In the Wilderness

So camp went pretty well. I was prepared enough, it would seem, to manage in all things, but I didn't feel like it was quite the rewarding experience that it had been last year. Something about the connection between the kids and the counselors was off. I am told that the kids are getting harder to reach as the years pass and, if my two years experience are worth anything, I can attest to that. The mini-sermon called a Discovery group went well though to be honest I had spent three nights in a row sitting in my car rehearsing. The rehearsing was only successful in calming me down a bit as in the moment all plans fall away and the Holy Spirit stands tall. In moments like that I see, in my imagination, myself as a shell of sorts (like a car for example) and the Holy Spirit as the driver. The problem I see is that I am more like Herby (Herby the Love Bug) in that I have a mind of my own and don’t give up control quite as easily as I should. I think it would be better to be a regular car sometimes so that HS could take over as it should, without interference. It would make me a far more effective tool for service. Instead I try to do the thinking a bit too much and muck up things more than I feel is acceptable. Anyway, that aside the daily teaching of the Webpage stuff went well enough I suppose. Days one and two were about plain HTML done in notepad so that they could get a grasp on the bottom rung of Webpages. Believe me I fumbled on Monday big-time, but hey its hard to remember lines of code that you hardly ever need anymore. ^_^ On the third day we hoped over to Dreamweaver to get a taste of what it's like to design a page without using pure code. I don't know how much they appreciated that though because it seemed to be the least interesting day for the kids. The last two days we played with Flash and they loved it. A few who paid attention really learned a lot and seemed to be happy with it while the rest just enjoyed the programs basic abilities. In either case it was a better ending than beginning for the week.

Now, enough of me, back to the kids. It seems that, with the world as it is, these children are building up certain things faster then appropriate. (I know that isn't news to most of you, but I mean the speed and strength that the walls seem to have is growing.) I myself went through the same base process (I am certain of it), but for me it played out in a way that benefited me. Not all these kids will be so blessed I'm afraid. By building up too fast a person walls off from all but what it available to them at the moment and even then, only the things that are acceptable to their lives are accepted. So if a child has no focus in life and sees no focus in those nearby, be-it parents or friends, focus becomes much less a priority. The same goes for anything really, anything lacking in the moment is left lacking. Why do I say it's then left lacking? Because once the wall rises and its lengths fortified what hope does a good deed or a kind word do to penetrate. Can solid guidance ram through a wall like that? Even if it does manage to penetrate what is to say that it would be received as intended when all that is known on the persons side of that wall is the lacking of such a virtue or wisdom. How many people have you heard say that X is not worth the time it takes to speak of it and yet we know that X is so very important. Love, patients, kindness, compassion, appreciation, willingness, sacrifice, introspective thought, etc. These things seem to be missing from the view of our kids, more and more, and it is leaving an impression.

Well that all sounded a bit depressing didn't it? Sorry about that. It wasn't all bad trust me. I made some good firends (a few of which have carried somewhat past the week itself) and made a few great memories. It was a tough year, but also quite rewarding.