I know it's been a long time since my last entry. Life's been crazy. But anyway, if anyone reads this, finally made it to day 2 of the migrant camps.
I woke up feeling a lot better than I had the previous night. It was a new day and one that promised more time with all the kids at Camp 2. After breakfast I had a great time with God. I put on the armor of God again, knowing I'd need it in full measure.
After that we hit preparation for the day in full measure. First we practiced the Hamster Dance and frankly, if I'm allowed to say it, they NAILED IT! Everyone got it way faster than I had learning it for the first time. Pretty amazing and I'm pretty sure either this group is more gifted at dancing or it was directly from God.
After that the group split off into craft prep, sandwich making, and planning out lessons. I was in charge of the lesson planning. I just called anyone not doing something to come and work on it. This is something I'd hoped would have been taken care of long before the day of. But the way that the other leaders rolled it didn't happen. I had four lesson plans all centering around the love of God. As things ended up, we only used two of them, the first and the last, dabbling bits of the middle two into those.
I primarily planned with Sami, Abbey, and Hannah since they were the teacher folk. Sami and I really worked out details and refined my very rough and sleep deprived outline. Hannah and I worked out more conceptual basic things, since she wasn't teaching this day. Sami and Abbey's lesson came together right before lunch.
After lunch as we geared up to go, I was clearing off a table (despite Kerstin's admonishments I should lead and thus make a student do it), and I saw a roll of duct tape. Now this roll of duct tape I'd stuck in the trailer last minute the previous morning, and upon seeing it again, rather just my gut or the Holy Spirit, I felt that I should take it with me. Not wanting to risk it being the Holy Spirit and it turning out I really needed it, I grabbed it.
On the bus I was a rebel child and sat in the back (remember when the "cool kids" sat in the back in grade school? haha.) But it was actually the cool kids in the back this time. I can't remember who all was there exactly, but everyone on the trip was cool so no denying it was the cool kids. I was sitting next to Hannah and could tell she was feeling tired and out of it so I offered to pray with her - which is one of my favorite things to do, but also is a little nerve wracking 'cause I blank out sometimes and sound like an idiot or people don't want me to pray with them. Hannah did want it so I was glad I followed my gut (or possibly the Spirit, I never know with these things).
Now, I had a mix of emotion as we neared to the camp. Some of the fear of the previous night was coming back. "What if it's just a crap day and nothing significant happens, or the kids don't come out, or are really mean...or our people don't engage..." the list went on. And the worry was needless. Ridiculous actually.
Two curveballs met me soon as we stepped off the bus. The first is I hadn't really considered that I was on point...the man with the plan (who didn't really have one). Without the worship trailer crew to sort of have a plan people were consciously or subconsciously looking in large part to me for what needed to happen. The other curve-ball was that another was group there. That turned out not to be bad, though. I went up and talked to them and asked if we were stepping on toes behind there and they were cool. All they'd brought was food, no plan or major goal of relationship building.
I know at first it felt like things were going really slow. The other leaders were on the bus praying with Sami and Abbey at first. I just directed people engage with the kids. Personally I was feeling a little uncertain myself, I had that "this feels less exciting than last night" feeling - not that it affected me in a "I don't want to be here" but I was worried it was infecting other people. I really don't think it was a lot though. That's just the way ministry works. Sometimes it's super exciting and sometimes it's mellow. I was totally accustomed to that with my long term involvement and comfortable in that.
Within minutes, though, all manner of things were going on. I needed about five cameramen to capture it all...so alas I missed so much. There were our people getting "arrested" by kids and going to "jail" (an old tree) [everyone was getting taken], piggybacks (Zac was rocking that, so was Christina, and I think Darryl was too), spinning (Aron and JZ), and my favorite, GRASSHOPPER HUNTING!) Really, I have spent many, many hours over many years catching those insects in that field. The kids love it. Big old mature us getting excited when they catch a big one, or a green one, or a big green one. Hannah and Olivia were rocking that early on, and I think throughout the day. I know Sami joined at some point, and Sam and Caitlyn and others I'm sure.
