yikes!

hey everyone!

i am sorry that i wasnt able to make a blog post this past weekend. it ended up being super busy and there was simply zero time for it. we went to pittsburg last weekend and it was so amazing. we went to the district and went to pillima (?) brothers. the sandwhich shop where they put the fries and coleslaw on your sandwhich! it was pretty good. then we just hung out. and shopped and enjoyed a day in the city. we went down the incline where you get in a rail car and the view was beautiful!

some highlights from last week...(its hard to remember all of them)

i got to give mark and eric mowhawks. the group met the money raised for YE and so mark and eric got mowhawks. it was really fun. i am really getting good at cutting hair and that has been super fun.

other highlights were just getting to spend a lot of time at kids club and interacting with the kids. it was so good to just continue those relationships.

although kids club is never easy. on monday we had a "gang fight" it wasnt really a gang fighting but it was about 5 teenage boys going at it right at the end of kids club. me mark and eric were caught in the middle of it. it was crazy to try and break up. we were all holding people back and at that point i was ready to pack my bags and leave...but if only i knew what was gonna happen this week..

this week has been really hard. there is no other way to put it. yesterday many things happened to atribute to the worst youthworks day i have ever seen.

yesterday someone tried to start multiple fires in our sactuary with our bibles. thankfully we found it before it got out of control, but there was still some damage done, but no one was hurt. we came accross the fire after eric had saw some smoke and smelt it. when we went the back way into the sanctuary we found a few bibles ripped up and smoldering in a pile. then when we went into the sanctuary we found 3 more places with ashes of church envelopes. the sanctuary was filled with haze and smoke. also thankfully the fire dept is right accross the street and they and the police were here with-in minutes. so even though we dont know who did it, we are glad everyone ended up being ok. and now we are taking extra safety procautions to make sure it doesnt happen again.

also yesterday we had a youth that just was not getting along with an adult leader and that was tough. we are trying to work that situation out but it is really tough. we have a wide range of youth here including many that dont want to be here. and it is hard to make someone have fun when they are so angry that they are here.

then just all the small things this week that could go wrong, are. kim had a bad feeling about this week this past weekend and it is proving to be true. i dont know how it will end out but as a team we are spending alot of time in prayer and just hoping that God really moves here this week.

i really would just to like to ask for prayer here for us in steubenville. we have so many challenges in the next few days to deal with and i pray that we can just overcome them. and surpase them. that this week can just be turned around. we have 2 weeks left after this and i just hope that this week doesnt burn us out. because we need to give these final two weeks as much as we gave the first 6.

so there is a quick update. that is about all i have time for right now i will be writting again this weekend. to fill you in. here are a few quick pictures from last week.