First Article for Urban Arts

I had my first interview for Urban Arts last week. The content was put on the website for City Mission. Here's a look at the content!

A Glimpse of Reality

Ralph, Rayshaun, Larry, A.J., Destiny, and Takyea didn't show up to camp today. The day before our performance. The last full day of camp. I was so disappointed. I started asking the kids where they were and the responses varied. Everything from a doctor's appointment (they thought) to one of the families driving out of town. I decided to speak with Ms. Kat who is my City Mission contact for this week. She offered to give a phone call to each of the kid's parent, grandparent or guardian. As we went down the list, most of the kids had a legitimate excuse for not being there. We found out that some were even coming later in the day. That made me feel a little better.

But one phone call broke my heart. One of the boys who wasn't able to come answered the phone when Ms. Kat called. He said he wasn't able to come because he was babysitting his brothers and sisters. Ms. Kat asked to speak to his mama. As the mama was coming to the phone Ms. Kat heard her cussing this boy out. Once she got on the phone she was a sweet as she could be, but drunk. Ms. Kat invited her to the dinner and performance and then proceeded to explain that this lady's son had a solo part in the performance and we really missed his leadership at the camp. She said he wouldn't be there and he probably won't be at the performance. My heart broke when Ms. Kat told me. This young man was exemplary in his action, leadership, words and attitude. But I was told that this is typical for their community. Today I saw a glimpse of reality in the neighborhood. I pray that the work we did the last two weeks would stay with the kids the rest of their life to give them Jesus first and something worth holding onto.

Smile:)

Today was a good day. I kept trying to figure out why things felt so different. Smiles. I saw so many more smiles on faces of the kids today. What a difference that makes! I felt the joy of the Lord filling the day.

I honestly can't believe i'm headed toward the end of my second week of Urban Arts. I wish I could do this every week of the summer. (maybe next year:) Please continue to pray for the 21 kids we had today. Asking something as simple as for them to arrive at camp safely. Most of them walk from their house. I never really thought about it until I drove around the neighborhood this afternoon. That short, simple prayer is a serious, relevant prayer.

Tomorrow is our last full day of camp. Please pray that the kids focus and learn everything they need for the performance on Friday. We are fired up!:) Anyone who would like to attend the dinner and performance is more than welcome to come. Dinner is at 5pm and the performance follows at 6pm. Location is at Leland Baptist Church on 22420 Fenkell in Detroit.

Step It Up

Day 2 of middle/high school Urban Arts camp completed. I think the phrase I heard most throughout the day from the teachers and counselors was, "step it up". The girls took it seriously. They focused in each rotation today and I saw huge steps of improvement that will paid off during the performance on Friday. The guys....well, their focus was somewhere else today..the girls, themselves, who knows! (for most of them anyway). I think they are getting more comfortable with us and feeling like they can get away with more. WRONG:) I was laughing so hard when the guys were in their dance rotation, because Vicky, the dance teacher, was making them do push ups, crunches and all sorts of other things that they didn't think they needed to do. Their was some pain happening there!

Another change that I decided to implement last night was to introduce poetry to the girls and guys classes. It's a challenge for me to get them to the level of understanding and performance in the next 2 days, but i'm going to try and pray that it comes across well. The kids need this exposure on stage. Performing is more than singing and dancing so i'm "stepping it up" as we say:)

I did have some disappointing news: we don't get to use the public middle school this Friday. I guess they are on vacation and don't have anyone who can be there for us. So, we have found a church that i'm going to take a look at tomorrow. I'm a little skeptical because they are going to put us in the "lower level"...my interpretation of that is the basement. We'll see....

