Week 5

Week 5 was nothing short of amazing! Of course we had some ups and downs, but overall, it was a great week. I was so blessed by the youth, the leaders, and just the way God moved this week- in and through me.

On Wednesday night this week, Cecil, a member of the Sault Tribe, made fry-bread and tacos for the youth, along with two of our other staff members. It was really fun for the youth and us as staff to try some authentic Native American food. Cecil loves the youth in the Sault, and if I'm not mistaken, he's going to miss us quite a bit when we leave!

On Fridays, most of the participants leave by 8:30 or 8:45 am, but this week, one of the groups was staying in town, and invited us out for breakfast with them. Suddenly, we all had a lot of energy, and went along with them- it was so much fun! I decided then and there, that lactose-intolerant or not, I was having "the best pancakes in town"...and truly (sorry mom!) they were the best pancakes I've ever had!

I have one more thing to say about this group, and then we can move on to the "Lessons Learned By Hannah" section...lol. This week's group was made up of 4 different churches. Within these four different churches, there were a couple of youth with special needs. Usually, this means that the other youth are easily irritated or take advantage of the youth with special needs. I however, saw unending patience and kindness from all of the youth this week towards the youth with special needs. I overheard the following conversation early on this week (the names I'm using aren't really their names...for obvious reasons)

Gary: I am SO mad! This is so stupid!

Bob: Tell me what's bothering you Gary. Just calm down, and explain it to me.

Gary: I'm mad because somebody (I can't really finish the story, but someone did something not very nice)

Bob: Let's go find Hannah and see what she has to say.

I was so touched by the way this teenager chose to handle the situation. Instead of egging "gary" on, he took the time to listen to what was wrong, and talked so respectfully to him. I've never witnessed something like this before, and I was beyond encouraged that there are genuinely nice teenagers. :)

I learned a great lesson this week in humility and servitude. Because my main role and responsibilities take place at night, during the day, I usually work on behind the scenes logistics...and for whatever reason, this week I was really struggling to have a good attitude about it. Thoughts of "this is stupid...why do I have to do this...for the 5 millionth time?" or "can't someone else do this? it isn't even my responsibility, or my turn to do this." Clearly, this is not the attitude Christ calls us to have- regardless of how many times we serve others and it goes unnoticed, He still calls us to serve out of love for Him and others. I should rejoice that I have the opportunity to serve others and be a blessing to them.

One of the nightly talks I give is about where our focus should be when we are serving others- this week, I was really convicted by my own words. I was encouraging the youth to think about what their motivation is for serving others- is it to bring glory to God or to themselves? Although I don't desire for everyone to fawn over me and thank me for every good deed I do, at times, I get caught up in the fact that a lot of what I do does go unnoticed by those around me. But as cheesy as this sounds, God always notices what I do- good or bad! Knowing that my heavenly Father sees and appreciates what I do out of love for Him needs to become more than enough for me. I am here to bring glory to God- not myself. So that's the life lesson I learned this week...I'm really hoping to move on and not have to re-learn this one again anytime soon...what are the chances of that? lol