St Patricks Crew Online

Sunday July 10, 2011

Travel Day

CREW is on a roll!! Rolled all the way to Detroit! After a beautiful, albeit early, 7:30am mass at St. Patrick's, the CREW Missioners had the bus packed and ready to roll out by 9:05am. Amazing!! It was a quiet ride into Michigan (Shrek 4 and Star Trek kept everyone quiet for the first part of the ride), when we stopped for lunch. Then onto and into Detroit. All the chaperons had crash course in teenage mentality by being forced to watch "Mean Girls". No offense to the teenagers, but a film that is not really worth the DVD it was imprinted on. Sorry. Just telling it like it is. We arrived in Detroit at 5pm EST, checked in, had our supper (YUM!! Dorm food!! Actually it was quite satisfying.) and then had some down time. Our evening activities began with our first SPIRIT Game, with one team dominating the points awarded this time around. The adults had to help a team guess celebrities that have come out of Michigan or Detroit (a lot like Catch Phrase). Our social justice study this week will focus in on the theme of "The Common Good". We began tonight by participating in a Team Building Challenge by the name of "Valley of the Kings". The simulation had us imagining that we were in Egypt for a business trip, when the hot air balloon we were taking a ride in went down in the Sahara. As individuals and then in their teams, the Mission trippers had to work together to come up with the best action plan and how to use the items that had survived the crash. 4 of the 6 teams achieved "synergy" meaning they worked together better as a team than they did as individuals. The other 2 teams came close, but were unable to reach a concensus decision on how to survive their simulated situation. As most Sunday nights of Mission Trip - the teens have a lot of energy still. It is quieter now, but there are a number that are still awake - and it is getting on to 1:30am. Ahhh... to be young again. Wayne State University is a beautiful campus and our residence hall is fantastic. We will be quite comfortable here for this week's Mission Trip. Everyone is ready to head out to the work sites in the morning and begin the real work of the week. Randy and Dick visited most of the home owners we are helping this week this evening and have constructed a game plan to tackle the work site jobs. Stay tuned for the next segment of "Days of our CREW".

Monday July 11, 2011

Work Day 1

All you need to know about Work Day #1 is that "it rained". A lot. Quickly. With lots of thunder. It was VERY wet. So, here is the real story...the day started bright and sunny. The teens/chaperons first stop of the day was to DCI - Detorit Communmity Initiative - to meet Bishop Russell, CEO of DCI. They received a run down of DCI and their programs from Mr. Russell. Then it was time to head off to the work sites. After some rearranging of teams and work sites (motto of a mission trip: be flexible, expect the unexpected, and just keep smiling), they were ready to get to work. Around 11am, the clouds rolled in and in came the rolling thunder. Thankfully, everyone took cover in the garages of the houses they were working on. Work today centered around prepping houses for the repairs: scrapping garages, working on wrought iron, weeding, cleaning gutters, scraping facia. Once the rain stopped, then the work resumed in earnest. Everyone made it back to WSU by 5pm, in order to clean up and hit the dining hall. You'll see a picture of the first 5 people into the dining hall this evening and they were all CREW teens - guy teens. Surprised, right? :) After dinner the teens wore off some energy with sand volleyball; it looked like the teams just growing bigger as more teens exited the dining hall and right into the game. The SPIRIT game tonight, again keeping with the theme of teamwork, revolved around one team member being a "communicator" that could only relay instructions verbally as to how a small gumdrop/toothpick house was to be constructed by their team. Color and direction of the gumdrops counted for the point spread. This evenings social justice study on the Common Good focused in on the teachings of Mahandas Gandhi. We learned some Gandhi facts, watched 1/3 of the movie Gandhi (directed by Richard Attenbourough), compared Gandhi's 7 Social Sins with the 7 Themes of Catholic Social Teaching and each team made a visual representation of one of the 7 Social Sins. And of course, every evening ends with the distribution of Secret Servant bags. There were plenty of balls bouncing down the hallways this evening, and squirt guns. I'll tell you what.... the chaperons are under strict instructions to wear the teens out tomorrow. We got back upstairs from our evening study around 11p, and man-oh-man, were they AWAKE - all of them. Although, I am rather pleased to announce that they did quiet down a little earlier than last night. Tune in tomorrow for more drama andthe continuing saga on "Days of our CREW".

