Urban Arts Camp Video 2008 (short version)

Here's a look at this past summer working with the kids in Detroit. There are video clips at the end including the three different performances.

God's Week of Camp

This was by far the hardest week of Urban Arts camp. But it taught me so much and streached my character in ways I never would have imagined. The entire week was constantly changing minute by minute and I was having to remind myself to be "flexie cookie". (that's a whole different story for another time)

I found out on Monday afternoon that the kids would be only having four full days of camp because the ministry we were partnering with had a roller skating field trip planned for all 175+ people on the last day. Since we lost a day this drastically changed our game plan for teaching the performance pieces to our 45 kids.

On Tuesday I wanted to get confirmation about our performance time and location. The church we were holding the camp in was not open on Friday so we would not be able to do our afternoon performance on their amazing stage. Plan B-find another location. Ha! It sounds simple, but then we have to think about a dress rehearsal and transportation for the kids, etc. The decision was made that the dress rehearsal would take place at our original location on the stage on Thursday if we could get permission. We would use the sound equipment from another church volunteering at the elementary camp that week. Pushing the dress rehearsal up a day cause the class schedules and art classes to be bumped around again. Once that was all settled we continued to move through Tuesday and Wednesday fairly smoothly. Thursday came at us more quickly than realized. All morning we worked with the kids on the stage, blocking and rehearsing where they would stand for the OTHER stage which was a different size. All in all, it went fairly well. Some of the boys didn't want to participate and were acting up, but I believe it is because they were nervous about practicing in front of the girls and other helpers. As we went through the rehearsal, they became more comfortable and started to participate more. Thursday afternoon was spent finishing the t-shirts the kids would wear for the performance and completing their art projects.

My team arrived at the performance location (new church) about 12:30. The kids were arriving at 1:15 from roller skating and we were going to run through the program before the 2:00 performance. At 12:45, after things were loaded in and we were going to check the sound, I realized something was missing. The sound equipment. Um, major problem. I contacted my "go-to" person from the ministry and found out that the volunteer church had already packed up their system because they thought we would be using the church's equipment. My "go-to" person said that we did not get permission from the church to use their sound equipment. I admit, I started to freak out. How do you have a quality performance that is dependent on sound without sound? A good friend of mine who was there took me aside and said, "Katie, we need to pray. God has this figured out." She was right. As people were praying, others were on their cell phones pulling out all of the stops to get favors owed to them and ending up owing favors. Central Detroit Christian, the ministry we were partnering with this week, had a Fender portable sound system and 2 mics we could use. That was a good start. I knew though that we would need monitors as well as speakers. That system only had 2 speakers. Kensington Community Church agreed to let us use their portable Fender system as well. Someone actually drove it 40 minutes down to the performance location within minutes of getting permission from KCC. Here's the cool thing-we didn't know that both systems were the same and could work together. When we hooked everything everything up, it worked beautifully.

The kids were excited to perform and as I looked at them fueled up in their seats, ready to go, I realized that what matters the most is being a light to these kids. Giving them an opportunity to grown in Him and encouraging them. I God did that this week. It was His week.

The Long Defeat

I have joined the long defeat
that falling set in motion
all my strength and energy
are raindrops in the ocean

so conditioned for the win
to share in victor's stories
but in the place of ambition's din
I've heard of other glories

I pray for an idea
and a way I cannot see
It's too heavy to carry
and impossible to leave

I can't just fight when I think I'll win
that's the end of all belief
and nothing has provoked it more
than a possible defeat

I pray for an idea
and a way I cannot see
It's too heavy to carry
and impossible to leave

We walk a while we sit and rest
we lay it on the altar
I won't pretend to know what's next
but what I have I've offered

I pray for a vision
and a way I cannot see
It's too heavy to carry
and impossible to leave

I pray for inspiration
and a way I cannot see
It's too heavy to carry
and impossible to leave

If These Walls Could Speak....

If these walls could speak they would share how loud it was when over 40 middle schoolers walked up 3 flights of double stairs to get to Urban Arts today.

If these walls could speak, they would share the excitement they saw on some faces of kids when they found out what their camp was about this week...and the groans on a few faces when they found out they had to perform.

If these walls could speak, they would share how extremely hot the third floor is without central or unit air.

If these walls could speak, they would share the incredible imagination some of the girls had in drama class when they had to "become" a piano.

If these walls could speak, they would express in amazement the talent some of the boys have when it came to dance class-like standing on their own hands and flipping backwards.

If these walls could speak, they would tearfully share that only a handful of the kids had breakfast and probably would not be getting dinner at home.

If these walls could speak, they would thank the kids in art class for decorating their walls with colorful pieces of art.

If these walls could speak, they would continue singing the songs the voices raised up in their music classes today.

If these walls could speak, they would say they are eagerly awaiting 9am tomorrow morning.

