I arrived in Jackson yesterday afternoon after a nice little drive from Saint Louis. Here to meet me was Rachel, a staff member here at the Perkins Center. She helped me unload my car and then gave me my first piece of advice for living here: never to lock my car. So, I took everything valuable out of it. If someone goes through it they will only find some change and hand sanitizer. If they need either one, they can just take it.She said this is the best approach, because otherwise people will break the windows to get in. She said, "Most likely someone will go through it this summer. Maybe several times. " It makes perfect sense, but I never would have thought of it.
For everyone who's worried about by safety, don't-- so far so good! The boys always walk the girls home at night if we're over at their house past dark. The boys have quite the bachelor pad-- with a pool table and a better tv than we have. There place is where everyone typically hangs out.Oh, and there are guard dogs in the fence behind our house. Hopefully I don't tangle with them at any point this summer!
I'm getting to know the interns and they are soooo nice! They've been a little bit less outgoing than I would have thought, but that's not bad. It just makes it a little harder to get to know them.We sit in silence often, then I usually talk (surprise, surprise). Hopefully they aren't getting annoyed! I'm just trying to be friendly. The staff here is so helpful though, and I never feel lonely or anything like that.
Today was our first day of orientation, and I'll talk more about what I learned this morning in my next post (I left my paper at the house and now I'm at the office). They gave us the tour of the grounds and even showed us the recording studio they have here. Someone broke in, or rather, tore in, leaving a huge hole in the wall. They stole most of the equipment and the center is in the process of replacing and reestablishing the workspace. The names "Jon Foreman" and "Switchfoot" were thrown around, but I couldn't tell if that's who bought the equipment the last time, or if that's who was going to replace it.
Hopefully we can get it fixed up by the end of the summer. There are several of us here that would like to record some stuff in it. :-) It would also be sweet to be able to use it with the kids.I told John and Rachel (John Sr's grandson John) that Switchfoot is actually how I first heard about John (Sr.) and their song piqued my curiousity enough for me to google him. This is how I found jmpf.org, the website for the foundation, which is where I then found out about the internship. John was so excited and thought it was so cool that that's how I found out. Rachel said I need to tell John (Sr.- I'll probably start calling him Grandpa John to reduce confusion) when I meet him. Rachel said Grandpa John didn't know anything about Switchfoot until after they wrote the song about him. Now he's a big Jon Foreman fan. Can't blame him.
For anyone who doesn't know the song, here's the link for the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNQgABsUfK8 . Hopefully that will help you understand this a little bit more. It was hard for me to explain to people why I was coming here, and so a few looked at me skeptically (though most thought it seemed cool). I really feel that I'm in the right place, and this is going to be a great trial run to see if this is what I want to do when I graduate. . . something like this anyway. I will also get to meet some really cool people , and hopefully help kids that need some extra love. I'm very excited, and feeling at peace in that this is where God wants me right now. How exciting!
This afternoon we toured the targeted neighborhood, as well as Deer Park, which is the next target, (I think). Though parts are a bit rough looking, I can already see the impact of the foundation on the neighborhood. John pointed out several houses that are ours and that will be repaired for families in the area to rent to buy-- or something like that. I'm hoping to learn more about that whole process as the summer goes on.
I'm not sure what's going on for the rest of the day. We got finished fairly early and haven't made plans so far. We're all fairly tired from driving yesterday, and from the heat here. It's mighty powerful. I hope my body adjusts quickly.
Please continue to pray for this community and that I'm able to help them and become more of a part of the community over the next few days/weeks.
Love and peace in Christ,
LH
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