TravelQuest Adventure: Travel to 6 Countries with our Summer Reading & Arts Program

July 9^th – August 13th

Work with K-5^th grade students on reading proficiency and language skills in a fun and educational environment combined with daily visual  art classes.

Monday – Thursday 10am-12:30pm

Teen Leadership & Community Service

July 9^th – August 13^th

Hang out with our teenagers and help encourage community, creativity, and self-expression through drumming, leadership development and local community service opportunities.

Monday – Thursday 1-3pm

Mika’s Christian Surf Club

Teach or assist 4^th – 12^th graders in surf instruction at one of 4 camps on the 2^nd Saturday of each month. Sponsor a camp lunch and bring your small group to spend the day at the beach

Volunteer Orientations

June 28^th, July 5^th, & August 2^nd

Email monse@mikacdc.org for more information!

May 19 – Kermes: Buy food, listen to music and try your chances in the raffle at this fun neighborhood party at the Shalimar Park from 12pm – 5pm

June 9 – Garage Sale: Drop off your donations by Thursday June 7th or swing by and shop on the 9th! Location and time coming soon!

June 23 – Kermes: More details to come!

June 30 – Car Wash: For just $10 your car can be as clean as new! Purchase tickets from our students or just come out to Harbor Trinity Church (1230 Baker St.) from 8am – 2pm

July 14 – Garage Sale: More details to come!

July 21 – Kermes: More details to come!

Email or call Caryn with any questions: caryn@mikacdc.org or 949-645-0075

Hope to see you around this summer!!

Many of my neighbors work in service jobs where they try to go unnoticed.  As they clean hotel rooms, serve food and fix up yards, part of the job is doing the work without interrupting the other things around them.  It’s not rare for neighbors to clean homes and yards for people they have never met or rarely see.  The skill of going unnoticed has to be perfected by my neighbors who do not have legal documentation to be in the United States.  They have learned how to melt into the crowd, stay quiet, avoid checkpoints, and generally go undetected.  Being invisible becomes a way of living.

Perhaps that is why we work to know one another in our neighborhood.  Our morning greetings and evening parking dramas serve as a rhythm of sending out and welcoming back.  As neighbors leave for work, we send each other out with a greeting, an acknowledgement with the new day that we are known and no matter how invisible we must make ourselves that day, we will be welcomed home by name in the evening.  When we greet each other we see each other.

That may sound so basic and simple and yet as I think about our Facebook updates and check-ins and tweets, I see that we desire to be recognized, wanting our presence to be acknowledged.   It used to be that everyone wanted to have their fifteen minutes of fame and now we want our 500 Facebook friends to know we are at Target.  I wonder if this deep need we have for connection and acknowledgement is somehow fulfilled when we simply greet one another by name.  “Good Morning Florinda.”  I see you.  I acknowledge you as my neighbor.  I send you out into this world not as an invisible worker bee but as one rooted in this community, mother of Paco and Kevin, friend of Marina, valued community member.

Our names are typically the first thing we give and receive in a relationship.  There is a mutuality established in sharing our names.  It is something we all have to offer.  And in receiving the gift of someone’s name we have the opportunity to honor them by greeting and acknowledging.  God Himself communicated his desire for a close relationship with humanity by giving his name.  Moses grew up in the Egyptian culture full of gods of all kinds.  When he encounters the Living God at the burning bush he asks him, who are you? And God responds with his name, I AM.  I am the One Who Is.  In a culture where gods did not reveal themselves by name, this came as an act of intimacy, setting the standard for how God desired to interact with his creation.  And in a vulnerable, bold move, the God of all creation not only gives Israel His name but tells them, “I have called you by name.  You are mine.” (Isaiah 43:1).  The God we follow humbles Himself to give us His name, revealing Himself to us.  And He calls us by name, revealing His intimate love.  As we acknowledge who He is and receive His love may we have eyes to see others and call out to them by name with that same love.

I told Michelle I would need a bit of time to think about her offer, as it was something completely out of my comfort zone.  I knew I needed to pray about the decision.  Eventually, I did feel led to give it a try and so I picked up my SYE Teacher Notebook and started teaching that October.

When I decided to try volunteering as a SYE teacher, I did not feel qualified and I didn’t know what to expect.  As I’ve gotten to know the students over the years, I realize how much we all learn from each other and how much fun we can have in the process!  I have felt so blessed by my experience volunteering at Maple Street.  It has been an honor to work with some students for several years and see their English vocabulary and comprehension grow and positively affect their lives in so many ways.   In our class we have laughed, cried and prayed, together.  We had an amazing party at the end of class one year and I have met so many wonderful new friends and families.

We meet Wednesday evenings from 7:30 to 8:30 and I’m very happy to share that we currently have four teachers!  Having four teachers volunteering helps us to meet the individual needs of our students.  Typically, we divide into smaller groups where we practice everyday conversations, writing sentences, vocabulary and grammar.  For a little fun and relaxation, we often end our class with a little dancing or yoga.  Our hope is to make each class a positive experience where everyone improves their English, feels welcome and has an enjoyable evening.

