Thursday, June 28, 2012

The Return

After being at St.Luke's for 2 weeks and 1/2 a week being with the kids, I left for Hawaii. I returned Wednesday June 27th and wasn't counting on any kids remembering me, since they called me the New Christine. To my surprise on the 1st day back one of the kids was walking in, she immediately began sprinting yelling Maddie your back finally and giving me a huge hug when she saw me. As the day continued many more kids came up and started hugging me, saying I didn't think you would ever return and etc. I was somewhat surprised on how much I was missed considering I had only worked with them a few days.

Following the welcome we took some kids to the 1$ kids movie at Green Hills. That was where I had my 1st incident to deal with. A boy had fallen up the escalator and cut a deep whole in his knee. I immediately placed him on a bench and began trying to calm him down and clean of the cut while waiting for Dan to come and pick him up. After that the day was relatively calm as we then returned for a bible story and games about Moses and Joshua and the capturing of Canaan. A group of kids from a church in Manchester (TN) came and told the story then had a word search and a horn for them to decorate, followed by acting out of that story. The theme was Run to win and to do that you must trust God, obey God, and follow God.

Although the welcome I had surprised me at the beginning, I began to realize how connected I had already became with the kids. I missed them dearly during my 3 weeks away, and even had 3 kids calling me their mommy and hanging on me all day along with many other kids who would come over randomly and ask me to play and hang out with them. It was a great day, and left me exhausted beyond excited for the next adventure which would be an outing to Wave Country on Thursday.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.
~Hebrews 12:1-3

2 comments:

  1. I'm glad the kids remembered you. This means you already had a positive impact on their lives in the first 2 1/2 weeks. And it sounds like you handled the escalator incident well. I'll be interested to hear what it was like to handle a group of kids having a blast at Wave Country!

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  2. Maddie,
    Glad to know you are reunited with your young friends at St. Luke's. It is clear to see how valuable it is for them to have the type of encouragement and guidance you are providing. Reading your description of the accident makes me think of how quickly things can go from calm to chaotic when you are managing people! You have good instincts as a leader and obviously, you have a heart for children as well.
    Peace and joy to you (and some well deserved rest when you can get it!)

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