Today was my first day at Fourth Presbyterian Church (http://www.fourthchurch.org). The church is absolutely huge, and smack dab in the middle of one of the snazziest shopping areas in Chicago on Michigan Avenue. When the church was founded, it was on a dirt road, which explains a lot about just how long Fourth Church has been around. It was also designed by Ralph Adams Cram, who is the same architect who designed my home church. Wandering around the church was somewhat terrifying, since I know it'll take a long time for me to figure out where things are. The church does look similar to First Presbyterian, which was intensely comforting. Fourth Church is getting a new addition to the building, which means that finding a place to house me has been difficult (apparently tomorrow I will have both a desk and a computer of my very own).
At Fourth Church I'll be working with the 6th and 7th grade youth, teaching the New Testament and planning monthly service and fellowship activities. The person who had the job before me was kind enough to leave extremely detailed curriculum notes, which makes lesson planning relatively simple. There's also a lock-in coming up soon: I have been assured that mid-high students sleep at lock-ins, but am not sure whether or not to believe it.
Most of my workday was spent looking through past curriculum and tween ministry books, and talking to my boss, John. I made four pages worth of lists today; games to play in an open area, games to play with paper, educational games, places to volunteer, activities for inside the church, and of course things to ask John about. The sheer size of Fourth Church (and the novelty of teaching middle schoolers) is intimidating, but the people I've gotten to meet so far are extremely welcoming.
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