After two years of homework club for elementary school-aged kids at a
local apartment complex something unplanned happened. Shocking I know, but these cute kids started
turning into middle schoolers!
Yikes! Middle school is not my
thing, but we had grown a heart for these kids.
We couldn't just leave them. What now, Lord?
Adding these kids crowded the already full apartment cabana. And they did not disappoint my expectations,
playing the part of “middle schooler” well.
Goofy, disrespectful, conceited, concerned with impressing their
friends, inappropriate sense of humor; embarrassingly, I recognized myself at
this age. Yuk! I really had to depend on God’s love to show
through. There was nothing in me that
could do this in my own power.
And they weren’t great role models for our elementary kids. I thought maybe if we made them leaders, they
might step up and act like leaders. We
formed a group. I thought it would help
if they had an identity. ‘How about
giving our group a name, like “Community Heroes"?’
They came up with the name, “Churro Guardians”.
“Miss Annie, do you know Churro is not a nice word?” One of the
elementary kids whispered to me, “It means Gangster! I don’t think you should
let them use it.”
I was
particularly disturbed the day one of the most popular boys, Indi, asked a high
school leader if he had slept with his girlfriend yet.
Since I’ve
had this conversation with leader Raoul previously, I was not surprised when he
said, “No!” His heart is set on following God and waiting until he gets
married.
Maybe I
should have asked first but my instinct told me this middle school boy probably
didn’t know one person that thought about waiting for sex until marriage and I needed to take advantage of the
opportunity. At the risk of
embarrassment I asked, “Hey Raoul, do you EVER plan on sleeping with a girl
before you get married?”
“Nope!”
Raoul fired.
Indi didn’t
miss a beat, “Well I’m going to!”
I didn’t
plan this! OK Savior of the World… HELP!
-Annie
*Children’s
names always changed.
