We spent this past week in the great state of Indiana, in a small town called New Haven. This was our team’s assigned location for Practicum. Some of you may be wondering what exactly is Practicum. Allow me to explain. Practicum is a week-long event (Friday-Friday) where each team is assigned an outreach location anywhere from 30 minutes to 6 hours away from the RIC. And at each location the team works alongside an assigned outreach that in some way, shape, or form pertains to that team’s 6 month outreach location. So in a way, Practicum is kind of like a “test run” for each team. It’s basically a week of team bonding and allows each team to catch a glimpse of how their team will work together during their outreach.
Team Phoenix went to a youth drop-in center, located in New Haven, Indiana called “Power House.” And our week consisted of: doing service projects around the Power House, team bonding, doing a book study together, and most importantly hanging out with the youth.
The youth that attend the Power House range anywhere from 6th-12th grade. And every school day, the youth will come to the Power House directly from school, arriving around 3 o’clock. The staff of the Power House focus on building relationships and, overall, just providing a safe place where kids can hangout and eat.
So on most days the youth came in at 3:00 and chilled and had snack until 3:30. Then the kids had the choice of either participating in a couple of planned activities or doing their homework and getting some help with it from some of the staff. So depending on the day, there was some sort of activity from 3:30-4:30ish. Sometimes it was sewing. Sometimes it was doing art. And sometimes they just split up the guys and girls to talk about life with one or two staff members. And then the last hour or so was spent having dinner and playing games.
“…it was extremely encouraging to see the heart and passion that the staff and interns have for those kids.”
Our team had a blast at the Power House! We really connected with the kids and also connected well with the interns and staff that work there. And it was extremely encouraging to see the heart and passion that the staff and interns have for those kids. Overall, it was truly a blessing for our team to help out for an entire week. We also grew a lot closer as a team and learned that we naturally work very well together. This last week really just got our team even more pumped for our outreach in Phoenix, AZ. And we can’t wait to see what is in store for us there!
Please pray for all of the REACH teams as they continue to grow closer to God and their teams. Pray for continued opportunities to impact and be impacted by the world around them.