Urban Arts Camp Week 2 (middle and hs age)

The second week of Urban Arts at City Mission was so different from the first week. My team arrived on Monday morning, knowing that we had 2 kids registered and not sure if there would be any more. I was praying that there would be a camp! When I walked into the building there were already 4 kids there. I knew then, in my spirit, that it was a go. By the time 10am hit, we had 17 kids! I was elated!

Having learned a few things from the previous week, we went ahead and split the up the guys and girls in two groups. They rotated to the different art elements together. Over all, they were excellent listeners and quite respectful. (I always knew I loved this age:) My dad was able to come down one day and share some of his life story. The guys really gravitated towards him. It was neat to see how the Lord used that short period of time to create a bond between them.Throughout the entire week, whenever the guys would see my dad they would always have a smile on their faces and go up to talk with him.

The kids rotated between art, music, drama and dance just like the previous week, but they seemed to be more detail-oriented and it took longer in each of the classes. I decided to add poetry in the drama rotation for this age group. I took a poem by Maya Angelou for the girls and one by James Weldon Johnson for the guys and adapted it as a readers theatre. The girls caught on right away. I knew their performance was going to be nice. They guys had a harder time. Some were not strong readers and they struggled to pronounce words correctly. By the middle of the week, I wasn't sure I had done the right thing, wondering if I had given them something that was too difficult. But I am so glad that we stuck with it. During the dress rehearsal the guys and I both knew it wasn't the best it could be. So I decided a little "unspoken, friendly" competition wouldn't hurt. I put the girls up on stage and they rehearsed. This totally fired up the guys! They were like, "man, we can do that". I was laughing inwardly. So I told the boys to show me something. They got up on the platform and it worked! There were some rough spots, but overall the boys had a decent performance. I was really proud of them for sticking it out!

Another difference with this camp of older kids was giving them the opportunity to design their performance t-shirt. I bought white t's for each kid as well as fabric markers. The only guideline was that it had to have "Urban Arts" on the front of the t-shirt and the designs had to be approved. There were some amazing artists in the group!In the middle of the week, one of the teens approached Renee, our music teacher. He said he had gone home from camp the day before and thought about what we were talking about throughout the day and he had written a Christian rap. We were able to incorporate it into the final performance. The moment when Larry and Troy were performing the rap was the best feeling in the world to me. So many thoughts flashed through my mind at that moment. "They want to be here. These 16 year old guys are actually listening and applying what we are teaching them-not just the art elements, but about Jesus. These guys are developing gifts God has given them." And the thoughts kept running. I think that was one highlight for me during the week.

Granted

Several months ago, I was told that I should apply for grants to help fund the Urban Arts ministry I am starting in Detroit. I smiled and said "ok" and figured that I just had to fill out some forms to be approved. Boy was I wrong. Grant writing is a foreign language. Well, it use to be. But now, at least, I can understand a little with the help of books.:) So I set my mind to writing a grant proposal for the two week camp at City Mission. I scurried around to gather the information I needed to write the proposal before the deadline approached. The day of the deadline arrived and I was satisfied that everything was in order. I faxed it in. I waited in anticipation for a month before I received the letter in the mail. The proposal was rejected. It was a huge disappointment. I think it was more of a disappointment because everyone I talked with was so positive that the grant would come through for our specific program. Now, understand that in my eyes, this did not determine whether we would run the camps. I serve an awesome God and knew that I was called to run the camps and didn't let money (or the lack of it) make the final call.

The week before camp, I was talking with someone at City Mission and they asked about the status of the grant. I said briefly that we did not get it, but we decided to do garage sales. (for 5 weekends). The person was shocked. They said I should reapply. But the foundation doesn't run that way. You have to wait a year. Well, the Lord didn't want us to wait that long because someone from City Mission took our grant and reapplied it for us under their ministry. By the end of the first week of camp we got news that we had been awarded the grant! I was so excited. The Lord truly went before us!

So at the end of the two weeks, I set up a meeting with someone who was going to help me finish the evaluation for the foundation regarding the program. The morning I was to meet her, I called her and she said, 'I have some bad news.' She proceeded to tell me that someone from the foundation said that they would not release the grant to us because our program had already ended and there was miscommunication. Once again, I was shocked. What could I do though? Pray and ask others to pray. So we began praying. I rescheduled the meeting for a week later. (which was this past week) When I arrived, my contact still was not very positive about us getting the money but said we could go ahead with the evaluation. At the end of our meeting she made a phone call to the foundation about a question we had. In the conversation, the lady who works at the foundation said, 'oh, by the way, your check is in the mail for the grant'. Unbelievable! It was prayers and God's GRANT!

So, to say the least...I learned a lot about grants, foundations and the likes! I have just turned another grant proposal in that is on a larger scale to cover the expenses of our start up for fall. Please be in prayer the the Lord has His way in that as well.