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a few weeks ago at reunion, hank (the lead pastor) was speaking on valuing kids. he made the following statement based on Jesus' comments about children found in the gospels (Matt 19:13-14, Mark 9:36-37): "You will never fully understand the Kingdom if you don't hang out with kids."

i found this statement, and the whole sermon for that matter, to be both compelling and extremely relevant to my job at the moment.  i am not one who loves working with kids; i don't consider it to be a strength, passion, or desire.  nonetheless, i spend nearly ten hours a day with 11-15 boys between the ages of 10 and 12.  many of these boys come from broken families, difficult socio-economic realities, and bad schools.  they bring a lot of baggage with them to camp, and therefore can be very difficult to work with.

case in point: yesterday, while at nantasket beach, two boys got into a fairly nasty fight (over 4-square rules, of all things).  before i could get on the scene to break it up some awful words and names were exchanged and a few blows landed.  it is painful and sad to see 11 year old boys acting like hardened thugs.

counter-point: later in the afternoon i rewarded three boys with ice cream for having had a great week.  it was fun to treat them to soft-serve and "jimmies" (bostonian for sprinkles) and to watch their reactions.  tariq and eddie are both pretty low-key and they said "thank you" and quietly went about the business of eating their treats out of cups.  joao, a loquacious cape verdean who has been very difficult himself at times, and i made the mistake of ordering ours in cones.  i wish i had my camera because words cannot capture the mess joao made trying to get his cone into his mouth.  but he ate the whole thing with a huge smile on his face, his nonstop banter both hindering his progress and making the moment even more enjoyable for us onlookers.

there was ugliness and beauty yesterday at the beach.  the highs and the lows of working with kids experienced within hours (and often seconds) of each other.  if nothing else i think this summer is providing a context for hank's comments that i shared earlier.  yesterday i saw the kingdom in a kid who dropped his facade for a minute and let his joy in the moment radiate through his soft-serve and jimmie stained smile.