Earlier this week, one of my seventh graders invited me to her house … I figured it was some sort of family picnic, but I jumped at the chance anyways, ’cause they’re awesome. It turns out that she and two other students actually wanted to hang out with me (and Jason, my co-coach, and his wife). We played some games, opened a couple presents, and I had the chance to talk for a while with one of the mothers who had lived in China for 4 years with her family (sweet!).

And while it was really fun playing Kickball Extreme, having an all-out sidewalk chalk war, and cooking hot dogs over a campfire, it was even more fantastic to see glimpses of the amazing women these three girls are becoming. They’ve come such a long way since this photo (taken at our first cross country meet in the spring) … and I’m so excited to see how God is going to grow them up into Himself next year as eighth graders. And for the first time, I started to realize that it actually might be kinda neat that I won’t be teaching some of these kids next year … I’m really going to start praying for the opportunity to step forward as a friend and mentor to some of them. That sort of trust and ongoing communication is rare, but such a treasure!

As the days go by, I’m becoming more and more thankful for the blessing that CHCA has been to me. Not only have I had a safe and nurturing place to throw myself into serving some beautiful children, but I’ve also had the chance to connect with hundreds of model families, seeing their faith in action and being directly blessed by their generosity and trust. Walking away from this environment, even if only for a year, makes me want to take a piece of this community with me … to just love people extravagantly!

Posted to webeldotnet on Monday, June 5th, 2006 at 1:08 am EST in Education (comment feed). If you refer to this post on your blog, please trackback. Thanks!