Day 12--Cameron

Another crazy day of ministering to the kids today. It was super hot, and playing outside was pretty tough. The lesson today was on John 4 (the Samaritan woman at the well), and due to a combination of its intelligibility and our increased efforts to coe up with a lesson I thought it went much better this time. We went outside for more basketball after that; I instead threw a frisbee with a guy named Chris. He seems to be much older than the other kids, so I'm not entirely sure what he's doing there, but he's very good-natured and into God.

After lunch was a combination of playing inside and outside. It was too hot to play outside much, but inside some of the girls were having a nail-painting party, which smelled pretty bad. One of the girls was trying to get my nails painted by dragging me over to it, so I spent a while running and hiding from her. I also tried to mediate a basketball game between some little kids; I need to work on the whole discipline thing and I felt pretty lost. One of our ideas was playing a Lecrae song and discussing it, as we figured the older kids would enjoy the music and get into the lyrics. Unfortunately, others thought the little kids would like it as well and brought them in; they didn't pay attention and ended up distracting everyone. We're trying that again tomorrow.

But the highlight of the day was a kid we met named Cameron. He was initially sullen, not really following along in the big meeting and going around with his arms folded. He was pretty quiet during the Bible lesson, but asked some interesting questions about the new Earth, which I'm not sure where they came from. He didn't participate too much during the way, and in the afternoon Jack and I saw him writing some pretty scary depressing stuff ("I hate myself", etc.). We tried to talk to him about it, but he wouldn't talk, only nod/shake his head and write. I was praying that God would open up his heart and love on him through me. I got a definite sense that I should stay with Cameron.

I stayed with him as the others played a game and went back up to the sanctuary. He started making something out of markers, yarn, and tape; initially I thought it was a swing of some kind, but it turned out to be a slingshot. Yarn wasn't really stretchy enough for a slingshot, so after I got him an apple he started requesting painting supplies. I helped him out however I could, and he ended up painting a slingshot and a cannon of some kind. Kind of violent things to paint, but he was definitely talking openly during the process. I tried to turn the slingshot into a story of David and Goliath, which he seemed kind of interested in. And he finally smiled when everyone was complementing him on his art and hanging it in the main hallway.

Afterward we went back and actually managed to plan out tomorrow's meeting in one session! It's exhausting, but after today I'm simultanously excited and scared for what tomorrow will bring; I have no idea what it will be like, but I'll have to trust God. Is this what giving our troubles and worries to God is like?

Composed ~5:00 PM, Tuesday, June 22