I feel so incredibly honored and blessed to have gotten a job working for such an amazing and life changing organization! As of June 2, I am now a Youth Outreach Specialist for a faith based non profit organization called TreeHouse. They minister to at risk youth in the Twin Cities metro area. Their mission is to give hope to hurting youth and families leading to life transformation. They have been around for 25 years, serve over 1300 youth and 100 families per year, and have 7 locations in the Metro area. My job is to come alongside these teens (ages 11-18) and become a mentor to them. I will have one on ones with them, where we will just hang out, and talk about life. I will also be involved with a lot of the different programs that they have for the teens. They have a night called Going Deeper, where it is sort of like a youth group. The teens get together, there are games, and then there is a message about something relevant that they are going through (issues with self image, what true love is,etc). They also have a support group night where the teens are broken up into small groups, and they talk about their emotions. It is a place for them to talk about whats going on in their lives in a safe setting. They also have the opportunity to go on different retreats and trips, whether it be to the Boundary Waters, a Minnesota Twins game, or a concert. Its great for them to get away from their normal routine and see that there is so much more to life than what is presented to them on a daily basis.
TreeHouse belives that behind every hurting teen, there is a hurting parent. They provide education, support groups, work shops, and one on ones for the parents of the teens they work with. TreeHouse emphasizes getting to know the parents, because the best way to heal the teens is to heal the relationship between the parent and teen. They serve as a mediator between the two.
Just so that you can get the picture of what some of these teens deal with, here a few stories!
Jimmy had been coming to TreeHouse for a few years, didn't really participate much, and was very apathetic about the whole thing. He stopped coming and didn't appear back to TreeHouse until a year later. He went on one of the retreats that TreeHouse offered, and it was there that he poured out his heart. He told the staff that he had been living on his friends couches, and sometimes on the streets, and was also addicted to different drugs. Why you might ask? One day he came home from school only to find that his whole house was empty. His family had moved away and didn't tell him where they went. Jimmy obviously was dealing with abandoment issues, self worth issues, and so much more. Thankfully though because of TreeHouse he has turned his life around. He is now a Christian, and knows that he is loveable, capable, and worthwhile, that he is not alone, and is loved without strings. Those are all things that TreeHouse preaches to these teens. Because most of them don't believe they can and/or should be loved or are worthy anything.
Noel is a highschooler and works at McDonalds. One day her mom came into McDonalds and had absolutely no clue that she worked there. When she saw her daughter, she yelled out into the crowd, "I can't believe you hired this f****** whore!" She then walked out. Later that night, when she got home, her dad told Noel that she was a mistake, and that she shouldn't have been born. TreeHouse is her home, its where she gets love, support, and a place where she can come to when her home life is in shambles.
I am totally pumped to start getting to know some of these youth. It is going to be such an eye opening opportunity!
Here is a great video that explains more about TreeHouse:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BlVwIw7exvs
If you want to support TreeHouse, please feel free to contact me at wenjgray@gmail.com, or by phone at 503-327-4990.
I will for sure update you on all that is happening there, and how you can help support me/them!!
Thursday, June 11, 2009
A new adventure!
Alright, so it has been entirely too long since the last blog post. I do apologize. Part of it is just being lazy, the other part is not knowing what exactly to write into the blogosphere. Lets see if I can update our life in a orderly fashion.
In the words of Jim Carey from Liar Liar, "Okkkkaaayyy, here it gooeess..."
After the snow storm hit Portland, life went back to normal. Richard continued to work for the corporate world at Bank of America and was trying to slowly finish up all his flying, which was hard to do in the winter! I worked at Good Catch Publishing, trying to get all the bookkeeping accurate, which made me want to pull out my hair sometimes. WORD TO THE WISE: Read the instruction manual, it WILL save you a lot of grief in the future. Oh, and also if you mess up, find the correct way of doing it, don't just fanangle your way through. It is NOT worth it!
