Starting the New Year with Old Socks

What did you get in your  Christmas Sock this year?  My neighborhood kids got something unexpectedly amazing!

Last year I took some of my club kids to a church camp for 4th-6th graders over Martin Luther King weekend.  It was a great time of growth and fun!  Most of my kids had never had an opportunity to go to camp before and needed scholarships.  The church generously helped support us.

But I also have a burden to help my kids not become dependent on others’ generosity.  In fact, reading my Bible once, I had a heavy thought. GOD CREATED WORK BEFORE SIN!  That means when He said everything was GOOD, it included WORK!  Since then, I’ve noticed people without a job or purpose seem to lose heart.  I want my club kids to learn work is good and they have a purpose.  

Fast forward several months.  My church had a sermon series on “Spiritual Conversations”.  This day’s message identified the power of working side-by-side as a community for a cause, both with Christians and those who aren’t yet. 

Right after the service one of the leaders on the camp planning committee made a B-line for me.  “Are you going to bring your kids to retreat again this year?” 

To be honest, it was still several months away and I hadn’t thought about it.  I could think of several reasons it couldn’t really happen but inquired, “Ummm…Well, do you want them to come?”

My question was met with an emphatic, “YES!” 

“Well let’s pray about it then and see what God does.”

What kept coming back to me was the sermon, “working together side-by-side”.  “Hmmm… What about a breakfast fundraiser?  ‘Send Our Kids to Camp’ = SOKC.  Maybe a Christmas SOKC breakfast?”

My neighborhood has a little community club.  Last year they surprised me by letting me use it rent free for a kids event.  I wondered… would they be that giving again? Looking at my calendar, there was really only one date I WANTED to do the event, December 6th, but I decided I should let God control my calendar.  This would be His birthday present from me.  I would work my schedule around whatever they offered.  The reply came.  There was only one date available in all of December, Dec. 6th!

I have a bad habit of coming up with MY ideas and pushing them through so I thought I should get kid input before I went further.  My first text response came quickly, “YES! When can we do it?  Can I cook?” 

Then life got complicated.  With an illness in the family, I was gone for a couple of weeks.  Upon returning, I had one week before the breakfast and NOTHING had been done.  

“Lord,” I begged, “I don’t know if there is time to do this now! I could easily cancel.  If You want this to happen, will you find me a helper… or 5?  There is so much to do, and besides just the food, there is promoting and DECORATING.  There is no way I can do this myself.  Help!”

That day I heard angelic words from a neighbor, “I was at the community club and heard you are having a breakfast.  Could I help? I put on a Christmas party there every year for my bicycling club.  I have all the tablecloths and decorations.” 

With 6 days left, I hastily made a flyer and handed it out to a few people at church.  Two days later I had 8 quality people to help (neighbors, friends, Christian and not), groceries and 6 kids excited to work who joined me in handing out flyers in the neighborhood. 

Our breakfast was amazing! Well, it started and ended a little kid crazy, but the breakfast itself was far better than I could have imagined! 

In my new desire to let people take ownership and do the work they enjoy, I tried to come up with the categories and then let both leaders and kids sign up for what they wanted to do.  The kids who cooked did it with enthusiasm.  I don’t think most of them had ever cooked using anything besides a microwave before.  They learned to wash their hands, crack eggs without too many shells, flip pancakes, and not to get too close to a hot skillet.  Some of these lessons were hard-learned but the kids were thrilled. 

The servers served with generosity and beautiful smiles.  I heard customers surprised, “We got such big portions.  This was great.  It was much different than most fundraisers.”

No one was in a hurry to leave.  Our guests stuck around and visited with each other.  Even people who didn’t know anyone else.  Our kids had huge, genuine smiles that looked like the happiness of a job well-done! 

One of my non-Christian neighbors is a great salesperson.  She was thrilled to teach the kids how to greet customers, explain the camp and cost and escort guests to the dining line.  The kids who worked in this area not only sat and visited with customers when there wasn’t anyone to greet but they also got an amazing lesson in how to run a business.  My friend worked with them to figure out gross and net profits, among other things.  At the end she was beaming almost as much as the kids! “We did it!  I can’t believe we made enough for every one of these kids to go to camp!  And your congregation was SO GENEROUS!”

