june Newsies

Hello friends and family! It seems so long since I wrote a newsletter! My team and I went home for spring break. It was great to see some of my friends and spend a lot of time with my family. If I didn’t get to see you, I’m sorry! I will be home again for a week in August!

A lot of you have been concerned about the rising waters in the Mississippi River. I have one thing to say about that: Don’t Worry! To avoid flooding New Orleans and Baton Rouge, the Morganza Spillway has been opened. The old ladies call it the “m’Ganza”. The downside to the m’Ganza being opened is that it is flooding the rural parts of the state. Keep these parts of the state in your prayers this month!

This month we had to say goodbye to part of our Mission Year Family. Our friend and teammate JoJo went home to continue schooling. We are working hard to stay unified as a team and keep on engaging the community. We will miss her!

Second to the Mardi Gras, one the most popular events in the city is JAZZ FEST! We were lucky enough to be given tickets to Jazz Fest. We took three of our favorite neighbors: Keith, as well as Trenita and her daughter Quanita. It was so fun! We saw Kid Rock and a cool group called Zamboula 2000. The food at Jazz Fest is SO good! I had some delicious beignets and jambalaya. I need to try some gator.

After having been apart from the community for two weeks, we decided a great way to get back in the swing of things would be to have a huge cookout. We invited everyone we knew! It was a such a fun day! Lots of people that attended played instruments so we ended up jamming and playing lots of Bob Marley and worships songs. It was so much fun! We are trying to figure out how to afford having more cookouts! They are expensive but SO fun!

As the school year comes to a close, so are a lot of other things. Younglife Club will be on hiatus for the summer. Instead we will be having a smaller Bible study. My team and I are really excited to have a smaller, more intimate group of kids to be working with.

After School Program at TCC is also ending. Everything has been packed up and put away for the summer. What will I now do during the day? TCC runs an AWESOME daycamp for the local kids. I will be running the morning devotionals for the kids. I will also be working in the kitchen, helping serve the kids breakfast and lunch, everyday. My teammate and friend Katye will be running the Arts and Crafts class. Her ideas are ambitious and I’m certain the kids will LOVE them. Adam is going to be running a Reading Class. He is trying to teach the kids that reading can be FUN. I remember when I was a kid and I loved to read. I’m excited to see how is program goes. Marquitos will be helping with outdoor games. There will also be a gardening and nutrition class for the kids so they can learn more about it. I’m so excited! The theme for the summer is PANDAmania. There will be pandas and bamboo everywhere. I’m VERY excited about summer camp!

I wanted to remind you that your spiritual financial support is a really important component for my Mission Year. I’m really thankful to be here in Hollygrove and it’s only because of the support that I’ve received that I’m able to be here. I really believe in what my team and I have been doing in this community. The great John Perkins sums up our year perfectly with this awesome modern-day proverb:

Go to the people.

Live among them.

Learn from them.

Love them.

Start with what they know.

Build on what they have.

But of the best leaders,

when their task is done,

the people will remark,

“we have done it ourselves!”

I think he really immortalized my year when he said that. I wonder if he knew! This little proverb has inspired me quite a bit so far this year. I think this says exactly what Mission Year is about. I think it’s important for my supporters to really understand why I’m here and why they should believe in me and continue to support me. I’m spending this year learning about simplicity, community and, most importantly, serving and loving this community. I must continue to ask that you keep on supporting me in whatever why you can! I am about halfway towards my yearlong goal of $12,000. Have you considered pledging monthly?

As promised, I am going to share what has inspired me this month. My team and I have been reading The Ragamuffin Gospel by Brennan Manning. This is an amazing book about God’s grace. You should read it! I was also inspired this month by the Christian musician Jon Foreman. I especially love the songs “Your Love Is Strong”, which is a modern take on the Lord’s Prayer, and “Instead of a Show”, an awesome song about bringing your authentic self to the Lord in a lifestyle of worship. Jon Foreman’s albums have been a regular in our Mission Year Kitchen. I encourage you to check him out.

