autumn's amber red shadows dance
last week, i went on the annual summer mission project with my home church, palmetto baptist. we left sunday morning, as we were going to new orleans, which is a (relatively) easy drive of 8/9 hours. i convinced the group to stop at zaxby's for lunch, which was a very good thing, because there wasn't a zaxby's where we were staying, so i was deprived for a week!
we arrived at hopeview baptist (a church in chalmette, la, which was converted after katrina into a dormitory for mission groups who need a place to stay--it housed around 200 people) that evening and got the bus unpacked. drove around for a little while and the devastation is still heartbreaking, two years later.
monday morning we made our first trip to carver baptist center, where the ladies of the group (17 of us) would be spending our days, helping inner-city kids see Christ's love.
the mornings were spent rotating through three rooms (math/Bible study; puppet show/reading, writing, spelling; music/crafts) by age groups (itty-bitty, 2nd-6th grade, 7th grade and up).
on monday, i stayed in the music/crafts room the entire morning, and so each hour, i was exposed to a different group of kids. i didn't get to know any one of them very well, but we did learn some incredibly cool songs.
after lunch was recreation time. this too was on a rotation schedule, cultural learning, wild running around type games, and board games/DDR. i floated around most afternoons, but tended to stay in the wild games room.
on tuesday, leah and i organized one of the offices. it had been used as a storage closet, with tons of junk just thrown in... as you can imagine, i nearly had a heart attack. once we got done with it though, there was floor space. counter space. you could sit in the three desk chairs! it was a good morning.
wednesday, i wasn't feeling too well for most of the morning, so i curled up in one of the cushy chairs in the lobby and did a whole lot of deep breathing.
thursday was spent in the math/Bible study room, where we heard about Elijah (one of my favorites, thanks to L'Engle's Many Waters) and Elisha (seriously? he sent two female bears to maul 42 kids who were making fun of him. this guy was hardXcore). and though i thought i would make a horrible math tutor, thanks to how seriously bad i am at math, i ended up being not too bad. i attribute this to the fact that i completely understand how frustrating math is and i've found other ways to get to answers than the prescribed method.
friday... oh. friday was my favorite day. i stayed with the middle age group the whole day. 7 kids. (tony, te, jay, ryan, trevor, de'mahj, and jada.) friday morning, it was "i ca' ha' dat?" through raised eyebrows and asking for the magic word, we eventually got to "miss rachel, can i have that, please?" i miss those boys so much. it's not even funny.
friday was also my least favorite day. i hate fridays of mission trips, because it is the day where we have to say goodbye to the people we have grown to love over the course of the week and leave them behind forever.
i'll talk about the evenings and the rest of the stuff we did in another post, but this i had to share.
we were taught, once more, in new orleans, louisiana, that kids' lives are changed by the presence of someone who cares enough to get down on their knees and help with a math worksheet, or ask about the problems in their life, or humiliate themselves doing motions to ridiculous songs.
we were taught, once more, that we can make a difference. that we can be a light in the darkness.
we'll forget it again by next year's mission trip. but i guess that's why they're annual.
we arrived at hopeview baptist (a church in chalmette, la, which was converted after katrina into a dormitory for mission groups who need a place to stay--it housed around 200 people) that evening and got the bus unpacked. drove around for a little while and the devastation is still heartbreaking, two years later.
monday morning we made our first trip to carver baptist center, where the ladies of the group (17 of us) would be spending our days, helping inner-city kids see Christ's love.
the mornings were spent rotating through three rooms (math/Bible study; puppet show/reading, writing, spelling; music/crafts) by age groups (itty-bitty, 2nd-6th grade, 7th grade and up).
on monday, i stayed in the music/crafts room the entire morning, and so each hour, i was exposed to a different group of kids. i didn't get to know any one of them very well, but we did learn some incredibly cool songs.
after lunch was recreation time. this too was on a rotation schedule, cultural learning, wild running around type games, and board games/DDR. i floated around most afternoons, but tended to stay in the wild games room.
on tuesday, leah and i organized one of the offices. it had been used as a storage closet, with tons of junk just thrown in... as you can imagine, i nearly had a heart attack. once we got done with it though, there was floor space. counter space. you could sit in the three desk chairs! it was a good morning.
wednesday, i wasn't feeling too well for most of the morning, so i curled up in one of the cushy chairs in the lobby and did a whole lot of deep breathing.
thursday was spent in the math/Bible study room, where we heard about Elijah (one of my favorites, thanks to L'Engle's Many Waters) and Elisha (seriously? he sent two female bears to maul 42 kids who were making fun of him. this guy was hardXcore). and though i thought i would make a horrible math tutor, thanks to how seriously bad i am at math, i ended up being not too bad. i attribute this to the fact that i completely understand how frustrating math is and i've found other ways to get to answers than the prescribed method.
friday... oh. friday was my favorite day. i stayed with the middle age group the whole day. 7 kids. (tony, te, jay, ryan, trevor, de'mahj, and jada.) friday morning, it was "i ca' ha' dat?" through raised eyebrows and asking for the magic word, we eventually got to "miss rachel, can i have that, please?" i miss those boys so much. it's not even funny.
friday was also my least favorite day. i hate fridays of mission trips, because it is the day where we have to say goodbye to the people we have grown to love over the course of the week and leave them behind forever.
i'll talk about the evenings and the rest of the stuff we did in another post, but this i had to share.
we were taught, once more, in new orleans, louisiana, that kids' lives are changed by the presence of someone who cares enough to get down on their knees and help with a math worksheet, or ask about the problems in their life, or humiliate themselves doing motions to ridiculous songs.
we were taught, once more, that we can make a difference. that we can be a light in the darkness.
we'll forget it again by next year's mission trip. but i guess that's why they're annual.