More tomorrow on our progress if time allows:)

Pleasantly Peaceful Middle Schoolers

Camp starts at 10am. We had 2 registered middle schoolers for this week of camp as of last Friday. At 9:50am this morning 4 kids had already shown up. Not too long after 10am we had 16 kids! By lunch time we had 19 middle and high school campers. Our team was ecstatic! The ratio of boys to girls was about equal. We decided to split them into two groups (guys & girls)and have them rotate similar to the style we laid out last week. The whole day felt very peaceful. Several of the teachers and volunteers and I were a little apprehensive about this group of kids. Everyone gave us the impression that they would be rough, rude and rebellious. They were pretty much the opposite. Of course, there were a few kids who liked to be the center of attention, but overall everyone was very well behaved. We have added one new thing to the camp since the kids are older. They will be designing and making their own t-shirts for the performance this week. Tomorrow we will see how everything goes!

Recap of Urban Arts Camp Week 1

I made it through the first week of Urban Arts camp!:) There are so many things that happened throughout the week that are so amazing, I can't even begin to imagine where I should start. So, i'll be typical and start from the beginning (since most of us follow well in chronological order).

As you may have read from my previous entry, there were some major storms coming across Michigan which stole our power from Sunday through Wed. of the last week. (yes, the first week of camp). The neat thing was that we had power at City Mission in Detroit, where the camp was being held.

Early Monday morning, Renee, Vicky, Kathryn, Wally, Linda and I, piled in two cars with all of our supplies and drove the 48 minutes down to City Mission. We held most of our camp in the City Mission Academy building, but art was special and it got it's own house:)

We had about an hour to set everything up before the kids began showing up. The first day of camp, we had 27 kids. I had set the day up to run on rotations. We all started out together and my parents did the object lesson and devotional. Then the kids were divided into 3 groups based on ages and they rotated to music, drama, art and dance. Lunch was in the middle of the day and we came back together for our "closer" of prayer, a song and announcements. All in all it went pretty smoothly. The youngest class was a handful and we had to adjust and add more volunteers to them.


On Tuesday, we had 30 kids show up for camp! That was the expected number so we were excited that all of them came. Each teacher continued to work on projects and look for those "kids who stood out" to give solos or pair up for routines for the performance. After camp that day, I went over with a City Mission lady, Kathy, to take a look at our Friday performance location. A Detroit middle school was allowing us to use their cafeteria/stage room at no cost. It was my first experience in a Detroit public school. To be honest, I was very sad. There was no air, it was old, and there were airport security stations to walk through...in a middle school. I was aware of the conditions via tv and the news, but to actually walk in a USA school and see the conditions first hand, made me hurt. We found the principal and he was a very kind man. He showed us the area we would be able to use. It really was perfect for the size, stage and area to hold the dinner. There were only a few glitches....no sound equipment, no kitchen, no air. I had some scrambling to do to make this work. It was only the Lord that brought everything together so quickly! A friend took off work on Friday, agreed to drive down from Lansing and provide all of his sound equipment and run it for the performance. We used large fans to give us some circulation and Betty, who volunteered to cater the dinner, adapted the meal so it was "mobile" and didn't need a kitchen. All of that was only God!

Wednesday was a tired day for everyone. You could feel it in the kids when they walked in, I felt it, and other teachers were walking around with coffee cups glued to their fingers:) Everything was still running smoothly though. The dances and songs were coming together well and I was beginning to see some attitude changes for the better. Oh yeah, we had 32 kids that day!

Thursday was crunch day. It was our last day to get everything worked out before the performance. For our closer, we had the kids perform for one another and they loved it! The staff from City Mission even came out from their desks and watched.

Friday was laid out totally differently from the entire week. The kids didn't come to City Mission until 12:30. We transported them a few miles away to the middle school for our dress rehearsal. When we arrived at the school, the kids ate lunch and then we did a blocking run through of the performance. It went pretty well. The kids were pretty hot and tired, but troupers. After our run through we set up stations for them to go to before dinner. A friend brought his electric guitar and pedals and took groups to play around on that and show them stuff. We also had an art station set up to do sand art and a "thank you" card section for the kids to write thank you's to their sponsors. It worked pretty well. After that all happened, I took the entire group out into the hallway and showed them my violin and played a little for them, then let some of them play. It's amazing how quite a group of loud kids can get when they are interested in something. I found that when I was showing them my violin. Dinner was at 5pm..it was a smashing hit of tacos and chips and dip. We were worried that the parents wouldn't come. I think someone from every family showed up to support. That was another answer to prayer. When the kids were done with their meal, we took them out into the hallway and passed out their performance t-shirts. A church had donated them last summer. They were very cute--white t's with stars and glitter on them. The performance started about 6pm. They got a standing ovation! My heart was bursting with pride:) Our team did an amazing job!