It wasn't long before Arely found me and was dragging me around (not to mention abducting my camera.) And I totally let her. She was having such a blast. As I said the other week in a current ministry I'm in "They know who the sucker is...and that's me." I'm pretty sure kids can just tell I'm a softie. And that's ok. For all the areas I don't trust God, somehow with my expensive video camera I just could. With no background of if this precious girl was a thief other than the previous night the camera not disappearing I let her loose with it. And guess what? I wandered away from it to go to jail, (like I said everyone went), and to talk with Kerstin. And the camera stayed intact.
At some point in the day, fairly early Kerstin told me "BJ has stuff to do. You and I are it." I was kind of like "Holy snicker-doodle pies!" (Well, I wish I'd said that. It would have been AWESOME.) The reality was that made my job harder. The migrant camp is pretty big, even just the section we were in. There were woods and trails people were going down, and 19 youth to try and keep accounted for. I did my best, but like my video camera had to trust God that nothing bad was going down. I didn't feel a whole lot of potential risk, but Kerstin was concerned so I chose to share her concern. After all, I didn't want something bad to happen and ACC to be turned off of migrant ministry forever, or have a friend or child seriously hurt.
Anyway, the worst incident we had was poor Kelsey slipping in some rerouted sewage (yeah, that's right, I'm talking about poop) and falling in it. She wins a massive award for how much of a trooper she was. Just hosed herself off and got back into things.
The other incident that I really laugh about now, but was totally shocking at the time, was I was hugging a little boy, and right out of Dawn of the Dead he just chomped down on my arm hardcore for no reason I knew of. At that moment Kerstin was trying to tell me important leadership things that I really can't remember now for the life of me. So being me - I was trying to listen and be attentive while wrestling a 4 year old's mouth off my arm. I've still got a nice little scar on my forearm, so that's awesome. (Not, but it makes a great story.)
We gathered up the kids for our program, if you will. We kicked it off with the Hamster Dance. I didn't participate because I had a little boy on my chest and I was filming it. Made my heart really happy (uh-oh, I'm quoting Kerstin!!!!) watching it. Kids were joining in, and it was one of those little mascot things that I'd pictured in my head. Adventure Church was doing the Hamster Dance in the migrant camps. Wow. Blew me away. :) Pretty sure I might be the only one who got so much out of it, but that's all good.
After that Sami and Abbey were up. I was really, really proud of them. They didn't have a microphone, and the kids were really talkative, so pushing through for the couple kids who were really interested was amazing to watch. I wouldn't have guessed that the first time they'd encountered the message was a couple hours before. They did better than I did on day 4 (you'll hear about it someday!) and I'd had the message going through my brain for days.
After that we did another bead craft, similar to the previous night. I didn't see a lot of it because I was instantly dragged off by Arely and then the energy level of the kids really picked up again. So many moments happened that I captured on video - and hundreds more that I couldn't. If I had a photographic memory I'd be taking 20 blog entries to tell about every little moment I saw.
After awhile we fed the kids sandwiches and Gatorade. We invited a few kids and our people over at a time so there wasn't crazy riotous madness like there has been at times. I was amazed how well it worked. Feeding the kids is really big on my heart, because I know it's hard for their families to afford food. Even with the Catholic group giving them food a few hours before the kids were scarfing down their sandwiches.
I don't have a lot of personal stories from this time that I remember. Other people have some, and through talking to them they've become my stories, but this is long enough that I can't write them all out here.
We left, which was, to my happiness, just as hard for everyone else as me. And I did not want to leave. Watching the hugs and our people reluctantly say goodbye brought me hope that there might be desire for long term involvement.
The evening, as nearly all evenings were, was pretty brutal on me. It was a worship practice with Crossroads Covenant's worship team and most everyone in that youth group is musical except for myself and I felt incredibly isolated from everyone. I was also really, really hungry. BJ noticed and took me to find some more food, 'cause I was crashing and burning. That was really uplifting.
