Starting My Placements and Building Community

Hello friends,

Last week, I started working at my two placements at the First Presbyterian Church of New Orleans and Mid-City Ministries!

At the FPCNO,  I will be working with their ministry, Program of Hope, which is an outreach program for those suffering from homelessness. I will also being working on educational projects, both within the Program of Hope and through the Christian Education committee. I was thrilled to finally meet the congregation and get commissioned on Sunday! My new church family is so welcoming and generous; I am blessed to have the opportunity to work with and serve them.

My second part-time placement is at Mid-City Ministries where I will be helping tutor 3rd and 4th graders after school twice a week and leading a bible study for middle school students on Wednesday nights! I am so excited to meet the students I will be working with, starting tomorrow!

While I am very excited to start these ministries, I am also in need of your prayers. I want to learn about the communities I am serving, both on as a body and as individuals, so that I can learn how to love them and how my strengths and weaknesses will interact within these communities. I am also eager to see how these beautiful communities will teach me in the coming weeks and months.

Not only have I loved my placements so far, I have also been loving my housemates. I live with seven incredible women who are all smart, hysterical, fun, and committed Christians. I am blessed by each one of them in many unique ways. The house definitely feels different even if one of us is missing. They are already teaching me about myself, community, compassion, active listening, and what it means to build a covenant.

Last week, we built a community covenant as an effort to define who we are as a Christian community and what it looks like to work together, eat together, clean together, worship together, and love together. We spent six hours hashing out the covenant over two days, only to come to the conclusion that this is a "living" document that will continue to be shaped and re-molded through time. I am eager to see how this document changes, how the covenant changes us, how we change each other, and how the Spirit moves and blesses through all of this.

Thank you for your prayers and support throughout my YAV year so far! Look for postcards in mailbox soon!

Photos from the YAV Orientation Week at Stony Point Conference Center, NY

sunrise in the airport

notes on missiology

the campus

the labyrinth

 the meditation room

 

inside the meditation room

they have pigs!

Julius and me

 My small group leader, Maegan, and me

worship together 

 on my way back to my new home

Post about orientation forthcoming...

Photographs from my first two days.

These were taken in the Philadelphia Airport. I got to watch the sunrise after breakfast. (8/16)

                                                                      Jackson Square

                                                                   Cafe Du Monde

                                                                            d.b.a.

                                                    Frenchmen Art Market (all above 8/17)

Arrival!

After waking up at 3am for a 7am flight to Chicago to then board my second flight to New Orleans, I arrived safely in LA by 3pm.

My site coordinator, Layne Brubaker, picked me up from the airport. After the rest of the Young Adult Volunteers (YAV's) arrived and started unpacking, we cooked red beans and rice together. Over a cookie cake dessert, we talked about the upcoming orientation, traditions in New Orleans, and our hopes for the year.

Tomorrow, our only plans are to explore the local thrift shop and the coffeehouse down the street during the day. At night, of course we are headed out to hear local jazz.

Sunday, we are headed to church together at Lakeview Presbyterian Church, grabbing Po'Boys for lunch, and then we head back to Lakeview for some youth programming for the rest of the afternoon.

We are then flying down on Monday morning (6am flight!) to Newark for our orientation at Stony Point Conference Center for the week.


Again, thank you so much for your prayers and support!

Preparation and Fundraising Update

I have very exciting news: You all helped raise over $4,000 to complete my fundraising for the year!! I was not expecting this overwhelming response. Thank you to all of you who have given generous gifts and kept me in your prayers! More thank-you notes will be mailed this week, so check your mailbox soon.

I leave on the 16th to fly to New Orleans, spend a few days with the other New Orleans Young Adult Volunteers before we all fly into Newark. From Newark, we are headed to Stony Point, NY for the week-long orientation for all of the YAV's. And finally, on the 26th we fly back to New Orleans for our year of service to begin!

I am thrilled and a little anxious about this year. I've never spent so much time away from home and my friends, so I am anticipating that some days will be challenging. Still, I am very privileged to be able to serve with some amazing people in an incredible city. I am ready to learn more about discipleship, servanthood, compassion, and trust in God over the coming year.

I am asking for your prayers throughout the year for my ministry and the ministries of my fellow YAV's. If you are interested in becoming a prayer partner for me and are able to commit to praying for me once a month, please email me at hannahmills7@hotmail.com.

Again, I thank you for reading this blog, taking a moment out of your day to think or pray about my ministry and how God will be working through me and the people I am serving this year. Thanks again for all of your generous contributions to make this year happen! You rock!

In gratitude,
Hannah