Yvonne Chang's Blog
Real Talk / 09.23.08, 04:15 PM
real talk: i am a city girl, for life
real talk: it’s hard to live in community
real talk: i love/hate kids
Our first week in, all the MissionYear teams (from all over the country) were shipped to a farm in Georgia for a week long orientation. This is where I realized how different I was from the ‘normal’ demographic of MissionYear participants. This is where I realized how much I LOVE the city. This is where I also realized I grew up in a totally different subculture of Christianity (aka non-white, non-middle-of-America, non-Christian-college). At first, it was a huge struggle. In the span of a week, I went from excitement to bitterness to struggling with self-identity to isolation to anger and finally to trust that God would stick by me anyway. I know it’s a lot of feelings to take in/understand so if you really want to know the details ask. Just know that it was a draining first week.
After our week-long cow-poop-filled orientation, we came back for a second City (atlanta) orientation and our first week of living together. I forgot how tiring it was to live with roommates. Yea, it’s only been a couple of months since college, but it was different. If I didn’t like a roommate, I didn’t feel obliged to make it work. I could just let it be. But not here. Living with 5 other girls = no privacy, no privacy, and repeating everything at least 3 times (especially bc my voice can be really soft and I tend to mumble). It’s been so hard, and I just want to give up sometimes just because it’s so hard… butttt it HAS only been a couple of weeks, and I need to give it time.
Finally, this week (our 3rd week) we’re starting one of our service sites- an afterschool program at Atlanta Youth Academy (AYA). yesterday was our first day. Basically, I remembered how much I love but hate kids. After working in afterschool this past year at Linda Vista, I was so relieved that I didn’t have to deal with kids in the school setting anymore, but boy was I wrong. It’s funny though because a lot of the experiences i’ve been through have trained me to be up to this point. Just how God won’t call you to anything without equipping you. My job at the YMCA was so random, but I can’t help but thank God that he at least gave me some experience/training before putting me to work in Atlanta.
Overall, I’m doing ok. This is definitely not the “mission year” I thought I would be living out, but then again, “urban missions” is definitely not the same as missions abroad. Friends, family, and anyone else reading this… please continue to pray for me.
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you doin’ it you doin’ it and you doin’ it well.
word on being “equipped”. those kids are very blessed to have you as their leader. (if you get the jr. high bunch, tell them ms. joyce says hi). im working from 1-6 this fri. but if you wanna talk 9ish your time, we can. if not, that’s cool—i understand.
keep it up!! you are in my prayers and thoughts.
By sarjoyce / Sep 23, 07:49 PM / #
i hear you on all of your feelings. i felt similarly in first arriving. keep writing all your true feelings, and real statements, because those are the things that you are going to learn from. give your all, fall over tired backwards, praise the Lord that you are still chugging along, still surviving, do it over and over and over again. you can do it!
plug into your true source.
you are in my thoughts!
By ann / Sep 24, 02:45 PM / #
Remember what I said: keep going. God’s got you. Warm fuzzies are fleeting, but God’s plans are always there.
By Andra / Sep 25, 10:17 AM / #
i was in a position not-so-different from your own 2 years ago … but be encouraged! it turned out to be a great and formative year of my life. i’ll pray for you and your team – really, i will. ^^
By chris / Sep 30, 12:17 AM / #
teach me korean
By stephen johnson / Oct 8, 09:42 PM / #