NOLA Day 2

day 2.

tuesday. about a week before Jake K had asked me if I would be willing to lead devotions on one of the days. I was extremely grateful and honored to be asked to do so, but freaked out at the same time. I've done a lot of acting/stage speaking, and random speaking in front of groups, but not realy PLANNED speaking. really iv only done that a couple times. so as honored as I was, I was a little scared to accept. but I did, knowing this is exactly the practice that I need. I had prepared a study all about opening your heart and being willing to let things happen, and trusting God through those things. i found some verses, linked some personal experiences, and was ready to go. i got up there, and started shaking. i always get nerves before getting in front of a group of people, which is ridiculous, and im hoping it will go away. but anyway, i spoke faster than i usually do, which is way too fast, finished the bible study in about 4 minutes, and forgot to pray. to say the least, it didnt go as planned. i am one who beats myself up more than others beat me up, so i took it pretty hard for a while. after praying about it i realized that i screwed up and there was nothing i could do about it, so move on. nobody's perfect. im not, and never will be. i took it as a practice and got on with it. ill be more prepared for the next opportunity, thats for sure

now, this is one of the days for me that really marked the trip. our team had found out we were going to get to go to the elementary school and play with the kids for a couple hours. to say the least I was ecstatic. I am a relational person, all the way, and i absolutely adore kids. we worked hard all morning, counting down the minutes to go clean up and meet the kids. I can honestly say I had no idea what to expect. the girls cleaned up, and headed outside, and it was like a slam of swarming mosquitos. that is, until you paid attention to them. then those dozens of harsh little kids turned into huggy sweet little children, and your hearts melted right along with their attitudes.

there were quite a few kids who stuck out to me, even just on the first day. I believe Alexis was the first. my first sight of Alexis was at the Uno table, which was a table in the corner where the kids pretty much played uno 24/7. Alexis had all the cards in her hands and was scowling while bossing and snapping at all the other kids, either telling me what to do or what they were doing wrong. Amy, Jenna and I sat down to play with them, and really were at a loss. We didnt know what to say in response to these kids being so mean to each other. I was sitting right next to Alexis, and i did my best to keep her calm while attempting to play their version of uno. which is one with no rules.

during this game we met a few other kids who are a big part of this week's story. Thomas, a sibling of some of the girls. Rayne, who you will hear plenty about, and Region. First impression of Region? She had quite the 'tude as well. one of the first thigns she did when we sit down was proudly show us the hair she was growing under her arms. if you know me, you know how much hair grosses me out, so this observation was absolutely disturbing for me. I think that was one of the main points during the week where I had to use all my willpower not to show my true emotion, as I congratulated her on this "achievement". a little after that, Alexis had done something to upset her, and up she ran and wouldnt play with us. I hopped up to follow her. She shoved herself agaisnt a brick wall and wouldnt look me in the eye as I tried every trick in the book to get her to join the group again. I finally promised her a spot on my team and so she grabbed my hand and ran me back to the table. hopping on my lap she took control and teh game started up again. that didnt last long and she ran back to her seat, but another little girl instantly picked up on the opportunity.

now Rayne had been sitting right by me from the start, and obviously had gotten a little jealous of Region being able to sit on my lap. so she demanded to be on my team and sat on my knee, holding the cards for me and telling me what to play. she soon decided she would be on mine AND jennas team, and sat on one of jennas knees while sitting on one of mine, had us hold our cards but still told us what to do. when we asked her name, she told me it was rayne, but then leaned and whispered in my ear what her REAL name was, which I was not to tell anyone. I will be keeping taht promise to her, considering she whispered it so quietly I never even heard what she said. as soon as cameras came out, rayne got excited. kerry took a bunch of dennis' camera, while we did goofy pics and smiling pics and random pics, over and over again. this is how we got mine and jennas all time favorite picture of Rayne, where she has her arms wrapped around jenna and they are both beaming. love that one.

now this takes us back to Alexis, who was still pitching a fit about obeying rules. I reached down and asked her if she wanted to take a picture, and she instantly attached to my side. we took one, and the next thing I know she was hugging me and practically napping on my shoulder. from that point on it was hard to get her out of my arms. I always felt a sort of connection with Alexis, bc I understood why she was acting the way she was. its exactly how I used to be, and sometimes still can be. I cover up emotion by being the leader or even being kind of nasty, but as soon as someone is willing to reach for my heart i melt. this is exactly what happened to alexis. i reached out to her, and the attention touched her heart in an unbelievable way. it just blew my mind that these kids just wanted to be looked out, just wanted to hold your hand.

and that statement brings me to G Man. his real name is Cantrell, but I wont ever call him that, so just think G Man. G Man is a tiny little boy, probably 7 or 8 years old. He smiled ALL THE TIME. my first interaction with him was playing volleyball with a huge green ball that was way too big for him. all I had to do was throw him the ball, he would smack it across the play area, run and get it, and we would do it again. this went on for quite some time, with other kids joining in along the way. one being a boy named Tamon. Now Tamon was a handfull. He was a male version of Alexis, all the way. He would go around hitting other kids with baseball bats, shove kids around, but as soon as you paid any attention to him he was super sweet.

I believe the last kid to really touch my heart in the first portion of the school day was Carnisha. sweet little Carnisha had a scowl that could burn you, but a smile that could make your heart flutter. she was another one that would sit on your lap and talk to you until your ears would fall off, and I just loved interacting with her at all. I grew quite attached to her, after just a short hour.

after the first hour, the prek/1st graders go in, and the older kids come out. the "older kids" are pretty much kids 2nd grade through 8th. the first 30 minutes or so jenna, becky and i spent talking to a girl named Iona. sweet girl, seemed 15, only 12. she told us all about her plans, talked to us some about the hurrice, and we talked to her about church too. we lated joined Kerry and a bunch of other older girls just to talk, play hand games, and take pictures. not too eventful, at least not compared to the first half of the day.

we finished up around 2, headed back to the site, and headed home. we grabbed all of our stuff and headed to the showers. I believe it was me, jenna, kerry, and leanne in the showers at this point. the showers is a little hut containing 4 different stalls. were all talking, taking our showers, when suddenly I turn around and there is a slightly large disgusting light green frog sitting right to my face. of course, me not being a fan of bugs/insects/nasty slimy creatures screamed like crazy. lucky for me, there is a little spot right outside of your shower that also has a curtain, where you can change your clothes. i step out there, still screaming, while the frog crawls up the shower wall and onto the shower head. by then i had somehow verbalized to the other girls what was in my shower, so they no longer thought i was dying. [kerry said that since my screaming was such high shrills, and multiples, not just one, she had considered either a man with a gun or a large animal in there with me. thankfully she was wrong]. as teh girls laughed at me hysterically i took the least amount of time i could to finish my shower and get out.

to say the least I was the laughing stock of the night. the story was told over and over again, and I still had a migraine from my own screams echoing in my shower. lets jsut say i was not looking forward to bathing again. and that brings an end to day 2.