Hard to Love

FUI Update #3

Time moves slower in Fresno - or maybe time moves slower while you’re in FUI but this week feels like a month. I give credit to the heat and to the amount of work I’ve been doing all week.

So I last left you with my thoughts about our disconnect situation but now I’ll update you as to the on goings of my site. I am placed and Light and Life Urban Ministries that does ministry out of an apartment complex. They have after school programs, teen clubs, bible studies, and so on. The ministry is all about building relationships with kids and giving them a healthy place to go to instead to find connection instead of in gangs or other troubling activities. I was very excited to be placed there because not only do I get to work with one of my friends from when I did FUI three years ago, but I also get to play with kids and teens, as well as swim as every day.

But it was nothing like I expected. I am not sure what exactly I expected, if I thought the kids would behave well or if I thought they would respond well to new people entering their lives but I neither really happened. First off, the ministry recently moved out of the Ranchwood Condominiums into Summer Park Apartments in the last year. So it wasn’t as established as I was thought - only a year in the site people are still getting to know each other. Also the high school kids are mostly at camp (The Oaks in Lancaster that World Impact runs) and the teen program only has Jr. Highers. Jr. High kids take a special kind of love let me tell you. And lastly, the woman who is in charge of the teen program, Val went out of town on the second day of working there.

So Kevin and I (who are work in the teen club) felt as if we were left to create activities for teens who barely knew us, weren’t sure if they liked us, and would rather spend all there time on the computers. I saw kids physically fighting over time for computers, constantly slapping each other, calling each other names, and even heard a few small racial jokes pointed towards me. Loving these kids has been a challenge and an adventure. I wish I had a good story to wrap up these struggles about how Kevin or I did something and all was better but we are still in the midst of learning to love kids who are difficult. I’ll let you know how it goes.