Tag Archives: flower city work camp

My Day Today

Posted on January 4, 2011 at sometime around 11:25 pm

One of the things Sarah and I love to do is share what happened in our days at the dinner table. I generally forget about 80% of my day, so today I decided to write down some of the things that happened in my day. Since I frequently get asked what a typical day looks like for me, I thought I would post it today.

Read/Commented on Proverbs 4 at the rCalvary church blog
Wrote a couple of thank you notes
Re-arranged a worship schedule problem
Called a potential youth teacher for a vacant week this month
Picked out a book (and my top 5 picks) to do later this Spring for our youth group
Cleaned my desktop from being filled with icons
Cleaned off my work desk
Contacted a Flower City Work Camp Executive Leader about an adult problem (and sent another note to someone with updated health insurance information)
Responded to ~25 emails in my inbox from the weekend.
Researched and wrote a youth group lesson for tomorrow based on the book of Proverbs (this was the biggest chunk of my day – probably 3 hours).
Had my ever-important lunch with the secretary
Uploaded, edited, and printed pictures for Girls Ministries and Christmas decorations
Filled out a leader recommendation form for Flower City Work Camp and mailed it (after a phone conversation)
Planned some worship and video ideas for FCWC as part of helping serve on the programming team
Hung up some sweet artwork we filmed for the Kids Christmas Play on my door (Picture below)

Checked up on a student from church who was in the hospital on Sunday
“Tweeted” (love this word)
Posted a video of Tim Keller which explores “What the Bible is Basically About” to my Posterous Site and Facebook
Watched a sermon on Proverbs
Set up my multiple meet-ups for the week with people
Came up with a creative way to address some of our student’s doubts that the told our youth team when we did a series on Doubt last year (pretty excited about this)
Made the final decision with Steve about how we would be backing up the computers at church (short-term and long-term)
Helped begin to clean out the sound closet with Kevin
Got about 30 notifications of about 50 new friends I suggested for Pastor Bob (our lead pastor)
Gave two friends public speaking advice (still confused why they asked me, but I hope I helped)
Filled in information for 12 youtube videos (still private, but public soon)
Made a couple of changes to Sarah and I’s new budget. We are planning to track every dollar we spend this year. We’ll see how long this lasts.
Talked to a parent about a potential FCWC problem with some students.
Put up a promo on facebook about youth group tomorrow

Then, I came home and had a nice night with Sarah. I would call this a “typical” Tuesday for me (except I normally have a meeting with Pastor Bob, but he was out of the office all day).

What was your day like today? Anything exciting?

Posted in Miscellaneous | Also tagged book, my day today, proverbs, rCalvary, sarah sigmon, tech, twitter, Worship, youth | Comments (2)

FCWC Video and Statistics

Posted on April 26, 2010 at sometime around 2:18 pm

Here is the link for the Flower City Work Camp Video I created telling of our amazing week:

Here are some of facts / statistics from this years Flower City Work Camp:

- Over 65 churches from all different denominations

- Over 650 students from across Rochester city gave up their Spring Break to serve others

- 53 houses renovated, all of which hung a sign to say it was because of the love of Jesus

- 1,000 kids came to participate at the sidewalk clubs over the course of the week!

- Close to 200 kids made first time commitments to Christ!

- Calvary Assembly had 15 kids, over 15 adults, plus parents, from our church which was a HUGE first year response!

As I shared at church on Sunday morning, my personal favorite part was seeing the balance between serving others, while also learning and growing individually. The FCWC experience is holistic: serving and discipleship. Our night sessions and “cabin time talks” were some of the best I’ve had with the students here.

I also wrote more about FCWC in another post before the week if you would like to find out more.

Here is another great highlight video made by someone else:

Praise be to God for being active in our city!

Posted in Jesus | Also tagged 2010, calvary assembly, ny, poor, rochester, serving, social justice, video, youth, youth ministry | Comments (0)

Flower City Work Camp: What is it?

Posted on April 19, 2010 at sometime around 1:33 pm

Do you remember what you used to do for Spring Break in middle school and high school?

I know the answer for most of us is not that we gave up our whole break to go help people in need. But that is exactly what is happening all throughout Rochester, New York this week!

Over 650 students from over 65 churches will be coming together to help those that are less fortunate. With over 1,000 participants, Flower City Work Camp is one of the most impressive movements I have ever been a part of. The reason I call it a movement, rather than an organization, is because absolutely no one is paid! Everything is volunteer based. From the day time leaders who take off work to supervise the students, to the overnight leaders, to the worship leaders and pastors, to the top executive team who works on this week all year long – everyone does it because they want the city to see Jesus.

There are three different opportunities taking place all over the city this week. The first is that over 50 homes are being renovated by the students who are participating in the work sites. These students will be helping in all sorts of basic construction projects, with “roving experts” coming around to fix people’s plumbing, electrical, and other needs.

One parent from our home church, Calvary Assembly, told me of a conversation she had with a co-worker at the hospital this week. As she was describing what her kids would be doing, this woman shared the following our student’s parent (paraphrase):

I am a single mother with four children. I was working multiple jobs to be able to pay the bills. My house needed painted so badly and one of our toilets was broken. By the time the students left, our toilet was fixed and the front of my house was looking great again! That was such an answer to prayer and such a blessing for my family and I.

Isn’t that fantastic? I always tell our students that loving God requires loving other people, and that love requires sacrifice. I’ve told them time and time again, and I can’t articulate it enough, how inspirational it is to see so many of them step up to serve. This is Calvary Assembly’s first year participating (mine too!) with 15 students from our church and over 35 people involved with all the different aspects of work camp (preparing/delivering lunches, overnight leaders, daytime leaders, roving experts, security, etc.). Unbelievable!

The other two opportunities of FCWC include running a basketball camp for other kids in the city, as well as multiple vacation Bible schools for younger kids. The students do the dramas, the teaching, and coordinate many other parts of the day with their adult leaders.

We have the opportunity to be people’s answers to prayers by being the hands and feet of Jesus this week. My hope and prayer is that every single person involved will be able to experience God in an incredible way this week. I am also excited to be able to process what my students are learning and seeing throughout their days each night.

What a unique and incredible way to demonstrate the body of Christ – to see churches unite from all over the city to bless others.

I leave you with the words of Jesus:

Whatever you did for the least of these, you have done for me.

Who is willing to pray for our safety and blessing this week?

Posted in Jesus | Also tagged calvary assembly, Jesus, new york, rochester, youth ministry | Comments (2)