A word from Carley...

Carley McGovern is a Barnabas Prep student from Maryland. She loves to reinvent her mom's home-cooking in our kitchen and we love when she surprises us with cupcakes from Georgetown Cupcakes.

I love Barnabas Prep so much. It is teaching me lots. Before I came here, I was not good at doing things for myself. One day one of the interns asked me to butter my own bagel. I was like, “You want me to do what?” I was so mad and complained the whole time. When I was done, I was proud of myself. That was the first of many things I now do on my own. Barnabas Prep is teaching me I can do more than I think I can if I just try. And who cares if it doesn’t work out the first time? Keep trying. That is what Barnabas Prep is all about. Learning to do things on our own can be hard at times but my Prep family and I get it done and have fun along the way.

One of my favorite things we have done all started one Wednesday night at dinner when George said there was no class on Thursday and we were going to Springfield. But he did not tell us why. We spent all night trying to guess what we were doing. On Thursday we all got in the car, still not knowing anything. We drove to the Springfield camp office. I was so excited to find out what we were doing. Then Jason comes out and tells the interns to get in one car and us stay in the car. Donna drove us to Incredible Pizza. I was excited. Jason and Donna told us that we could eat all the pizza we wanted and play the games. We desired to go go-carting. Yes, people in wheelchairs can drive go carts. Not well, but we can. I got to go with Jason and had a blast.

I love my Barnabas Prep family and am so glad I get to take part in everything Barnabas Prep has to offer.

To see video and photos from Carley and the other students’ go-cart adventures, check out their Facebook page at www.facebook.com/barnabasprep.

Dawn's Early Light

Each week one of our Barnabas Prep students or interns will post here their insights into what being a part of the Prep program means to them. Our entry this week is from our intern, John Bryant. John is from Memphis, Tennessee and a graduate of Rhodes College with a degree in creative writing. And this is very creative....

Dawn’s early light finds me, and I find it annoying.

It says, gently, “Hey, buddy! Wake up!”

I say, gently, “Hey, dawn: we aren’t buddies.”

My phone alarm goes off, and I yawn, and throw it at the wall. But gently. Because grandma calls on Tuesdays. And I treasure her.

But I don’t like waking up. I think that’s honest.

Ask any of my Barnabas Prep family if I’m an absolute monster in the morning, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: “No.” Because my Barnabas Prep family’s got my back. Thanks guys. Now back to work: Daddy wants breakfast.

If you found this funny, then all I have to say is: Hi, mom, grandma’s doing fine. And I’m doing a blog. And I love you.

Mom, I gotta go.

To everybody else:

I’ve been here for two months, and even after I wake up, I sometimes feel like I’ve made the right decision. Why? Because I’m laughing more than ever.

Why am I laughing? Because nothing’s going right.

Some people get the idea that we interns know what we’re doing. And I laugh at these people. I laugh and laugh. And these people turn and walk away, shaking their long blond hair, wondering why that intelligent, attractive man was laughing so much. And if they’ll ever see him again. Because man, talk about the total package.

Now, don’t misunderstand me, we know what we’re doing, up to a point. We know how to cook, how to make peace. We know how to transfer the students into the cars. Heck, we even know how to drive the cars. But what we don’t know, and what we can’t ever seem to learn, is how to make everything work out. Because breakfast was late, dinner will burn, and we are late to church. And we forgot to plug in Jen’s wheelchair. And we’re sorry, Jen.

And we never agree on anything.

Yes we do.

No we don’t.

Some of us want to watch “Hannah Montana,” but some of us were waiting to see “Survivor.” Some of us like listening to country music, but some of us only like good music. Some of us are eager to eat spicy Mexican, but some of us are tired of trying to make it to the bathroom in time. Some days, all we can agree on is that everyone should go back to sleep.

Except me. I’m wide awake at that point.

What I’m saying is: 11 different people, living together, is awful. And amazing. And you won’t know God’s grace until you try it. You won’t know that 99 percent of the time, God’s grace is the ability to laugh. And you won’t know what laughter really is. You won’t know that laughter is really just the ability to say, “I’m not God. Because God doesn’t let dinner explode.”

Laughter is the ability to admit you just made a mistake. And I’m laughing all the time. I laugh because nothing’s working out. I laugh because God’s working it all out. I cry that He made me live here with 10 other people. I cry that He might not have.

And I love my ten friends. That part wasn’t hard. But they better not wake me up.