(This page contains LOTS of pictures. Be patient.)
We loaded up Sunday, July 9th, after church. We were on the road by 1 PM with 45 middle schoolers and 16 "grown-ups" (including some high schoolers, thus the quotes). The bus ride was a caffeine fueled cacophony of silliness, as expected.
Monday we faced our VBS kids for the first time. It was nothing like the 2005 trip. This was not the ghetto. Instead we worked a community center in a fairly normal apartment complex. Granted it was a little shoddy, but it was nothing to be afraid of. Still, the kids had a "tough" exterior and tried hard to make that first impression.
Monday evening we hit San Antonio's Riverwalk. Splitting into groups, we fanned out to "minister" to as many cool restaurants and shops as possible. Many opted to "show God's love" to the mall.
My group (Me, Big Dog, Nick, Justin, Caleb, Lina, Lacey, Lisa, Melody, Shelby, Chandra, and Samantha) ate right on the river, under a bridge (at almost the same table as last year).
Yeah... Nick loves me. It's kind of creepy, but whadaya do?
My VBS team consisted of "grown-ups" Beth Ann, Mal, Tiffany P, and myself and 8th graders Justin, Julia, Carleigh, Elaine, Taylor, Megan, Jaclyn, Kevin and Katie (yes, the Katie that comments on my blog all the time). There were four college kids doing summer missions at our community center (Rhette, Megan, Channing, and Amy) and we ranged from 31 to 42 kids per day ranging in age from 3 to 14.
I had warned our kids before hand that for kids in these kinds of programs touch is love. They are starved for physical touch and so they are happiest when they were being held. While it was gratifying to show them love, it was hard on the shoulders!
These kids were serious about dodge ball. They played for blood. When we joined in the game, their "toughness" got even tougher.
Alicia is the ring leader of the local kids (pictured on the left below). As Ragan put it, that girl has one huge chip on her shoulder. But by the end of the week, her tough exterior started to soften.
The summer missionaries had really done a great job of connecting with the kids. It was clear right away that they had great relationships with them.
I can't tell you how proud I was of our youth. They worked hard and played hard, pouring out God's love on these children.
Our accommodations where the same as last year: A beautiful gymnasium with a full kitchen and small classrooms attached. That's my air bed in the corner, the only one in the room with a view. *wink*
Here's Tiffany H. doing an amazing Mickey Mouse impression.
The equipment closet had lots of fun and dangerous toys. Here's Justin playing on one of the scooters of death.
As the week went on, we started to build some relationships with the children. And, as usual, a few of them found their way into our hearts.
William (here on Taylor's shoulders) was near catatonic the first couple of days. After lots of loving, he started to open up and by the end of the week he would carry on a quiet conversation and even smile at the cameras.
One of my favorite kids was Shane, the lone white boy. He was strong as an ox and could kick a ball harder than someone twice his size, but most of the time, he was content to just stand quietly and watch the proceedings.
The older girls carried sharpie markers and enjoyed "tagging" others (writing their names and short messages on the hands and arms of other kids, or our workers).
Another popular "sport" among the kids was dog-piling. (Notice Shane was particularly good at the leg-lock technique.)
The most important aspect of our mission was to teach the Word of God. Our kids did a great job with the VBS lessons. Ragan and I also contributed. You expect a lot of the kids to be unresponsive, even hostile, towards lesson time, but a surprising number of these kids knew the stories and verses we were teaching and often finished our sentences for us.
On Wednesday, some of the girls started playing with Kevin's hair. They said that he needed extensions. *wink* They promised to bring their makeup the next day and give him a full make-over. And they did!
Another friend I made during the week was Amos, Alicia's older brother who, I believe, has Downs Syndrome. I connected with him pretty quickly and I think that helped to soften Alicia's defenses a bit. By the way, that's Queeny on my back. She spent more time there than any of the other kids.
Like I said before, Alicia and some of the older kids started out very gruff, but by Thursday, they thawed and even smiled a few times. I was still very surprised when Alicia hugged me the last day.
On Thursday, I looked over and saw all the 4-5 year old boys playing by the AC units. The all had their shirts stretched out to catch the air from the AC fans and were all shouting "Na! Na! Na! Gonna hava good time!" They explained to me that they were playing "Fat Albert".
Shane was playing too. It was the only time all week he spoke to me in anything more than a quiet mumble. He shouted, "I'm the fattest of all!"
It was one heck of a week. I'll admit it was not as hard as last year, and I didn't get quite as emotionally broken. I did a lot more managing this year and a bit less investing of my own heart, but it was still a great experience and one I wouldn't trade for the world.
You can download a WinZip file containing all my pictures at MSMT06.zip.