And that, my friends was our week in the abridged version. I now begin a whole new week with all new kids tomorrow.

10 Minutes of Power

I have less than 10 minutes of internet usage left before Panera closes, but I have so much to share after the second day of Urban Arts! I'm at Panera becuase on Sunday afternoon most of the county and surrounding counties lost power. It's now Tuesday night and we still have no power. What a way to start the first day of camp! Things have been going really well. We have been handed some challenges, but have sought the Lord and are seeing Him answering. As soon as I am able to take a longer breath and get some power at home, I will be sharing my heart out about the kids at Urban Arts! So for now, i'll keep you wondering and waiting:) Please keep praying for the City Mission kids, teachers and volunteers!!

Pick Up Sticks

I spent the weekend in Lansing, on a friend's family farm. She and a couple other friends were helping prep stuff for the Urban Arts camps. One of the projects required 100 tree sticks that needed to be a certain length and width. What better place than the woods! Our timing was a little off though when we decided to start. So, to document this adventure better than a suburban girl could tell it:), I thought I'd show some video. Be sure to watch it in order from top to bottom!
It begins at the Brook Farm on Saturday. We are just setting out on the John Deer Gator to get around.





Before you view the next video in the series, let me explain what happened right before we turned the camera on. Melissa and I stepped out of the Gator, toward the pile of sticks and as we did, there was a huge rustle of leaves and the sounds of scurrying animals. It was quite freaky!



The next day after church we were counting the number of sticks we had gathered. Not enough:( That night we went over to a bonfire with some people and decided to pick up sticks on their farm. It was quite late, we were pretty tired, and we couldn't see anything once we got out of the workshop. If you are wondering what my one friend, Brie, is doing, she is singing to the music on the radio that is playing in the shop. It's funny though cause you can't really hear the music and she just looks goofy:)


I thought I'd throw these next couple of short videos in even though you can't see too much, it's part of the adventure you don't want to miss!




When we finally got the trailer full of branches and sticks, Derrick was kind enough to turn on the band saw and cut the sticks to size and cut off all the little knobs.


And that is the story of my weekend. When we get pictures of the actual art project I will be sure to post them so you can see what all of this craziness was for:)

Garage Sale Entertainment

Tomorrow will start day 7 of the garage sale fundraiser for Urban Arts. I'm pretty exhausted from setting up, tearing down, moving from drive way to drive way, and doing it all over again...but it has been worth it. We have raised nearly 1500.00 over 6 days for the camps! That will cover art supplies, t-shirts, lunches, and a little more!

I have to say though, that I have been able to do something the last few weekends that I rarely make time to do-people watch. What intriguing individuals. I remember one of my assignments in grad school was to people watch. I thought it was hilarious at the time. Once I started the assignment though, my mind was opened to the complexity of the individual. God created some crazy, funny people! It has been amusing, sad, enjoyable, and fun to meet the hundreds of people who have stopped by (or drove slowly by). I may be a little sad for my weekend sales to come to an end. Oh well, off to bigger and better things and the reason I am doing the garage sales in the first place!-Urban Arts Camps!:)

An Unknown Hero

As I was going through our family's library I came across an old envelope. In the envelope were aged, torn newspaper articles. As I tried to decipher the articles, I realized it was some of my family history. I was so proud as I read the obituary of my great-great grandfather on my father's side of the family that I thought I would share it. How blessed I am to have a family who came from Christian heritage.

