Reality

Last weekend I flew to San Fransisco to take a test for a job as a probation counselor in the bay area. It would be my dream job so anyone who wants to pray for me for that feel free. On Monday and Tuesday this week we had a fundraiser at Chick Fillet. I spent most of my time there on both days, either taking kids to eat (as we got part of the profits for our spring break trip this year) or standing in the back encouraging people to donate to Urban Promise. This all came quite natuarally to me having been in sales. On Monday I had a conversation with a friend that had me feeling pretty shitty. No one noticed that I was having a bad day (as I wouldn't expect or want them to) untill I picked up some of my kids to take them to Chick Fillet. One of them immediately asked me what was wrong. I explained the situation to him on the way to Chick Fillet and then really had my spirits lifted just by hanging out with my kids and having fun with them. It really made me start to think about how I get just as much and learn just as much from these kids as they do me.

Eman making a stupid face to cheer me up

This last week or so, the reality of what these kids go through living in Camden has become increasingly apparent to me and it makes me sad. At the same time it makes me realize even more how important it is that we are here. On the way home from our Chick Fillet fundraiser one of my 8th graders got a call from his cousin who had just gotten out of jail. He was so excited that his voice was squeeking on the phone. It was kind of cute. I asked Tarre if his cousin had been in jail or prison and then had to explain to him the difference between the two. When he informed me that it was infact prison, another one of my 8th graders proceeded to tell me that his father and both of his older brothers are all in prison. That essentially means that every influencial male figure in his life outside of Urban Promise is in prison. I cant even imagine what that would be like. These are such great kids and you'd never suspect the things that they have gone through or are going through at home.

Jeffrey explaining something to Suzie

I also had a good conversation with my Site Director this week. He grew up in North Camden and has been involved in Urban Promise since he was a small child. He then went to Eastern University, and after graduation, came back to work for Urban. This is really the model we need to strive for. We need to instill in these kids the value of helping their own community. Its great to provide an environment that allows kids an opportunity to "get out", but it's not enough. My director is a prime example of how much this city can change (and is changing) if we are working ourselves out of jobs here and being replaced by people who are actually from here. He also explained to me how traumatic his childhood was. It's to the point where he can't even talk about alot of stuff. He did tell me, however, that he whitnessed his first murder at 6 years old.

Our director playin with the kids

On Wednesday of this week, my house was broken into and my laptop and ipod were stolen. It's just stuff and not a big deal but its the second time someone has broken into our house while no one was home (no one being home for an extended long period of time is rare). This probably means that someone has been watching our house to see when we all leave. They changed our locks and took some steps to make our house a little more secure so hopefully that helps. One good thing did come of the theft however. I told one of the high school kids that skateboards in our parking lot about it and it led to a really good conversation with him. He basically unloaded his life story on me. I am not even comfortable relaying most of the things we talked about on the internet but this kid is 16 years old and he's been through inconcievable things, including being shot in the leg. At one point he stopped in the middle of his story and said "Man, its so nice to finally have someone I can talk to about this stuff". At that moment I was thankful that my stuff had been stolen because it provided the opportunity for me to connect with someone who needed that.

A man got shot on the corner of my street Wednesday night and it's things like that that make you realize how much these kids see and go through on a daily basis. These are such great kids and it's incredible to see how well they handle their situation.

Angel (one of my 8th graders)


Some of you probably have recieved my news letter by now, along with the letter from Bruce Main about donating to the ministry. Please don't feel like, because I sent you the letter, that I expect you to donate money. My mom informed me that some people who have been reading my blog have asked her if there is something that they can do for me. I am glad to provide those who WANT to give with the opportunity to do so, but I would never want those who don't want to give to feel pressured to. I will continue to send a news letter once a month. If you recieved it and don't want to recieve anymore, just let me know. Also if you would like to be added to that mailing list you can give me your adress and I would be happy to do that.

I'm shipping up to Bostonia

Friday night after the Urban Promise Summit ended here in Camden, Jessie, Mike, Charlotte and I jumped in a car and headed for Boston. On the drive, we all took turns asking questions and making everyone in the car answer them honestly. It was quite interesting and made for the quickest 6 hour drive I have ever been on. When we arrived in Boston on Friday night, Jessie had to visit some friends so the rest of us decided to head into the first bar we saw and try to finagle a place to stay for the night. We sat at the bar and ordered drinks. After about ten minutes two guys sat down at the bar next to me and I struck up a conversation about what there is to do in Boston. The first guy, Pete, was a distributor for Miller/Coors and had a ton of advice for us about what to do and where to eat (he also bought all of our drinks for us on his Miller/Coors credit card). Mike wrote down Pete's suggestions on his hand so that we would not forget them. At some point we got to talking about where we might be able to find a cheap place to stay and the second guy, Kyle, blurts out, "Fuck it, you guys can just crash on my couches if you pay for my cab ride home". We couldn't have asked for a better scenario. Soon after this, after Pete had left, I saw that Kyle was talking to a couple of young women. Not wanting him to forget about us and leave, I walked over and joined their conversation. I convinced them that Kyle is the greatest guy on the planet for letting us stay at his house. I also tell them about what we do in Camden and they dub me Missionary Matt. I made sure that Kyle got a kiss from each of the ladies before they left and that we made it back to Kyles house with him.

