In this first post, I wanted to share the general gist of what I'll be doing with YAGM! This year, I will depart on August 15th for Orientation in Chicago with representatives of the ELCA and other fellow YAGMs. From there, all 95 of us will go to the airport and leave for 11 different countries across the globe. I'll take a plane to London and a train to York, England!
There I'll spend the next 11-12 months working with St. Columba's United Reform Church. This is an amazing church in the Micklegate area (no idea what that means yet) that has a Foundation. This Foundation houses five social services nonprofits on the church premises. I'll be working to do some church capacity building and creating improved partnerships with the church + the nonprofits. I'll also get to work some with the nonprofits themselves, which I'm thrilled about - they all do super cool things. The church family and the Reverend seem like lovely, warm people and have already been so welcoming. I feel so grateful!
I am so excited about my year abroad. One thing that makes me chuckle (I bet you didn't even know people still chuckled - what a good word that is) is that I will be living in York! My home church, Ascension Lutheran, which is very close to my heart, is located on York Road. Hence, the title of this blog!
I'll be back soon to share more about what led me to YAGM and what I'm looking forward to this year! For now, I'll share a few things I'm doing to prepare this week for next Tuesday:
1. Finances/Technology: ordering/activating a new no-fee international credit card and figuring out money matters for a year abroad, getting a new phone, figuring out my kindle, etc.
2. Packing: or lack thereof (I have a pile of jeans sitting on my dresser and a huge empty suitcase... that's how far I've gotten)
3. Paperwork: so much of it! There are tons of documents to sign, send-in, read, share, etc, from both YAGM and Time for God (TFG) who is YAGM's UK partner organization that places us across the region. I feel like I'm drowning in random sheets of paperwork lately - my visa, my health documents, my legal stuff. Ah!
4. Fundraising: As mentioned above, I recently shared my new adventure on Facebook with a link to my fundraising page. YAGMs have to fundraise for their service year, so I made this pretty page to offer folks the opportunity to support me financially. YAGM asks us to raise $5,000 for this program. I hate asking for money, but I want to make a good faith effort to raise all $5,000 because I think the ELCA does good things with their money and I don't want to be a leech on the program. Here's my page: http://support.elca.org/site/TR/Events/General?px=1048950&pg=personal&fr_id=1181
5. Family and friends: Trying to enjoy lots of time with my loved ones before leaving! While I love excuses to see people, this can get quite stressful if you know it's the last time you're seeing someone for a whole year. I've learned that the last doesn't necessarily mean best and emphasis shouldn't be given to the final waning days before someone departs... it makes things too stressful. So I'm just trying to hang out with people in a non-stressful way.
Send me some good energy/well wishes/prayers/nice thoughts as I prepare to depart, if you have a moment!
Defesa é o melhor site de defesa do Brasil!
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