Saturday

It’s hard to believe an entire week has passed since we jammed the belongings of 11 youth and four adults into four vehicles and headed off to Pescadero. In the process, we lost one vehicle, ate a lot of food, disco

vered an entire community that few of us had ever seen and made important and lasting connections with it, and grew together as a group. In many ways, the best part of work camp is that it sets the stage for next year’s Winthrop class; a strong bunch of young people this year means a great foundation for next year.

We are losing two seniors - David Ayers, the strong, gentle, quiet leader of the boys’ side of the Winthrop class, and Sita Wong, a remarkable, talented and poised young woman. They are irreplaceable - but so is every senior who moves on from the youth group, and especially young people who have been i

n the program for the entire duration of their high school careers, like David and Sita have been.

We’re also losing Adam, a loss felt by the entire church. I don’t really need to get into that here, beyond saying how emotional I felt watching him deliver the introduction to what is perhaps the last communion of his time at FCCB during our closing ceremony.

But look at what they leave behind, and the example they have set. Patrick, Alex and Hannon form a great core of boys, and Lia, Olivia, Amaya, Mae, Caroline are now fast friends on the girl’s side - and connecting everyone is the remarkable Brianna, who’s the quiet hub of the whole group. As for the leaders, nothi

ng is really certain, but there are enough of us committed to carrying on the Winthrop traditions along with our returning youth. The future for Winthrop is bright and shining.

We have no idea who will replace Adam as

the leader of this wonderful program, but whoever takes the reins will find a rich heritage forged by generations of young people and youth leaders - and few so fine as our most recent graduating class. I hope the new minister is ready for it!

-Chris

Having only joined the Work Camp activities on Wednesday evening, I did not see all that the youth & leaders have accomplished. But let me tell you, in just two short work days these youth blew me away. They volunteer for every task. They cooperate with each other. They reach out to the strangers we are helping until they are no longer strangers but friends.

This is my 9^th Work Camp. I know if I can’t make it next year for some reason, it’s in warm, capable hands. These are the kind of Winthropites who will create the strong & faithful community of Work Camp wherever they go.

In our last evening together during the closing worship, Adam wrote out a passage from the bible (Romans 1: 1-21 I think). He had us underline the section that “shimmered” for us, the part that stood out above the rest. “Leave room for God...” is what I underlined. At Work Camp - and at this one especially - we created space for the divine in the simplest things. We left room in between us to connect with each other, and sure enough God found His way in.

- Alexa

Workcamp 2011 Participants

Friday

Today was probably one of the busiest days of the week. We went to the elementary school and helped with this neat community garden project they had going, where we fixed up planters, spread out tan bark, planted flowers and shoveled A LOT of dirt. In the end I think everyone got sunburned, but it’s a good thing that Elizabeth brought this numbing spray for the burns! Unfortunately we had to say goodbye to the townsfolk and friends we made over the week, but something tells me we will be back before too long. It was such a great experience to share with not only our youth group but also with the youth of Pescardero. Now everyone is just that much more excited for what’s going to go on next year at work camp!

-Olivia

As we worked on the Community Garden, it was affirming to see the blank field slowly change into the beginnings of a beautiful space for the community to share. We worked with Karen, a landscape architect who had precise blueprints on what the garden will eventually look like. It’s ambitious, but we made a HUGE difference today. Our youth and leaders just rolled up their sleeves and got it done! We moved six 4x12-foot container boxes, nailed chicken wire on the bottoms, filled them with dirt and top soil, and then planted strawberries, flowers and prepped them for vegetables. We dug holes for posts and fruit trees, laid the areas between the boxes with weed barriers and finally shoveled many cubic feet of mulch around the container boxes. We moved numerous hay bales to the perimeters around the garden.

To see the transformation in just 5 hours was so fulfilling. Feeling the warm soil in our hands and working shoulder to shoulder with the Puente High School youth felt like we were all a big family. Witnessing the youth work diligently and non-stop till our work was done flies in the face of some who express that “the youth today are lazy.” All week they’ve proven over and over again that, given a task, they work with laughter, spirit, grace, and purpose with the common goal of helping this community. There was much laughter, sharing, spiritual growth, intimacy, and deep gratitude and appreciation for the people who work in the fields and grow our food. It’s no longer them but us. Blessings to our youth for the lessons they’ve learned and the wisdom they’ve shared.

At one point I stood aside the group just watching them work together and felt tears streaming down my face. I feel both proud and blessed to be with our Winthrop youth and leaders in such a close, bonded community. I love these youth and I see and feel God working through their hands.

The evening ended as we all participated in the Talent/NoTalent show. Alex had the privilege of wearing “the dress” and in my opinion the boys skit imitating how the girls behave was gut busting. Bravo to our Winthrop Youth!!!

- Elizabeth

R.I.P. White Lightening

After nearly getting us to Pescadero, Terry andCarmelle's van, affectionately named "White Lightening" lost its transmission one mile from its destination. They decided to donate it to FCCB and the tow truck came yesterday to pick it up. Ironically, the tow truck driver was from Berkeley! We gave White Lighteninga final Winthrop blessing It went without a struggle.

