Fortress welcomes guest blogger Christina Bartelt, a recent high school graduate and Lipscomb University-bound secondary education major from Fayetteville, Tennessee.
Christina and her youth group from Washington Street Church of Christ are here this week on a “mission trip”, helping us facilitate the summer program by loving on, interacting with, and encouraging our kids. They’re doing an amazing job! Led by youth minister Brad Sullivan and adult sponsors Ron Kerbo and Anna Catherine Cooley, Washington Street is a true blessing to Fortress YDC.
Christina will be blogging daily this week. Please check back for updates!
-Stacy
First I would like to say that I truly feel that working with the children at Fortress has been more of a pleasure than a service. I chose to volunteer with the pre-k students, and all of them are absolutely adorable! We started off the day with breakfast and playing outside. My group had a blast playing basketball and swinging. Afterwards the children participated in centers. Between making a constellation viewer and digging for plastic bugs in purple sand, we all had a great time getting to know one another as well as the story of Abraham. Not only was our time enjoyable, but we also really started to connect with the children.
This year’s groups for the older children include Transformers, Spiderman, and Dream Team. In addition to working with the pre-k I will also get to participate with the Transformers group after the young ones go home for lunch. Although I missed today’s activities because of the Urban Experience, I asked some of the other volunteers what their day consisted of. Several students came down from TCU and played games with the children. The Fortress kids participated in dance, football, and basketball games and all seemed to really have a good time. After heading back from the park, it was time for praise and worship. The students acted out the story of Abraham leaving his home and shouted uplifting chants. Centers followed and the kids took part in reading, arts and crafts, and games.
While centers for the elementary students took place, four other volunteers from my church and I went on our “urban experience.” My group walked around the neighborhood and learned much about the area’s history. We were able to see the house that the first African American millionaire lived in and many nice homes. However, the majority of the houses we came across were run down and needing improvements. It was so strange to see the extreme differences among houses right next door to one another. Overall, it was somewhat overwhelming to realize that poverty is so prevalent in an area where some of the richest and most dignified African Americans once lived.
We all expect to get a lot out of this experience and develop strong bonds with the Fortress children and staff, the other members of our youth group and our loving Savior and Lord.
More to come tomorrow.
Christina Bartelt