So my agency placement took quite a while to find and to be honest I wasn't really sure that it was going to be a good fit for me. It took me less than one day to realize that I am where God intended for me to be. It has now been almost two and a half weeks since I have started at the Denver Inner City Parish (DICP or the parish) and every day I am grateful and excited about the work that I will be doing over the next year.
The basic overview of my job is pretty easy to explain. I am going to be the Volunteer Coordinator for the parish. It sounds pretty straight forward and in a lot of ways it is, until I add in that this is something that over the 50 years of the DICP's existence they have never had. That being said, they have used volunteers throughout that time period and at least have a pool of people to draw from. Maybe that makes my job easier, maybe it doesn't.
I also got some very exciting news last week, my placement with the parish started out as part-time and last week they asked me if I would be willing to take it on as my full-time placement for the year. It was so great and an answer to one of the things I had been praying about quite a bit.
Just today I had another one answered.
As a part of my up in hours, comes an adjustment in duties. Starting today I will begin developing a children's program for the DICP's worship service, which meets every other week. I really wanted to work with children in some capacity this year. I just felt that after teaching Sunday school last year that it was something that I really enjoyed. If you team that up with my goal to become reacquainted with the many Bible stories that you learn as a kid I have found my outlet. There are quite a few children that attend the services and like most kids they get antsy when they have to sit too long. Steve, the DICP pastor has asked for me to take on working with the kids, teaching Bible stories and completing crafts. I know it will be a lot of work but in many ways it is what I was really looking for during this year and I didn't have to look very hard, it just fell into my lap.
God really is great.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Great Day!
Monday-Sept. 14th
So I will be writing more later this week as I work on my newsletter for the Broadstreeter but I wanted to let everyone know that I had a great day today.
I had my first two meetings with two of our program directors at the parish. (I will go more into the programs provided later.) During my meetings I learned more about the history of the programs as well as the services they offer. I also began the conversations about volunteers and how they are currently being used and how the directors could see them being used in the future. I got great feedback from both and am feeling great about my placement. I really feel like this is where I am suppose to be and is the work I am suppose to be doing.
I can't wait to meet with the rest of the program directors and follow other volunteer coordinators at other agencies. I am extremely excited to begin this next phase of my life. Its almost indescribable how right I feel and have felt all day.
I just want to thank you to all who have been supporting me and thank God for leading me to this place. I can't wait to share the coming experiences with you.
So I will be writing more later this week as I work on my newsletter for the Broadstreeter but I wanted to let everyone know that I had a great day today.
I had my first two meetings with two of our program directors at the parish. (I will go more into the programs provided later.) During my meetings I learned more about the history of the programs as well as the services they offer. I also began the conversations about volunteers and how they are currently being used and how the directors could see them being used in the future. I got great feedback from both and am feeling great about my placement. I really feel like this is where I am suppose to be and is the work I am suppose to be doing.
I can't wait to meet with the rest of the program directors and follow other volunteer coordinators at other agencies. I am extremely excited to begin this next phase of my life. Its almost indescribable how right I feel and have felt all day.
I just want to thank you to all who have been supporting me and thank God for leading me to this place. I can't wait to share the coming experiences with you.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
Week in Review
So there is a lot to catch up on and its hard to believe that I have already been away from home for two weeks. It feels like I have been in Denver for at least a month. I am going to try to keep my review short but I apologize if it gets long, like I said there is a lot to cover.
Monday-August 31st
We left Stony Point at 7am by bus for a short ride to La Guardia, at least shorter ride than the way to Stony Point. After a short flight to Baltimore and a lot of good-byes to new friends, Rachel and I grabbed a bite to eat and found our flight to Denver. Once arriving in Denver we found our luggage, Molly (our site coordinator) and our other house mate (Meghan). During our ride to our new house we found that we would be the first tenants in our four bed room duplex. After dinner, tacos Molly-style, we took a brief walk through our neighborhood, began to unpack and get to know one another.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we woke for devotionals and what turned into a long day learning our way around the city. After a tour of the Gathering Place (www.the-gatheringplace.org), Rachel's agency, we picked up our month long public transit passes and began the downtown tour. We ate lunch at the original Rock Bottom Brewery on the 16th Street Mall, wandered through the State Building (making a stop in the cupola to take in the views of the city no mountains though), admired the beauty of the Brown Palace Hotel and located the Art Museum, YMCA and downtown Library. Molly showed us the location of the DOOR (http://www.doornetwork.org/) office and the two buildings that make up the Denver Inner City Parish (www.dicp.org), my agency. That night we learned how to make our own calzones with a homemade dough recipe of Molly's.
Side note: For the first three-ish days we could not see the mountains because of the fires in California but we relished in the fact that although we walked around the city in 90 degree weather for several hours we didn't sweat much at all.
