I thought I would give you a sort of overview of what Mike's job is at UrbanPromise and how his days have been going. A lot of people have emailed recently asking what exactly it is that he's doing, so here goes.
Mike is the permanent director for the South Camden Afterschool Program and Summer Camp of UrbanPromise Ministries. Being summer presently, he's running a camp out of his permanent location called the Hynes Family Resource Center (pictured above) which is owned by a local parish and donated to Urban. The camp runs M-F and he has about 35 5th-8th graders who come daily. He also has a huge staff to help him out including 6 college interns from all over the nation (and one from Africa) and 8 or 9 StreetLeaders from Camden. StreetLeaders are local teens who work for Urban in the afterschool programs and summer camps and get paid for it, and also have stipulations upon their employment including keeping their grades up to a certain level, receiving tutoring when needed by Urban staff, attending workshops etc. It's an amazing program and each year they employ only 100 out of many, many more who come to interview. It's becoming the "it" thing for teenagers to get involved with in the city. So anyway, Mike has a very high energy, loud, crazy staff who are very loving, kind and super creative and are a great match to his personality.
Each morning, Mike (or his Assistant Director, Sullivan, the intern from Africa) arrive at the site in South Camden by 7:30am to await the city's food delivery (they provide breakfast and lunch for all of the Urban camps each day during the summer). The food can arrive anywhere between 7:30 and 10:30 am, depending on the person doing the deliveries. The interns arrive at 8:00 for a meeting/devotion to start the day, and the StreetLeaders arrive soon after (or are involved, I'm not sure). The kids arrive at 9:00 and camp begins.
After they eat breakfast, classes begin. For the first 2 hours or so, the interns run classes including Rec, Bible, Art and Hodge-Podge. They're all wonderfully talented at teaching and so Mike is able to oversee the program and doesn't have to be "stuck" in a classroom all morning. The kids travel to each of the classes in groups by grade and are led by StreetLeaders, who are there to keep the kids in line. At the end of the classes, they all come together for Closing Program, which is a crazy fun time of songs, skits, games and Mike preaching/teaching/sharing, whatever you want to call it. The kids then have lunch and are sent home around noon.
But that's not the end of the day! Each afternoon (M-TH) the kids have the option of participating in either the basketball games (girls and boys teams and they play the other camps) and/or joining a "Bible Buddies" group (a time to meet one on one with an intern weekly to study the Word and hang out).
Then, the nights are full as well for staff:
Monday nights are All Camp Nights where Mike and the staff choose one grade to come out for the evening and they have dinner and hang out.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights are off for Directors.
Thursday night is the camp planning and prep night where they plan out the next week. Last week we had all the interns over for dinner (tried out Rachael Ray's "Everything Jambalaya" recipe, super good!) and this week we'll go out for coffee.
Friday nights are intern nights out, Directors aren't required to go as the Assistant Directors are in charge of planning it, but it's a fun night out with the team (we went last week, dinner and a movie).
Saturdays are off from camp, but the Intern Director (my good friend Brent) plans day trips, last Sat they went to NYC, there's one to DC and Baltimore planned, so we may go on those.
Sunday evenings we have a required fellowship/worship night that all interns and staff are required to be at. I volunteered to lead a small group so I could stay involved. The first week Tony Campolo came and spoke to us, yesterday it was Bruce Main. We're getting spoiled with these great speakers!
Then the week starts all over again! It's a crazy schedule, and truth be told, Mike has been taking a lot of naps when he can, but he's really loving his new job. I'm so grateful for the way he was able to just jump right in and be comfortable and get going...he's so content and happy. It's affecting our marriage in a wonderfully positive way, and for that I am grateful. I try to get involved with some of these activities in between my job hunt, and mostly just try to be supportive of him!
So there's an overview! The schedule for the aftershool programs in the fall won't be nearly as crazy, so we hear. :-)
Mike is the permanent director for the South Camden Afterschool Program and Summer Camp of UrbanPromise Ministries. Being summer presently, he's running a camp out of his permanent location called the Hynes Family Resource Center (pictured above) which is owned by a local parish and donated to Urban. The camp runs M-F and he has about 35 5th-8th graders who come daily. He also has a huge staff to help him out including 6 college interns from all over the nation (and one from Africa) and 8 or 9 StreetLeaders from Camden. StreetLeaders are local teens who work for Urban in the afterschool programs and summer camps and get paid for it, and also have stipulations upon their employment including keeping their grades up to a certain level, receiving tutoring when needed by Urban staff, attending workshops etc. It's an amazing program and each year they employ only 100 out of many, many more who come to interview. It's becoming the "it" thing for teenagers to get involved with in the city. So anyway, Mike has a very high energy, loud, crazy staff who are very loving, kind and super creative and are a great match to his personality.
Each morning, Mike (or his Assistant Director, Sullivan, the intern from Africa) arrive at the site in South Camden by 7:30am to await the city's food delivery (they provide breakfast and lunch for all of the Urban camps each day during the summer). The food can arrive anywhere between 7:30 and 10:30 am, depending on the person doing the deliveries. The interns arrive at 8:00 for a meeting/devotion to start the day, and the StreetLeaders arrive soon after (or are involved, I'm not sure). The kids arrive at 9:00 and camp begins.
After they eat breakfast, classes begin. For the first 2 hours or so, the interns run classes including Rec, Bible, Art and Hodge-Podge. They're all wonderfully talented at teaching and so Mike is able to oversee the program and doesn't have to be "stuck" in a classroom all morning. The kids travel to each of the classes in groups by grade and are led by StreetLeaders, who are there to keep the kids in line. At the end of the classes, they all come together for Closing Program, which is a crazy fun time of songs, skits, games and Mike preaching/teaching/sharing, whatever you want to call it. The kids then have lunch and are sent home around noon.
But that's not the end of the day! Each afternoon (M-TH) the kids have the option of participating in either the basketball games (girls and boys teams and they play the other camps) and/or joining a "Bible Buddies" group (a time to meet one on one with an intern weekly to study the Word and hang out).
Then, the nights are full as well for staff:
Monday nights are All Camp Nights where Mike and the staff choose one grade to come out for the evening and they have dinner and hang out.
Tuesday and Wednesday nights are off for Directors.
Thursday night is the camp planning and prep night where they plan out the next week. Last week we had all the interns over for dinner (tried out Rachael Ray's "Everything Jambalaya" recipe, super good!) and this week we'll go out for coffee.
Friday nights are intern nights out, Directors aren't required to go as the Assistant Directors are in charge of planning it, but it's a fun night out with the team (we went last week, dinner and a movie).
Saturdays are off from camp, but the Intern Director (my good friend Brent) plans day trips, last Sat they went to NYC, there's one to DC and Baltimore planned, so we may go on those.
Sunday evenings we have a required fellowship/worship night that all interns and staff are required to be at. I volunteered to lead a small group so I could stay involved. The first week Tony Campolo came and spoke to us, yesterday it was Bruce Main. We're getting spoiled with these great speakers!
Then the week starts all over again! It's a crazy schedule, and truth be told, Mike has been taking a lot of naps when he can, but he's really loving his new job. I'm so grateful for the way he was able to just jump right in and be comfortable and get going...he's so content and happy. It's affecting our marriage in a wonderfully positive way, and for that I am grateful. I try to get involved with some of these activities in between my job hunt, and mostly just try to be supportive of him!
So there's an overview! The schedule for the aftershool programs in the fall won't be nearly as crazy, so we hear. :-)
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