PDAS: two months

I had a phone call with Em recently about what we each did in PDAS, our church's after-school ministry during the day. In the midst of it, I thought, wow, we're getting to do all the things we hoped we'd get to do when we started this new model! It's hard to share this stuff on a blog since so much of what happens is about people who deserve to have their privacy preserved, but we've been hanging out with Boston teenagers, most of whom are not connected to any of the regular youth groups. Sure, we're making youngsters do homework and in a way you might say it's glorified babysitting. But we're also getting a lot of awesome opportunities. We're having one-on-one huddles about life with kids who probably would have never thought of attending church. We're meeting with parents about their hopes and worries. We're seeing a handful of kids experiment with attending regular youth group. I'm driving kids home and having conversations about God almost every night this week. We're filling up two-three rooms at church every day with kids who otherwise might not have a connection to our church. We're seeing young servant leaders develop in their capacity to care for kids and take advantage of opportunities to share the gospel. We're offering free enrichment opportunities that other programs might have to charge a lot for. And it's just the beginning of what we hope God will do through PDAS.

I'm thankful and really glad to have a chance to be a part of all this. If anybody ever gets really helped through PDAS, I hope they'll actually think this: "Wow, if there's a God, he must really love me if his church went through all this trouble to do stuff for me." And they'd be starting to understand the gospel a little better.

End of Week 1

This has been a really neat, but busy week. We kicked off PDAS, with an average of 25 kids each day stopping in for most of each afternoon. It looks like the kids are having fun and getting homework done, but it's clear that we will need more qualified staff. On a typical day, a small handful of kids arrive at 3:00 and play video games. Then, the Quincy Upper School contingent arrives at 3:35. Not long after, bigger waves of kids arrive; but by that time, I'm out of the Family Room and in the Studio doing some tutoring or homework supervising. By 4:30, when we have our Meeting TIme, we're usually up to near-capacity, which is great because they'll get to be there for announcements and the devotions. After Meeting time and snack, the rest of the afternoon is taken up by more homework, card games, and maybe basketball if the parking lot is free.

I'm getting to know some of the newer kids, particularly 6th graders who are full of energy-- in the best and worst ways. It's hard for me to remember when I was that age, and it's sometimes hard to keep up with their hyperactive pace and attention span, but I hope we get to keep them and watch them grow for a few years. Lord willing, we'll still have a program when they are high-schoolers. On Sunday, I'll be taking a group to the New England Aquarium-- if anybody shows up with a permission slip. You just don't know; and that's one of the realities of a "drop-in/ stop-in" model.

Other than ministry, classes have started. It's tough to find time to do homework with all the administrative work related to running these programs. Still, I'm glad to be back in Boston again for the whole year and hopefully I'll get better at managing this schedule.

Day 1

Today was the first day of a totally new routine! After spending some time listening to Andy Stanley's podcast, I spent the morning in Gordon Conwell's Roxbury office, trying to fix an administrative issue so that I could register for the class I'd take later that night. Then I went to church for the final prep and setup before PDAS's start.

At around 3PM, the doorbells started ringing. Kids arrived 2-3 at a time at a steady rate until both the family room and studio were packed! We had more than 30 teenagers and middle-schoolers staying most of the afternoon. Most kids started with their homework without anybody to prompt them. Some of them joined video games or card games. It was awesome-- at least 1/3 of the kids were not from our regular church ministries and most of them looked like they were getting comfortable after a little while.

In some ways, the afternoon was a blur. So much happening, so little time to sit! A few highlights:

•  One boy asked, "if we're not paying for this, is this school broke?" I answered by citing support from the church family. "If you run into an older person if you come to our church on a Sunday, say to them, 'hello, great benefactor.'"
• I played a pickup game with 3 of the "older" kids at the end of the day.
• 3 counselors and 1 guest counselor came today and made things fun and smooth.
• When I went upstairs to the Studio, it was filled and quiet!

After the program closed at 6PM, we had a quick debrief session and then Emily drove me to my class, which met from 6:45 to 9:30PM. My night was just beginning as my Inner City Ministry class met for the first night. It looks like it will be a lot of work, but I'm excited. 

Tomorrow, we'll repeat the routine, only the class will be Exegesis of Judges at Park St. Church. Praise God for a great first day!

Planning for PDAS

PDAS-- Project Destiny After School.

