This Wednesday, we took out 7th and 8th graders to the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia, annual home of one of the more infamous haunted houses in America. As we walked through stone passages lit by strobe lights or not at all, dozens of actors did their worst to scare the living heck out of us. Other parts of the house included a 3-D section where actors blended into walls and then popped out at you, a corrider with spinning lights that made it difficult to stand, and an "infirmary".
I had never been to a haunted house before, and wasn't sure what to expect. It wasn't until after we got home that we learned that "Terror Behind the Walls" at it was called, was consistently ranked one of the scariest haunted houses in the nation.
The most entertaining part of the evening was definitely seeing the reactions of our older kids throughout the haunted house, and the way that the mutual fun of the night broke down barriers amongst us.
Today is the Harvest Carnival, where we've set up a gymnasium full of games and candy for all the kids. Tomorrow we're leaving for Messiah College, and the fun of chasing giddy 5th graders around an amusement park, a swimming pool, a college campus, and a hotel room.
Friday, October 30, 2009
Sunday, October 25, 2009
It's Been Awhile
One of the consequences of my recent move to downtown Camden has been the loss of steady access to a computer lab and, hence, internet access. That's my way of apologizing for the two week silence.
The past two weeks have been challenging and exciting with a packed schedule that promises to only get busier in the upcoming week. After my first week of program at Camp Grace, we had only half of a week to make room for this week's annual UrbanPromise Banquet, a rather involved show put on by children and young adults throughout the organization to allow parents and donors a glimpse inside UrbanPromise. After a successful show for family and friends on Wednesday night, seven hundred donors showed up for the banquet the following night. Performances included songs by a choir assembled from a diverse group of UrbanPromise programs, the UrbanPromise Step Team, a skit by alumni of UrbanTrekkers, the presentation of a boat from the UrbanBoatworks project, all emcee'd by two fifth graders from the North/Downtown programs. Almost as incredible as the kids themselves and the amount of preparation that went into the event was the sheer number of people who are involved in making UrbanPromise go as an organization. Mingling before we served them dinner, I was impressed by the stories that each and every donor had about how they got involved with UrbanPromise and what that involvement had meant to them. Even though I see mostly what the staff and volunteers do every day, I rarely consider the hundreds and hundreds of people who are also involved directly or indirectly in every piece of what we do each day. It is quite cool, for the lack of a better word, to imagine my staff of four or five as one of seven hundred.
Next week, the last week of October, we have a "special week" in camp, where we get extra funding. With this, we'll be taking the 7th and 8th graders to a haunted house and the 6th graders skating. This Friday we're holding a Harvest Carnival, with games and food and fun for all the kids involved with UrbanPromise programs. Then on Saturday and Sunday, we'll be taking 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders from all the different programs on a bus to visit Messiah College and get an early taste of college life from students that partner with us there. We'll also visit Hershey Park and stay overnight in a hotel with a swimming pool which might be the most exciting part of the trip for some of our kids.
In short, I'm finding myself both excited and exhausted, and I'm looking forward to what this week has in store for all of us.
The past two weeks have been challenging and exciting with a packed schedule that promises to only get busier in the upcoming week. After my first week of program at Camp Grace, we had only half of a week to make room for this week's annual UrbanPromise Banquet, a rather involved show put on by children and young adults throughout the organization to allow parents and donors a glimpse inside UrbanPromise. After a successful show for family and friends on Wednesday night, seven hundred donors showed up for the banquet the following night. Performances included songs by a choir assembled from a diverse group of UrbanPromise programs, the UrbanPromise Step Team, a skit by alumni of UrbanTrekkers, the presentation of a boat from the UrbanBoatworks project, all emcee'd by two fifth graders from the North/Downtown programs. Almost as incredible as the kids themselves and the amount of preparation that went into the event was the sheer number of people who are involved in making UrbanPromise go as an organization. Mingling before we served them dinner, I was impressed by the stories that each and every donor had about how they got involved with UrbanPromise and what that involvement had meant to them. Even though I see mostly what the staff and volunteers do every day, I rarely consider the hundreds and hundreds of people who are also involved directly or indirectly in every piece of what we do each day. It is quite cool, for the lack of a better word, to imagine my staff of four or five as one of seven hundred.
Next week, the last week of October, we have a "special week" in camp, where we get extra funding. With this, we'll be taking the 7th and 8th graders to a haunted house and the 6th graders skating. This Friday we're holding a Harvest Carnival, with games and food and fun for all the kids involved with UrbanPromise programs. Then on Saturday and Sunday, we'll be taking 3rd, 4th, and 5th graders from all the different programs on a bus to visit Messiah College and get an early taste of college life from students that partner with us there. We'll also visit Hershey Park and stay overnight in a hotel with a swimming pool which might be the most exciting part of the trip for some of our kids.
In short, I'm finding myself both excited and exhausted, and I'm looking forward to what this week has in store for all of us.