Thankfully, I accepted Michelle’s request to teach SYE and now, as I’m into my 4^th year of teaching, I look back with a bit of a smile when I think of how nervous I had been…

I would have missed out on so much if I had told Michele, “No”!

Jane Miller, Mika Volunteer

Working with our neighborhood leaders on Strategic Plans aligns with the Capacity Building stage of our Community Building Process and affirms all 6 of our organizational outcome:

• Vision: Neighbors share and agree on a desired future for their community.
• Interdependent Relationships with God and Each Other: Neighbors support one another in all facets of life (spiritually, emotionally, socially and economically).
• Servant Leadership: Leaders are committed to serve, listen, trust, collaborate and empower other neighbors to serve effectively.
• Impact: Neighbors identify, design, fund, manage and evaluate sustainable initiatives that transform their community.
• Organization: Neighbors establish efficient and effective local systems and structures to reach their shared goals and vision.
• Networks: Neighbors collaborate with public and private partners from inside and outside the community to maximize the impact of their initiatives.

During the meeting, several objectives were set to help develop their goals. The community wants to work together to promote healthy families.  They desire to learn how to eat better, participate in nutrition classes, exercise more, and to maintain good communication with the police department.  They would also like to participate more with events organized by the police department.  They want to participate more with their schools by engaging in education and by having more classes for the parents.  They desire to have better communication with the teenagers and to engage more in the events of the greater community.

The neighbors in Maple are excited about the work of the next few years. There’s still planning and calendaring to accomplish but they are motivated to move forward together.

In preparation for the event, the Center St. Neighborhood Action Committee (NAC) reflected on what we wanted to celebrate. Not only did we want to celebrate the success of 5 years offering students tutoring, countless health classes and other educational opportunities, but we wanted to celebrate the way we’ve seen our shared values guide our work and accomplish more together than we could have otherwise.

Our neighborhood values on Center St. are Respect, Humility, Communication, Honesty, Unity and Family. These values have brought neighbors of all ages together.

We celebrate Respect when students listen and follow direction during our after-school program. Parent Site Coordinators help care for everyone’s children during their time volunteering in the program and students learn to respect all the adults in their community.

We celebrate Humility when challenges and conflict come our way and neighbors choose to face the issues and deal with them together.  We humbly walk with one another even though we don’t always get it right the first time.

We celebrate Unity when neighbors pull together to support others in need, in crisis, and in death. Many of our neighbor’s families and relatives reside in a foreign country, and neighbors have learned to lean on one another as family and support each other as such.

We celebrate Honesty and Communication when we are intentional in spreading positive language and uplifting words about our neighbors and children in the community.

We celebrate churches and businesses and property owners and neighbors coming together to lead the way toward these values that are commonly shared between the different entities.

But more than all of this we celebrate the HOPE that neighbors have for themselves, their families and for their community – hope that is rooted in the knowledge and love of their Creator.

I was not sure what I was going to do to make this happen but there was definitely something stirring inside.  After months of fasting and prayer, a plan came to light!  With the help of the Mika staff, our neighborhood families and our network of people and local businesses, the Youth Action Team was launched!

20 junior high and high school students were chosen from the larger population of students involved in our youth programs.  These kids show potential to be leaders in our neighborhoods and with training, encouragement and lots of love they stand to attain positions throughout our city that will move our community into the future.

We spent the first 10 weeks together exploring our community.  We were given “back stage passes” to places like South Coast Repertory Theater, Costa Mesa Police Department, Environmental Nature Center, RockHarbor church, Costa Mesa City Hall, Volcom, Vanguard University,  Orange County Transportation Authority and we even took a harbor cruise!  Through these adventures they built a solid team, learning to trust and care for one another.

We are currently collaborating with Vanguard University’s communication department, putting together a media project depicting how the students see themselves in the context of their families, their community and God’s Kingdom.  They are working with college students and professors on campus learning skills in photography, videography and journalism.  They are thinking about their lives in ways they never have before.

To finish off the school year we will be talking more about social justice and advocacy.  They will be learning about how government works on local, state and national levels.  They will choose an issue within our community that they feel strongly about and research current policy on the issue.  They will learn to write policy recommendations and have the opportunity to present them to our City Council.  These kids are ready to be heard. They are ready to make positive change.  They are ready to share what they’ve learned with students who are coming up the ranks behind them.

We might not know how the Youth Action Team will grow and change.  We might not know how they will choose to engage in our community – what we do know is that they will be ready!  These kids are leaders!

We had a great day with only a few minor injuries! A dislocated shoulder and bruised knees were a small price to pay for their first snowboarding experience. Some of the boys were so excited and loved the experience so much that they wanted to return the following week. It’s encouraging to see leaders from our community coming together to create these kinds of opportunities.