December letter
Dear family and friends,
As 2005 draws to a close, and I find myself on a train leaving Wilmington, I’m left with opportunity and desire to reflect on my first semester as an after-school program director. My thoughts are varied, but I will attempt to convey them through words. In short, I feel things went really well, but could have been better. Now, I will elaborate.
When is comes down to it, I can’t really complain. The East Side has proven to be a wonderful location. There is a sense of family, as I mentioned previously, between these kids. It is not rare for a group of them to arrive together. I am particularly excited about moving back to the Staff House and being just around the corner from my kids and StreetLeaders. There is just something about the East Side that grabs you and draws you close to its people; it grabbed James, and it is beginning to grab me too.
Further, the kids themselves are wonderful. Of course, there has been the occasional attitude and so forth, but that is the extent of our issues. In fact, things have been getting progressively better. Literally, in the last three weeks, no kid has exceeded two strikes, which is unheard of My favorite success story is that of a child we’ll call Lamont. Lamont began camp on a bad note; it was clear he did not want to be there. With work and encouragement, he began to improve, with the occasional slip. However, for at least the last month, he has been behaving wonderfully, and it has been quite some time since his last strike. What impresses me most, though, is his attitude about it; he wants to be good. He gets a huge smile on his face every time I tell him how proud I am of him. Further, he went from not wanting to be at camp to being more involved than he was called to be. Yesterday, we were understaffed. At one point, more things needed to get done than we had staff to do them, which included helping two kids finish their homework. My favorite moment in quite some time was looking over at one of the kids, and seeing Lamont making the decision to sacrifice his time and help the child. I was thoroughly impressed by this This kind of thing is what reminds me that this work is from God.
I believe that good kids come from good StreetLeaders, and this rings true with mine. I am very fortunate to have the staff I do. They have continued to show great initiative, a great understanding of responsibility, and a great desire to keep this camp going. One SL, whom I will call Desmond, has constantly impressed me. He holds within him incredible leadership capabilities, and this is coming through at an increasing rate. The other week, I mentioned to them that I felt we could use Meal time in more productive ways than asking, “How was your day.” That week, he took it upon himself to run trivia games during that time, and the kids love it. Another week, I was helping a child finish her homework, but needed to lead Bible. On the spot, he took responsibility for the Bible lesson. Further, on a regular basis, if he sees something that needs to get done, he does it, while others would wait to be told. These are just instances of the leader growing within him, and, I believe, God working in and through him.
Clearly, I am pleased with camp. As for the rest of my previous statement: I could be doing so much more. I often find myself settling; I can easily justify it with work load. But that justification would only be acceptable if I were doing this for myself, by my own strength. I am not: God has brought me here, and He has given me His strength. So I have no excuse for giving 75% rather than 100%, other than selfishness. I have got to be willing to sacrifice my time and energy, I have to be willing to “die daily”, as the Apostle Paul puts it in so many of his letters. Afterall, I am not here for me, but for Him, and for them. So, with the coming of the new year, I hope to see the coming of a new determination and commitment to this camp, these kids, and to the God that has brought it all together.
As 2005 draws to a close, and I find myself on a train leaving Wilmington, I’m left with opportunity and desire to reflect on my first semester as an after-school program director. My thoughts are varied, but I will attempt to convey them through words. In short, I feel things went really well, but could have been better. Now, I will elaborate.
When is comes down to it, I can’t really complain. The East Side has proven to be a wonderful location. There is a sense of family, as I mentioned previously, between these kids. It is not rare for a group of them to arrive together. I am particularly excited about moving back to the Staff House and being just around the corner from my kids and StreetLeaders. There is just something about the East Side that grabs you and draws you close to its people; it grabbed James, and it is beginning to grab me too.
Further, the kids themselves are wonderful. Of course, there has been the occasional attitude and so forth, but that is the extent of our issues. In fact, things have been getting progressively better. Literally, in the last three weeks, no kid has exceeded two strikes, which is unheard of My favorite success story is that of a child we’ll call Lamont. Lamont began camp on a bad note; it was clear he did not want to be there. With work and encouragement, he began to improve, with the occasional slip. However, for at least the last month, he has been behaving wonderfully, and it has been quite some time since his last strike. What impresses me most, though, is his attitude about it; he wants to be good. He gets a huge smile on his face every time I tell him how proud I am of him. Further, he went from not wanting to be at camp to being more involved than he was called to be. Yesterday, we were understaffed. At one point, more things needed to get done than we had staff to do them, which included helping two kids finish their homework. My favorite moment in quite some time was looking over at one of the kids, and seeing Lamont making the decision to sacrifice his time and help the child. I was thoroughly impressed by this This kind of thing is what reminds me that this work is from God.
I believe that good kids come from good StreetLeaders, and this rings true with mine. I am very fortunate to have the staff I do. They have continued to show great initiative, a great understanding of responsibility, and a great desire to keep this camp going. One SL, whom I will call Desmond, has constantly impressed me. He holds within him incredible leadership capabilities, and this is coming through at an increasing rate. The other week, I mentioned to them that I felt we could use Meal time in more productive ways than asking, “How was your day.” That week, he took it upon himself to run trivia games during that time, and the kids love it. Another week, I was helping a child finish her homework, but needed to lead Bible. On the spot, he took responsibility for the Bible lesson. Further, on a regular basis, if he sees something that needs to get done, he does it, while others would wait to be told. These are just instances of the leader growing within him, and, I believe, God working in and through him.
Clearly, I am pleased with camp. As for the rest of my previous statement: I could be doing so much more. I often find myself settling; I can easily justify it with work load. But that justification would only be acceptable if I were doing this for myself, by my own strength. I am not: God has brought me here, and He has given me His strength. So I have no excuse for giving 75% rather than 100%, other than selfishness. I have got to be willing to sacrifice my time and energy, I have to be willing to “die daily”, as the Apostle Paul puts it in so many of his letters. Afterall, I am not here for me, but for Him, and for them. So, with the coming of the new year, I hope to see the coming of a new determination and commitment to this camp, these kids, and to the God that has brought it all together.
Posted by in 18:32:56
Thanks for sharing that Paul! It’s wonderful to see what God’s doing with you there. I hope to see you soon!