on kids being kids (from the files of camp wherry)
We spent last week doing our annual Youth Mission Trip/Camp at the Wherry housing Cooperative in Smyrna, Tennessee last week. This is my blog from Thursday of that week. For more info go to www.communityservants.org.
It's been a bit of a whirlwind around Camp Wherry the last couple of days, but in a good way. We went from 65 kids on day 2 to 56 yesterday. Today there are 48, which meant it was the appropriate time to pass out the 50 soccer backpacksI ordered. God certainly has a sense of humor--next year we'll have to get at least 75!
More specifically we've had more people tell us "Ya'll do the best VBS of any group we've had." or "My kid said 'Oh, we like them! Can we go puh-lease?!?!?"
I passed those bits of encouragement to our VBS director (and secondarily to you readers out there). It's a huge testament not just to our kids, but to our commitment to our own VBS which has been the boot camp for VBS at Wherry for almost 5 years now.
Because Smyrna, Tennessee isn't that different from Kennesaw, Georgia. Kids, relatively speaking, are kids.
Last night we heard from "Pastor Peter"-- a Karen refugee from Burma. He told about how the authorities threatened to throw him in jail for preaching the gospel. "So I tell them, you see...you put me in jail, I preach the gospel--either way, I'll preach the gospel." Peter told us about the horrors of genocide--how a single mother here at Wherry had lost her husband when the government destroyed their village. They chased the men off first, but the teenagers couldn't get away fast enough. They raped the girls and told them to tell where their parents were hiding. When one 18 year old refused, they killed him, then the 26 other 5-18 year olds standing there. After each story he would tell, he said simply "So you see it's very difficult for us."
I knew a lot of what Pastor Peter was going to say. I had read about the Karen (and you can at http://www.freeburmarangers.org/ and http://karenkonnection.org/) What I wasn't expecting is that as I was introducing him, I could look out the windows of the Assembly House where we worship and see Mu Po wrestling with his younger brother De De. They speak incredible English to only have been here a year. They are both better soccer players at 9 and 5 than anyone in our youth group. They have lost grandparents and an uncle, friends and family, to horrific violence, but there story doesn't have to end there.
Kids are kids. Each one full of limitless potential. After watching these teenagers, you know that potential doesn't diminish over time. It's there for anyone who dares believe that each child or teenager is good enough, gifted enough, created enough in God's image to deserve our undivided time and attention.
From the rocking chair I'm sitting in typing this I can see our teens laughing with kids. There's a neighborhood kid who was here the first year we came helping Mu Po and De De build Legos. Some of ours are pushing the Wherry natives on the swings in 95 degree heat. We may call them Georgians or Tennesseans, Towne View or North View, Karen or Hispanic. It doesn't really matter what we call them. Our Creator just calls us "child."
