before the break, when my mom called, sometimes she would talk about some of the kids, and how what kind of issues they have, how she's working with them, or just straight up how cute they are. so during the break, i had to go take a look for myself. even though there wasn't any school, the afterschool was open because the kids' parents have to work and they have no where else to go. since they don't have homework, and making them to problem sets during the break is somewhat torture, considering that the oldest kid is like, in 6th grade or something. so the pastor who runs it with my mom, who happens to be the other pastor, decided to take them on fun trips. ice skating, bowling, whatever. the teachers are high school students and are on break, so they were understaffed. so i took the pleasure of getting to go ice skating and bowling for free. =)
this is a picture i took of this girl named Christina. basically what i was doing at the ice rink was being chased around by kids. and when they catch me, they'd hold onto the back of my jacket and then have me drag them around. all in all, it was really tiring... i was definitely sore the next morning. but i love this picture i took of Christina. she was one of my favorite kids there. when i looked at her, she would kind of wobble from side to side and flail her arms and giggle. then i would do something else, and then she'd burst out into laughter and then you'd see the smile like in the above picture.
Her name is Erin. she was really sick the day we went ice skating, but she still REALLY wanted to go, so her mom came with her, just to make sure she was going to be ok. i didn't really get too many pictures of her ice skating. she's so cute. the first time i showed up at the afterschool, she had a name tag that said Mama Bear. something from school. but she asked, "who are you?" and it struck me. it was so funny. i don't know why. when we were at the skate rink, she looked miserable and was looking for her mom while everyone else was on the rink. so i decided to take her out on the ice. i went around the rink, and pretended to look for her mom, so she wouldn't start crying or something. but eventually we came back and she found her mom by the entrance to the rink. but later, while she was on the ice, her mom got kind of tired of skating with her, and she asked me to take her around. after i got tired, i brought her back to her mom. but by the end, her mom was chasing me down, shooing all the other kids away, and asked me to give special attention to Erin, because all the other kids got to skate and play with me. and she said Erin only looked for me. it's one thing to skate around in circles avoiding people.
this... a lot more difficult... as you can see, her mom didn't such a great job of shooing the kids, and i eventually had to do both... skate with Erin, and drag the other kids around... it was torturous...
it was really hard, but it was so much fun... and to see the kids laugh, smile, and enjoying themselves was so worth it.
this is Brandon. i think he's the smallest and youngest one there. the bowling ball is bigger than his face.
it was really hard, but it was so much fun... and to see the kids laugh, smile, and enjoying themselves was so worth it.
this is Brandon. i think he's the smallest and youngest one there. the bowling ball is bigger than his face.
this is Erin's brother Justin. i think he's soooo cute. he fell. hahahaha.
the reason why i bring up all these kids, is hopefully the bring a smile to your face as much they do to mine. one of the greatest things i miss about being away from home, is all these kids. during fg today, we were talking about ways to make pocket change for parking (because they double the prices! 7.5 minutes for one quarter?! ARE YOU KIDDING?!), and someone said something about buying cigarettes and selling them to minors. terrible, yes. but someone else mentioned, there isn't anyone in UC between the ages 0-18...
during the new year's service at my mom's church, oen of the deacons came over to my mom and i with his baby girl. she just turned one this past weekend. but when he came over with her, as he greeted use happy new year, my mom took the baby in her arms, so her daddy could sing some praises, and get a bit of relief. the baby looked at my mom with this look, i'm so serious, she raised one eyebrow as to ask, "who are you?" it killed me. she was sooooo cute. (i do realize i have no other words to use other than cute or adorable...) i wanted to hold her. that following sunday, my mom and i stalked her, and i got the chance to hold her. ;P i wish i had gotten a picture of her...
this is another girl, but just because i have it. :D it melts my heart when babies smile. you can't be angry holding a smiling baby. the laughing baby video on youtube? EVERY time. it makes me smile.
this is a hypothesis i came up with. it may be a stretch, but i think that for this very reason, i'm so attracted to small people. small people who laugh, and smile like they don't have a care in the world.
now i'm going to try to do something, but i don't know if will make sense. forgive me if it doesn't. so we finished up the book of John in fg today. we read over the part when Jesus asks Peter, "do you love me?" as i thought about Peter, i think that perhaps he may be the "childlike" that Jesus says we should be like. he's so quick to speak, irrational, and just plain silly sometimes. i got a new perspective today on his being "hurt." before, when i read it, i always kind of read it as his pride got hurt or something. like Jesus doesn't believe him, and is repeatedly asking. kind of like, why do you have to ask me again and again? i had always kind of seen him as kind of a jerk too. haha. but today someone had countered my response and said that that wasn't how he saw it. and he explained. and i think that it made a lot more sense.
he was hurt. hurt that Jesus didn't believe him. and that mattered not because of his pride, but because he REALLY did love Jesus, and he screwed up and he wanted Jesus to believe him. the words, "Lord you know..." would be something that he would be pleading, and crying, and on his knees. at least this is how i see it now. and it makes so much more sense. i don't know why i had such a different view. i thought, what if i made that mistake. what would i have done? would i have jumped into the water and swam towards Jesus like that? i would probably have stayed behind and hid. kind of like Adam and Eve. but how i child react? if a child had never gotten in trouble, and his parents loved him so dearly, i feel like... if he did something wrong, like say break a vase. i can't come up with a better illustration... but if that happened, i feel like the first thing he would do is run to his mommy, and tell her what happened. not afraid that he would get in trouble, but scared because he doesn't know what to do. it's broken! what should i do??? and he would run to his mommy and say "Mom! i broke it!" to admit he made a mistake, but also to say," i don't know what to do! i need your help."
