My Life in Pictures

I am too tired to write much, so I thought I would share some pictures from my world. For more, check out facebook AND go to the Lincoln Journal (local paper) website to check out more pictures from my weeks! Just look for the YouthWorks! link!

Prep Week in Philly

My Crew32 Crew

Early Bird in Logan, WV

The view from Logan's site

Square dancing in Delbarton

Charleston

Linds and I share a birthday dinner

Clogging

Michael Midkiff

Where I live

A Note From The Furnace Closet

Good News: I found an internet access

Bad News: It is in a furnace closet, where I must cram myself between a table and a toolbox to plug in.

But here I am.

We have our first week of kids. I remembering why I love YouthWorks. I am remembering how hard YouthWorks can be.

I am learning a great deal as the leader of my small ragtag staff of God-warriors. I will write more about it later...perhaps this weekend.

First, a more pressing issue. You have all (except Kelly and Cassidy- who are amazing) let me down. I made one simple request. 

Pictures.

And I have received......

3

Because my Dad and Momma are also awesome.

The rest of you, dear readers, I shall give you my address again, give you a second chance:

John Creagar

c/o YouthWorks

P.O. Box 612

Hamlin, WV 25523

In all seriousness though, me friends, I am blessed by your prayers. I have needed them the past few weeks, and I thank you for praying for me. Your prayers are worth more than pictures, and I am humbled by those who pray for me. Thank you.

And send pictures:P

Well, I have to cook breakfast in the morning. 120 frozen waffles.

Can't wait.

Clifford Ellis Welcomed Me Home

Well, dear friends, here I sit in Logan, West Virginia, on the eve of Early Bird week. Early Bird is a week when multiple sites come together to run a YouthWorks week as one giant unit. It gives new staffers a chance to see a week in action, and alumni to get their feet wet again. We, the Lincoln County Crew have come to Logan. We will be here until Friday, then head back to Hamlin, West Virginia, where we will do one more week of prep, and then will have youth of our own arrive.

A great deal has occurred in the last few weeks, but I will try to summarize in a brief rundown.

I left my dog, my truck, my family, and my friends behind in Kansas City and Manhattan. no matter how many times I leave a place....and I tend to do that often....it is always a difficult thing to do. I truly enjoy my friends and family, and sometimes my transient life wears me down. Sometimes, just as the plane takes off, I think about how nice it would be if I could just settle in someplace for 3 or 4 years. Maybe put down some roots, meet a girl, start a family, have barbeques and Toasting Tuesdays.....

.....then the plane takes off and I am onto the next adventure, and I see new stories forming to tell old friends, new friends coming at me, new cultures to immerse myself in. And suddenly, I know that this wanderer's life is the only thing I can do....for now.

Back to YouthWorks

My training week was awesome. I got to catch up with old YW friends, to meet my amazing staff, and to remember why it was that I quit my job and abandoned reason to come serve God in West Virginia this summer.

My staff. They are truly wonderful. Each brings gifts to the table that make our site run like a well oiled machine. Each brings a work ethic and desire to serve the Lord that will carry us all through the summer. Each knows how to smile and seek God in both the mundane and the trying times. Each is a blessing to West Virginia, YouthWorks, and myself.

Their names are Haley Church (Program), Mark Cooper (Work Projects), and Lindsay Holmes (Kids Club). If you are praying for me this summer, I would ask that you add them to that time as well. If you want to know more about them, just let me know.

We left Philly, and began our trip to Hamlin. Along the way we saw some beautiful countryside, ate at an excellent Mexican Restaurant, discovered that out F-150 two-tone pickup (named Tony) has no radio, and got to know each other much better.

Upon our arrival in Hamlin, we walked into the Fire Hall in the middle of Bingo Night. Every Thursday and Saturday night the building we stay in, which was a brassiere factory, then a junior high, and now is owned by the Fire Fighters of Hamlin, houses community bingo. It is pretty amazing, and a greta chance to catch up on local goings on.

Anywho, we arrived mid-bingo and mid-rainstorm. There was water in our sleeping rooms. There was dirt. There were bugs. It was a bit overwhelming.

But there was air conditioning. There were mattresses. There were amazing people who told us over and over that they wanted us there, that they were honored to have us, whom they had never met, staying with them. There was God. The love was....a bit overwhelming.

We found a dry, safe place to sleep, and slept through the evening. We awoke, we cleaned, and we began our adventure. We are starting to love our home.

It is always cold. The A/C works very well, and is always on. It is always filled with scanner chatter. As one person put it, we always know who to pray for, because we hear about every accident in Lincoln County. It is often filled with firefighters and EMT's and their families.

The community in Hamlin is extremely loving towards us. They look after us. They have already invited us to dinner (twice), given us gifts (amazing ones), told us they were our mothers, and gone out of their way to give us anything we even mention needing/wanting. We have been invited to every community event available, and have been invited to every church in town- and there are many.

