Sheena's Experience as a MercyWorker
When Katie and Liz asked if I could talk with you a bit today, it really got me reflecting on my MercyWorks experience. I remember sitting in this room one year ago. I was bright eyed and excited....I also had never experienced what it was like to have a meal with the kids in this cafeteria, didn't have the faintest idea how to get around this building (much less the city of Chicago), I couldn't (even after 3 days together) keep the names of my 13 community members straight, and I remember wondering, "What the heck am I getting myself into?". It goes without saying that your experience as a MercyWorker will be unique from my own...even so, I thought I would offer insight on a few of things you might expect throughout the upcoming year...
You can expect to be challenged, stretched, pushed, pulled in 1,001 growth-producing ways...and it will be beautiful. Challenged by the kids you work with, your coworkers, your community members, Katie, Liz, and Ian. When it comes to spirituality, you will be challenged to hang on to your God, and your faith through it all...challenged to practice the compassion that you have preached as you stand toe to toe with an angry, hurtful and hurting young man or young woman, to love your roommates (who invade your personal space, and leave the dishes out, and "forget" to give you phone messages). There are times when you will find it tough to pray because you feel tired and defeated... and there will be times when you least expect it when you are with a youth, a roommate, or by yourself and you know that God is as close to you as He's ever been...and in those moments you can only stand awestruck and humbled. 
When it comes to professional development, you will be challenged to rethink (all over again) who you are, what your strengths are, just how much you really know, and what room you have for improvement (as the youth will not so quietly point out to you). You can expect, when it comes to professional development, to find yourself in meetings with your boss's boss's boss and wonder if what you have to say is intelligent enough or worthwhile enough to share...and then share anyway, and feel your confidence grow as you do.
When it comes to simple living, you can expect to be asked (not always comfortably) to consider how your actions (the commitments you make or break, the water you use or waste, the clothes you buy, the money you spend, the groceries you consume) affect the people in your MercyWorks community...as well as the people in Chicago...and the people in the United States...and the people in the world around you.. You can expect to feel a new responsibility for the choices you make, and within that responsibility, to feel empowered to make choices that are intentional and in line with your values.
You can expect, when it comes to service, to be so intimately involved in the lives of these families and children that at times you feel like you are in the trenches and on the mountaintops right along with them. You will spend more time with these young men or women or families each week than with your closest friends and even fellow MercyWorkers. When one of the guys in your program is elated after his talent show performance, sick with the flu, heartbroken after a family disappointment, frustrated to the point of pushing chairs over a homework assignment that he just doesn't understand...When she is goofy, hyper, proud, scared, angry, confused (and the list goes on)...You will be there with them...You will be there teaching and learning, disciplining, congratulating, and learning some more along the way....Remember what a privilege that is.
You can expect times when what you are saying or doing does not seem to be working and you simply do not feel good at your job (and this is a new feeling for some of us!). You can expect days, weeks, and even months (actually, this was the majority of my first 8 or 9 months) when you wonder if what you are doing is really leaving any impact at all on these kids. Times when you are mocked, mimicked, insulted, rejected, and told in a not-so-kind tone of voice, to take your ugly butt back to Kansas. (Last year I told one of my roommates about this exchange and she said, "ahh that's sweet, he remembers where you're from). But you can also expect 2 on 2 games of basketball that leave you drenched in your work clothes and a little more respected than you were the day before.
You can expect moments when you see a lightbulb go off in one of their young minds, or you see that she is really and truly proud of herself. That's an awesome thing. You can expect a young man, after a particularly challenging night of curse words and insults, to approach you late at night, ask you to help him mend his oversized winter coat, and then sit cross-legged on the floor with you for 40 minutes as his way of saying he's sorry. You can expect a youth, who has struggled with F's in school nearly all year and whom you have struggled to motivate nearly all year, to come home beaming because he got a B on his Biology test, is so proud of himself, and can't wait to show YOU. And you can expect one youth, who has held you at bay for one full year and whom you were convinced had not internalized a single thing you tried to teach him about respecting himself and respecting others, pause his phone conversation when he heard you sneeze in order to look over and say "Bless you." Those are moments you can expect.
Finally, when it comes to community, you can expect to discover what it feels like for 13 strangers (who were once awkward with one another) to become (at the risk of sounding cheesy), your family...your quirky, hilarious, irritating, conflict prone and conflict resolving, loud, ugly-christmas-sweater-wearing, supportive, sanity breaking and sanity saving family. I honestly had no idea (again, at the risk of sounding cheesy) that after one year, I would grow to love that group of strangers (who's names I at first had trouble remembering) to the degree that I do now. They were my compadres, my companions on the journey, they were my calm in the storm, (and sometimes they were the storm itself). I can't tell you what to expect in your community...the 14 of you will make that on your own.
So, on behalf of the MercyWorks 2006-2007 gang and all MercyWorkers who have gone before us, welcome. You will never again have a year like this one. Soak it all in...Enjoy.