Second Week Update

Hello friends! Our team is alive, healthy, and doing well!

After I sent out our last update, it seemed that many of you were praying for us, and God has definitely answered your prayers! God has been nourishing us, both physically and spiritually, so I’m really grateful for your prayers and support. Everything has been going really smoothly.

Some updates/prayer requests

Our Site: Our team is entering into the second week of volunteering at our sites- Rosa Parks Elementary and Berkeley Youth Alternatives. The kids at Rosa Parks range from about 4-9 years old while at BYA it ranges from 4-14. Our days usually include some reading or educational lessons, a lot of free play outside, sports and fitness, dancing, arts, and other activities. We even got to go swimming last week!

Despite all the “fun” activities, our sites have been one of the most challenging parts of our program. All of my team members are trying to get adjusted to working with such large groups of youth, and it has definitely been a really stretching experience for all of us. The large majority of kids we work with at these sites are African-American youth from Berkeley, Oakland, or Richmond, so it’s been a very cross-cultural experience for us. Kids are constantly fighting with each other, yelling ugly things to each other, and ignoring what we say to them, so it has definitely been interesting for us to try to gain trust and build relationships with the youth. It’s very clear that there’s a lot of pain and brokenness in these kids lives.

In the midst of all the chaos, there have been some really beautiful moments and healing interactions with the kids. I even was able to have a mini “reconciliation” with one of the girls today, and she actually told me that she “forgave me.” Please pray for God to grant us more love and patience with our kids and for us to have the eyes to see the kids as He does.

Relationships in the Community: After moving in last weekend, we’ve been getting to know some of the kids in our neighborhood a little bit better. A highlight of last week was getting to celebrate the 14th birthday of one of the kids in the community named Jabrille. We got to throw Jabrille a birthday party in our backyard, and then got to celebrate the 4th of July by going to the Berkeley Marina with a bunch of our neighbors and community members to see fireworks.

I’ve never been in Berkeley during the 4th of July, and it was really amazing to go to the Marina. There were literally thousands of people there- of all ages, all ethnic backgrounds, all social classes and cultural groups- all celebrating together. At one point during the fireworks show, I looked back and just saw a sea of faces looking up at the sky in awe and amazement, and was given a glimpse of what worship in heaven might look like- with masses of people from so many different backgrounds all standing in awe and wonder of God’s beauty and majesty.

We’re trying to get to know our neighbors more and our team hopes to host a game night for some of the teenagers this Thursday. Please pray that our neighbors would come and that we might be able to deepen trust and friendship with the people in our neighborhood.

Race/Ethnicity Weekend: From Friday-Saturday, all the BAyUP teams got together for a weekend conference on ethnic identity and racial reconciliation. While it was an intense and long weekend for most people, God was stirring up a lot of good (and hard) things in my team and I. The conference evoked a lot of emotions, brought up a lot of memories from our families and from our past, and allowed us to heart the stories of communities different from our own. We even wrote poems about our ethnic identity and where we “come from,” which were really powerful. It was an amazing team-building experience to hear each other’s poems and stories.

Please pray for God to continue working in our hearts as we wrestle with our own ethnic identity and what our role is in the broader journey towards racial reconciliation.

Open House this SUNDAY (July 15th): You are all invited to join us for our open house on Sunday. It will begin at 5pm at our apartment in West Berkeley, located at 2110 9th Street. Our team will begin by sharing stories, testimonies, and art from our BAyUP experience so far, and then there will be an opportunity for us to go out for a celebration dinner afterwards. Please call Erina if you have any questions!

Thanks for reading!