InsideOut Launch Update

It's been amazing past two weeks.  I don't think I've had a crazier week than last week, so pardon my lack of updates.  

After weeks of renovation, we now have an A-Mazing venue for our youth!  We had our first InsideOut last Friday and it went spectacularly!  The music was awesome, the comedic hosts were great, and if I do say so myself, Matt did an amazing job speaking!

My goal for InsideOut was twofold

1)To empower our volunteers to take ownership of IO and find their niche and run with it.  

2)To take as much of the logistical planning off Matt so that he would be able to have the freedom to create an engaging and relevant plan of what to say to his audience.  

Personally, I'd give myself a solid B (I'm sure some would grade me better, and others worse) for my efforts, but I'm looking forward to improving my abilities in this role for the next IO.  My dream is to see Matt be able to focus full heartedly on what he is to say.  

Most of you would agree that what changes you the most are the words you hear in church. God has used words throughout history to convey his love and his truth.  If we put such a strong emphasis on the words we hear, then the person communicating those words should take the calling seriously. 

I've grown up with that mentality...I can remember watching my dad spending hours poring over what he would say in Sunday School on Saturday afternoons.  After a long week at work, he would inevitably sit on the front porch, drinking his coffee, working on his lesson for hours.  Then on Sunday morning, you'd hear him downstairs at 6am putting the final touches on what he was to teach.  Things haven't changed that much as I watch my own husband waking up at 530 the day before camp to put his final touches on what he is to say.  

These two men rightly so put an emphasis on what they are to say.  They take their roles seriously as communicators.  My goal is to facilitate that process for Matt, so I spent most of the week figuring out more ways to do that, delegating work to others, planning the schedule so it ran most efficiently for him.  

Then there's our lovely volunteers (myself included, haha)!  It is such a pleasure to work with every one of them because they are so willing to help in any way.  But, my goal as a volunteer, yet working so closely with Matt, is to facilitate an experience for them where they are learning more about their own gifts and talents all while helping the bigger purpose of seeing the lives of teens changed.  I hope that they left InsideOut feeling like they contributed to a cause that was bigger than themselves, I hope they learned a little bit about themselves, and I hope they were stretched beyond their comfort zone.  

I'm going to try to post some pictures from our InsideOut...you won't believe it...and for any teens that weren't there...I can confidently say you missed out big time...you need to be there on the 14 of August!

Readers may find it interesting to check out the North Point Mission Team's blog where some of their youth wrote about what they experienced while in Cape Town.  There's also pictures!

http://capetownhighschooltrip.blogspot.com

Enjoy!  and more to come later!!!