Tuesday July 12, 2011

Work Day 2

Upon the CREW's return from the work sites, I diligently copied down everything they did today. At House A they: painted a garage, taped windows for later painting, removed a bumper bumpout from the garage, and did some "vegetation control". At House B they: chipped and cleaned out 3 large holes to prepare them to be patched tomorrow. At House C they: primed and painted ornamental ironwork, sealed the deck that they power washed yesterday, light gardening and taking out weedy bushes and caulked windows. At House D they: washed windows, put 2 coats of paint on the garage, cleaned mold from basement corners and put water sealer down and caulked windows. And at House E they: painted and caulked windows (after scraping them), repaired and painted facia board, fastened flashing onto the gutters and repaired baseboards in the basement. House D and E were treated to a BBQ lunch by the two homeowners today. Hot dogs, brats, turkey burgers, pasta salad, fresh fruit, ice cream sandwiches and afternoon ice pops. Word on the street is that another home will be giving their crew a pizza lunch soon. The teens are grateful and appreciative. I have heard them talk a lot about how nice the homeowners are and how they are enjoying being able to help them out. They are enjoying the work. Tomorrow will be another push to finish up jobs and move on to any other homes that still need additional work. Tonight's SPIRIT game was called "A-maze-ing Grace". The teams had to join elbows facing out and walk/shuffle their way around a maze that was laid out on the concrete with tape. Points were awarded based upon speed of completing the maze. Tonight's social justice study continued to delve into the idea of working towards the "common good" by examining and becoming aware of our spending habits. We watched the film "Affluenza" and had discussions about the points it made both philosophically and personally. We also brain stormed ways that we could encourage "simple living" in the youth group, our homes and our schools. Tonight after the study all the teens headed outside to work off some energy. There was a game of frisbee and sand volleyball. Everyone was booted into their rooms by midnight tonight. Amazingly, they are all complying. Ok, what I should say is that they are IN their rooms... a few rooms are defintitely not asleep yet. While a substantial amount of work was done today, there were a lot of moments of "sitting around". The chaperons had a "secret" meeting and I have a feeling they may be plotting to work them harder tomorrow. I mean seriously, they are under orders from Fr. Joe to bring them back to Urbana tired and sore. A charge that, I have the feeling, they are taking very seriously. Please stay tuned for more "Days of our CREW" tomorrow.

Wednesday July 13, 2011

Work Day 3

Today was an unusally gorgeous day in Detroit. Low 80's, low humidity, fluffy white clouds in the sky. Very unusual for a Mission Trip. Usually we get the hottest, ickiest weather of the summer. But, I am definetly NOT complaining, and neither are the teens. I have a HUGE list of all that they accomplished today. Tomorrow is the final work day - so they got the lead out today. Many of the teens/chaperons received pizza for lunch as well today. One house even gave their CREW workers small gift bags. All in all today the CREW: House 1: touched up paint work on the garage; painted portions of the basement. House 2: Jamie scrubbed a bathtub to within an inch of its life - and Jamie won; clean, scraped and painted same bathroom; removed the vanity and sink for replacement; painted a spare room; scrape and painted wroughtiron railing and storm door; roof cement on chimney surround. House 3: scraped, painted and caulked windows; tuckpointed front wall and porch. House 4: worked on closing up the bumpout; scrape and painted the gable over a side door; created a garden and landscape work; but first removed 10 bags of "vegetation control"; replanted flowers, bushes and shrubs. At this house Carly and Annie really shined - serious hard workers today. House 5: finished patching concrete sidewalk and driveway that they began yesterday. House 6: 2nd coat of paint on decorative wroughtiron; patched concrete steps; minor painting; cleaned up the garden. House 7: painted railing and 2nd story porch; wire brushed rust off of door to porch & applied primer; glazed and caulked windows. House 8: surface cleaning kitchen cupboards; surface cleaning in hallway. House 9: gutter hanging; installed drip edging; painted the soffit; scraped, caulked and painted the windows. After dinner tonight we were graced with a visit from one of the home owners. She and her goddaughter taught us a great song. Then we headed outside again for our next SPIRIT game of the week. In five rounds, each team had to send a team member to the middle of the circle (blindfolded). At the whistle, they had to listen to their teammates tell them were to find a bottle of silly string - once the firing started they had to try to escape the center unscathed. It was quite amusing to see blindfold teens spraying silly string wildly in all directions trying to hit their opponents. Tonight's social justice study focused on "the common good" by studying Catholic Social Teachings. First we started with a silly skit about the sheeps and the goats from the gospel of Matthew. Then a brief commentary based upon Pacem in Teris by Pope John XXIII. Then the teens formed small groups, were assigned a paragraph from either a papal encyclical or a USCCB document to study lectio divinia style. They took their insights and made a slogan from what they learned. Look for these at our Mission Reporting Mass!! Our opening and closing prayers were also quite profound as well, although we did stumble a little with one of our songs. But God only cares that we were singing - not whether or not we were singing in time or together. :) One of the "perks" of Mission Trip is receiving an Affirmation Card from everyone on the trip. Many of the teens settled in and started writing tonight. Think of it, 42 people writing 41 Affirmation Cards each. There's a whole lot of love going on!! One freshman/sophomore proudly finished all her affirmation cards tonight!!! CREW is up to bat one last day tomorrow. Stay tuned for the exciting finale of "Days of our CREW".

