My Summer at Mission Adelante 🌻

by Ashley Delgado, Ministry Apprentice

It was such a fun summer here at Mission Adelante. So much happened this summer with the interns such as Arts Camp, Arts Community and Tuesday youth activities. I enjoyed every moment that happened, and arrived home each day tired from working so hard!

It was my first time leading Arts Camp and it went pretty well - even better than what I expected. At first, I felt so nervous, and I thought I couldn't handle it because there was a lot of planning. You need to have two plans: plan A and plan B. For some reason, I'm good at coming up with plan B when something goes wrong, and there were a lot of up and down moments when planning. We had volunteers join us in the beginning and then have to leave. Thankfully, Megan and I asked other volunteers if they could step in. I enjoyed my moments with the kids and planning with the volunteers!

Interns also worked with us in the summer. When it comes to new people, I can be very shy, closeted, and I become a different person than what people think. When they first meet me they’ll be like, “Oh she is a quiet person, don’t bother her.” But recently, we had three new boys come in to intern at Mission Adelante. For the first few weeks, I didn't talk much, but in the third week I got really close with them because a close friend of theirs passed away. I became especially close to one of them named Innocent. Working with him could sometimes be slow, but it was so much fun to see him open up. Everyday I came to Mission Adelante, I would go check on him and see if he was okay and if he wanted to talk. Over the summer, I became very connected with the guys: Innocent, Shae, and Flori. Till this day, even though we are not working together, we still keep in touch. We have a group chat together and I'm happy about that.

Wow, even though summer was two months long it went by so fast! But maybe too fast. Some of our staff transitioned away this summer, and it just takes time for me to process and know that they are gone from Mission Adelante. People come and go. Even though they left, they have brought so many good memories here at Mission, through my life as well, and many others’ lives too. They supported me through my journey here at Mission Adelante in my most challenging moments, and in my best moments. Sometimes it has been hard when people in my circle don’t understand the difficulties of running a program. Even through those times, I always knew I can turn to my coworkers - especially Megan and Laxmi. Talking to those staff members about these challenges feels great because it relieves so much stress. I just want to say thank you to Laxmi and Megan!

This is my summer recap for Adelante Express. But in case I don't see you when you are reading this: good afternoon, good evening, and good night. Alright I gotta go, my computer battery is running low :)