Blog entries tagged At the office

Annual Team Conference

Nate & Kelley — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 08:00:00 +0100

At the end of January we participated in our second Annual Team Conference that our missions team does. It's a time to build team community and reconnect with teammates who we don't work closely with, as well as a time for spiritual growth as we listen to speakers and do small group activities. Knowing we would have a newborn this year, we weren't exactly sure how it would go!

This year it was a 3-day, 2-night event at Youth World's retreat center, about 45 mi...

Chess

Nate & Kelley — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 20:58:19 +0100

I didn’t realize that the sports ministry aspect of what I would be doing here in Ecuador would involve chess. Is chess a sport? Kids at this school play chess. Not sure how it started, not sure why it continues, but kids play chess. So now I play chess. I’m not really good, but I play.

I run a study hall. The first few weeks nobody would talk to me. I started bringing a chessboard with me. Still nobody wanted to interact with me. As kids...

Spiritual Emphasis Week: Mythbusters

Nate & Kelley — Tue, 11 Oct 2011 07:47:34 +0100

Just a little sample of some of Nate's work for Spiritual Emphasis Week. This was the intro video from day one. (Click link below)

McGod

AAI Tour

Nate & Kelley — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 07:37:19 +0100

Several ex-AAIers, both faculty and staff, were interested in seeing some of the changes and updates that have been done to our campus. Nate made a little video tour of our campus for anyone interested in where we work. Since it seems to be having trouble showing up here, I've got a link to the video:

http://youtu.be/Dk-4BSoFtnM

Peanut Butter Sandwiches

Nate & Kelley — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 03:07:27 +0100

When you work with high schoolers, you have to be creative ALL the time.

Sometimes we jump straight into the deep end of conversation and life with a student. And sometimes it takes a little bit more of a "hook" to get there.

Here's a small sample of what chapel looked like this morning. Nate had 4 volunteers come to the front for a speed-eating pb&j contest. The kids got into it, shoving half a sandwich into their mouth and then...

Casa Deportiva Cumbre Alta

Nate & Kelley — Sat, 06 Aug 2011 07:00:00 +0100

Nate here. As Kelley mentioned I started a sports club this summer along with a buddy, Dave Gardeen. Right now we only have a soccer team for boys born from 1996 to 1998, basically 7th, 8th and 9th graders.

While the school year was finishing up, Dave and I would get together and try to put our ideas together. I had a lot of fun brainstorming what we wanted the club to look like, our goals, vision, etc. I'm a geek for these sort of things.

We decided to try and start somet...

Summer Work

Nate & Kelley — Thu, 14 Jul 2011 02:11:47 +0100

Never having worked in education, this the first time that Nate and I have had the summer "off" from our regular jobs. It's a strange feeling to have our whole little family of three in the house each day. But despite not reporting for our regular job assignment, we are keeping plenty busy!

- Nate is running a summer soccer camp. It is small this year, but has been an excellent way to spend hours pouring into a limited number of kids, most of whom attend...

Chaplaincy Retreat - Part 2

Nate & Kelley — Mon, 16 May 2011 06:55:06 +0100

Our retreat to Otavalo was two-fold. It was a chance to reflect on this current school year and come together as a team that fell into place pretty quickly. Half of our team arrived within days or after the start of this school year so we needed some time to step away from that.

The second reason for the retreat is planning for next year. That's right! In April we were already starting to think about and plan for next August. What will...

Chaplaincy Retreat - Part 1

Nate & Kelley — Thu, 05 May 2011 22:28:49 +0100

Over the Easter break, the chaplaincy team went on a planning retreat. We are already thinking about and getting ready for the next school year, even as we finish this one up! We traveled about two hours out of the city to a retreat center near Otavalo.

We got to our rooms about 9pm, after a rainy, traffic-filled trip and everyone got settled and crashed for the night. Throughout the night I awoke several times because of the sound of machines. I k...

Counseling Summit: Middle School

Nate & Kelley — Sun, 01 May 2011 03:03:15 +0100

Once a year the school counseling department holds a half-day counseling summit. This year the summit focused on "Taboo Topics," offering the kids a chance to hear information and a Christian perspective on topics not often addressed. The counseling department asked the chaplaincy office to run the program for the middle schoolers.

Everyone started off the day with a "Pancake Breakfast" for all students, teachers, and seminar presenters. From there the h...