We've had an after-school program at our church for a few years now. The idea was that we could provide a few resources, program a few activities, and share the gospel with the kids who came. Over the past few months, while directing Project Destiny Summer Camp, I've been thinking a lot about the year-round After-School component. There's no official title yet, especially since the former paid-staff position was eliminated from the church budget this year, but I'm planning on coordinating and directing PDAS this school year on a part-time basis while attending seminary part-time.

There are several changes I'm excited about implementing:
1. We've reduced the cost by 100%. This seems more radical than it should-- churches have giving free services to their neighbors for millennia; but economic times are tough. I'm excited for a chance for our church to be generous with its time and finances.

2. We've moved to a drop-in model. There are a lot of negative associations with the term "drop-in" in after-school care; but drop-in is a great way to meet the individual needs of families and students. They can come when they have nothing else to do or when they need help with a particular assignment. This just means we're going to have to really amp up quality of care to keep kids coming.

3. We're open to high-schoolers. We used to only take middle-school to correspond to our summer camp, but older teenagers are more likely to come to a drop-in program and invite their friends to come hang out. More than that, being open to high-schoolers means having a chance for our church to build a longer-term relationship with teenagers.

We're starting next Monday. There are about 30 students registered. It's all so new and I'm not sure what to expect. I'm sure there will be challenges and mistakes along the way. We'll have less control and so many more variables to anticipate. Please join me in praying for God to provide the right staff and wisdom for the planning team. Pray also for me as I take on this new ministry role in Chinatown while continuing my studies.

Summer Teen Conference

In a few hours, I'll be driving up to Alfred, ME with a car full of music equipment and a worship team. Our church's annual Summer Teen Conference is this weekend. We'll be taking a total of 130 kids for 4 days and 3 nights to hear God's word and play in the clean air of Maine. I'm excited particularly for the 43 Project Destiny campers who will be joining us and the many students who wrote down that they are not Christians. My prayer for them is that they'd get to know our church family better and know the love of Christ. Again, I'll be leading the worship team. It's such a privilege to play and worship with these guys. Please pray that the word of God would penetrate hearts and change lives.

One more day of Camp!

And just like that, camp will be over. Tomorrow is our last day of camp. Though I'm tired and ready for some quiet alone time, I wish we had another week. I'll write more later, but for now, please pray for our last day that we would take every opportunity to share to Gospel in word and deed.

Week 4 Update

It seems that this summer of ministry has been shaped by The Flood (see previous updates). But finally, it looks like the affects of the deluge are subsiding. After many phone messages, pounding away with a hammer at a stuck fire-door, and lots of praying, our fire inspector came by on Wednesday and certified our church site for camp occupancy.

Then, Friday, in the middle of a field trip (Project Destiny Olympics at the Joe Moakley Park in South Boston), while I was wondering whether or not we'd have a camp site for our final week of camp, our building inspector arrived and gave us the go ahead. Later in the afternoon, the health department called and OK'ed us to move back to 249 Harrison Avenue!

Thus, after a long absence from the church building, our day-camp will return back to its original site for the final week. When we made the announcement at dismissal time that day, there was much cheering--from both campers and counselors alike.

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Last night, we had a joint fellowship night with PD and our regular middle-school youth group. We had about 60 kids filling the church basement for "Bill the Builder Night". Their task was to engineer houses that could fit as many people as possible, out of only rolled up newspapers and two pizza cartons. Here's a picture:

They had a lot of fun and a few new-comers to youth group said they would be attending more often. Praise God!

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Please pray for our final week. One devotional this week we had was from 1 Peter 5:8-- Be sober-minded and watchful, since our enemy prowls around like a lion waiting to devour somebody. When we are tired and weary, it's easy to be pounced upon by his lies. Pray that our mindset would be right and that Christ would be honored in our work and love for one another and the campers.

Open...Shut... Open...

I'm sure it's frustrating for parents that we are open and shut and open again, but for the time being, camp is open again! We passed all three inspections: building, fire, and health; and we got our camp permit yesterday-- praise God!

So we opened camp yesterday in the Josiah Quincy Upper School. Students gathered into the cafeteria and we had a re-cap trivia quiz for chapel time. The kids had fun with it. Then we got on buses and shipped off to Providence, RI to visit the Roger Williams Park Zoo. It was nice to see counselors hanging out with the kids again, reading signs to them and admiring God's creatures together.

For the present, we are open and will be open on Monday. We still need to secure a long term solution for camp site-- either by repairing the church quickly or staying longer at a temporary site. JQUS is a costly facility for us to rent, and it may not be sustainable to remain there for more than a few days. Please pray for God to provide a solution.