Saturday, October 10, 2009
Some Changes
This upcoming week, I will be moving from the Rosedale ASP in East Camden, to Camp Grace, the ASP for 5th-8th graders located in North Camden. This is the product of some on-going staff and personal issues that go back to when I first started in East side, and while I am disappointed and disheartened with myself and the situation, I am grateful for the flexibility and humility with which everything has been handled, particularly on the part of my superiors who are guiding us through this and the intern who agreed to switch places with me. I am grieved because I will be leaving the kids who were the major motivation for me to spend the year here in the first place, but also excited to work with the kids in the situation which I am entering next week.
North Camden is different, on all accounts, from East side, and there are those who tell me that I will now be seeing the "real Camden". I will be moving this Sunday from my house in East to a house in Downtown Camden, where the rules about walking alone and staying in the house at night are much more carefully observed. I have also heard a great deal about the difficulty of working with the kids at Grace due to the situations that they have to deal with themselves. I just pray that God will give me the vision to see the place and the kids as he would have me see them, and the wisdom and courage to deal with the situations that arise to test me along the way.
I would also ask for prayers for the kids and staff that I am leaving, and the effect that my departure may have on any of them, as well for the effects that the other intern's departure may have on his staff, his kids, and his housemates. I will need a great deal of patience and grace, both from others, and for myself, over the next few weeks of transition.
North Camden is different, on all accounts, from East side, and there are those who tell me that I will now be seeing the "real Camden". I will be moving this Sunday from my house in East to a house in Downtown Camden, where the rules about walking alone and staying in the house at night are much more carefully observed. I have also heard a great deal about the difficulty of working with the kids at Grace due to the situations that they have to deal with themselves. I just pray that God will give me the vision to see the place and the kids as he would have me see them, and the wisdom and courage to deal with the situations that arise to test me along the way.
I would also ask for prayers for the kids and staff that I am leaving, and the effect that my departure may have on any of them, as well for the effects that the other intern's departure may have on his staff, his kids, and his housemates. I will need a great deal of patience and grace, both from others, and for myself, over the next few weeks of transition.
Highlights from the Past Two Weeks
Last Wednesday we talked and read about volcanoes and then made them ourselves with some clay, discarded water bottles, and baking soda and vinegar. It took me awhile to get the reaction right (it ranged from fizzing within the bottle to the bottle exploding and drenching the ceiling) but I finally settled on putting two cups of vinegar in first, then three drops of food coloring, six drops of soap, and finally, 3 tablespoons of the baking soda itself, wrapped up in a toilet paper packet so that it would slowly be released into the vinegar. It worked awesome and my kids were having so much fun it wouldn't have mattered anyway. The highlight was probably when I was doing the demonstration and caught one of my kids turning between me and his table to take notes, his eyes wide in rapt attention, and I almost broke down laughing.
This Wednesday we talked about storms and weather, and then we made tornadoes in a bottle. This is when you essentially put water in a two-liter bottle and tape another one to the top. When you flip it over and swirl, you get a vortex as water goes down and air comes up. I went to the recycling center with Jordan, my roommate, over the weekend, and trash-picked over 40 bottles. My kids were pretty confused when I told them we were going to make tornadoes in a bottle, but when I spun the one I had made ahead of time, the room filled with cries of "Yoooooooo!" and "That's hot!" and I knew we were in for a good afternoon. (Sometimes I feel like I'm doing a cooking show: "And next you put it in the oven for forty minutes. Now here's one that I did ahead of time!") The next couple days I had kids in other camps or classes asking me how to make tornadoes in a bottle.
This Thursday was my last day at Rosedale, as I'll explain in my next post, and during homework time I was trying to get the noise down to a workable level, when Bryan asked me for help with his homework. He usually does his homework pretty quickly without any help, so I was curious as to what he needed. As it turned out, his assignment was to interview a family member about a story from his family history and record it. "Mr. Matt," he told me, "you're not really in my family, but you're my Urban family, so I want to interview you!" I told him a story about my grandparents, but it was a rough reminder of what I'm leaving behind.
This Wednesday we talked about storms and weather, and then we made tornadoes in a bottle. This is when you essentially put water in a two-liter bottle and tape another one to the top. When you flip it over and swirl, you get a vortex as water goes down and air comes up. I went to the recycling center with Jordan, my roommate, over the weekend, and trash-picked over 40 bottles. My kids were pretty confused when I told them we were going to make tornadoes in a bottle, but when I spun the one I had made ahead of time, the room filled with cries of "Yoooooooo!" and "That's hot!" and I knew we were in for a good afternoon. (Sometimes I feel like I'm doing a cooking show: "And next you put it in the oven for forty minutes. Now here's one that I did ahead of time!") The next couple days I had kids in other camps or classes asking me how to make tornadoes in a bottle.
