27th
Chicago - Samuel Lee (7/26/10)
Salutations! In all honesty, blogging has become somewhat of a chore to me recently. It is almost like the final layer of processing that I often don’t want to undergo. As whirlwinds of experiences come upon me, I process them internally, jot down some thoughts in my cherished moleskine, and often journal (type) even more extensively when writing it out is too much for my tired hand to handle. And by that time, I hardly want to blog about it anymore. But I try. Oh, I try. __________ -Last week, my team served at the Agape Center, a community center in Roseland (the neighborhood in which we previously served at the day care). Inner-city kid’s day camp. Here. I’ll just copy some stuff from my journal: I really can’t emphasize it anymore than I already have, but the Agape Center has been my favorite ministry site so far on this trip. I really didn’t expect it to be, since I thought it’d just be another children’s ministry opportunity, which we’ve had plenty of, but for some reason, my heart was wrenched and wrung by the children. I really can’t put my finger on why, but I really genuinely care about the kids. I don’t even know where it came from. I’ve been kind of floating around at previous ministry sites, but I really feel for the kids here. Which is weird, because I have pretty much nothing in common with them. And the kids are extremely mischevious and mean to each other - but they have heart. These kids have so much heart in them, and for some reason, I am just drawn to that. Vague enough for you? Oh, another thing I really enjoyed: being called “Mister Sam” by all of the kids. Respect. -Ooh. I went to Indiana last Thursday. Since we landed upon Agape during their last week of summer camp, we had the opportunity to go to the end-of-camp field trip with the kids. To where? Deep River Water Park in Indiana. Suffering for Christ. No, I am not being sarcastic. Those of you who know me know that I cannot swim and find absolutely no joy from being in water. I have never been to a water park before, and I would have been fully satisfied to die never having visited one. So imagine how I felt upon being forced to have fun with these kids at a water park. Some stories: 1) The first water slide in my life was pretty horrendous. You can bet I was praying while climbing those stairs. Since I lost my right contact earlier this summer, I’ve been wearing glasses each day, and as a result, had to wear them the entire time at the park - yes, that means in the water. Secondly, I forgot to take my flip flops off. Third, I was in a double tube with a child about one-third the size of me. As I plummeted to my near-death, I had no idea that water slides sprayed you in the face while you came down. In a moment of wet tumult, our tube flipped over, I lost ahold of my glasses, and about two cups of water went up my nose. I don’t understand how anyone could consider this fun. 2) Hanging out at the wave pool was more of my kind of fun. Unfortunately, the worst that could happen happened. I had just watched one of the kids eat his entire bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos, then enter the wave pool. He was splashing around in front of me a little too enthuasiastically. And you guessed it - he began to vomit straight-up red barf. And as the wave-generator continued to hum, an impressive wave rolled towards me, swirling bits and pieces of Cheeto-vomit all around me. Delish! We called out to the lifeguards, but I’m quite positive they were pretending to not notice. Puh-leeze. 3) Ask me about the DRAGON speed slides sometime. I should be healed from my trauma by then. -This past Friday night, I decided to visit Chinese Christian Union Church’s college group. You know, check out the sc3ne. Though I didn’t attend completely companion-less, since I was with a good friend who happened to be in the city, it still felt mighty awkward. I kept getting the I-haven’t-seen-your-face-before-but-you’re-probably-someone-else’s-friend-so-I’m-going-to-return-to-my-conversation look from everyone. Not such a warm feeling. Which instantly reminded me that I always need to welcome an unfamiliar face when I’m in a familiar place. I’m not throwing beef on CCUC Ambassadors, since I’m pretty positive I would have done the same. And there certainly were a good number of friendly folks who reached out. And Lordhavemercy, the lesson of the night was about dating and DTR’s. All in all, it was an uncomfortable experience that helped me step into shoes I haven’t worn in a while. __________ // Holding on //Update #5 - Vomit and Vegetables
Some thoughts //
That’s not it. But I’m done for now. I just realized that this was probably the most trivial post I have written so far. Please forgive me, as my brain must have dissolved into mush from all the “unique” smells of Chinatown.
Samuel
