Chester - Week Two

So Chester Week Two...
There were quite a bit of similarities and also a few differences between the first and second week. One of the similarities was that we had several kids from the first week who stay for the second week as well. This was really nice for me since it gave a little continuity and let me get to know them better. Despite the holdovers it was still a smaller group the second week with about 25 kids there.
One of the similarities is that we were still planning on running a kids program during the lunch hour at Highland Gardens park. However, through a course of events we realized that we would need to start pretty much from scratch planning the lessons that we would teach. Amazingly when we mentioned this to the kids on Sunday night they responded by basically saying "okay, where do we start?" It started with selecting a basic topic for the four days (We had no kids program on Tuesday because it was the 4th of July). For the general outline we decided to teach from the Old Testament and base it on the promises of God. So we talked about Adam and Eve, Noah, Abraham, and Moses. Then we went through the lesson each day and tackled the basic issue. Then we broke it down so we could teach it through skits and small groups. I was very impressed with how well the kids handled this. They handled the whole thing with a lot of maturity and skill.
So Monday we went to the park and ate lunch with the kids and ran our first program of the week. "Cleo" who had spent a lot of time with Kiki the first week wasn't there second week so Kiki spent a lot of time with me. Enough in fact that she started calling me "daddy" I am not sure why really. I think maybe she is at a point where she thinks all men are called daddy. But Kiki was pretty darn cute and I need to get used to someone calling me daddy anyways so I didn't mind so much.
Another difference with week two was that this week we watched Invisible Children on Monday night and followed it up with a very good discussion. This was a great time as a group and really brought us together in a lot of ways, bonding us together and setting the tone for the week.
Tuesday we had the day off, except for planning Wednesdays activities, since it was the 4th. We relaxed much of the day, using the swimming pool, and playing some games as a group.
Wednesday we held the kids program but first we had to relocate ourselves. The first half of the week we had been staying at Cross World. However, they had a group coming in for a wedding so we needed to vacate Wednesday morning. Thankful out of the kindness of their hearts (and perhaps guided by some mental instability as well) a family from church had offered to let us stay in their house. Their house was fairly large and we took over pretty quickly spreading from one end to the other. Some of us, myself included, actually slept out on the porch which turned out to be a very nice place to sleep.
Thursday we ran the kids program and then cut up a tree that had fallen in the park during the storm on Monday afternoon. It was some nice tough grunt work that we could do to help out the community.
Friday we held our last program and then had to have a quick wrap-up with the teens before it was time for us all to head our separate ways. What an amazing two weeks it was. Here are just some of the neat/interesting things I saw and lessons I learned:
- I now know exactly where to go if I ever need some cocaine. Just kidding - at least about actually going to get some. I mean hypothetically speaking I do actually know where to go.
- Drug dealers sitting in on the kids program. From a distance but paying attention none the less - I learned some important lessons about leadership. This was probably one of the areas I grew the most over my time in Chester.
- I really saw the teens grow in many ways.
- I felt like I really developed some strong relationships with the teens. I don't know if they feel the same way but I will act like they do.
- I really enjoyed Rusty's impersonation of the "Rouge Helicopter Pilot" video
Oh what a couple of weeks it was.