In the spring, Richard realized that being a pilot really isn't as glamorous as it used to be. The pay is LAME, the hours are LAME, the only good thing is that you get to travel all over the place, but that means no wife time, so that is LAME. Therefore, after talking to a few of his past professors, he realized that being an Air Traffic Controller sounded pretty awesome. And yes, it is a stressful job, but if you are made for it, its quite manageable. Anywho, so Richard was trying to figure out where he wanted to go to school for it, and I was QUITE surprised when he came to me saying that he was thinking Minnesota was the best choice, and that he was actually open to moving there! After all, this is Mr. California boy. Anything below 40 degrees is simply unacceptable to him. But nonetheless, after we talked about it, and prayed about it, we felt like that was the best option, so he applied!
I then had to tell my work that I most likely was moving to Minnesota, which was quite sad, because I LOVE the people there, and everything that they do. Even though we hadn't received an official acceptance letter from the school, I went ahead and interviewed and found a replacement for me at work, and started training her. We were totally going by faith!
Towards the end of spring when the weather was better, Richard spent basically a full month finishing up all his flying, and because of that he now has all of his licenses! He could fly for the airlines if he wanted to, but we all know thats not in the cards! I went to Minnesota for three weeks to find an apartment for us, and to start looking for jobs. I was quite skeptical about getting a job in this economy, especially for a non profit. But I applied to everywhere I could, and had three interviews with a faith based non profit organization called TreeHouse. I was pretty pumped about it, but I then had to go back to Portland to pack up all our belongings. Mind you this was all without the acceptance letter from the school for Richard! We actually didn't receive the letter until 3 days before we moved! CRAZY!
I had a phone interview with TreeHouse when I was in Portland, and then on the 23rd we started on our way to Minnesota. We first drove to Missoula, MT and stayed with my aunts mom. SO beautiful there! We then went to Billings, MT where we stayed at a cat friendly hotel. Our cat Stan did QUITE well! He was such a trooper! We then headed to Bismarck, ND and then the next day we got to Minnesota! WAHOO! Our friend Brad drove our rented Penske Truck, I drove my car, and Richard drove his. It was quite an adventure! Another WORD TO THE WISE: When moving, make sure you get professional movers to help you load/unload the truck. And watch them load it, DONT trust anyone! We had professionals, and our furniture still got scratched! Use the blankets!!
We got to MN on the 26th, I had my final interview with TreeHouse on the 27th, and then we drove down to Cedar Falls, IA so that I could be a bridesmaid in one of my bestest friends wedding! It was SO fun to see all my old friends again! The day before the wedding, I got a call and found out that I got the job at TreeHouse!! WAHOO! Totally exciting!
We left Cedar Falls on Sunday, and Richard and I both started our new lives on Tuesday. Him with class, me with work. He LOVES his classes. I am loving my work. We feel blessed! Our apartment is still in boxes, but baby steps...
Alright, so that took entirely too long, but I had to a lot to update!! I will add pictures later!!
My next blog will be about my job! WAHOO!
Peace blogosphere. Peace.
In the words of Jim Carey from Liar Liar, "Okkkkaaayyy, here it gooeess..."
After the snow storm hit Portland, life went back to normal. Richard continued to work for the corporate world at Bank of America and was trying to slowly finish up all his flying, which was hard to do in the winter! I worked at Good Catch Publishing, trying to get all the bookkeeping accurate, which made me want to pull out my hair sometimes. WORD TO THE WISE: Read the instruction manual, it WILL save you a lot of grief in the future. Oh, and also if you mess up, find the correct way of doing it, don't just fanangle your way through. It is NOT worth it!
In the spring, Richard realized that being a pilot really isn't as glamorous as it used to be. The pay is LAME, the hours are LAME, the only good thing is that you get to travel all over the place, but that means no wife time, so that is LAME. Therefore, after talking to a few of his past professors, he realized that being an Air Traffic Controller sounded pretty awesome. And yes, it is a stressful job, but if you are made for it, its quite manageable. Anywho, so Richard was trying to figure out where he wanted to go to school for it, and I was QUITE surprised when he came to me saying that he was thinking Minnesota was the best choice, and that he was actually open to moving there! After all, this is Mr. California boy. Anything below 40 degrees is simply unacceptable to him. But nonetheless, after we talked about it, and prayed about it, we felt like that was the best option, so he applied!
