Who says I'm not good with kids?

This weekend wasn’t too bad. We went to see Pirates of the Caribbean 3 on Saturday. It was what I expected. Brittany, Jack and I were the only ones in the theater besides two guys close to our age. I can describe them only as nerdy and listening to their conversations made me laugh out loud.

Worship at St. Paul’s was pretty standard. They went strictly by the LBW. I was a little disappointed that there was no communion this week. It is often my favorite part of the service. I know that I am forgiven whether or not I take the bread and wine but the ritual serves as an important and tangible reminder. The bulletin was rather sparse and it did not indicate whether it was a once a month communion or every other week so I guess I’ll find out eventually. Pastor Kopp’s sermon was good. He didn’t sound too much like a news anchor. I thought the sanctuary was beautiful. There are stained glass panels on the two side walls and the ceiling is painted a sky blue color which reminds me of the front porches on Key West.

I took a great nap after church. When I woke up we all went to Julia Menzo’s house to eat dinner and then to listen to a speaker on Lutheran Disaster Response. Judy Bultman from Bethel Lutheran in Biloxi, Mississippi is one of the best speakers I’ve had the pleasure to listen to. She is so excited about her ministry and she made me just as excited. Part of her church was still standing after Katrina hit so she and her family loaded up supplies and took it there. Over the course of time the church became a dispensary for food, water, and other necessities. Today it has grown to include a free medical clinic. I took a bunch of brochures for ULC. Maybe we can fly to Biloxi for our local mission trip this year.

On the drive home Julia was telling us about some of the things we could do in Philadelphia over the summer. She suggested a few parks with bike trails and small towns we could ride the train to. I asked if she knew of any campus ministries around that we could get involved in. She sent us a copy of the email that she sent out so we should be hearing back soon.

I went to the gym this morning. As it turns out, no key is necessary to get in. I don’t know why Alan neglected to tell me that after the hundredth time I asked for a key but at least now I will probably never have to speak to this man again.

Today was our first half day of after school programming. The last day of school is tomorrow. Monday and Tuesday are both half days so we have the kids for 6 hours. I think today was better than Friday. I’m getting to know the kids better and they are getting to know me. We broke up the kids into boys and girls. The boys went to the park today and I went along with them. It’s amazing how much better it is when there is actually space for them to play. In the courtyard at the school the kids are on top of each other and it makes fights much more likely. One boy, Christian, hung out with me a lot today. He’s really a good kid. We were watching the girls dance (my first real life dance battle I should add) so he showed me his dance moves and informed me that all girls know how to dance. I think he said something like, “Of course they know how. All girls know the chicken noodle soup, the wu tang and steppin.” It made me laugh. On a less positive note I broke up another fight today and made a kid cry. Who says I’m not good with kids? I don’t know what it is about me but they don’t seem to want to listen when I speak. I told the boy, Taquil (sp?), to go line up for snack. He said that they usually lined up where he was standing. I told him he was right but today we were lining up where the other line was. He kept talking back and talking back so I made it very clear that if he wasn’t going to get in the proper line then he wasn’t going to have snack. He kind of pouted and as he walked away I saw him crying. He got over it soon enough but it breaks my heart. Why couldn’t he just have listened to me in the first place? I really don’t want to be mean but that seems to be the philosophy around that place. None of the teachers are loving or interactive with the kids. I don’t understand how the children are supposed to develop respect for themselves or for adults when the adults show them no respect in the first place. We are having a camp meeting on Wednesday; maybe these issues will be resolved then.

After work Dave, Brittany and I played this weird board game called Ringgz (no joke, that’s how it’s spelled). I lost every game so obviously I decided it would be more fun to throw the pieces at each other than to play the real game. I was right. And I should also say that I completely dominated Dave.

Oh and the boy’s name is not Windmill, though everyone calls him that. His name is Woodmire. It’s just one of those names that parents should never pick out for their kids.