"Mr. W. T. Stapler died at his home in this city at noon Friday of last week-March the 19th, 1926, following an illness of several weeks duration. It had been known for sometime that it was only a question of time until the Christian patriot would reach the end of the journey and enter a land where disease and suffering are unknown. He was a patient sufferer, and inasmuch as the inevitable could not be forestalled it was a comfort to the members of the family to see him cross the river on placid waters without a struggle and as peacefully as a babe asleep in its mothers arms. At his bedside stood the companion of his long and useful life who had been to him a companion in every sense of the word and also his children and grand children scattered here and there in different states, were near him to witness the transition from all that is mortal and earthly to a realm to immortality and heavenly atmosphere.

He first saw the light of day near the spot where he bid farewell to the world that was all bright and new to him, when near 74 years ago, he was born within a few miles of this place. All of these years he has lived and labored and while he traveled much here and there...(newspaper clipping torn here)...but one place that (...torn again)...him, and that was the community in which he was born and where he planned to die and be buried.

Fifty two years ago, he was united in marriage to Miss Harriett Elizabeth Burns, who survives him, and to the parents, God has given the following surviving children: Mrs. Emma Jackson of Miami Fla., Mr. Odell Stapler of Mobile, Ala., Mrs. Gussie Lowe (my great grandmother) , of Washington, Ga., Mr. Carl Stapler of Meridian Miss., and Miss Hallie Stapler, the youngest daughter and baby girl.

He has been a loyal member of the Presbyterian church and a devoted Christian practically all his life. For possibly fifty years he has been an elder in the Presbyterian church. During all these years he has gone in and out before the world and his brethrenments. No shadow has fallen across his pathway by reason of a fatal moral or religious blunder. And yet he was the soul of the highest quality of natural witticism. He loved the sunny side of life and lived it. It may be a difficult matter to find pleasure in writing of the death of any person, but if it is ever either possible or permissible, it would be in this instance. For: "How blest the righteous when he dies, When sinks a weary soul to rest." He possessed the happy faculty of making friends and holding them. In all probability he has never had what might be termed an enemy. Everybody loved "Tom" Stapler who knew him. He represented B. F. Avery & Son, manufacturers of implements for thirty five years, and the manager in a letter a few days ago paid a high compliment of Mr. Stapler, stating that of all their traveling salesmen no one was held in higher esteem than was Mr. Stapler. He paid exceptionally high tribute to his consistent and outstanding life as a Christian gentleman.

Well, there's nobody left in Commerce to take the place of Tom Stapler. His was an outstanding personality. We shall miss him, but we know where to find him."

The article went on to share the details of the funeral and burial.

As the Ruin Falls

All this is flashy rhetoric about loving you. I never had a selfless thought since I was born. I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through: I want God, you, all friends, merely to serve my turn. Peace, re-assurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek, I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin: I talk of love --a scholar's parrot may talk Greek-- But, self-imprisoned, always end where I begin. Only that now you have taught me (but how late) my lack. I see the chasm. And everything you are was making My heart into a bridge by which I might get back From exile, and grow man. And now the bridge is breaking. For this I bless you as the ruin falls. The pains You give me are more precious than all other gains. CS Lewis

Sista Circle Class 7-PERFORMANCE

"My arm hurts." "Well, you can still get up there and sing." "My throat is really sore." (said in a raspy voice) "Well, you can just mouth the words." "I think I broke my toe." "Then I will help you up on the stage and hold your hand."

I heard these excuses for first 30 minutes while the girls were waiting to go on stage. They were nervous, as was I, but I new it would be a good experience for them. After a long wait, the girls ended the program with their reading of the Maya Angelou poem and singing a Kirk Franklin song. The poem went pretty well. The sound wasn't that great, due to the system, but the girls stuck with it. The song started off really well, then all of the sudden, they came in a measure early and wham...the words were off with the music. I do have to say that they continued to sing and had great attitudes all the way through. Even if the performance wasn't perfect, i'm happy the girls got up there in front of the audience and did a great job! Here are some pictures to enjoy from that night.Laura, Eyvette and me after the performance.(Renee not pictured)
Sista 2 Sista Group with their paper plate awards.
Reading the poem.

