The Rainy Kid Show

One of our assignments in our Gender & Leadership class was to, as a Life Group, plan and execute a service project. Part of the assignment was to have four meetings led or co-led by each of the group members, and to write a journal entry for each meeting, and then a final reflection paper after the finishing of the project. So, this post is a collection of those journals and the reflection paper.

It was truly a blessed time, one I will cherish always.

This is our poster designed and created by Chris

Journal 1:

Our first meeting was led by Sarah and it took several meetings to actually decide what to do. we had many ideas but none that really grabbed us, so we had a few meetings and thought about our different options, but nothing was standing out, and when we would try to put together one of our ideas, it didn’t go to far. Then, as we were working on our Leadership skit, Sarah mentioned that Joy Messier and her had practicum with Rising Voice, and they were starting a campaign to help raise money for an organization called Children's Hope Chest. So, if we were interested, we could join with Life Group 7 and have a fund raiser through a local coffee shop. So it was there, as we sprawled on the floor of the computer lab that we decided on our experience.

Journal 2:

The second meeting was led by Anne Marie and Chris. It was good to come together as a group and just make sure we were all on the same page. This wasn’t a long meeting by any means, basically we were given a list of the positions that needed to be taken, and a few were filled. Later that week the rest of us were filled into the positions and given our responsibilities. We also had a meeting where we joined Life Group 7, since many of our jobs were shared with others in that group. My job, along with Kendra, was to put together a PowerPoint to be playing throughout the show, and make sure the video was ready to be shown halfway through. The other half of the job, which Kendra took on, was to prepare several sound bites, just a minute speech to give between performances.

Journal 3:

Our third meeting was led by Kensi and Janae. The two groups met together in Janae’s apartment the night before the show and made sure we all knew where, what, and when we were supposed to be doing. The best part of this meeting had little to do with the meeting itself, as much as it was wonderful to just be together. It was the day after break so most of us were just getting back from their home visits (with Chris and Kendra coming straight from the airport, luggage and all!) it was so refreshing to be together again, and to see the dynamics playing out in that room between our groups as we reunited as a family was a foreshadowing to how the show would play out the next night. This was a special, special night.

Journal 4:

We again joined Groups 3 and 7 for the final rundown meeting. This was led by Cody and I on behalf of Group 3, and Kendra and Scott for Group 7. We pushed a couple tables together at lunch the day after the show and discussed the event. First we encouraged each other by talking about the things that went right and smooth, ways we saw each other working to make the show better, and how much we enjoyed the shared experience. Then we talked about some of the things that could have gone better, or things that disappointed us. Even though we made just about $200 through the sales of the art show and coffee sales, most of that was our fellow Focus students, we didn’t really see anything come out of our efforts to advertise the event to the community, the marketing could have been looked after better.

Cody, Jenny and Kensi Performing

Reflections Of A Coffee Shop Full Of Friends And Life Lessons

I walked into the little coffee shop and took in my surroundings. Over on the corner stage was Cody, setting up the microphones and instruments. Across from him in the other corner was Chris, working out the kinks in the sound board. Sarah and Anne Marie were behind the art show table, organizing all the donations and Rising Voice promotions. Kensi dashed back and forth between the three, making sure everyone knew their jobs and that things were running smoothly. I smiled, proud of my Life Group and the project we were about to pull together, along with Life Group 7, and I went to figure out how to plug in my laptop for the slide show promoting Children's Hope Chest.

That night was only the final product of a plan we had been working on developing for several weeks. Joining up with Group 7 might have been a risky choice, I've noticed that all the groups have different ways of operating, and I wasn’t sure how mixing two groups would work out. But it turned out so wonderfully. Because we joined up with the other group we were able to accomplish so much more and run so much more smoothly.

We had decided to put on a show at Jives Coffee Shop to raise money for Children's Hope Chest through Sarah and Joy’s practicum site, Rising Voice. With the creativity in our two combined groups, we were able to come up with the idea of a music and art show, and this coffee shop was willing to give us a percentage of the sales from the night as well. We were able to enlist our fellow classmates to support us by donating their time and provide the music, as well as their talent and donate art items to be sold. We were also blessed by our classmates support on the night of the show by the way they all showed up and hung out in the shop, cheering for the music and purchasing the art items.

Since marketing the show was our weakest area, we didn’t get any traffic other than the coffee shop regulars and our classmates, but the support from our classmates was outstanding and made the night a success! Through the art sales, coffee sales and donations we were able to make over two hundred dollars for our cause, and learn a lot about leadership and make some great memories in the process!

I really did learn so much through this project. Mainly through watching my friends in my group lead and creating a desire in me to lead like them. Through Sarah I learned to take initiative, when she sees a job that needs to be done, she does it, or she finds the best person to do it and encourages them to do it.

I learned from Anne Marie to look at all the details, there's so much more to a project like this than initially meets they eye, and Anne Marie will find those little things and make sure they’re seen to.

Chris taught me to think outside the box. When he is faced with a situation he is able to take it and turn it around and around in his head and come up with the best strategy to implement the different things that need to be done, and to think of other aspects that none of the rest of us would have put together that make the process smoother and more efficient.

Kensi taught me the importance of being organized and making sure everyone has a job, knows their job, and is doing their job. She was so wonderful about the little details and making sure someone was in charge of everything and delegating the jobs to people who had the strengths and talents to get the job done.

And Cody taught me the importance of the relational aspect; he made sure everyone was in his or her area of expertise and happy doing it. He always brings a party with him, but that doesn’t mean he works any less hard.

I also learned similar lessons of dedication and solid leadership from Life Group 7 and it was such a blessing for our groups to be able to work with that group and learn double!

This experience is one I will remember my whole life, and I cant wait to have another opportunity to implement the lessons I learned through it.

Here are Life Groups 3 & 7, a job well done!