Friday, October 31, 2014

Voices from the Past

Every once in a while we will get a note from someone who used to frequent Joel's Place and has now moved on in their life.   Kelli received one such letter this week from someone who needed a letter of recommendation for some future opportunities.  I thought I would share what I could:


Hey Kelli-
     Thank you for your time, and on such short notice. I appreciate it! I feel you can write a strong recommendation because I spent a lot of time at Joel's Place, and you can really see how I have grown mentally and academically throughout the years.
     I considered Joel's Place a second home when I was struggling at home and in school during my first two years of high school. Chris helped me a lot by tutoring me and Leah and you and Emma have been important people in my life, you guys really helped me out through a hard time. My freshman year, I was suspended from school and chose to do my about 20 hours of community service at Joel's Place, and the work I did there and the help I got there really helped me. It was during a time when my brother was very sick and my grades suffered, and I got in trouble for partying. I really felt the support and care you all gave me, like a family. You guys do wonderful things there, giving out free meals, tutoring, having awesome teen events, and helping underserved youth like myself in Fairbanks. Joel's Place helped me turn my life around.
But anyways, I wanted to share that with you so you could think about that. I really grew during my time at Joel's Place. Now, I am doing so much better- I feel like this is the happiest I've been in years. I'm in a really good place, applying for colleges, scholarships, being a part of the community, and learning more about my culture. 


 __________________________________


     I can wax poetic about the benefits to the community that Joel's Place provides.  I can write grants, raise funds, and put on events...but it is all empty unless lives are being changed.  This has been the best news that we have received in a long time and I am so proud to be part of an organization that has such a well-established legacy of transforming the lives of Alaskan youth.


     Special note: If you are a JP alum, write us and tell us where you are and how you are doing.  We would love to hear from you.

Friday, October 24, 2014

Gearing up for winter

In all the years that I have lived in Alaska, I have always had a white Halloween.  Sometimes it is snowy and warmish, like in the 20's.  Sometimes it is snowy and cold...as in -30 cold.  But there is always snow and it is always pretty dark.  Growing up we would go trick-or-treating door to door in our neighborhood with our costumes over our snowsuit/facemask/mitten attire.  I know that when the calender hits September 1, we are well within the range of snow that stays until spring.  I realize that is not true in other parts of the world...but that is the environment that I grew up in.

So here we are in the middle of October.  There has been a thin layer of snow for a couple of weeks, the temperatures are getting colder, the amount of daylight is growing smaller.  It is winter or at least the introduction to winter.  This is the time of year that residents of Fairbanks feverishly work to get their homes set up for the next six months by taking care of the last few details that they have not accomplished yet: putting away yard tools, disconnecting garden hoses, covering gardens, putting on snow tires, etc.  Here at Joel's Place we also have a few things that we are doing to get prepared for the snow and cold.
  • Training the staff.  I just got out of a staff meeting where we covered winter protocol.  We have 11 staff here at the moment and it is important for us all to be on the same page.  Unlocking doors so kids are not trapped outside.  Making sure doors are closed and everyone knows where to look to see if we are closed for cold weather or not.  Small details that will go a long way towards happy and productive staff.
  • Winter Programs.  The new season brings new programs...and lots more paperwork for me.  We are launching into another season of our CACFP feeding program; this year we are providing meals for both Joel's Place kids and the youth of the Boys and Girls Club.  We are building a snow park for snowboarding, snowskating and sledding here on the grounds.  We have our Red Room Concert Series and lots of development programming on the horizon.
  • Ramp It Up!  Our annual fundraiser is November 14th at 6pm at Friends Church.  We are looking to raise enough money to cover free skating for the entire 2015 year!  Ambitious, but I think we can do it.  Let me know if you are interested in attending this amazing night.
  • Parties, parties and more parties.  Between Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years (not to mention my birthday) the next 75 days are going to be filled with celebration and fun.  I know we are looking for candy donations for this coming Halloween party if you are interested.
  • Facility work.  We have a couple of grants that have come in that will be upgrading our building.  We will be remodeling the downstairs, adding more security cameras, building the snow park, putting up an arctic entry and increasing a few security measures throughout the center.
Other than that...not much going on.  If you are interested in joining us on any of these endeavors, please feel free to drop me a line.