Sista Circle Class 6-Dress Rehearsal

I took a big breath, said a quick prayer and walked into the building. Chaos--the girls from my class were coming down the stairs from our classroom as Renee and I were going up. The teacher before us never showed up so the girls were "doin' their own thing"..(whatever that was). We had to round everyone up and go up three flights of stairs to our room. I said another prayer. I really needed to have a better night with the girls. This was our last night of class and rehearsal before next week's performance. Well, the Lord answered my prayers because the night went pretty well. The girls got down the song and we really worked hard on the poem. Attitudes were fairly good throughout the night. So, next week we will see how many of the girls will show up. I hope all of them, but some were threatening not to because of being scared or embarrassed. I know they will do a great job!

No Such Thing as Little Miracles

As I was thinking back about how my day unfolded, I was thanking God for the little miracle He gave me. Then I stopped. I thought, who am I to call a miracle little? There is no such thing as a miracle being little. A miracle is one of the biggest signs that our God is still alive and well and answering our prayers! Even if I think my request is little.

Today was the first garage sale for Urban Arts. The weatherman was calling for rain all day. The day before had rain and the storms were suppose to continue throughout Saturday. We really needed this garage sale. So, I prayed all week and asked the Lord to hold the rains off. All day I continued to glance at the sky and thank the Lord for the clouds, sun, and wind. It wasn't until 2:58pm that we felt our first drops of rain.

You may be thinking, it's just rain. But as I sit here typing this entry tonight and the rain is pounding against my window, I am reminded that God gave me my miracle today and it wasn't a little miracle; it was a miracle!

Sista Circle Class 5-backtrack?

As a teacher I've had good teaching days and bad teaching days. I admit, sometimes it's me, and sometimes it's the students. Last night was a rough night for Renee and me. As focused as the girls were the previous week, they were the opposite this week. Talking all the time, not respecting us or one another. It was very frustrating and difficult. Knowing that we only have one more class before our performance didn't help either. But as I tried to maintain order with the girls, it crossed my mind that everyone has these kind of days. I have no idea what events happened during the day to create the class we had last night, but being consistent and showing them love had to happen no matter what. At the end of class, one little girl, Portia, came up to me and gave me a big hug. She thanked me for teaching and being there. Once again, it made it all worth it. We took some pictures with the entire program last night as well. I've included some of those for you to take a look at.

Who Am I?

It's rare that I put a video up and I am pretty critical when it is a dramatized video, but this one caught my attention. The words to the song, the message that it delivers, and the creative way it is delivered is worth watching till the end.

Psalm 145:6-8

"They will tell of the power of your awesome works, and I will proclaim your great deeds. They will celebrate your abundant goodness and joyfully sing of your righteousness. The LORD is gracious and compassionate; slow to anger and rich in love." Ps 145:6-8

This verse hit me in a new way today when I read it. How powerful yet loving our God is to allow us to serve and worship Him. I pray that through every child I work with for Urban Arts, the power of God's awesome works and his great deed will be shown through celebrating His goodness and singing praises.

Sista Circle Class 4-FOCUS

We were in a different location for Sister Circle tonight. A whole new venue. Once in a while the church isn't available for us to use so we get bumped to another location. It's not a bad thing, but it's definitely more challenging as a teacher. You see, we all have comfort zones. We are creatures of habit. Once we get use to something, we open up a little more; take risks. Last week I saw evidence of that. The girls began to open up and focus.

This week the FOCUS was hard to see. We were in a new environment, a bigger room, more activity going on with people passing through the room. I wish I could get these girls to see how important it is to have focus; to keep it and how to use it. Again, I am reminded that I must be patient and see the Lord work over time. These life skills are not something that any of us learn in 2 hours. So, that being said, I worked on a Maya Angelou poem and only got through the first stanza. I'm pretty sure very few of the girls had every "analyzed" poetry before. But that is basically what I was doing..walking them through the poem and helping them understand it. I have 3 weeks left for them to understand it, learn it, and memorize it before the performance. It will only be the Lord's doing!:)

Sista Circle class 3-beginning of breakthrough!