Thursday

As we’ve passed the mid-point of the week, our group has become a very tight bunch. Some of us came to workcamp not knowing each other very well and now we all are close friends. Aches and pains are beginning to show up as the weeks work begins to take its tole on our body. Today we unloaded food donations at both La Honda and the Pescadero Community Church and helped to pass it out to people in the community. With our group’s added man-power we finished the job much faster th

an Puente usually can. Pat deJong is sitting over my shoulder as I type, as she drove down to visit us

here in Pescadero. A visit from the outside world serves to remind us how special this week is. We have formed our own little family here in the sanctuary of this church and the small town that surrounds it.

-David

Today was a very busy day. After we finished passing all the food out to those in need, we began cooking and baking for our barbecue. We made broccoli salad, fruit salad, and brownies, I helped make the brownies. We had a great dinner, with people from La Sala and Puente. There was food, talking, making friendship bracelets, and dominos. It was nice to see how far we had come, on the first day we learned how to play dominos with the men from La Sala and thenabout four days

later we play again. This time with memories of what we havelearned about these peoples lives and what they live like, and also what we have done to help them. It is great to know what we have done to help life in Pescadero and we look forward to the next couple days. We are all hoping to get a good nights sleep and to be ready for the next day.

-Amaya

(Editors note: we also spent the morning at Puente offering support for their "Storytime." While parents and young children heard stories, we supervised play for the older siblings outside)

A View From Here

I am sitting in front of the Country Store on the tiny main street of Pescadero where there is free wifi as the sun comes up. I have to laugh at how even with the luxury of sleeping in compared to my schedule at home, I am still waking up at the same time I usually do. It has afforded me some time to post on the Blog and take a breath before the activity of the day.

One of the things we learned about Pescadero is that it has no basic infrastructure. There is no sewer system running under the street in front of me and no public water system. This has limited the possibilities for development in town despite a lot of interest in Pescadero from dot com execs. Apparently, like many places, wealthy people are coming and buying homes and land here for second homes and hobby farms. The prices of homes is now out of reach of most people who work in Pescadero. We also learned that the globalization of the flower industry his pushing many Pescadero farmers out of business. In fact, the number of new arrivals (men coming here to work) is now down to 1 or 2 per year. Many farm workers have left the area and the overall population might be down to just a few hundred. Still, the needs of those who are here, including families and children, are fueling a vibrant program at Puente, which is now located right next to Pescadero Elementary School.

One of the most gratifying moments for me personally happened yesterday. During our First Aid class (taught by the Red Cross, BTW) I noticed one Pescadero youth named Esteban. He looked familiar and as soon as he talked, I remembered his bubbly personality from the last time we were here in 2005. On that Workcamp, we ran a day camp for local children. I asked him if he remembers being there. He did not. Later in the day, he was riding his bike with a friend. His friend wanted to know more about our group. He asked why we had chosen to come to Pescadero and I told him about our long history here including our last Workcamp. He smiled and said he had come to that and confirmed that Esteban was there too. It was so gratifying to see this two youth, 6 years later both participating in Puente's summer youth program where they will be running summer camps for children. That is why having a commitment to return to same Workcamp locations periodically means so much.

I am proud of this group and who they are as people and who we are as a group.

Adam

Wednesday

Our day started with first aid training from 8-12 with kids from Pescadero that are working at Puente over the summer. Our training included how to determine what treatment an injured or ill person might require and what steps you should take to keep you and the victim safe. There was some hands on training such as how to wrap a deep cut and how to turn over an unconscious individual. Afterwards we ate lunch with the kids from Pescadero with food they had made. This training helped us right after we finished lunch, there were a couple accidents that we prepared for! (except no one really needed first aid).

It was such a great day, we finally got to do our laundry and restock the pantry and fridge. The work committee consisting of Amaya and Caroline left with Adam to do the laundry in Santa Cruz.

They were gone for a few hou

rs with the two full trash bags of dirty

clothes. The clothes were not quite as dirty as they have been in the past because or work has generally been light. We have continued to organize the Puente offices and prepare welcome bags for some of the farmworkers. The bags included t-shirts, towels, socks, soap, razors, shampoo, conditioner, lotion, toothbrushes and toothpaste. Once the laundry and groceries got back we went out to dinner at the Country Store down the street. Some of us had burgers while others shared some pizza including one featuring the worldrenowned goat cheese from Harley's Goat farm down the street. All the food was great and afterwards we went to the school in town for a healthy game of capture the flag on the first cold day thus far. Just before the game started Alexa arrived and helped the red flag team take a two to one victory. Tonight some of us cut strawberries for the pies we are having Friday. Patrick and Alex had their nails done by the girls and with the nail polish that Elizabeth so kindly brought down with her today. Now we are settling down for some games like cards and thinking about guys skit and secret buddy gifts. We love you guys and miss you!

-Mae and Hannon =)

(Editors Note: One of the other highlights not mentioned but pictured here is that our youth "evangelized" friendship bracelet making during the First Aid training and shared supplies with the Pescadero youth.)