Winter is coming...and this year will be amazing here at Joel's Place!
Thanks for all your support,

James

Friday, October 17, 2014

10 years

     Where were you 10 years ago?  What was your life like then?  How have you changed in the past decade? 

     Kelli and I were talking recently and she said that she had this realization:  Joel's Place will have influence on the lives of these kids for 10 years, sometimes more.  10 years of a safe, affirming environment.  10 years of free meals.  10 years of lessons and concerts and events and parties.  10 years of mentoring.  The potential for transformation is enormous.

     Where was I 10 years ago?  I was still in Fairbanks but I that was before my 9 year old girl and that was before my 2 year old girl.  That was before I had even heard of autism, much less analyzed what kind of impact it would have on the life of our family.  That was before I worked at Joel's Place, before I worked at Sears, before I worked as a youth pastor at 1st Presbyterian.  I was working two jobs with InterVarsity and Northland Wood during the day and doing what I could to help out around the house in every other spare minute that I could find.  There was not much money and even less sleep to be found around the Menaker house.  We were a couple of years into planting the ministry at UAF and I was dreaming about being a campus minister for the next 20 years.  I had no idea...of so many things that were to come. 

     In the past ten years I have learned how to laugh and have fun; how to have authentic conversations and authentic faith; how to lead instead of dictate; how to let go of despair and cynicism; how to speak in public and write in private; how to listen without judgement and advise without a desperate neediness; how to build a plan; how to hope; how to suffer with grace...and how to braid hair.  It's not a bad list.

     Just imagine how the life of a young person can change in 10 years.  Imagine the difference between a 10 year old boy and a 20 year old man.  Imagine he has had an entire support network investing in him and building him up for a decade instead of being abandoned and left to his own devices.  Imagine all the thousands of pounds of food he will have eaten that have kept his mind sharp and his body growing.  Imagine the hours that he will have devoted to his body, developing his strength and his skills and his confidence.  Imagine what new passions he might have discovered...maybe an instrument, maybe a field of study, maybe a profession or a hobby. 

     10 years is a long time for anyone, but for a teenager in those formative years?  Pure gold. 

     Thanks for supporting Joel's Place as we play this long game with these amazing kids.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Surprising Connections

One of the best things about my job is discovering connections that people have, or want to have, with Joel's Place.  For example, here are some interactions that I had this week:
  • I was at Joel's Place after hours this past weekend when there was a knock on the door.  I opened the door to find a very nice lady who was looking for a different building.  We got to talking and she asked if she could donate food and art supplies to Joel's Place since she was looking after an elderly woman in this neighborhood and drove past us regularly.  She may even put on a couple of art classes for the kids this winter.
  • One of the dads from my son's youth group came by Joel's Place and asked me about our stove.  Odd question, but ok.  He then told me he helped buy, transport and install it and he may even know where we could locate some spare parts.
The most fun recent story comes from earlier in the fall.  We sent out a general mailing to dozens of individuals and businesses who had past interactions with Joel's Place to update them on where we are at and what we are up to.  When we talked with Design Alaska, this interesting connection emerged. We traditionally put on a concert or two each month for local bands to be able to have some fun and get some experience performing.  It turns out that Design Alaska has a passion for encouraging young musicians and creating opportunities for them to develop their skills and mature as bands.  We were both thrilled to figure out that if we worked together we could offer a significantly better experience for the young bands we are looking to serve.  So Design Alaska will be sponsoring our Red Room Concert Series this year.  Their sponsorship will allow us to book more acts, advertise the shows better and also increase our ability to help the bands develop their business and promotion skills.  Overall, this partnership should be a tremendous investment into this segment of young people in our community.

