Matthew Donohue's Blog
February Update/newsletter / Feb 21, 02:42 PM
So basically this is just my newsletter, so if you already read that there is no reason to read this, later
News from Camden
Another month has passed and what a month it has been. Thanks for all the support I am receiving and keep praying for me.
Hopeworks
At Hopeworks, the adult literacy program I work at in the morning, I no longer get to work with Miles. As I said in my last letter he has got an internship this semester and is still taking college courses too. I am sad that I don’t get to work with him anymore because he brought joy to my life, but I am extremely excited for him and what he is doing. I still get to stop in and see him sometimes at Hopeworks. Since I am not working with Miles I have started working with Angel. Angel is a new trainee at Hopeworks and I get to work with him about an hour every morning doing one-on-one mentoring. He is trying to make the transition into College. Hopefully by August he will be able to get into a College.
Super Bowl
I actually didn’t get to watch the Super Bowl with Kelly, which is okay because a lady from our Church invited our house over to watch it with her at her house. It was a good opportunity to get to hang out with someone from Church outside of Church, which is something we have not actually had a chance to do a lot of. I and three of my housemates went to watch the Super Bowl with her and it was a great bonding experience.
Urban Promise
I have continued to work with Jimmy, the 4th grader at the Urban Promise after school program, every chance I get. I notice that he is more talkative when I am around him and he seems to ask me to help him with his homework more than he does the other helpers. So I guess he is getting more comfortable with me.
Another kid from the after school program is Justyn, a first grader. He is usually really bad and doesn’t respond to the staff very well. So we decided to give him some extra attention to see if that would get him to settle down a little bit. I had the task of keeping him calm during are closing program, which last for about 30 minutes and requires kids to be still and quiet, which is obviously hard for Justyn. The first day we implemented this new plan I was kind of iffy of it working, however, Justyn sat next to me and for the most part was quiet and still. Every few minutes he would ask me a question though, “Am I being good Mr. Matthew?” I would say, “Yes, you are Justyn, you are being very good.” And he was being good, I was a little shocked. He did ask me that question over and over again. I thought it was cute and funny. Then I thought this might just work for this kid. The next day at closing program he is all over the place. I had to take him out of program and sit with him in another room because he was being so disruptive. I finally got him to calm down by reading a book to him. I knew he wouldn’t be interested in the book because he wouldn’t be able to relate to it so I just made the story up myself replacing the characters with people that were in the after school program that he knew. After this day I realized that he isn’t just going to be a perfect angel all the time and not after one day after implementing a new plan for him.
Another fourth grader from the after school program is Shydel. He is a particularly hard kid to work with. He is always putting up a fight about homework. One day he was having a particularly bad day and our director decided I was the lucky one to help him with his homework. I was thinking o boy. So I am sitting here trying to help this fourth grader with his homework and he just doesn’t want to do it. I try to get him to just read the questions and he just can’t, he can’t really read. He is in the fourth grade and he doesn’t actually know how to read yet. The school systems our so messed up in Camden. If no one ever taught me to read I wouldn’t want to do my homework either. I am sitting here realizing I can’t teach this kid to read with what little time I have with him. I do help him read the questions and sound out the words because he doesn’t know how. I think he understood most of the questions we did, we didn’t get a chance to get all of them finished. I hope he understood some of it.
I think to myself, does this after school program really make a difference? Is Urban Promise accomplishing anything? Then I look at my after school program director, which is my boss there. His name is Pookie (his real name is Edwardo, but he prefers Pookie and that’s what everyone calls him). He grew up in Camden, he went through the after school program at Urban Promise and now he is back running one of the after school camps (there is around five different camps throughout the city). This is what Urban Promise is all about, “building a city of promise one child at a time.” They want to have leaders from within the community, people that already know what it is like to grow up there. When it first started it was people from the outside trying to help. Now there are people that have came through Urban Promise that our in the leadership positions. Pookie is one of them and there are others also. They realize what Urban Promise is doing and they are trying to give back. I realize that I probably won’t change every kid’s life, but I can change some lives.
Changes
There has been one really big change in my life here in Camden over the last month. One of my housemates, Jason, has went back home to Michigan. He was having a hard time dealing with some issues in his life and it was decided that he would be better off leaving Camden and going back home to deal with these issues. He is staying with his mentor and friend in Michigan.
Ending Note…
Thanks for all the support I am getting from all of you it is very much appreciated.
Thanks for taking the time to read about my experiences. Continue to pray for me and my time here. If you want to donate to Mission Year you can use the support envelope and follow the instructions on there. Make checks payable to Mission Year and put my account # 07-0065 on the memo line. You can also donate online @ www.missionyear.org/blog/matthewdonohue. I am roughly at 30% of my fundraising goal of $12,000. Thanks to all of those who support me, keep me in your prayers.
Trials are not enemies of faith but are opportunities
to prove GOD’s faithfulness
Matthew Donohue
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