Wednesday
We stayed in for the morning and early afternoon to get paperwork taken care of and to spend some time getting to know more about each other. During an afternoon trip to Walmart we found window treatments for all of the rooms in the house as well as trashcans. (Crazy the things you take for granted.) After home-made spaghetti sauce and pasta we headed downtown once again to watch a great Rockies game (they won!) and to see the mountains for the first time. We also had our first experience with "Denver weather." They say, if you don't like the weather wait 10 minutes and it will change.
Thursday
In the morning Molly took us on a driving tour showing us where all of our local "resources" were. Then we had members of the Denver DOOR Board and people from our agencies come over for lunch. It was a great way to meet all of the people who have been awaiting our arrival. After lunch we took naps and discussed more paperwork items and then had the special treat of "Little India" for dinner, which is Molly's favorite Indian restaurant in town.
Friday
We took some time to talk about reflection and self care and then got a tour of Meghan's agency, Metro CareRing (www.metrocarering.org). That afternoon we had a plumber show-up to take a look at our shower, which was acting more like bathtub. That evening my roommates and I took our first solo bus ride to go and enjoy the Taste of Colorado Festival.
Monday-August 31st
We left Stony Point at 7am by bus for a short ride to La Guardia, at least shorter ride than the way to Stony Point. After a short flight to Baltimore and a lot of good-byes to new friends, Rachel and I grabbed a bite to eat and found our flight to Denver. Once arriving in Denver we found our luggage, Molly (our site coordinator) and our other house mate (Meghan). During our ride to our new house we found that we would be the first tenants in our four bed room duplex. After dinner, tacos Molly-style, we took a brief walk through our neighborhood, began to unpack and get to know one another.
Tuesday
Tuesday morning we woke for devotionals and what turned into a long day learning our way around the city. After a tour of the Gathering Place (www.the-gatheringplace.org), Rachel's agency, we picked up our month long public transit passes and began the downtown tour. We ate lunch at the original Rock Bottom Brewery on the 16th Street Mall, wandered through the State Building (making a stop in the cupola to take in the views of the city no mountains though), admired the beauty of the Brown Palace Hotel and located the Art Museum, YMCA and downtown Library. Molly showed us the location of the DOOR (http://www.doornetwork.org/) office and the two buildings that make up the Denver Inner City Parish (www.dicp.org), my agency. That night we learned how to make our own calzones with a homemade dough recipe of Molly's.
Side note: For the first three-ish days we could not see the mountains because of the fires in California but we relished in the fact that although we walked around the city in 90 degree weather for several hours we didn't sweat much at all.
Wednesday
We stayed in for the morning and early afternoon to get paperwork taken care of and to spend some time getting to know more about each other. During an afternoon trip to Walmart we found window treatments for all of the rooms in the house as well as trashcans. (Crazy the things you take for granted.) After home-made spaghetti sauce and pasta we headed downtown once again to watch a great Rockies game (they won!) and to see the mountains for the first time. We also had our first experience with "Denver weather." They say, if you don't like the weather wait 10 minutes and it will change.
Thursday
In the morning Molly took us on a driving tour showing us where all of our local "resources" were. Then we had members of the Denver DOOR Board and people from our agencies come over for lunch. It was a great way to meet all of the people who have been awaiting our arrival. After lunch we took naps and discussed more paperwork items and then had the special treat of "Little India" for dinner, which is Molly's favorite Indian restaurant in town.
Friday
We took some time to talk about reflection and self care and then got a tour of Meghan's agency, Metro CareRing (www.metrocarering.org). That afternoon we had a plumber show-up to take a look at our shower, which was acting more like bathtub. That evening my roommates and I took our first solo bus ride to go and enjoy the Taste of Colorado Festival.
Saturday
We awoke to find out that not only had our shower not been fixed the day before but that we were going to have to evacuate our house for the entire day while they fixed it. My roommates indulged me by allowing me to find a place to watch the first OSU game of the year. Not only did we find some place but we found the meca of places, the alumni sponsored OSU bar in Denver. I was able to watch the majority of the second half and entertain my roommates with my antics at the same time.
Side-note: The Penn State sponsored bar was located in the basement of the same building, making for a convient location for me, the OSU lover and Rachel, the PSU fan.
After the game ended and OSU won in their typical fashion we headed to the Tattered Cover, a local bookshop and then back down Taste for more of the previous day's entertainment.
Sunday
We met Molly for church and spent the day lounging preparing for our first hike in the mountains. Rachel's parents took us out to dinner during their brief stop on their way out to California and we got to act as the tour guides. Strange feeling considering we hadn't even lived here for a week yet. We showed them a wonderful time, allowing them to experience the wonderful public transportation system and a new pizza joint. They enjoyed wandering the 16th street mall as much as we still do.
Monday- September 7th
Waking up at 7am to be out the door at 7:30 is amazingly easy when you know you are going to the Rocky Mountains. We spent the whole day either traveling to/from or climbing around Rocky Mountain National Park. It was a bit crowded but it was easy to over look because of the beauty. On our way back we saw some Elk and stopped in Estes Park for ice cream. I am going to let the pictures below tell you more about our 7+ mile hike.
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