Morning workout ministry

8:45 on a Wednesday morning is when I pull up to 52 Cataraqui Recreational Centre. A tiny square concrete building we do not own but are the only ones who make use of it. Wednesday mornings are when I meet a mom from the community to run our weekly 4.4 miles together.

Some mornings she shows up awake and really to conquer the world, other days she won’t even greet me and we begin pacing ourselves in silence. The thing about these times is that it is easy to stay quiet, I mean it isn’t the easiest thing to have a full out conversation while running. Yet it is also the greatest opportunity in my week to intentionally ask questions to the woman and to listen to what can sometimes be endless chatter as I run adding a few hmm and uh huh’s here and there.

Yesterday specifically I felt like I should ask more questions about her personally. She can spend a lot of time talking about her 13 year old son who I am very close with or any of the other neighborhood kids as she is the go to fun adult on the block.

As I started asking significant questions here and there she responded well and was eager to share her struggles, fears and even discussion what causes the fear or what would make her less afraid in situations. As we talked Jesus came up often and she began speaking of how she has had  a new desire to learn more about God because her son has been asking a lot of questions at camp and is coming home full of questions that she is unable to answer but know is also questioning herself. We discussed these questions, along with topics of the distortion of love, good and bad in this world, who made God, where did the bible come from and the questions went on and on.

As our time slowly ticks down and we push each other to the end we finished exhausted and refreshed. 

Childlike

The wonder of a child is a unique thing. The way they are able to be innocent and unaware of so many things and yet have an outstanding embrace on joy.

Friday evening after dinner was finished at camp we headed to the park of the kids with nothing particular planned. As the rest of the evening unfolded I watched as their worlds of imagination became alive.

The older boys ran in circles across the entire playground engrossed in their game of tag, unashamedly unaware of all the social expectations on a 14 year old boy.

The younger kids ran repeatedly from one wood chip pile to the next crying out of the enemy approaching with their arms waving tennis rackets in the air as they full engaged in characters such as batman, girl hero, super girl and superman ect.

Two others boys at fully forgotten the need to keep their cloths clean as they buried each other’s arms deep underneath their stand castle and with such glee counted down and pulled their arms up and out sending stand flying every direction. 

I love these moments, the moments when these kids are truly kids, when the normal responsibilities that have caught up with them far too early in their lives just disappear for a little while. When they are surrendered to the freedom of their own imagination and anything is possible. I love that camp can be a place where they are forget the pressure of their homes, when they have a break from the things that way heavy on their childhood and allow them to just be who they are, to  laugh in the setting sun and to play until they are exhausted.

Absorbing from a distance

I am sitting in the office with a tea in hand, down the hall way I hear the loud banging and chatting of kids. Each in their group, the littlest group discussing what they remember from the bible study on Tues, the oldest group watching a video of Francis Chan talking about eternity as they begin their bible study. The loudest group is up to their regular jumping and banging around upstairs, they are the  7+8’s, although they constantly debate the name as some of them are 9 or almost 7, so I have told them to come up with their own new name, they have yet to decide upon one. The 9 and 10 boys are downstairs and their leader is teaching them about talking with Jesus and they are quietly writing out their own personal prayers.

It’s in these distant moments as I listen from down the hall that I have space to think, to pray. Today we are fully enforced with leaders, leaders who genuinely care for the kids, who come early to help with pickups, who come even though I don’t have any more hours left to pay them, they come just to be here, to be present.

This is the beauty of what I get to see every day. The beauty of the little one’s spilling in through the door and racing down the hallway, hands in the air, racing to be the first to meet me with a hug, their mouths all at ones shouting out story’s from their day, or calling me to notice their new haircut to the bracelet around their wrist.

The moments I catch from a distance, of their eyes peering up at a 16 year old looking for help, wisdom, leadership, and love and watching that 16 year old give back to them whatever they have to give.

Just the other day I was reminded of one of these moments as I sat in the office talking with one of my 16 year old leaders who had taken a couple months away from camp due to conflicts with co-workers matched with being overwhelmed in her personal life. Today she was back to talk about coming back to work as a leader. As we discussed the things she had learned in the process and what she was hoping for the future and why she wanted to be a leader I ceased the moment. This young lady dislikes her community and wants to so badly be able to leave it forever. She has seen and experienced so much pain and wants to run away and start fresh.

I told her that my hope for her is that she learns to love her community, to embrace the brokenness, to hold it close and to love the place and to love the people. Instead of leaving, I want her to stay! Because in staying she has a say into the future lives of those who live there and what this community will become. 

That it is beauty of who Streetleaders! The ones who want better for the kids and youth so much that they pour themselves out to make this happen! They share who they are, they give of their time, personality, talents, and gifts to creative a community of love, family and of hope.