But so much more happened than just procuring money for camp!  I believe the impact on the lives of these local kids was deep!  Alongside some great role-models, they learned how to work… the kind of work that is “Very good!” They got to serve generous people and put faces to those dollars, learning that support comes from real people! My prayer is that this example will teach them to be generous as well. And hey, they learned some business and interpersonal skills while they were at it, too!

The JOY of WORK!    What a great stocking stuffer! 

Until Every Boy and Girl Knows Him!

-Annie

PS.  We just got back from camp… more about that will be coming soon!

Deck the... Toilets?

She was hard.   Single-mom Elizabeth had several children close in age, all with a different last name and a different skin color.  Don’t get me wrong!  I LOVE every hue that God created. But I ache for kids to have stable families!

Elizabeth had caused a lot of problems at our homework club (HW), sometimes coming in and screaming at her own children in front of everyone else.  Sometimes the verbal bombshell would land on another child that she felt acted unjustly toward her child.  Other times, when she wanted special treatment, she was angelic.  Even the apartment managers shared how many times the police had been called to their facility because of this family.  (In case you are wondering, we couldn’t keep her out because we were meeting at the apartment’s public cabana.  Anyone had a right to be in this area.)

She was hard to love.

Our club leaders chose to pray for her and ask God for opportunities to show real love.  Sometimes this meant setting boundaries, but I never dreamt the other way God would ask me to respond.

Christmas was coming so I had asked God what kind of gift He would like for Christmas.  My answer came soon.

I was at a city-reaching conference, thinking of this family, when the speaker started sharing his evangelism style:  going into businesses and cleaning their toilets.  When they would ask why he did that, he would share, “I think if Jesus were walking on earth today, that’s the kind of stuff he would do.”

It hit me hard, “Go clean her toilet!”

“Really Lord?  How’s that going to happen?”

A deep feeling came over me that for God’s Christmas gift, He would like a clean toilet.

The next time homework club met, one of her children needed to be walked home.  It was the perfect opportunity to talk to her mom.

     “Elizabeth?  I have a Christmas gift for you.”
     “OK.” She held out her hand.
     “Umm, it’s kind of a weird gift.”
     “Ok?” She kept her hand out but pulled back a bit, unsure of what was coming her way.
     “I would like to come and clean your toilet sometime.”
     “Ok? That is kind of weird. I guess it’s Ok.”
     “Would Friday work?”

I heard celebration in the background!  Evidently it was the chore that week for the daughter I had walked home.

When Friday came, I went and cleaned.  Mom had a headache and slept on the couch, but the kids were home from school and the daughter whose job I had taken, kept me company. 

     “Why are you doing this?” She asked as I spent an hour making a filthy bathroom gleam.
     “I think if Jesus were walking on earth today, that’s the kind of stuff he would do.” I recited.
     “Oh.” In the following silence, I could almost hear the gears moving in her brain. 

I never really knew if it was a gift for Elizabeth or her daughter.  I didn’t really even know if it mattered to Elizabeth, though things seemed more peaceful after.  She didn’t seem as bristled and defensive about things.  One day when she was mad, she refused to yell.  She just put her headphones on, turned her iPod up and walked out.  At first I was upset that we didn’t talk through the issue but then I realized, this was progress!  She was treating us differently.

Finally Elizabeth’s family was evicted.  The police had been called one-too-many times.  The apartment managers had enough.  As Elizabeth called my co-leader in tears and desperation she opened up, “I always knew you guys were different.  Ever since you cleaned my toilet.”

She shared much of her life story and my friend was able to point her to Jesus.  God, the One who cleaned far more than her toilet, would be there to give her a fresh start in her new place if she wanted.

Have you asked God what He wants for Christmas?  You might be surprised!

Have a Merry Christmas and see you next year!

Until Every Boy and Girl Knows Jesus,

-Annie

*Names of kids always changed- big and little