my little babies, part II

Continued from here:

So that Friday at 1:00, James was on his way to England, and I headed to the Secondary school (ages 11-18) for the weekly scripture union. It's a period of 30 minutes during the kid's lunch break. We don't make it very structured, the kids just like having some time during the school day to hang out. We have a short lesson applicable to teenage life that relates to some Biblical truth.

This particular Friday, the school was doing some experimenting with lunch schedules. As a result, tons more kids were able to come; 25 in a tiny room when we typically have about 12. Since the schedule was different, the kids were able to stay longer than usual.

They were understandably rowdy since the weather was nasty and they didn't have the chance to be outside. The room we meet in is decorated nicely and has a bunch of fun pillows and nice couches. Well, during the course of the meeting, one of the pillows with styrofoam beads busted and they got all over the room. I won't go into the rest of the details, but they include the headmaster forwarding me an email the next day from a lady in the school who was not very pleased with the busted pillow or the noises of excited kids coming from the room. The headmaster was awesome and very understanding and supportive. Anyway, I knew I'd have to talk to the kids the next week about being respectful of other people's property.

On to the next story of the day:

Friday nights are the Youth Clubs that we hold at the church hall we're working with. From 6:30-7:45 the wee ones (ages 5-10) are there, and from 8:00-9:30 the older ones (ages 11-15) come. We have tons of games for them to play, a parking lot they use for dodgeball or football (soccer), and they love running around like crazy in the balcony of the sanctuary. We have food they can buy too, for super cheap. Tons to do, and the kids love it.

During the older youth club group, some kids went outside and no one was out there with them. We usually make sure there's at least one adult wherever there are kids, but they must have slipped outside without anyone noticing.

Suddenly someone comes running up to me speaking frantically about the neighbor lady, someone throwing sticks, and a ball getting kicked into her yard.

I walked outside, having no clue what I would find. The sweet lady who lives next door let me know that there were some kids who were removing portions of her fence and using them as spears, throwing them over the 10 foot hedge into her yard. I apologized profusely, and followed her into her yard, wondering what I would find. To my horror, these "sticks" ranged from 3-5 feet in height and were about 3 inches in diameter. Many of them were lying on the ground very close to her house and her beautiful antique windows.

I apologized over and over again and assured her that I would take care of it immediately. Her response, "Oh, I don't want to spoil their fun." This incredible woman had already forgiven them and was more concerned with the kids enjoying themselves than with making sure they got yelled at for being so disrespectful, rude, and careless.

Needless to say, I was incredibly disappointed.

This story is getting to be way too long for one post, so you'll have to check back for the third edition sometime tomorrow.