Filed under: 2010-2011 Year Round Interns, Leadership Course, Wesley Rankin Community Center
This past week marked a celebration of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Project Transformation spent the day by serving at the North Texas Food Bank. The short time that we spent at the food bank was one of the highlights of my week. Packing boxes of food that we knew would meet the tangible needs of others required little effort and was a simple way we could use our time to help others in the Dallas community. Before we went to the food bank we talked about how everyone has something to give and MLK stood for this in both word and action. As the day went on I couldn’t help but want for my youth to experience the joy of serving. While I have been working on putting pieces together so that we can complete a service project with our youth, it just so happened that this week we were blessed to have an opportunity come knocking on our door. As we were finishing with our activities Wednesday evening, a homeless man within our community walked up to the windows and motioned that he was hungry. Larry one of the interns on our team went outside to talk with the gentleman so that he could get a better understanding of the situation. While Larry was outside talking with the gentleman a couple of the youth who were standing in the kitchen witnessing this situation started to open the cupboards to see what we could give. One youth in our program named Gabriel showed so much compassion through his actions. He pulled out a loaf of bread and some peanut butter and jelly. He also found fruit in the fridge and some left over chips. What really blew me away was how naturally he acted, and how much dignity he treated our community member with. When Gabriel realized that we had two different kinds of chips that were opened he suggested that I should ask which kind the gentleman would prefer to eat. As we pulled together what we had Gabriel had a sense of pride as he put it on a plate and said, wow we are able to give him a balanced meal! As I look back on that moment I am so proud of the youth and how they responded to meet the needs of others with what they had to give.
“Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don’t have to have a college degree to serve. You don’t have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve…. You don’t have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love.” ~Martin Luther King, Jr.
Anica Leitch
I did not really know what to expect when we site coordinators and select staff members began our “gear up week” retreat at a ranch in N. Texas. I knew it was to be 2 ½ days of togetherness and activity to get us pumped about the new semester at PT What I wasn’t expecting was how much growth I was personally going to get from it.
I had never really committed to the whole New Year’s resolution thing before. I had not even come up with one for 2010. But one of the main things Gear Up week taught me was to set goals. We focused much more on personal goals then I had thought we would and this, I realized, is because our personal attitudes about ourselves greatly reflect on to how productive our site is. So I went from thinking I had no New Year’s resolution to commit to, to setting about eight personal goals to be completed by the end of 2010. Through this activity, I also learned that if one does not plan how to achieve a goal step by step, then they are just setting themselves up for failure. Lofty goals are not achievable unless you have a path to reach them. So, with each goal, I set a way in which I was going to achieve it. Doing this has already helped me immensely in achieving my goals, and I’m off to a great start. In turn, being more productive and proactive in my personal life has bled over to being more productive and proactive in my PT life because I am not being scatter-brained.
I will have to wait to see how these goals play out over the year and how the semester with PT will go. But I hope that seeing a new way to set and achieve goals will resonate with me for a long time to come.
Abby Seibel
Gear Up Week at the Green Tree Farm turned out to be an amazing spark for my 2010. The house provided a rustic, relaxing get away atmosphere, which allowed me to comfortably focus on my goals, learn many new aspects of my character, and take part in fellowship with the other site coordinators and staff members. I feel blessed to have engaged in training with Mrs. Marilyn Dickson. Her presence was so magnificent. I felt God speak through her grace, and she helped me discover my spiritual gifts. I am more knowledgeable about the spiritual gifts God instills in each of us, and I am so glad to have my gifts clearly defined. I know how I can utilize them in my future endeavors. The few days out at the ranch were great, and I feel privileged to have attended. Thank You PT!
Andrea Bibb
The New Year is a time when a lot of exciting things happen and second chances are made. Unfortunately for my family, it included a huge medical scare for my mom just before New Year’s Eve. She is literally nothing short of a miracle. It was a very scary time and we are very fortunate that we all came out on the other side intact. When something like this happens, it can be very difficult to look past it, move forward, and start to carry on with normal, everyday life.
Going back to work meant going to PT’s yearly Gear-Up Week, which meant a 3 day retreat away from my family. Gear-Up Week is designed to recharge our batteries and really figure out how we want to continue pushing forward to best help our kids. I was more than hesitant to go, but little did I know that those three days were my chance to really begin my new year. We focused on our own personal goals, vision, and direction through a lot of self-exploration.
The site-coordinators and staff played together, prayed together, and affirmed one another. I came to the retreat with an anxious and fearful heart, but left inspired and full of anticipation for the second half of my journey with PT. Thankfully, I work with the most supportive colleagues and staff anyone could ask for. Project Transformation is more than just a work place, it is truly a family. And I look forward to taking that love and warmth I received at our retreat and sharing it with my kids, because they are my family too.