I then had to tell my work that I most likely was moving to Minnesota, which was quite sad, because I LOVE the people there, and everything that they do. Even though we hadn't received an official acceptance letter from the school, I went ahead and interviewed and found a replacement for me at work, and started training her. We were totally going by faith!
Towards the end of spring when the weather was better, Richard spent basically a full month finishing up all his flying, and because of that he now has all of his licenses! He could fly for the airlines if he wanted to, but we all know thats not in the cards! I went to Minnesota for three weeks to find an apartment for us, and to start looking for jobs. I was quite skeptical about getting a job in this economy, especially for a non profit. But I applied to everywhere I could, and had three interviews with a faith based non profit organization called TreeHouse. I was pretty pumped about it, but I then had to go back to Portland to pack up all our belongings. Mind you this was all without the acceptance letter from the school for Richard! We actually didn't receive the letter until 3 days before we moved! CRAZY!
I had a phone interview with TreeHouse when I was in Portland, and then on the 23rd we started on our way to Minnesota. We first drove to Missoula, MT and stayed with my aunts mom. SO beautiful there! We then went to Billings, MT where we stayed at a cat friendly hotel. Our cat Stan did QUITE well! He was such a trooper! We then headed to Bismarck, ND and then the next day we got to Minnesota! WAHOO! Our friend Brad drove our rented Penske Truck, I drove my car, and Richard drove his. It was quite an adventure! Another WORD TO THE WISE: When moving, make sure you get professional movers to help you load/unload the truck. And watch them load it, DONT trust anyone! We had professionals, and our furniture still got scratched! Use the blankets!!
We got to MN on the 26th, I had my final interview with TreeHouse on the 27th, and then we drove down to Cedar Falls, IA so that I could be a bridesmaid in one of my bestest friends wedding! It was SO fun to see all my old friends again! The day before the wedding, I got a call and found out that I got the job at TreeHouse!! WAHOO! Totally exciting!
We left Cedar Falls on Sunday, and Richard and I both started our new lives on Tuesday. Him with class, me with work. He LOVES his classes. I am loving my work. We feel blessed! Our apartment is still in boxes, but baby steps...
Alright, so that took entirely too long, but I had to a lot to update!! I will add pictures later!!
My next blog will be about my job! WAHOO!
Peace blogosphere. Peace.
Monday, December 22, 2008
Its Been A While
After almost two months of no blogging, there is snow outside and I'm on medication for cabin fever. What better time to add another blog?
Today there is about a foot of snow on the ground, leaving the whole city of Portland in a coma. This whole week has been entertaining as we have seen people driving with chains on dry pavement because there happens to be snow on the side of the road and drive 15 mph on the freeway. Even Mr. California here gets frustrated, the idiots come out of the woodwork and the good drivers turn bad. Its kinda fun actually but I find it ironic since we may be moving to Minnesota. What? Yah I just sent in my application to an Air Traffic Control school in the Twin Cities today and its in the works. Some day soon I hope to be controlling the aircraft you trust your life to. Fun huh? At least they know how to deal with the snow there. I think they have these things there called snow plows where they remove the snow from the road. Sounds like a good invention!
I suppose the main point of today's blog is to thwart boredom (at least mine) and to wish everyone Happy Holidays. I hope everyone has fun, I'm gonna go water the Christmas tree before I forget.
Monday, October 13, 2008
Our cat Stan
I suppose the only way to start this blog is to introduce the other Gray member of the family. He is of the cat persuasion. Feline to be exact. His name is Stan...and he is the man. Not THE man, but you get my drift. We rescued him from Cat Adoption Team in July and our lives have been changed ever since. He loves eating, playing fetch (yes you read that right), and eating some more. Oh and discovering imaginary objects and pouncing on them. He snuggles when he wants to snuggle, jumps in and out of bags when he wants to jump, and meows when he wants to be fed, but we can't complain, because he uses the litter box. Yes, the Gray family is now complete. Richard, Wendy, and Stan.
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