“Basic celery. Sassy celery. Celestial spirit. Cereal. Cinnamon. Captain.” Those were the names I went by this past week. Group 6 decided to call me everything but Celeste. And I was okay with it. My group was loud, fun, and always joking. I knew we’d have a good week when the sarcasm I dished out came right back at me.
This group was from a church in Poquoson, Virginia. The group consisted of 6 guys and 5 girls. Together they made a dysfunctional yet affectionate family. And for a week, they welcomed me in. Sometimes it gets tiring to join a new family every week and then to have them taken from you, but this past week I forgot about the difficulty of it all and I just allowed myself to relax within the idea of a “new family.”
Every family has baggage. They might not want to carry it, but it comes along for every ride. My group definitely had baggage. It was a good kind though. The kind that you don’t mind carrying. The kind that strengthens the group. Here is a list of everything that made up our baggage: a basketball, tissues, a guitar, bowls of ramen, Adidas Superstars, and joy. Loads of joy. Let me unpack these things for you…
A BASKETBALL: Every morning that my group was in DC I took them to CityGate. CityGate is a non-profit kids program that gives low-income children a place to play and develop Godly character. Honestly, it gets a little crazy there. Kids want to play with your hair, sit in your lap, ride on your shoulders, and play basketball from the minute you are there to the minute you leave. My group was amazing there. The guys were always on the court with the kids playing knockout. Anytime I looked up from what I was doing, there was a basketball flying into the hoop. I knew they had invested well when, on our last day, the kids would not let us leave. They were attached, and although it was a bitter goodbye, the memories made were too sweet to forget.
TISSUES: During most of our debrief sessions, my group would recall all they had done during the day and tears would accompany their recollections. At first, these tears overwhelmed me. I didn’t know how to help my students process. Instead of trying to figure it out, I prayed. I prayed over them and declared the truth of scripture over their lives. I could see a change happening within my students and it was remarkable. Our conversations were fruitful and challenging. Students were having to confront their weaknesses. Like this one guy who was crying out of anger because of his inability to meet the needs of the homeless on the streets. From this anger, he was able to realize that salvation was the best gift he could ever share with those he met. The need for Jesus is the greatest need.
A GUITAR: My group was very musically talented. So we brought a guitar with us throughout the week. I will remember the two sweetest moments we had with this guitar. First, we were all sitting in a circle on a dock near Yards Park, a gorgeous area of town between the Navy Yard and The Nationals Stadium. There was laughter and talking and crying and worship. The songs we delivered up to the Lord were genuine and raw. On the evaluations the students filled out at the end of the week, this one night of worship was their favorite. The second moment happened at a Geriatric Day Care Center in downtown D.C. For about forty-five minutes, our group sang for them. We called upon the Lord with our voices asking Him to fill the space we were in with joy and restoration. The people here were upwards of seventy-five years old and they still engaged with a youth-like enthusiasm.
ADIDAS SUPERSTARS: Out of every group I’ve had this summer, this one was by far the most stylish. It would be a hundred plus degrees outside and my guys would have on their addidas athletic pants and vans. I would meet my group upstairs during the day and the girls would have a new oufit on after showering for the second time that day. Maybe they were a little high-maintenance, but hey, we got everywhere on time.
BOWLS OF RAMEN: The very last night they were here my group gave me a lesson on how to eat ramen. We were all sitting in the kitchen with freshly (microwave heated) ramen noodle bowls in front of us. One by one they took the papery plastic lids off the tops of their bowls and I followed along. One fold. Two folds. And the plastic lid had become a small cup. Then we lifted noodles from the bowl into the small cup in our hands. They explained to me that seprating the noodles from the broth allows the noodles to cool faster. Once they cooled, we sipped them up from the cup. That was our midnight ramen dinner and I will never forget it.
JOY: Although you can’t see me, as I was typing up this blog and remembering all the moments I shared with this group, I couldn’t help smiling. These were my people for a week and they left me wanting more worship sessions, intentional and deep conversations, cute clothes, and ramen noodles. Love you long time group 6!
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