Week Five -- Potential

Behind again. My bad.

Week three of teaching!

Summary:

It was an awesome week with our kids. They were having an on week. They worked on biographies of abolitionists, and we were so proud of them! Thursday they got a little nuts again, but they are wonderful. Sunday we talked about refugees, with the combination of going to a church with a lot of refugees and then watching movies about refugees. I’ve been learning more about how to live out being a servant in a healthy way. Another blog coming soon about our Friday, which was really sweet as well.

Description:

Our week with the students was awesome. It was the last week for two of our students, including one of our best students. We did biography projects of abolitionists, and our students made us so proud with what they put together in 3 days of work time, only a couple hours total—start to finish with research and making a poster. We were having fun together and respecting one another for the most part. We had them asking more of their big questions about God, which we still need to finish answering. Our tutors were from Kansas and local students.

I was able to share my testimony with them on Tuesday during devotionals, which was super great. I used the Lifehouse Everything skit to share my testimony with them, because it is a big part of my testimony and basically is my testimony in a lot of ways. Some students had seen it before, but they enjoyed it. They asked if we could do it for the whole tutoring program some time. We’re performing it at parents’ day, which is the last Wednesday (this week now).

Laura shared her testimony on Thursday (their rowdy day), which got frustrating by the end. She had them do an activity that was really powerful and life-changing for her. They wrote two personal goals and one goal for their community. Then they also wrote their fears on the back. Then they ripped them up to remind themselves that there shouldn’t be anything holding them back, and their fears don’t have to prevent them from reaching their goals. Laura and I were both basically crying by the end of class. Some of the goals that were shared:

“I want to go to college.”

“I want to get a degree.”

“I want to play NFL football.”

“I want to give my parents what they need and want.”

“I want to get rid of the bumps on my face.”

“I want to be a lawyer.” (and same kid) “I want to be a good father.”

“I want to go to Harvard or Yale to be an anthropologist.”

These kids here have so much potential and just need some opportunities and affirmation. It really has been a great time of getting to know these kids, being able to hear more of their stories, more of their dreams. To be a part of those stories and a part of them reaching those dreams is such a huge blessing.

Sunday was intense for me. We went to New City Fellowship at South City, a part of the city where there are a lot of immigrants and refugees, and so they church there is also full of refugees and immigrants. Our movies session on Sunday night, we watched clips from movies about refugees which made a very stark picture, making everything more real. At church in the morning, it was so cool worshipping with all these different people, from different place, in different languages. I was just smiling, thinking about how cool the experienced was. Then we paired it with these intense scenes from movies about what the people I was worshipping with had actually experienced. It was crazy powerful, crazy convicting. I just still need to figure out what my role is in international justice for these civil wars and oppressed peoples. If you have any ideas, let me know. :) I’ve gotten a few. I’ll share them later. Just like my “forgiven much, love much” from last week, Sunday made me think about “given much, give much.”

God has also grown my servant’s heart this summer. People have really been affirming my servant’s heart, which has really helped it grow this summer, but now I’ve realized I’m struggling with the Mary/Martha mentality (Luke 10:38-42). I’m working to figure out when I should serve and when I should just sit and be with people.

We had Sharie Chappeau come to our small group and share some of her heart and her story with us. She just always really inspires me to be more a woman of prayer and more led by the Spirit.