First Field Trip

Two weeks ago I got to be a chaperone for Jonah's first field trip as a kindergartener - a trip to Fog Willow Pumpkin Patch.  What a fun day!   

   

Jonah with some of his buddies out in front of the school, waiting to get on the school bus.

 

Getting on a school bus for the first time...very exciting!

The two kids I was in charge of looking after: Josiah and Jonah (two was enough to keep me quite busy!)

Class picture.  Jonah is in the second row, third from the right

 Jonah, Faustino, and Ethan in the petting zoo.  Do these three boys look like trouble or what?!  Just look at those mischievous little smiles. 

While the kids rode on the school bus, I drive five other moms in my van.  I loved having a chance to get to know them.  There's nothing like an exhausting day of kid fun to form a bond between strangers!   

Cast Vision and Over-Communicate

Last week I wrote about my plan to share some "stories of success" from The GreenHouse.  Coincidentally, the next day, I read a post by Eugene Cho describing his "Top 5 Pieces of Advice for Entrepreneurs."  Number 4 on the list was:

4.  Cast Vision and Over-Communicate

"One of the biggest blunders I’ve made is to under-communicate." 

"Cast the vision. Distribute the vision. Share the vision. And share it again. In short, over-communicate until people tell you, “That’s enough. I get it…” Don’t leave too much room for misunderstandings and mis-assumptions."

Reading that post was very good timing!  After ten years, it's still unnerving for me to share the vision, calling, and testimonies of The GreenHouse.  Fear creeps in so easily.  What if people reject this thing that is so near and dear to my heart - such a big part of who I am?  What if no one responds or wants to hear about it?  What if I bare my soul and no one else bares theirs?  Do I really want to be standing there "naked" and vulnerable wishing I had a winter parka to wrap around myself (I'm hoping you get the analogy there). 

So because of fear (of rejection, reputation, etc), I "under-communicate" what's going on at The GreenHouse.  It's a means of protection.  It just seems easier (safer) to only share with a small circle of folks who are on the front lines with me. 

Lame, I know.  I'm working on it. 
    
Sharing stories on this blog is an easy step in the right direction (the handful of you who read this blog already know and love The GreenHouse, right?)  But, imagine the freedom of being able to courageously share all of me, including the dreams, passions, and vision that God has put on my heart with anyone I meet.  Now that is something to strive for!  

Heaviness

I just did some door-to-door inviting for Saturday's Harvest Carnival.  It's always good for my soul to connect eye-to-eye with people and get a feel for what's going on the neighborhood.  This time around, the short 30 minutes of canvassing left my heart feeling heavy.  There were a lot of hard things to process in a short amount of time. 

So, rather than writing about stories of success and transformation like I said I was going to do in my last post, I am instead asking for you to pray for a few of the hard situations I encountered today:

1.  Please pray for the precious four-year-old boy, "G," who is being neglected.  I called CPS this afternoon to file a report which is never a fun thing to do. 

2.  Please pray for the addicted mom who asked to borrow my phone today so she could have someone bring her more drugs.  Pray also for her daughters.  When I asked her how they were doing, she told me that they'd be taken out of her custody.  I can only imagine what they are going through.   

3.  Please pray for "L," a young man who is steeped in "thug life."  I've known "L" since he was 13.  He burrowed his way into my heart back then and has held a special place there ever since.  I SO wanted him to make good choices for his life, but instead he's chosen paths of destruction.  He moved out of the neighborhood a few years ago but every now and then he reappears, like he did today, most likely to make a drug transaction in the neighborhood.  Whenever I see him, we smile, exchange pleasantries, and then I always walk away with a deep sadness.  

How Do You Measure Success?

"Was your program a success?"

This is the tricky question that I have to answer everytime I write a Grant Follow-up Report.  Funders want to know if we accomplished what we set out to do with their money.  And if we did, how did we measure success? 

It's a tough question to answer.  Sometimes I want to say, "Just trust me. We're doing great things with your money!  Spend one day at The GreenHouse and you'll see what I mean!" 

That's easy for me to say - I get to see the programs in action and the many positive changes that are happening everyday in the lives of our youth.  But, it's much harder for me to write about in an objective or numerical way, which is what the funders are looking for.  

Often, I can skate by on this answer by reporting on the requisite "goals and objectives."  I can easily find attendance records, behavior records and percentages of accuracy on math, reading or vocabulary activities and report that yes, once again, we've met our annual goals and objectives (or that we've come close).  And, it's true.  We have done those things.  But does that really tell you about the "success" of our programs?  Do those percentages tell of the lives that are being utterly and irreversibly transformed from the inside out by God's love and grace?  Do they tell of relationships formed, confidence restored, or dreams ignited?  

I think that a better measure of success is found not in numbers, but in stories - in the testimonies of those who have been and are being transformed by God, right before our eyes. 

So for the next few weeks, I'm going to try to share a few of the stories that are currently unfolding right now at The GreenHouse.  It's a pretty darn exciting place to be these days!  Hope and Grace are putting on some amazing performances. 

May these stories remind me of the Big Picture especially on a week like this one which will be fraught with small details.  May they remind us all that it's never too late for Hope (we never run out of second chances).  And may they give Glory to the One who is powerful enough to redeem each one of our stories.      

(now if I can just find time to sit down and write them.  stay tuned!) 

Time and Energy

I've been spending a lot of time and energy

planning this:

(I hope to see you there!)

dreaming about this:

  (Could this be a facility solution for The GreenHouse?)

reading this:

(So far, it's not the magic wand I was hoping for to end Riley's tantrums...but some good reminders)

worrying about this:

 (How did my son turn out to be the class clown?  And can he just make it through one week without getting a "card" pulled at kindergarten?)

and fretting about a dozen other things that make life seem really unsettled these days. 

Unfortunately, I'm not spending as much time and energy as I'd like

doing this:

So, if you are...please include me and all of the above in those prayers.