Once we arrived at Kyles house, we played some ping pong before he decided to show us all of his cooking utensils (in his bedroom and not the kitchen), about which he was obviously quite passionate. He showed us some of his knives and his special potato masher. He then stops and informs us that he is about to show us the best cooking item he owns. He proceeds to reach into the drawer and pulls out a turkey baster... not any special turkey baster...the turkey baster that every single one of you has in your kitchen. He then proceeds to explain to us how a turkey baster is used as if none of us had ever heard of such a thing before in our lives. He was entirely sincere and it was rather surreal. At this point I informed Kyle that I needed to go to bed. Mike, Charlotte and I went to sleep on the couches in Kyle's living room.




Mike playing ping pong at Kyles



The next morning we got up and walked to the train station to take the Orangeline back into the city. We found a little farmers market and stopped for breakfast on the way. We got off the train in Boston and walked through little Itally where we got some coffee. We saw a big ass statue of Paul Revere, walked some more and saw some more touristy landmarks, and accidentally planned our walk on a map from 1852. . We then decided that the north end of Boston was a bit too touristy and headed to the south end. We soon found a little pub called JJ Foleys where we were able to get clam chowder, half a sandwich, and salad for 7 dollars. I was great. Our waitress had virtually the exact same tattoo on the top of her back as Samantha which freaked me out a little for some reason, but she was also possibly my favorite person from the entire weekend. We then ordered Irish Coffees which, combined with our lack of sleep, put us all in a sort of haze for the next several hours.



We walked in our haze to a gigantic, incredible church where we spent some time before heading to Starbucks to find wifi so that Mike could use his computer. After a couple hours at starbucks we were finally awake again and headed back toward the north end of Boston. As we were looking for some place that the waitress from earlier had recommended we go for dinner, we stumbled upon one of the restaurants Pete had recommended called Beantown Pub. Mike consulted his hand to make sure it was the right place and then we went in for dinner. We ordered boston baked beans and the steak tips that Pete had recommended. They were good not great and we had a horrible shrew of a waitress (the one and only unpleasant person we experienced in all of Boston). We then headed to another bar near the one where we started our weekend. We watched some ridiculous, over the hill cover band named Deizel and then Jessie picked us up.



Saturday night we stayed at some huge house that Jessie used to live at and is owned by the Salvation Army (the New Kids on the Block also used to live there). We had breakfast in the morning and then headed to Harvard Square. It was a beautiful day. We had a pitcher at a bar. Mike slipped on a rock and fell in the river. We sat and listened to a guy play guitar at a park. We ate dinner on the patio at Charlies Beer Garden and then headed south to Rhode Island.



We went to Rhode Island because Mike had never been there and wanted to say that he had. For him to be able to make this claim, something out of the ordinary had to occur there. When we got to Providence we walked around a little and then found a bar where Mike convinced the bartender (who happened to be a hot brunette) to give me a free shot and let us keep the shot glass. She took a shot with me and then informed us that there was a beach somewhat nearby that we should check out. She lied. The beach was not nearby. We went anyway. It was about an hour out of our way but it was an enjoyable experience. We all peed off the jetty into the Chesapeake Bay and then headed back to Camden. All in all, it was an incredible weekend and just the vacation that I needed.

From Prison to Messiah

Chris Skating in Bretts Shoes (thanks brett)

I have been so busy that I have not been able to get to my computer since my last post. I apologize for the longer intermission. Last Wednesday we took our 8th graders to a haunted house at Eastern State Penitentiary. It was basically on par with Knott's Scary farm but it was fun to watch all my kids get scared and I wore my Halloween costume which the kids got a kick out of.




My Halloween Costume



Last thursday we had a Harvest Festival for the kids and that was blast. I ran the booth with the plinko and there was one little asian kid that spent his entire day at my booth. He would play and then walk directly to the back of the line. After the carnival we had a raffle in which we gave out tons of prizes to tons of kids. It was alot of fun.

Kid that spent his day at my booth (sad cuz he lost)


Hosting Plinko

Last Friday we loaded up busses with all of our 3rd-5th graders and headed for hershey park. Thankfully I got to ride in the van with other interns and not in the bus with 100 little kids. We arrived at Hershey Park and I was assigned two 5th grade boys to follow around for the day. The kids had a blast and I did as well. When we first arrived they were telling me how scared they were and I told them that that makes it more fun because it gets your adrenaline going. At one point after a rollercoaster, Quincy looked at me and said, "I don't know what my adrenaline is, but I sure like it".

After hershey parked we took the kids to a nearby hotel and checked everyone in (the staff must have hated us). We then proceeded to take all of the kids to the indoor pool at the hotel which of course sent the people previously in the pool running for their lives. After we swam for a couple hours we returned to our rooms and went to bed.

5th grader doin back flips

The next day we headed to Messiah College, where these poor college students were assigned groups of our kids to take on a scavenger hunt. I was assigned to wait at some bridge for kids to arrive there as a part of the scavenger hunt. When I saw the first group arriving, I couldn't help but laugh at the group of kids that this poor girl had. She had somehow chosen to take the most difficult kids we have all in one group. I could tell that there was a far greater need for me with this group than at the stupid bridge so I spent the rest of my day tagging along with this group and making sure they didn't eat this poor girl alive.

5th grade boys at Messiah

We returned home from Messiah on Sunday night and had camp Monday through Wed of this week. We then had the Urban Promise Summit in which the staff from Urban Promise Locations all over the world come to Camden and we have guest speakers and workshops and all sorts of fun. The summit took place on Thursday and Friday. The speakers that I remember best were Duffy Robbins and Brian McClaren. McClaren was amazing.

After the summit on Friday I hopped in a car with 3 other interns and headed to Boston. Our weekend in Boston was absolutely rediculous and requires its own post..... Boston Post Coming Soon........