Thursday July 14, 2011

Work Day 4

I love these teens!! Don't let them fool you around town. These are some of the hardest working teens on the planet. Ok, that may be an overstatement, but not by much. All the work that was needed to be done at 11 houses in the block club we were working with was... ta da!!!... finished! I could give a you an all-inclusive list of everything that was done... but that will be boring. Let's say that today they finished all the left-over work at their houses. Including: tuckpointing and remortaring a large stone wall; making a concrete ramp from the street to the driveway so the car wouldn't keep ruining its undercarriage; building forms and pouring concrete for a back porch... The real news of the day was that the block club put together a big BBQ for all the homeowners and the teens/chaperons. They served hot dogs, bbq wings, salads, fruit, cupcakes and drinks. All of the homeowners were present and they all went around telling the teens how appreciative they are of the work they put in this week. There were a lot of emotions (tears) too. Chris M. also thanked the block club in return on behalf of the CREW Youth Group. They were all invited to go bowling with the families/teens of the block club as well. So, after returning to WSU, cleaning up and catching a quick dinner, they headed out to bowl. They had a really nice time with the families. Upon returning from the bowl-a-thon, we finished up our social justice study for the week. We did not have time to do the planned SPIRIT game tonight, so we averaged their bowling scores and used that to assign points for the last days game. Tonight's study has us focusing in how we are all called to be missionaries. We talked about what it means to be a missionary, what kinds of things we tell people we do on a mission trip and whether we consider ourselves missionaries or not. Then we watched select parts of "The Mission" as an example of courageous missionary work. Our closing prayer service asked people to come forth and share the joys and challenges they faced this week. Many teens and adults shared their triumphs and challenges. Josh K. came up three times to share his gratitude. :) Here are some quotes I have heard from the adults about this week's mission trip: the CREW helped to "re-energize the whole block club"; the mission trip offered a "great connection to the community"; "the kids were awesome"; they were impressed that the teens "just got right into things"; "the whole neighborhood was abuzz with what was happening"; one teen commented that on this trip he "really heard the teachings of the bible study"; and "It's been a great week". Tomorrow morning we head off to South Haven for Friday Fun Day. We have a couple of hours of "organized activity" and then 5 hours of free time to explore the town and hit the beach. Until then.. ta ta for now!!

Friday July 15, 2011

Fun Day / Travel Day

So, for teenagers that worked their hearts out all week, stayed up late talking/playing games/texting/listening to music and generally wore themselves out - they were really on the ball this morning. Everyone had eaten breakfast and packed the bus with all our stuff by 8:30am. Seriously amazing!! The 3 hour trip to South Haven got us through the movies "Hairspray" and part of "Kicking and Screaming". Many teens snoozed on the way to South Haven - including yours truly. We arrived in South Haven to a beautiful 80 degree day with fluffy white clouds in the sky. The first people dropped off were the cyclists. We walked over to Rock -n- Road, got our bikes and headed for the Kal-Haven. There were 9 mission trippers riding bikes. 3 in the fast group, 3 in the medium speed group and 3 in the leisurely group. The fast group probably did close to 20+mi bike ride; medium group 14mi ride and leisurely 12mi. But it is a great trail - smooth and well traveled. The next group dropped off were the 11 people taking a sail on a replica Tall Ship from the Michigan Maritime Musueum. They thoroughly enjoyed their cruise out on Lake Michigan. They uttered things like "Amazing!", "Fabulous", "I would totally do that again!". Pat Justice helped to steer the ship and a number of teens helped with the rigging. The last group to be dropped off were the kayakers. They did a 7mi kayak trip from near Kalamazoo back to South Haven. Their trip took 4 hours to complete, but it sounded like it was a lot of fun. The majority of the bicyclers and tall shippers also went to the 4:20p screening of "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows: Part 2" at the Michigan Theater. ($4 a ticket!!) All of us ate at this great outdoor bar/restaurant. Fantastic fried perch sandwiches. I didn't know perch could be so fantastic and BIG! We met back at the bus at 7:30p and headed over to Sherman's Dairy for the most superb, awesome, fantastic, out of this world ice cream cones. This treat was on the CREW Youth Group. This ice cream bar moved 40 of us through in like 20 minutes. Top that Jarlings! Plus for $3.25 you got like a 4 scoops of ice cream which they called "1 flavor". Holy Moly it was delicious. Then it was back on the bus for the ride home. Movies this time included "The Lion King" and "The Corpse Bride". We arrived back in town at 11:10pm (central time). What an excellent trip!! Thank you to all the teenagers, chaperons and St. Patrick's parishioners who made this trip possible. All for the Greater Glory of God!! See you next year!!