September 21th,
2012
Greetings
from Philadelphia!
My third
week of Mission Year Philadelphia has come to a close. It has been amazing how different the
city appears to us now compared to our initial gut reactions. We have found that Philadelphia is a wonderfully
diverse city. Just traveling from
our home to the city center, we encounter a huge amount of ethnic and economic
diversity. The public transit
system that first confused us is now becoming second nature. The neighborhood that seemed so foreign
feels so familiar. Both our
neighbors and our new church family have warmly welcomed us. Our carpets may be a little sticky, but
this house is rapidly becoming a home.
I’m going to like it here.
This month,
I’ll only give you a brief introduction to my team, but I’ll give more thorough
introductions throughout the year.
At the top left is Katelin.
Katelin is from Wisconsin and studied education and history in
college. She has a desire to be a
teacher and is spending this year with Mission Year to learn how she can bring
the Lord into whatever she does.
Next to her is Rachel.
Rachel is from North Carolina and spent last year in art school. She has been journeying to find Christian
community and God has finally led her here. To the right of Katelin and Rachel are Ashley and Ashleigh. Ashley, on the left, is from Texas and
graduated high school last year. She
looks forward to discovering more about who she is as a woman of God. Ashleigh comes to us from Virginia and
spent the last several years working a 9 to 5 job after graduating
college. She’s searching for what
else God could have in store for her.
To the left of me is my roommate Schuyler. He is also from Texas and also just graduated from high
school. God has put a desire for
community and service on his heart, so he is here to experience exactly
that. We are all here for similar
reasons, but we are each different and bring something unique to our house.
We have
completed two weeks of training in preparation for the year and have begun
working at our service sites. The
days have been long and the weeks are packed. In two weeks we had a crash course in topics including
community, conflict management, multiculturalism, and the city transit
system. This last week I began work
at Logan Hope, a kindergarten through 8th grade Christian
school. I will soon begin teaching
art to the kids. The school is a
wonderful place full of chaos and joy.
The teachers genuinely care about their students and provide them with
quality education. I’m eagerly
anticipating what God will be teaching me through these students and teachers.
As I bring
this newsletter to a close, I want to point you to the blog I’ve set up for this
year. It is located at http://michaelinphilly.blogspot.com/. We are continuing our technology fast
for several more weeks so my computer time is very limited, but look forward to
hear more about what I’ve been learning and experiencing.
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