Last night was fun! We were thinking of all these crafts that we could do...I mentioned the one that we did at retreat, where the kids drew an outline of one of the kids on a sheet of paper and then everyone put something that is unique for them on it. When I suggested this, there was complete silence, and I was wondering what was going on. After a pause Damon, one of the team leaders said, "I think these kids have seen enough chalk outlines..."
Welcome to Detroit Josh...
Today was a tough day. It was hot, the kids were a little nutty, tempers were flaring, and we weren't doing a whole lot to keep it down. It reminds me of the lessons in mendenhall, where if we let them run all over us, then they will run all over us. I found myself just trying to keep the kids in line, and not as much relationship building with them. Not that there is a lot of relationship building that you can do in 3 days.
One of the things that we are doing is trying to get these kids involved with the local church ministry that is happening here, because we are not going to be around all the time, but the church is...The really cool thing about it is that on Saturday we're going to be doing home visitations to the kids who came to the camp to tell them about church and how we're going to have awards and such for the kids...I personally am really excited about this, because it makes so much sense to me instead of thinking "I'm coming down to town xyz and people are going to be saved, then I don't have to worry about them anymore!" I felt a little of that in mendenhall, thinking, "how much can I really build a relationship with these kids for a week, when they are surrounded by other less savory elements of the community all year around?"
Marie (one of the team leaders) made a great observation that I see a lot with urban youth, and that is that the kids will respond to discipline from the men, but not the women. The groups with men leaders were a lot better disciplined than the groups with women leaders. It makes me sad that we only have a couple of men that are leaders, because it was really noticeable today.
Well, it's late, and I've got to get some sleep for tomorrow, the last day in the camp...while it has been advertised as a 3 day camp, I do have to say that I'm just as exhausted after 3 days as I was after 5 days of mendenhall...of course it could have to do with the fact that I did the 3 day camp right AFTER mendenhall. ;)
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