BAY UPDATE from Kelley #1

Hello friends and family>

          Greetings from Funktown,CA!!!(that's what the neighborhood in Oakland I live in is called).First, I want to thank you for all the support financially and through prayer that you have given me.  I would not have had the opportunity to be on this amazing trip if it wasn't for you.  I just wanted to let you know what I have been up to these past 2 weeks.  I arrived in Oakland on Father's day and for the first week of my urban mission trip,  On the trip there are 6 students from SSU and about 11 other students fronm Standford, Cal Berkley, Davis, ect. It is great meeting new people in the same program. The first week I was here, I was in training at Patten University staying in the dorms. This prepared my team and I for the next five weeks of actually living in a neighborhood.  Starting last Friday, the SSU team and I moved into our 2 bedroom 4th floor apartment.  It's tiny, but really cute.  It works for us.  We have been eating on a small budget typical of the area we are living in.That is just teaching me how I only need to survive on the basic necessities.  I am actually eating oatmeal which is something I thought would never be a part of my daily diet.  This week, I started training for the ministry site SSU is assigned to, Harbor House.  I qam really excited b/c starting next week, kids from the community will becoming to the summer program.  I am in charge of teaching the science/ nature activirty center(one of six centers).  Each week, there is a rotation of the ages of kids I will get grades k-7.  Other than working at Harbor House, eating, and sleeping, our program puts on dicussion nights for us.  We have bible studies, game nights,ect.  I am having a great time and really growing closer to God as I learn more fully God's heart for the city.  I am also writing to you in hopes tat you would pray for my team as I as we continue encountering new things in the city.  Please pray that we will be able to connect to our nieghbors and deepen relationships with them, that we stay safe in the city, and most of all please pray for the summer program and the kids we will be ministering to.  That's all for now.  I hope you are having a wionderful summer and early Happy Fourth of July!!!!!! I miss you all. 

 

<3 Kelley