That night at the leadership meeting we decided we were going to go to Camp 1 and Camp 3 (One in the same Campus) the next day. This brought some anxiety to me. I had thought we were going to stick with Camp 2 for the whole trip, and I'd communicated that to some of the youth (foolishness on my part). So I was like "oh boy...I've screwed up pretty badly. The kids think we're coming back. The youth will be pissed. Great..." So once again I went to bed stressed around 1:00 in the morning. I really hoped there was a quiet time in the morning to refocus myself.
I woke up feeling a lot better than I had the previous night. It was a new day and one that promised more time with all the kids at Camp 2. After breakfast I had a great time with God. I put on the armor of God again, knowing I'd need it in full measure.
After that we hit preparation for the day in full measure. First we practiced the Hamster Dance and frankly, if I'm allowed to say it, they NAILED IT! Everyone got it way faster than I had learning it for the first time. Pretty amazing and I'm pretty sure either this group is more gifted at dancing or it was directly from God.
After that the group split off into craft prep, sandwich making, and planning out lessons. I was in charge of the lesson planning. I just called anyone not doing something to come and work on it. This is something I'd hoped would have been taken care of long before the day of. But the way that the other leaders rolled it didn't happen. I had four lesson plans all centering around the love of God. As things ended up, we only used two of them, the first and the last, dabbling bits of the middle two into those.
I primarily planned with Sami, Abbey, and Hannah since they were the teacher folk. Sami and I really worked out details and refined my very rough and sleep deprived outline. Hannah and I worked out more conceptual basic things, since she wasn't teaching this day. Sami and Abbey's lesson came together right before lunch.
After lunch as we geared up to go, I was clearing off a table (despite Kerstin's admonishments I should lead and thus make a student do it), and I saw a roll of duct tape. Now this roll of duct tape I'd stuck in the trailer last minute the previous morning, and upon seeing it again, rather just my gut or the Holy Spirit, I felt that I should take it with me. Not wanting to risk it being the Holy Spirit and it turning out I really needed it, I grabbed it.
On the bus I was a rebel child and sat in the back (remember when the "cool kids" sat in the back in grade school? haha.) But it was actually the cool kids in the back this time. I can't remember who all was there exactly, but everyone on the trip was cool so no denying it was the cool kids. I was sitting next to Hannah and could tell she was feeling tired and out of it so I offered to pray with her - which is one of my favorite things to do, but also is a little nerve wracking 'cause I blank out sometimes and sound like an idiot or people don't want me to pray with them. Hannah did want it so I was glad I followed my gut (or possibly the Spirit, I never know with these things).
Now, I had a mix of emotion as we neared to the camp. Some of the fear of the previous night was coming back. "What if it's just a crap day and nothing significant happens, or the kids don't come out, or are really mean...or our people don't engage..." the list went on. And the worry was needless. Ridiculous actually.
Two curveballs met me soon as we stepped off the bus. The first is I hadn't really considered that I was on point...the man with the plan (who didn't really have one). Without the worship trailer crew to sort of have a plan people were consciously or subconsciously looking in large part to me for what needed to happen. The other curve-ball was that another was group there. That turned out not to be bad, though. I went up and talked to them and asked if we were stepping on toes behind there and they were cool. All they'd brought was food, no plan or major goal of relationship building.
I know at first it felt like things were going really slow. The other leaders were on the bus praying with Sami and Abbey at first. I just directed people engage with the kids. Personally I was feeling a little uncertain myself, I had that "this feels less exciting than last night" feeling - not that it affected me in a "I don't want to be here" but I was worried it was infecting other people. I really don't think it was a lot though. That's just the way ministry works. Sometimes it's super exciting and sometimes it's mellow. I was totally accustomed to that with my long term involvement and comfortable in that.
 |
| Aron spinning a boy! |
Within minutes, though, all manner of things were going on. I needed about five cameramen to capture it all...so alas I missed so much. There were our people getting "arrested" by kids and going to "jail" (an old tree) [everyone was getting taken], piggybacks (Zac was rocking that, so was Christina, and I think Darryl was too), spinning (Aron and JZ), and my favorite, GRASSHOPPER HUNTING!) Really, I have spent many, many hours over many years catching those insects in that field. The kids love it. Big old mature us getting excited when they catch a big one, or a green one, or a big green one. Hannah and Olivia were rocking that early on, and I think throughout the day. I know Sami joined at some point, and Sam and Caitlyn and others I'm sure.
