What I Didn’t Know & What Changed

As I was about to press send on my YouthWorks application one thing crossed my mind: If I get this job, I will be eating mac and cheese and tacos every single week for the rest of my summer. Then I pressed send.

I went on four missions trips with Annunciation Church and when I stepped off the bus coming back from Osage, Oklahoma my last year, I knew that someday I’d be back at YouthWorks. Four years later I chose to finally follow through with the application and was offered a Service Coordinator position which meant I would help partner local organizations with YouthWorks participants. I accepted, and in May they told me where I would be going: Yankton, South Dakota. To which I responded, “Um… excuse me. Where?” and “Are you sure?”

There are a few things that I didn’t know going into my YouthWorks summer that turned out to change my mind about Yankton. I didn’t know that Tom Brokaw walked on the same trails that I would walk. I didn’t know that grocery shopping meant driving an hour-and-a-half to a Sam’s Club, buying seven flatbeds worth of food and understanding that the 1,750 slices of American cheese on the list was not a typo. I didn’t know that 18-hour-plus work days meant sometimes not getting enough sleep because I’d have to be in the kitchen at 5:45 a.m. to prep for breakfast crew. I didn’t know that I would learn more about being a Catholic by learning about the other faiths of the church groups that came. I didn’t know that every day I would interact with people who were between the ages of two months old and 104 years old. I didn’t know that I would share my experiences on Annunciation mission trips and some of my hardest times every Wednesday night at Club. I didn’t know that I would find a family in 60 different people each week and an even closer family in the three individuals I lived with all summer. I didn’t know I wouldn’t want to leave Yankton.

What made my experience working at YouthWorks different than being a participant on a mission trip is that I got to inspire and motivate people to serve this community that I grew to love in such a short time. As YouthWorks told me, my job was to point people to the cross and get out of the way. After groups left, I got to stay and watch as the community changed because of the work groups did. I got to know and serve: Michael and Beth, the selfless community members who allowed visitors of the prisoners and hospital. Rebecca, the elderly balloon volleyball champion. Pam, the caterpillar expert. Little Juan, the zombie game killer. And so many other community members during my time working there. But I also got to know the participants: Jacob, the constant questioner. Charlotte, the most responsible 8^th grader I’d ever met. And Kyle, who when I wouldn’t write him a Dakota Dropbox note, told me I was “running away from Jesus.” I thought I was just going to go in and change their lives, but turns out they changed mine too.

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Written by Jenny Liesenfelt, 2013 Summer Staff