Shut Down Again

We got shut down this morning by the city, 30 minutes before we were going to open up camp again. I was so ready with a sermon for chapel and with plans to move all operations into the Quincy Upper School. We had gotten a verbal understanding and ok from the city and the Boston Public Schools. Then I took the phone call from Inspection Services which gave the order to shut down. After the discouraging call, I entered the sanctuary to deliver the news to the team, which had been praying about the phone call. I could sense a lot of disappointment and frustration. The staff spent the morning welcoming campers into a room and keeping them there until we could contact their parents to send them home. 

I spent the day at 1010 Mass. Ave. with Emily shuttling from office to office, trying to get camp opened up again. They would like us to start over again, as if we were planning a brand new day camp-- a process that took us a month or so to do for our original site. 

I went through many different emotions throughout this day. I was really psyched to get back to serving campers and having counselors work with kids, as well as delivering my sermon. Then I felt frustrated and stung by my unfulfilled expectations and the inconsistency of the authorities I had spoken to. After that, I was energized by the task of getting campers safely home. At some point, when I was at the ISD, I was hopeful we could have camp tomorrow. Then as the hours passed and inspectors started ending the work day, I was deflated to know that we'd have no camp the next day.

I'm still confident that God is in control and that my disappointments are only because I don't see things the way that God sees them in the grand scheme of eternity. But right now, I'm pretty tired out by the roller coaster ride. We've been a camp without campers for almost a week. I covet and appreciate your prayers. 

Back in Business (Lord willing)

Camp is on for tomorrow! Praise God! More details to follow later, but after many conversations, much prayer and waiting, we've been given permission to use Quincy Upper School, my old haunt. Pray for a smooth transition to our new site tomorrow morning.

BTW-- it is pretty ironic that I am back at JQUS, where I used to be a teacher. I left JQUS to go into church ministry , but God has used old connections to open doors. 

Camp Shut Down! Please pray!

Camp is closed! Saturday afternoon, as I was in the emergency room investigating a possible contagious disease (I’m ok and not sick), I got the call from our operations manager that the church had flooded! We spent that night moving furniture, sucking up water, sanitizing toys, and washing out contaminants from the basement. The basement is now dry, but because of hazardous health conditions, we had to call all the campers and close for at least today (Monday).

Currently, I’m investigating ways to open camp as soon as possible. Since we are licensed by the city, our responsibilities are numerous and we need to be approved by Boston’s health and building inspectional services before opening up. A demolition crew is slated to come in and take apart the basement within the next few days; but this would leave us without the most important floor in our camp. One possibility is that we move to a new site, which is slightly disappointing because we love getting campers comfortable enough so that attending youth group won’t be such a stretch for them. Another possibility is that we remain closed for an extended period of time. It is possible that the city will just shut us down for good; but we are hoping and praying. 

If you can, would you pray that God would be glorified during this time—that we would learn to trust him in new ways and that we would see his provision. Also, pray for all the families that will not have a place for their kids to go during this time. Finally, pray for the Gospel to be preached and shared no matter what the circumstances. I’m reminded again of Romans, where Paul writes that “for those who love God all things work together for those who are called according to his purpose.” We have a purpose this summer from the Lord and we are clinging to him. We are looking forward to him working all things out as He promised.

First Week Update

It’s been a great first week! On Friday, we wrapped up the week by going to George’s Island in Boston Harbor, where we played group games and explored the fort. We had a few unexpected things come up: since the island was under major construction, the only way to our camp site was to lead the entire group along with our equipment through a narrow pitch-black tunnel. Also, our assistant directors, Emily and Kam Ho, had to wait at church for the camp lunches to be delivered to us; and as a result, they missed two ferries and we had to go without both assistant directors for the entire morning.

More importantly, though, a lot of good bonding between counselors and campers occurred this week; and it looks like kids are having fun. For chapel, we’ve been following the faith-story of Gideon and the Israelites in the time of the judges. Through two fun skits and one slightly long sermon, we studied the theme that bad things aren’t evidence that God doesn’t exist, but rather God’s way of getting our attention.

Training is Over! (pre-dated to July 4)

Finally, camp starts tomorrow! All month, we’ve been gearing up for this day. Project Destiny training is now done. The team of 25 staff has been working hard and training hard. We’ve started our bonding, we’ve prayed, we’ve prepped lessons, and now we’re looking forward to campers coming! I can’t wait for the first awkward moments when campers come through the door and counselors match faces to the names they’ve been praying over.