It wasn't long before Arely found me and was dragging me around (not to mention abducting my camera.) And I totally let her. She was having such a blast. As I said the other week in a current ministry I'm in "They know who the sucker is...and that's me." I'm pretty sure kids can just tell I'm a softie. And that's ok. For all the areas I don't trust God, somehow with my expensive video camera I just could. With no background of if this precious girl was a thief other than the previous night the camera not disappearing I let her loose with it. And guess what? I wandered away from it to go to jail, (like I said everyone went), and to talk with Kerstin. And the camera stayed intact.At some point in the day, fairly early Kerstin told me "BJ has stuff to do. You and I are it." I was kind of like "Holy snicker-doodle pies!" (Well, I wish I'd said that. It would have been AWESOME.) The reality was that made my job harder. The migrant camp is pretty big, even just the section we were in. There were woods and trails people were going down, and 19 youth to try and keep accounted for. I did my best, but like my video camera had to trust God that nothing bad was going down. I didn't feel a whole lot of potential risk, but Kerstin was concerned so I chose to share her concern. After all, I didn't want something bad to happen and ACC to be turned off of migrant ministry forever, or have a friend or child seriously hurt.
 |
| Kelsey being a trooper after her sewage incident! |
The other incident that I really laugh about now, but was totally shocking at the time, was I was hugging a little boy, and right out of Dawn of the Dead he just chomped down on my arm hardcore for no reason I knew of. At that moment Kerstin was trying to tell me important leadership things that I really can't remember now for the life of me. So being me - I was trying to listen and be attentive while wrestling a 4 year old's mouth off my arm. I've still got a nice little scar on my forearm, so that's awesome. (Not, but it makes a great story.)
We gathered up the kids for our program, if you will. We kicked it off with the Hamster Dance. I didn't participate because I had a little boy on my chest and I was filming it. Made my heart really happy (uh-oh, I'm quoting Kerstin!!!!) watching it. Kids were joining in, and it was one of those little mascot things that I'd pictured in my head. Adventure Church was doing the Hamster Dance in the migrant camps. Wow. Blew me away. :) Pretty sure I might be the only one who got so much out of it, but that's all good.
After that Sami and Abbey were up. I was really, really proud of them. They didn't have a microphone, and the kids were really talkative, so pushing through for the couple kids who were really interested was amazing to watch. I wouldn't have guessed that the first time they'd encountered the message was a couple hours before. They did better than I did on day 4 (you'll hear about it someday!) and I'd had the message going through my brain for days.
 |
| Helping the kids with bead crafts. |
 |
| Sami with girl playing with her Gatorade cup. |
I don't have a lot of personal stories from this time that I remember. Other people have some, and through talking to them they've become my stories, but this is long enough that I can't write them all out here.
We left, which was, to my happiness, just as hard for everyone else as me. And I did not want to leave. Watching the hugs and our people reluctantly say goodbye brought me hope that there might be desire for long term involvement.
 |
| Hannah slowly trying to say goodbye to Yessica. |
The evening, as nearly all evenings were, was pretty brutal on me. It was a worship practice with Crossroads Covenant's worship team and most everyone in that youth group is musical except for myself and I felt incredibly isolated from everyone. I was also really, really hungry. BJ noticed and took me to find some more food, 'cause I was crashing and burning. That was really uplifting.
That night at the leadership meeting we decided we were going to go to Camp 1 and Camp 3 (One in the same Campus) the next day. This brought some anxiety to me. I had thought we were going to stick with Camp 2 for the whole trip, and I'd communicated that to some of the youth (foolishness on my part). So I was like "oh boy...I've screwed up pretty badly. The kids think we're coming back. The youth will be pissed. Great..." So once again I went to bed stressed around 1:00 in the morning. I really hoped there was a quiet time in the morning to refocus myself.