This Thursday was my last day at Rosedale, as I'll explain in my next post, and during homework time I was trying to get the noise down to a workable level, when Bryan asked me for help with his homework. He usually does his homework pretty quickly without any help, so I was curious as to what he needed. As it turned out, his assignment was to interview a family member about a story from his family history and record it. "Mr. Matt," he told me, "you're not really in my family, but you're my Urban family, so I want to interview you!" I told him a story about my grandparents, but it was a rough reminder of what I'm leaving behind.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
Highlights from Friday Relational Time
Every Friday we spend some time with a selected number of our kids in lieu of having program that day. This friday Sarah (the other intern) and I invited four kids from the elementary school up the street and three of them showed up, two third graders and a first grader. We made rice krispie treats, played with the guitar, did some board games, and went to the park.
Wisdom from my buddy Bryan:
"There is nothing in the world that is bigger than a blue whale. Except for the galaxy........and God."
Five minutes later all five of us were hopping in a circle yelling "I am not a grape!" at the top of our lungs (so that nobodywould eat us by mistake).
Wisdom from my buddy Bryan:
"There is nothing in the world that is bigger than a blue whale. Except for the galaxy........and God."
Five minutes later all five of us were hopping in a circle yelling "I am not a grape!" at the top of our lungs (so that nobodywould eat us by mistake).
Thursday, October 1, 2009
Oscar Romero
We had a speaker from the Oscar Romero Center for our intern class tonight and she distributed this quote taken from her employer's namesake. I recognized the passage from Father Maher's Jesuit Education class.
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master buildre and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
--Archbishiop Oscar Romero
The Kingdom is not only beyond our efforts; it is even beyond our vision.
We accomplish in our lifetime only a fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God's work.
Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that the kingdom always lies beyond us.
No statement says all that could be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the church's mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything.
This is what we are about.
We plant the seeds that one day will grow. We water the seeds already planted, knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further development. We provide yeast that produces effects far beyond our capabilities.
We cannot do everything and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something and to do it well. It may be incomplete, but it is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for the Lord's grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the master buildre and the worker.
We are workers, not master builders; ministers, not messiahs.
We are prophets of a future not our own.
--Archbishiop Oscar Romero
Learning the Hard Way
I often have trouble asserting myself in issues of discipline, garnering me a reputation as a softie, or in other words, a pushover. I generally do not see the harm that this could have and prefer to pride myself on being "laid-back". Unfortunately, I was reminded today that the discomfort I might avoid by being especially lenient is not worth the effects that I might not see on the kids I work with.
Every day I walk a group of kids to program from their school down the street. Usually they joke around and have a good time coming back, and I don't generally prevent them from doing this, as long as they're safe on the roads and respectful of others. Today two of the kids were hanging on and playing with another one, one of the most imaginitive and indefatigably cheerful kids I have ever met. They were pretending he was their pet, and he was grinning and laughing at first, so I didn't pay so much attention to what they were doing so much as the cars at the intersections where we had to cross. All of a sudden, however, he burst into tears, crying out, "Mr. Matt, you're not even saying anything to make them stop!"
Horrified, I scrambled to stop whatever was going on and tried to console him as he sobbed into my arm for the rest of the walk. When he had calmed down a little bit, I tried to apologize and explain what he obviously already knew: how wrong it was of me to ignore what was going on, and how irresponsible it was to assume that he was having fun. I know he must have been waiting for me to step in and gotten more and more frustrated at my apparent indifference, until it boiled over. Not only had I ignored his distress, but I had caused him the humiliation of losing his composure and crying in front of his friends.
A couple of hours later we were playing ping-pong and board games like nothing had happened, but I still felt terrible about what happened, and I gather that I will continue to for some time. But insofar as I cannot reverse what already happened, I suppose that it is best that the memory lingers, so that it might remind me of the responsibility I have to these kids to look beyond my own comfort and be an adult and in control even when it involves stepping in to discipline a child or stop a situation that I try to convince myself doesn't seem so bad.
Every day I walk a group of kids to program from their school down the street. Usually they joke around and have a good time coming back, and I don't generally prevent them from doing this, as long as they're safe on the roads and respectful of others. Today two of the kids were hanging on and playing with another one, one of the most imaginitive and indefatigably cheerful kids I have ever met. They were pretending he was their pet, and he was grinning and laughing at first, so I didn't pay so much attention to what they were doing so much as the cars at the intersections where we had to cross. All of a sudden, however, he burst into tears, crying out, "Mr. Matt, you're not even saying anything to make them stop!"
Horrified, I scrambled to stop whatever was going on and tried to console him as he sobbed into my arm for the rest of the walk. When he had calmed down a little bit, I tried to apologize and explain what he obviously already knew: how wrong it was of me to ignore what was going on, and how irresponsible it was to assume that he was having fun. I know he must have been waiting for me to step in and gotten more and more frustrated at my apparent indifference, until it boiled over. Not only had I ignored his distress, but I had caused him the humiliation of losing his composure and crying in front of his friends.
A couple of hours later we were playing ping-pong and board games like nothing had happened, but I still felt terrible about what happened, and I gather that I will continue to for some time. But insofar as I cannot reverse what already happened, I suppose that it is best that the memory lingers, so that it might remind me of the responsibility I have to these kids to look beyond my own comfort and be an adult and in control even when it involves stepping in to discipline a child or stop a situation that I try to convince myself doesn't seem so bad.
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