Right now, I’m sitting in Panera, doing some of the last-minute work. It’s July 4^th, but for me, it’s a big work day. I’ve accompanied some of the female counselors to do their day-before-camp shopping. I’m excited about tomorrow and meeting our 54 campers!

PD: The Staff

Life as Project Destiny Director continues... today, I'm sitting in my office editing 22 prayer support letters. It's exciting to read everyone's reasons for why they are volunteering. When I think about how we're never sure if we're going to have staff, and then how God just provides every time, I'm humbled. From reading their letters I can get a glimpse of how each writer's life has been planned by God to criss-cross with each other at this time. Not only has God answered PD's prayer requests for staff before we even prayed; He's also leading every one of these writers on a journey to know and serve him more in love.

We have 10 Senior Counselors and 11 Junior Counselors, as well as one Intern. The staff comes from all over Massachusetts (nobody from Japan this year, sadly... though we've got one Chinese citizen!). They regularly attend churches at Boston Chinese Evangelical Church in Chinatown, BCEC-Newton, Chinese Bible Church of Greater Lowell, Chinese Gospel Church of Massachusetts, Boston Vineyard Church, Highrock-Arlington, Amherst Koinonia Church. They range in age from 16 to 21 (their age-range is smaller than my age-gap from them!). More than half of them are too young to vote. All but two of them are too young to drink. It's a good thing we don't have to do either of those this summer! 

I'm reminded of 1 Timothy 4:12--  "Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity." -- and of a recent sermon where our pastor explained that it is those who are younger who must set an example for the older. Perhaps that is one theme verse for me as I look to see what God's plan is for our staff. When older believers look at the younger believers in this group, I hope they will see something inspiring and praise God for them.

Moving into Office

I finished my spring semester at Gordon-Conwell two weeks ago. By far, it has been the smoothest end of semester I've had. In the past, I would have multiple nights of all-night paper-writing. This year, I only stayed up half of the night!

In any case, I've moved out of GCTS and have set up back closer to Boston. During the summers when I direct Project Destiny, I have a summer office on the third floor of my church. There are pictures of our English pastor and his children staring down at me from above, since it is his old office; but it's nice to have space for books, studying, doing work, and having meetings. 

I've fully picked up the PD director hat now, with full work hours each day. The camp staff is fully assembled: we met together two weeks ago for orientation. The planning team is plugging away at licensing, enrolling campers, and designing the staff training. Our intern (how did we ever do without one?) has been here every day booking field trips and preparing documents. Counselors are calling, e-mailing, and meeting with me to design their Labs. It's an exciting time in the life-cycle of our camp, like spring-time before summer. Things aren't fully bloomed yet, but they're budding and full of color.

Amidst all this, I need to remember that although so much work flows around me, I am not in control. Our God is; and if we do not pray, we lose that perspective. I've moved into my office for the season, but what we really want is for the Holy Spirit to move into his. 

Winter Teen Conference: More or Less?

I'll be heading up to Alton, NH on Friday with a little under 200 teenagers and over 30 youth workers for a winter retreat. I'll be leading the worship team and caring for 5 middle-school boys. 

It's that last part that I'm least prepared for. I've been thinking about songs, set lists, arrangements, and kids on the worship team; but I must admit that I have not begun to pray for those 5 boys or for myself as I lead them. In the world of ministry, it is tempting to think big-- especially when you're part of a thriving program that does lots of events. You tend to equate success with slick programming or numbers. But at its most fundamental level, every ministry is about individuals. The Holy Spirit may work in large-scale movements; but it begins with the opening of individual eyes and softening of individual hearts.

In the gospels, Jesus ministers to the crowds; but often appears to shun the crowd, too. There's a tension about his public, large-scale works of healing and exorcism: the more public he becomes, the more he tries to spend time alone with his disciples. Maybe its because he knows miraculous works and mass-teaching are necessary, but only insofar as they support the work of making disciples. So he tries to spend whatever time he can teaching his small group. Then, when all has been accomplished on the cross, he leaves his disciples with the imperative to "go make disciples of all nations."

For one who is called to minister, that call is to make disciples-- to care for individuals and feed them with God's means. But when some of us think about what it means to "do ministry" we think of planning games, having meetings, factoring logistics, designing worship, lesson or sermon planning, etc. Especially for pastors and lay-workers who have been involved for a long time, ministry begins to take on the veneer of a large enterprise that we have to keep afloat. There are advantages and disadvantages to the large model, but God forbid that "doing ministry" would distract us from Jesus' call to make disciples. 

May the fewer outweigh the grosser during this weekend so that our work would not be in vain.

