or busy and just forgot. (sorry everyone, I promise I am still alive!)