My normal, everyday life means giving everything I have to the children in my program. If anyone deserves something exciting or a chance to head in a new direction, it’s our kids. And I’m ready, again, to make that possible for them.
Emily Mares
Filed under: 2009-2010 Year Round Interns, Leadership Course, Wesley Rankin Community Center
Two Fridays ago, all of the interns went to The Salesmanship Club for a training called “Love and Logic.” This is an approach to discipline that revolves around giving children more power in their lives, and in the choices they make. One thing this training emphasized was that what every person wants, regardless of age, is to be in charge of his or her own life. Not giving someone a sense of control within their own life will only lead a child to being more frustrated and still pursuing power; thus a continued discipline problem. So, “Love and Logic” teaches us to give choices, both of which you (the discipliner) can live with. For example, “do your homework now or I’ll make you do it!” won’t work because 1) it is unenforceable, and 2) it doesn’t let them make the smart choice. A better way would be “I’ll give you the choice—you can choose to either do your homework now, or read a book now and do your homework during gym time.” Whatever they choose, let them do—even if they choose to wait on their homework. They won’t miss more than a few gym times before they realize it would probably be a good idea to do their homework during homework time. Then they are more in control of their own lives, and taking responsibility for their decisions. Since experiencing this training, I have begun to incorporate Love and Logic with my kids, and it truly does make a difference—plus, the kids actually are learning something through discipline, as opposed to a punishment unrelated to the crime. I can’t say it’s applicable 100% of the time but this training certainly opened my eyes to new angles of discipline.
Abby Seibel
Filed under: 2008-2009 Year Round Interns, Leadership Course | Tags: Christina, Eddie, Katy, Liz, Meagan, ministry interns, Sheena
Story by Eddie
In Leadership Course the past couple of weeks, we have been working with the book Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. We read the book and then took a test online to determine our top five personal skills. To be honest, I did not think that it was going to be very accurate, but I was surprised at what it said. After you take the test, it tells you what your top five strengths are, and then gives a paragraph description on each one of them. This description is not just a general overview of a certain type of person, but it is personalized to you base on how you answered questions on the test. Some of the feedback was pretty cool. One of Katy’s strengths identified her as a person who may like kids and reading stories to children; as well as, placing purpose and value of her work over the monetary rewards for what she does. I’d say that’s an accurate description of PT life.
For training the past couple of weeks, we have been working with the book Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath. We read the book and then took a test online to determine our top five personal skills. To be honest, I did not think that it was going to be very accurate, but I was surprised at what it said. After you take the test, it tells you what your top five strengths are, and then gives a paragraph description on each one of them. This description is not just a general overview of a certain type of person, but it is personalized to you base on how you answered questions on the test. Some of the feedback was pretty cool. One of Katy’s strengths identified her as a person who may like kids and reading stories to children; as well as, placing purpose and value of her work over the monetary rewards for what she does. I’d say that’s an accurate description of PT life.
Strengths of 2008-2009 Interns
Katy:
Developer
Achiever
Deliberative
Individualization
Learner
Meagan:
Connectedness
Positivity
Adaptability
Empathy
Relator
Liz Jackson:
Positivity
Relator
Adaptability
Belief
Restorative
Sheena:
Relator
Deliberative
Responsibility
Individualization
Restorative
Eddie:
Includer
Context
Developer
Adaptability
Positivity
Christina:
Ideation
Achiever
Includer
Input
Intellection
Brendan:
Empathy
Positivity
Developer
Futuristic
Individualization
Jasmine:
Includer
Belief
Developer
Learner
Restorative
Filed under: 2008-2009 Year Round Interns, Leadership Course | Tags: Eddie, Katy, Liz, Meagan, Ministry Intern, Sheena
At our sites, we all have what we call a “Fun Ed Box.” It is basically things for the kids to do when they finish their homework and need something to do. The purpose of the Fun Ed Box is to educational, but at the same time it allows the children to have some fun after finishing their homework.
Last Friday we had a Fun Ed party. We all brought an idea to add to our Fun Ed Boxes so that there will be more of a selection for us to let our kids use. Some of the ideas consisted of the game of Memory, different things to do with play-dough, a trivia game, and more. Then Debbie told us of a great idea that is inexpensive and fun. Building trash monsters! We used paper towel tubes, cereal boxes, milk cartons, and other items of this nature to build our trash monsters. Enjoy the pics!
-Eddie