If you have a connection with the youth of the Interior that you would like to share, I welcome your ideas and brainstorms.  The passions, skills and abilities that we don't use in our everyday lives can be dismissed or forgotten but they don't go away.  Joel's Place is an exceptional place to try new things...or try old things if it has been a while.  I have a friend who is teaching saxophone lessons to a teenager here after years and years of not touching the thing.  Kids are eager to learn new things.  They are eager to be able to show off new skills.  Mostly they are eager to have adults who say that they are worth their time and investment.  A saxophone lesson is more than just teaching scales and enduring shrill honks.  It is an unspoken affirmation, a time when my attention is solely focused on you, a small section of our week when a young person is challenged to believe in themselves because we believe in them.

And I do.  I do believe in the kids of Joel's Place.  They are young and wild and fearless and quick to learn and eager to dare and ready to teach those who come after them.  Is there anything you would be willing to share with them?

Think about it.

Friday, October 3, 2014

Life is a Parable

    Special PFD Note!!!!!
     I know PFDs are out because the stores are crazy and the banks are crazy and my inbox is filled with ads and my e-mail is filled with requests.  I am not going to try and yell louder than everyone else to grab a piece of your check.  However, if you have been thinking that you want to give to Joel's Place but it just hasn't worked out yet, now might be a good time.  The bar on the right side of the screen has a list of ways that you can contribute.  Thanks for all your support!

_____________________________________________________________________

     I have a son who is 7th grade now.  Along with the growing and the eating and the raging hormones comes the opportunity to be involved in our church's youth group.  I, having a few years of experience working with teenagers, went into the pastor's office one day and said that I would be happy to help out with the Jr. Highers if they wanted me to do anything.  One thing led to another and somehow I ended up in the youth room this past Sunday night with over a dozen teenagers talking about Creation.  I handed out playdoh to everyone and told them to make something...as long as it was not a snake, a worm, a snowball or something of that difficulty level (1st rule of leadership: know who you are working with).  As they worked we talked over the accounts of creation from Scripture and I had them share about what they had made.  We talked about how God formed them, shaped them with the same focus that they had making these sculptures.  We talked about how just as their fingerprints were all over the clay, God's fingerprints are all over us.  I told them that God crafted them just as they are, taking delight in how he had made them...and no matter what they hear from others, they are not mistakes or accidents or epic failures.  They matter.  A lot.

     Some of it sank in.  Some of it bounced off.  It's teenagers...that's the terrain you are working with.  Towards the end of our time, I asked if they had any questions that they want to make sure that we touch on this year.  The one that sticks out to me right now was, "Why did Jesus talk in Parables?  Why not just be clear?"

     I love that question.  Partly I love that question because I know the answer.  But I also love it because the question is the answer itself!  See, we love to know stuff.  Or at least we hate to admit that we don't know stuff.  Especially guys.  Especially teenage guys.  They will blow up the car before they admit that they don't know how to turn it on.  When Jesus taught, he used stories...really simple stories.  If he had taught with theological manifestos, the religious academics would have had opportunity to debate lexicon or just argue about his word choice.  The heart of the lesson would have been missed.  Instead parables would give the listeners a taste of the deeper meaning and an invitation to investigate.  Those who were convinced of their own insight and intelligence would wander away, probably scoffing at how overrated a teacher this Jesus was.  Those who were curious, those who were passionate for the truth, those who were desperate to find answers would seek out Jesus and ask him to explain.  That was when he would open up the mysteries of heaven.

     I am convinced that we are surrounded by parables in our daily lives.  We have reflections of God's nature and His kingdom presented to us every day.  Often we are so sure that we already know all that we need to know that we don't stop to look, listen and learn.  But sometimes we are curious or passionate for the truth or desperate for the answers and we use these parables to come closer to Jesus to see what he will tell us.  Nature is filled with God's fingerprints, speaking to those who choose to listen.  I see parables everyday in watching a mother with her baby or witnessing the seasons change from Fall to Winter or watching young men and women navigate the rocky transition from childhood to adult life.

     Living Parables surround us and invite us to draw closer to God so that He can whisper the secrets of eternity to our hearts.