At the end of class tonight, my eyes were misted over. I felt the Lord giving us breakthrough! But, let me back up. Renee, my teaching partner, wasn't able to come down to CDC tonight so another mutual friend stepped in for her. Laura is great! She is really good with the girls and she's got a great voice so it worked out well.

Before Laura and I got going, Evette held the bible study with the girls. The topic was on friends: how to be a true friend, what a Godly friend is, etc. The girls were a bit rowdy, and it seemed like we were stopping every 45 seconds to get them to stop talking or being rude. I know it takes time to break bad habits, but I don't know that these girls are held to the high standards we hold them to during any other part of the week. And if that's the case, will only 2 hours a week make a difference? I can only pray that it does. A good example that Evette came up with was how there was a crack in our sister circle. She asked the girls to identify the cracks. Several of the girls gave very observant responses. When she finished sharing, I transitioned into the music part of the evening. We are teaching them the Kirk Franklin version of "Our God is an Awesome God". Laura did a great job with it! There are two girls who don't like to participate. I haven't figured them out yet, but I'm really praying that God will show me how to connect with them. I continued to work on pantomiming again this week. I think the girls are getting the hang of it, except they can't do it without at least one of them talking...go figure:)

The class was about over, but I had brought a Maya Angelou poem, Touched by an Angel, to share with the girls. I wasn't sure how it would go. Some kids either love poetry or hate it. Those that hate it are the ones who usually don't understand it. (that was me for a portion of my life). So, I prefaced the whole thing with "you may not understand what you are about to hear but give it a chance". I recited the poem interpretively. The girls actually clapped. Now, I don't tell you that because I'm all proud and happy about my little performance. I share that because that response told me that they "got it". I know some were a little confused, but they appreciated it. If they appreciate it, I can teach it more easily! I gave each girl a copy of the poem to take home to study. I'm excited to work through it with them next week. That isn't why my eyes were misted over though. I asked for a volunteer to pray. Several girls raised their hands. The first young lady said she just had something to say. So I let her. She said how grateful she was to be in the class with the other girls. Then another girl raised her hand and asked to say a word. She thanks us for coming and taking the time to share with them. Hearing those two girls make everything worth it. I only see them 2 hours a week, but the Lord is moving in the lives of each of these girls and He is graciously allowing me to be an instrument. I stand in awe.

Urban Arts Supply List

Urban Arts has an awesome set of camps planned for this summer! Several individuals have been asking how they can help support us. There are two ways.

1. Sponsor a child for a week of camp. The cost is $70.00.
Checks should be made out to START Ministries, a 501-c3 organization, and the memo should say "Urban Arts".

• Mail the check to START Ministries. You will find the address on the website.

• Use Paypal on the START Ministries website. Please follow instructions carefully: the initials KBH should be written after your last name when using PayPal in order for credit to be given to Urban Arts.
• Donate through Facebook for the Urban Arts Cause

2. Donate items on the following list:
t-shirts
silk screening paint
Water color paper
Water color paints
Water color brushes(good ones)
Plaster of Paris
Small color photo printer and ink
4x6 photo paper
2 CD players
300 CD-R disks
8 cans of silly string
Bag of Confetti
100 Party Hats
100 brown paper lunch sacks
White Board/easel/markers/eraser/cleaner
colored gaffer tape
Mini-DV tapes for video camera
juice boxes(100)
cookies
Snacks(Goldfish, fruit snacks, etc.)
sandwich makings
spaghetti noodles
spaghetti sauce
paper products(cups, napkins, plates, silverware) for 300
Gift Cards to Gas stations, Sam's Club, Michael's, ITunes, Amazon.com, Walmart