Rutland, Vermont welcomed my staff and I on Saturday. We had a nice drive from Delaware to here. Our 5 day training took place at a church in Delaware, right outside of Philadelphia. It was long and intensive, but all good. As prepared as we could be, we embarked on our new journey together as a team for the summer. My team consists of me, the Site Director, Kaity, our Program Coordinator from South Dakota, Brandon, our Service Coordinator from Ohio, and Ben, our Kids Club Coordinator from California. It's a great group - everyone brings their own unique characteristics, gifts, and humor - which makes for a fun and laid back group. Ben served on this site last year so that is a huge help.
Filling the role of the supervisor and leader in a place that I don't know and a job that I don't have experience in is quite overwhelming. My team has a lot of patience for me as I learn the ropes, establish expectations, and make a few mistakes here and there. We have already had some memorable times which make great stories to share and laugh about. One of those includes us locking ourselves out of the church we are staying in the first day we were here because we thought it would be a great idea to have a picnic lunch, and just assumed that people would stay around chatting for hours after the service like they do at our churches back home. Well everyone left and locked the doors by the time we were done eating - we just found that out the hard way. Not to worry though, the associate pastor lives right down the road so the problem was easily solved.
We have been building some great community connections so far. A couple who has been connected with YouthWorks for quite a while, Rob and Jenny, are our adoptive parents basically. They open up their home to us whenever we want to come over. So far they have taken us out for dinner, Ben & Jerry's, and had us over for a cookout (in which we got to meet the youth group that Rob leads). They have an adorable little boy, Jacob who is a bundle of energy!
My team has been having some great bonding experience: in planning, preparing, brainstorming, practicing, and all of the many things we have to do in our prep weeks. We have even sat down to a “family” style dinner each night that we have taken turns preparing for each other. It’s nice we can take the time to do this now, as we won’t be having nice peaceful dinners once the programming weeks begin. I have been learning a lot about leadership, delegation, team dynamics, finding my way around in a new place with new people, and dealing with emotional and mental roller coasters, and I have only just begun.
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