Bible Project Time

Nate & Kelley — Thu, 31 Mar 2011 07:00:00 +0100

(Written by Nate)

This past week was spent talking with 9th graders, as part of their Bible class projects. We pretend to be teens that are using drugs, or believe every religion leads to heaven, or have lost a loved one and blame God. The students are supposed to be prepared to answer our questions about the problem of evil, or hell, or how we know the Bible is truth. Really interesting conversations.

Inevitably we ask them ...

Annual Team Conference

Nate & Kelley — Thu, 17 Feb 2011 22:38:41 +0100

Every year Youth World (International Teams in Ecuador) brings all its missionaries together to review the last year and dream about the next. We also have some fun with team building activities, small groups, and different speakers. It's a chance for the people who work in different areas on different teams to reconnect and for new team members, like us, to get to know the whole team. We are very thankful that we were able to get to Ecuador in time for this week-l...

First Semester is Over!

Nate & Kelley — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 04:05:34 +0100

My first assignment as a member of the chaplain's office was to help organize a game time for the middle school students. It was the last day of the semester and we wanted to help alleviate the stress of final exams.

We started with snacks for them. In the States that would probably mean chips and a coke, but here a good snack if often an "empanada," a savory, crescent shaped pastry filled with chicken, beef, cheese, vegetables or a combination of those.

<...

Accounting

Nate & Kelley — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 10:10:48 +0100

What we've done since we got here ...

- We've looked at 13 different apartments and homes (one twice as two realtors unknowingly took us to the same place), but still haven't found one quite right for our family

- We've attended two Youth World meetings where we are just beginning to learn the names of the many people and their ministry areas that we are apart of.

- We've hired a nanny for Canaan who will help out during the hours we are both working at the ...

Church Commissioning

Nate & Kelley — Thu, 06 Jan 2011 09:31:35 +0100

This past Sunday our church did a commissioning event for Nate, Canaan and I. It was perfect and meaningful in every way.

During the first service Kevin (our pastor) had us speak and then the leadership team prayed over us. During the second service we spoke again and then Kevin had many of the couples who have been apart of our home group and friend circle come up and pray around us. Many of the couples - and others too - came to Lakeview just fo...

Visas

Nate & Kelley — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 23:31:10 +0100

On our second attempt, we have successfully secured 3 visas for Ecuador. Our plane tickets will get us to the country and our visas will get us INTO the country so the essentials are taken care of.

Nate spent the day in the city because we had to turn the paperwork in first thing in the morning and pick it up at 3pm. It meant almost 5 hours of travel time between the Metra, CTA and walking in 20 degree weather. Five hours of carting an 8 month old for a ...

From There to Here

Nate & Kelley — Tue, 07 Dec 2010 23:31:49 +0100

It's a little hard to believe that we are just one month away from moving our family to Quito, Ecuador. We'll be starting over with new jobs to learn, new friends to be made, and a new home to put together ... in a different country. The anticipated transition is still to come, but we've come a long way already:

July '09: We we...

Last Saturday

Nate & Kelley — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 09:33:48 +0100

It was a great day in so many unexpected ways. We went to bed Friday night knowing it was going to be a full-blown schedule and we would end the day tired. We did end the day tired, but we also ended the day feeling really blessed.

We had a great morning coffee date with someone who I've just gotten to know recently. Their faith and exposure to worldwide ministry is pretty new. It was such a delight to sit with them and just have them be genuinely excited about the path ...

Teen Girls Group

Nate & Kelley — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 20:40:11 +0100

Wednesday I started my second support group for teen girls at an alternative high school. It is literally my favorite part of my job currently. I love the girls and I love the energy I get from spending an hour trying to manage some pretty fabulous discussions. This time around the group has grown to 15 girls (too many!). Word spread after the first round so we also have a waitlist of seven more who will start on the spring semester track. It’s fun to know the girls are reacting to the g...

Almost Halfway

Nate & Kelley — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 03:38:53 +0100

Nate and I are almost halfway through our this first round of training. As anticipated, days are long, sitting time is long, and there's not a whole lot of room for personal space or time. Still, it's been a good first half to the week.

I really enjoyed meeting the president of IT and getting to interact with him. He had some words to say that I needed to hear. At times I feel overwhelmed and scared with what a major decision this is. And it often feels like I have too ...