I would like to ask you to consider how you can support me in my Mission Year. Can you pray? Can you pledge? Can you perhaps donate a plane ticket to get home? The needs are great! I want to encourage you again to visit my blog [missionyear.org/blog/jennifer music] to see what I’m up to. Check out flickr.com/imalwaysprettyhappy to see photos. I’m so glad to be back! Thank you for making it happen!

This month, something AWESOME is happening. Mission Year is having ANOTHER donation drive! if you donate 50 dollars or more using this link [https://www.missionyear.org/kickitin/jennifermusic] then you will receive a free t-shirt. whats better is that if 12 people donate to the Kick It In drive, then I will get a t-shirt! i think thats awesome! haha! consider donating Right Now.

Red Beans and Ricely Yours

Jennifer Music

April Newsletter

Hello everybody! I can’t believe March is already over! It seems that just last week I was saying the same thing about March. The months here seem to just fly by! I am still so thankful to be here and am so appreciative of everyone who has made that happen!

For everyone who was curious: yes this month was Mardi Gras. And Yes, Mardi Gras is my new favorite thing in the world. I attended seven Mardi Gras parades this year, with neighbors and friends, and was thrown SO many beads, medallions, doubloons, stuffed animals and other great prizes: enough to bring home an entire suitcase full of goodies for my friends and family! The things that are tossed to you from parade floats are called “throws”. Just days after Fat Tuesday, we went to the Saint Patrick’s Day Parade where I got just as many throws. It is tradition at the Saint Patrick’s parade to throw the ingredients for Beef and Cabbage Stew, so I went home with a cabbage, onion, potato, peppers and carrots! My team and I are quickly noticing that this city is ALL ABOUT PARADES I am so excited to experience more parades and to see another Carnival season, hopefully next year.

Trinity Christian Community is so busy all the time! I have quickly figured out that they have their hands in about 50 different pies around New Orleans. Between volunteer groups and mission teams, Americorps, after-school program, summer camp, a farmer’s market and the senior center, they have something going on just about everyday. It sometimes is a little chaotic. But I honestly love working at the Center. It’s hard for me to stay away sometimes. Haha! Yoga club is so fun every time we do it, and so are Art Club, Fitness Club and Sports Club. I love every second of working at the Center, as well as growing closer to my coworkers and the neighborhood kids. I have been working with my Americorps friends on Thursdays, getting lots of hard work done! I am SO tired by bedtime but it is pretty rewarding!.

Tuesdays we run Young Life Club, which is pretty much just a youth group. It can be frustrating trying to get 30 restless kids to pay attention and listen to what we have to say, but I trust that the Word will be heard by those who want to listen.

We had a training this month by a man named Jimmy McGee. He had some really cool things to say about the problems faced in urban settings. He pointed out that we tend to look at these problems in a linear fashion: a simple problem with a simple solution. But the problems are not simple, they are extremely complex! It really broke our hearts to hear the statistics that he told us and then put faces on the statistics. Faces of kids we know, we see everyday and we love. Kids that eat our food and laugh at the silly things we say. Having faces and names and relationships to put on a statistic makes things so much more real and I have been praying for them even more fervently.

Most of my team are on what they call a “Daniel Fast”. In Daniel 1, Daniel quits drinking wine and eating meat and all “delicacies”. What does that mean? No meat, no processed grains, no sugar, nothing that isn’t the way the good Lord made it. Pray for them as they are abstaining from food while FEASTING on the Word of God! Its crazy!

I had a really cool moment the other day. We invited a handful of highschoolers to walk with us to get Po’Boys after church. We ended up having a picnic in the backyard with candy and pizza and about eleven extra people cramming into our house. I just really thought to myself, “This is why I’m here!” It was such awesome to have so many people over at our house, eating and laughing and playing games! I hope that it is something that we can start doing every week! It was so fun!

I am loving it SO MUCH here, but I cannot tell a lie and say that I don’t miss home! I am so excited to see my family and friends because I miss them soo much! But I love it here too! It is weird to have such conflicting feelings like that. Please keep my team and I in your prayers. It is very important that we have a strong foundation and support system while we are here. It might be hard to believe because I tell stories about the fun I am having, but Mission Year is a very difficult.