He Has Made Me Sing

One of the things that first captivated my attention at church was the music. You might say that God put the language of song in me from an early age-- from singing along with vinyl records of Winnie the Pooh in the shaggy carpeted playroom of my childhood home, to singing all the time in pre-school and joining choir in Catholic school. But the grandeur and majesty of God first struck me through music when I was a choir boy at the choir school St. Paul's in Cambridge.  Every morning, we would process into the cold marble church and kneel at the altar, opening with the same a cappella chant each time:

"Repleatur os meum laude tua ut possim cantare; gaudebunt labia mea dum cantavero tibi. (Fill me with praise that I might sing. My lips rejoice when I sing to You.) O Lord our God, through the intercession of the saints, Pius, Gregory, and Cecilia, grant us in thy mercy that through the praises we offer thee during our pilgrimage here on Earth, we may be found worthy to sing to Thee forever in heaven. In Christ our Lord, Amen"

Then the organ would burst forth and we would start the mass. We poked fun at the passionate headmaster and music director and of the songs that we sang; but while nobody would talk about it or admit it, when we sang mass, or liturgical music in a concert, we felt not just a thrill of music, but the majesty of God, if he was indeed real.

As my commitments and ties to the Catholic Church grew more distant when I began high school, I began attending youth group at the Boston Chinese Evangelical Church: a far cry from organs, stone church, and white-surpliced choir boys! But here, it was guitar or piano-led ballads which said something quieter and more personal:

"In the stars his handiwork I see; on wind he speaks with majesty. Though he ruleth over land and sea, what is that to me?... Until one day I met him face to face and felt the wonder of his grace, then I knew that He was more than just a God who didn't care, who lived away up there! Now He walks beside me day by day ever watching o'er me lest I stray, helping me to find the narrow way. He's everything to me!"

And while sometimes I felt like I hated the other kids who were more confident or popular than me, every time we had "Singspiration", my heart was thrilled with how it felt like God was speaking to me. That was before I understood the gospel, but somehow, I knew that what they were singing about was important and intensely valuable. It was songs that framed and taught me how to feel about God; and when I finally became aware of God's call on me to trust and follow Jesus, it was the songs I sang in my head in the hallways at school or while enduring the boredom of taking the train home which trained me to believe I was a new person in Christ.

It made sense then, for me to pick up the guitar. I didn't want to learn to impress people or to play for others. I just wanted to be able to play along while singing on my own at home. For the longest time, it seemed, I couldn't figure out the guitar. I spent money on books and tried to practice, but it was nothing but painful fingers and ugly sounding dead strings forced to plunk aloud by my clumsy strums. I asked the most talented peer I knew to help, but I was too difficult to teach. Then a patient counselor taught me three simple chords: D A G, so that I could play along with "Lord You are more Precious than Diamonds." I practiced it all night, and soon, after many obsessed all-night practice sessions, I could strum along to anything! Before long, singing and making music to the Lord were back as a big part of my life-- but this time, I knew what the words meant. That has continued with me from high school, through several worship teams, into college, into a tiny Vermont church, into a small urban church, and now into my youth ministry.

Worship leading is one of the parts of my current church ministry I enjoy most. As a youth group counselor, I get to work with teens, training and practicing with them to give their ears, hands, voices, and hearts to the Lord-- to show God's grandeur and majesty to others so that they could worship him. This past month, I've assembled a bunch of juniors and seniors from three churches to lead worship for our upcoming Winter Teen Conference, a joint retreat of about 200 kids. It has been a blast: there are moments when you hit a musical groove as a team-- and you're not trying to make something happen musically anymore because suddenly you realize that you're there. Then, the truth of what you're saying about God finds itself to the front of your mind and you look around and see that other folks on the team are in the same place, too; and that becomes a feedback loop of joy and awe, grounded firmly in the one whom you are singing about, but somehow also intimately connected with seeing other people worship God. Then every strum, every movement, every note sung seems to resonate with something greater-- echoes from the praises of the throngs and multitudes that will some day shout aloud in the very presence of God enthroned. It is what I was made for-- and it's that awareness that I hope to instill in this group of seven students this month.

Thank you, God, for your gift of music that speaks your holiness and love to me in a language that I could understand, even before I knew what it meant in words. Teach us to live in harmony with the song that we can glimpse only fleetingly through certain windows, which we try to sing with words and song and instruments, but ultimately must be lived. Make our lives and songs, thoughts and affections point to Christ, through whom you have counted us worthy to sing to you forever in heaven!