AND

I have reunited with the Elswicks and the Ellis's. I have not had much chance to hang out with either, we have been busy getting the site ready, but they have welcomed me back with open arms. Clifford Ellis told me he and his wife Pinky had been praying hard that I would "come home".

Clifford is the pastor of the Ferrelsburg Church of God. On Wednesday I got to go to his church and take part in a good old fashioned West Virginia prayer service. I snuck in the back while they were watching a video about experiencing God. When they lights came on, Clifford came up to wrap up, and he saw me. Immediately he called me up, and had the entire congregation come up and pray for me. It was humbling, honoring, terrifying, and beautiful. Then I got to sit and just catch up with this amazing man and woman for about an hour.

Now, as I said before, I love everyone I left behind. I miss each of you everyday, trust me I do. But it was a special kind of sweetness to sit in the Ferrelsburg Church of God with an intense man of the Lord and his wife, and just feel a real, Godly, pure love oured out in my direction. As I drove through the scary West Virginia night, I couldn't help but feel like with people like that praying for and watching out for me, the summer could never get too off course.

Well, this update has already been too long. I will close it down. I do want to say that I love you all, and look forward to seeing you at the end of the summer. Or when you send me your pictures. DO IT.

AND stayed tuned, dear reader. Coming soon: John goes clogging.

There may even be pictures.

I Have Arrived

Well, dear readers, I have arrived in Hamlin, West Virginia.

We are busy, and I do not have time to update for real, but this is a shameless ploy for mail.

You see, usually when I head out for a YouthWorks summer, I bring with me a collection of pictures of friends and family so that I will not be too lonely over the summer.

This summer I forgot.

So the call is going out my friends! Send me your pictures! Join me in my adventure!

Make them funny, serious, anything will be awesome! Bainy....I expect sweet pictures from your travels.

And don't just send pictures. I would love to hear about how your summer is going as well. Write to me, and I will write you back. We can be pen pals. It it will rock.

All righty, I am going to go sit at the Post Office and wait.....

John Creagar
C/O YouthWorks!
P.O. Box 612
Hamlin, WV 25523

My Bags Are Packed, I'm Ready To Go.....

So this is it for a while. After I post this I am packing my computer and turning off my cable/internet. On Monday I am flying to Philly, then driving to West Virginia.

I may have some internet access this summer, so stay with me, dear reader. Don't abandon me. We will still share the summer, if only at a distance.

Catch you on the flip side....

Thank You Travelocity

One week from Monday I leave for my Youthworks summer. In order to get to my training, I needed to purchase a plane ticket. To be a wise consumer, I did some research, tried several different packages, and finally went with the Travelocity website one-way ticket to Philly. I found that if I fly one way out, and in a few weeks grab another one way back home for the end of the summer, I save about ten bucks. Go me.

So I click click click, and have my ticket purchased. Then, like any good employee, I proceed to inform my employer of these plans, as per their request.

That is when I discovered that I, in my infinite wisdom, had somehow managed to reserve a round trip flight from Kansas City to Philly and back for August 11 (depart) and August 12 (return). Needless to say, this was a useless ticket for me, as I need to be in Philly on May 25, and leave Philly on August 11.

First I cursed.

Then I yelled.

Then I punched my desk.

Then I remembered that earlier this week I had bruised my knuckle punching through sheet rock for fun.

Then I looked into fixing my error.

Luckily, Travelocity plans for morons like myself. They have a refund policy for those of us who cannot get it right the first time. The airlines wanted to charge me $150 to change my flight date. Travelocity simply cancelled my plans, then allowed me to reschedule as needed.

So now I am set. And my dreams of cheap travel are nearly within reach.

Now I just have to get my house packed up.....yikers.

BANG!

Last night I played the game BANG! with several of my friends. I had never played it before, but had heard it was awesome.

All reports were true.

I am, generally, not a strategy, interactive game person. I get distracted too easily, follow through on ridiculous whims, and generally mess up my game, and usually others who I am playing with.

But BANG! is different, and here is how:

1. It is about gunfighters and the old west. Instantly awesome.

2. While strategy dictates that you should be careful who you kill, it is possible to kill or at leats attack on a whim...such as when I shot Tiffany purely because I told her I would shoot her first or attacked Chris as vengence for putting me in jail.

3. You can be underhanded, and your character can actually play the way s/he might have to in real life. Thus, the sheriff fights a losing battle because s/he is exposed the whole game, the deputy fights to save the sheriff without making him/herself a target, the renegade can seem to help the sheriff, but then quickly turns on him/her, and the outlaws are just out for blood. I love it.

4. I have been reading a bit about game theory lately, and this game was interesting from that standpoint as well.

5. The game is short enough that I stay engaged.

So I now have a new favorite game. Anybody want to play? I own the game (ask Sam and Luke why), so up to 6 of you lucky readers can join me. More if we invite Luke and his game.