I would like to encourage you guys too! This is not a one-way street, you know! From now on, I will be writing things that inspire me so you can enjoy them too! This month, I was especially inspired by Sufjan Steven’s version of Come Thou Fount. I seriously listened to it on repeat for hours one day while I was working! It was a great song in the first place, but a Banjo just makes it better! I also have been really inspired this month by Rich Mullins. He was a Christian singer-songwriter from the nineties that died a while ago. He wrote “Awesome God”. Everyone knows that song! Besides being in the music industry, he really lived out what I think Mission Year is all about and what I want to have in my life. I encourage you to check out his story and be as inspired by him as I am! The last thing I would like to share with you is the “Adopt-a-Jesus” movie! I just found out about it and I am REALLY excited to see it when I have a spare moment! I just recently got to know the guy who made this movie

I am reeeealllyyy excited because I have already raised over 4,000 dollars! But I still have more than 7,000 dollars that I still need to raise. The money I raise pays for things like my rent, food and utilities and it is enabling me to keep on working at the Center, at Bethune Elementary be here! I urge you to consider pledging money to my Mission Year. Just 20 or 30 dollars a month goes a long way and its automatically doubled this month if [when] you donate! If you would like to donate, you can use a Mission Year envelope that should have come with this newsletter OR go to my blog at www.missionyear.org/blog/jennifermusic. I hope you read my blog, and leave a comment of encouragement! I update it so you can hear stories and read the thoughts that I share. Also, check out www.flickr.com/imalwaysprettyhappy to see pictures of what I’ve been doing and who I’ve been hanging out with lately!

March Newsletter

Hello friends and family! So much has been happening here in New Orleans!

Everyday, I get more and more excited about the next ten months! First

things first, I want to say THANK YOU to everyone who has supported me

both financially and spiritually so far during my Mission Year. I have already

raised 31% of my goal and I couldn’t have done it without any of you. If

you haven’t already pledged to my Mission Year, please consider doing so!

Just twenty dollars a month [or more] goes a long way!

I am getting so comfortable here! I am growing closer to my teammates

everyday. I also am enjoying my co-workers so much! There are six

Americorps members and one intern at Trinity Christian Community that

are there to serve just like me and my team! There names are Brynn,

Charlie, Clint, Kyra, Luther, Mike and Rene. They are great! We have been

having fun movie nights and becoming good friends. Keep my new friends

and my team in your prayers this month, please! Also, the weather here is

SUPERB! It has been a beautiful 75° all week! Beautiful!

The Grove is awesome! It is my favorite church I have ever been to.
Pastor Duane has the coolest things to say. We are beginning a series on
Peter and Peter is my FAVORITE. I call him Peter Pumpkinhead.

Trinity Christian Community has their first mission team of the summer
and let me tell you, it is busy busy busy all day long! I spent one day this
week with the mission team and the Americorps team. It was great, but I
am so sore! I guess that means I need to do some more manual labor!
There will be a steady stream of mission teams during most the spring
and summer. It is great to see people with the desire to serve and to
interact with them. I’ve also been helping with the Yoga Club for the
younger kids. Its. So. Cool. 7 year-olds + yoga=cute!

Working at Bethune Elementary is wonderful. I work in a Kindergarten

class most of the time and the kids couldn’t be cuter! It is both a blessing and

a hardship to be helping in the classroom. It’s a little bit of heartbreak when

the kids don’t understand but such a joy when it makes sense to them! It is

safe to say that I am enjoying my work at the elementary school. Please

remember to keep them in your prayers…

In just a week, my technology fast will be over! Feel free to send me emails

or text messages, but I would still love to receive letters from you guys!

Don’t forget to read my blog [missionyear.org/blog/jennifermusic] and keep

up on what I’m doing here in NOLA. I also have been putting lots of

pictures on my site [flickr.com/imalwaysprettyhappy] for you guys to see.

I’m so thankful to be here. Thank you for all the support!