the reason why i bring up all these kids, is hopefully the bring a smile to your face as much they do to mine. one of the greatest things i miss about being away from home, is all these kids. during fg today, we were talking about ways to make pocket change for parking (because they double the prices! 7.5 minutes for one quarter?! ARE YOU KIDDING?!), and someone said something about buying cigarettes and selling them to minors. terrible, yes. but someone else mentioned, there isn't anyone in UC between the ages 0-18...
during the new year's service at my mom's church, oen of the deacons came over to my mom and i with his baby girl. she just turned one this past weekend. but when he came over with her, as he greeted use happy new year, my mom took the baby in her arms, so her daddy could sing some praises, and get a bit of relief. the baby looked at my mom with this look, i'm so serious, she raised one eyebrow as to ask, "who are you?" it killed me. she was sooooo cute. (i do realize i have no other words to use other than cute or adorable...) i wanted to hold her. that following sunday, my mom and i stalked her, and i got the chance to hold her. ;P i wish i had gotten a picture of her...
this is another girl, but just because i have it. :D it melts my heart when babies smile. you can't be angry holding a smiling baby. the laughing baby video on youtube? EVERY time. it makes me smile.
this is a hypothesis i came up with. it may be a stretch, but i think that for this very reason, i'm so attracted to small people. small people who laugh, and smile like they don't have a care in the world.
now i'm going to try to do something, but i don't know if will make sense. forgive me if it doesn't. so we finished up the book of John in fg today. we read over the part when Jesus asks Peter, "do you love me?" as i thought about Peter, i think that perhaps he may be the "childlike" that Jesus says we should be like. he's so quick to speak, irrational, and just plain silly sometimes. i got a new perspective today on his being "hurt." before, when i read it, i always kind of read it as his pride got hurt or something. like Jesus doesn't believe him, and is repeatedly asking. kind of like, why do you have to ask me again and again? i had always kind of seen him as kind of a jerk too. haha. but today someone had countered my response and said that that wasn't how he saw it. and he explained. and i think that it made a lot more sense.
he was hurt. hurt that Jesus didn't believe him. and that mattered not because of his pride, but because he REALLY did love Jesus, and he screwed up and he wanted Jesus to believe him. the words, "Lord you know..." would be something that he would be pleading, and crying, and on his knees. at least this is how i see it now. and it makes so much more sense. i don't know why i had such a different view. i thought, what if i made that mistake. what would i have done? would i have jumped into the water and swam towards Jesus like that? i would probably have stayed behind and hid. kind of like Adam and Eve. but how i child react? if a child had never gotten in trouble, and his parents loved him so dearly, i feel like... if he did something wrong, like say break a vase. i can't come up with a better illustration... but if that happened, i feel like the first thing he would do is run to his mommy, and tell her what happened. not afraid that he would get in trouble, but scared because he doesn't know what to do. it's broken! what should i do??? and he would run to his mommy and say "Mom! i broke it!" to admit he made a mistake, but also to say," i don't know what to do! i need your help."
this is Semi. she's really annoying. therefore, she gets made fun of a lot. one time the kids made fun of her so much, she went home crying and told her dad. the next day, he came in and asked who had done that to his daughter, and was ready to bring the pain. she's got the right idea.
and perhaps this is what Peter was thinking when he jumped into the waters. Jesus! he had made a huuuge mistake. so where else should he turn, but to the one that he had wronged. our pride has become such an issue. MY pride has become such an issue... but no kid cares about their reputation. no kid cares about their pride. the same girl, Semi. she gets made fun of all the time... haha. but she has the balls to say to their face, "Hey! that's really mean! you hurt me." actually, now that i think about it... i could definitely take a lesson in that...
one time, she had noticed that uh... i have uh... ahem, pecs. and she started calling me "boob." i was like oh my, this child... and i can't even say anything like "well you don't have any," because she's like.. ten or something. but that's the thing. the immediate reaction is to defend myself, and turn this against her. but i couldn't. so what did i do? in turn just ignored her for the rest of the week that i was there. lookig back, the appropriate thing to do would've been to say first off, "that's not really nice, that hurts my feelings. you don't like it when people call you names, right?" instead, i think i left it at, "that's not nice." and she continued to do it, so then i started to ignore her. how could i admit that a ten year old child had hurt me? how could i admit that ANYONE has hurt me?
why can't i do something as simple as to say, "that hurts?"
...a ten year old can....
and perhaps this is what Peter was thinking when he jumped into the waters. Jesus! he had made a huuuge mistake. so where else should he turn, but to the one that he had wronged. our pride has become such an issue. MY pride has become such an issue... but no kid cares about their reputation. no kid cares about their pride. the same girl, Semi. she gets made fun of all the time... haha. but she has the balls to say to their face, "Hey! that's really mean! you hurt me." actually, now that i think about it... i could definitely take a lesson in that...
one time, she had noticed that uh... i have uh... ahem, pecs. and she started calling me "boob." i was like oh my, this child... and i can't even say anything like "well you don't have any," because she's like.. ten or something. but that's the thing. the immediate reaction is to defend myself, and turn this against her. but i couldn't. so what did i do? in turn just ignored her for the rest of the week that i was there. lookig back, the appropriate thing to do would've been to say first off, "that's not really nice, that hurts my feelings. you don't like it when people call you names, right?" instead, i think i left it at, "that's not nice." and she continued to do it, so then i started to ignore her. how could i admit that a ten year old child had hurt me? how could i admit that ANYONE has hurt me?
why can't i do something as simple as to say, "that hurts?"
...a ten year old can....
No comments:
Post a Comment