Respond Inspire Serve Empower
This was the motto for the week of our R.I.S.E. Catholic Workcamp Jr. Mission Trip. We left Wednesday morning heading to San Antonio, TX with 20+ middle school boys and girls to give them a glimpse of stepping outside of their comfort zone to serve others.
This was the first time for the S.H.I.N.E. Catholic Work Camp to introduce a mini-work camp for junior high so it we all knew it would be experimental on what we could expect from a bunch of hyperactive, short attention span, ‘it’s all about me’ tweens.
Yes, digging deep into the patience of a youth minister, I grabbed my camera, took the picture and then smiled. 🙂 Inside I was thinking “Oh, huh uh, God…seriously?” 😉
However, I will give these kids BOTH girls and boys major ‘props’ because they settled right into the program. As we separated into our teams for the week, worked on team building, and then had some fun with praise & worship the group showed that their hearts were open.
There were many aspects of this trip that were going to be special for me. First and foremost, Ryan and I were on this together and one thing I’ve always prayed for was to have the opportunity to do mission work with my family. Second, this was my first time to experience anything that had to do with S.H.I.N.E. I had heard about so many great experiences from our teens when they would go on the workcamp and I had never had the opportunity to actually attend with them. Third, it was a great follow-up to the spiritual awakening I’d been going through since the silent retreat.
The first surprise was Ryan volunteering to be the prayer leader of our team. On Thursday morning he got up in front of everyone and said a prayer for the day.
There were ten teams total in the work camp so five of the teams were to go to the HeadStart program and help while the others went to homes to either paint, clean up trash, do yard work and other task that required physical labor. The idea was that the ten teams would then switch out on Friday and allow those that had been in the heat doing the ‘hard’ work would then get to go to Head Start and do the menial tasks inside.
What none of us stopped to consider was how a ‘menial’ task such as counting paper can be just as strenuous and tiring to a middle school student who is crammed into a tiny classroom with thirty other teens and having to count thousands of papers by the 100’s! Thankfully, with a few ‘play’ breaks we all survived…
Friday I learned that my team was going to mow the front and back lawn of an elderly woman’s home plus cut down an old tree branch that had fallen in the backyard. What they didn’t realize is that I have never mowed a lawn (embarrassing, I know!)…Ryan has just learned how this summer…and the two girls on my team had never mowed. We had one young man who had a few months more experience than Ryan.
Despite the fact that I somehow managed to break a weed eater the job got done and the kids were very pleased with the hard work they put into sawing that tree trunk up into pieces. I wish I had thought to get a before an after of the backyard because that is where the real work was done!
After each long day of working hard the staff put on a program of praise and worship, fun and games plus a staff member would deliver a valuable message that we would then separate into church youth groups and discuss in prayer time. This was a great way to really get to know the teens and have them break down what their highs and lows were for the day plus get them to dialogue about what they were experiencing in serving others.
On Saturday the kids got the opportunity to play as hard as they worked and the entire camp went to Fiesta Texas for the day. Despite the 110 degree weather and crowded park we managed to have a great time and the kids made the most of it.
The real gift for me came that evening while I was waiting for the girls on my team to finish taking their showers. As their adult chaperone I had to wait in the hall with the staff member so that we could manage who went into which shower (they were all in separate rooms). This particular staff member and I hadn’t had much of an opportunity to get to know one another when she looked at me and said, “You look familiar to me, like I’ve met you before.”
I smiled and shrugged it off not sure where she could have ever seen me before when another staff member pointed out to her that I had spoken for Steubenville conferences.
“Really?” she said, her face lit up. “I think that is it. In fact, I think I went up to you after your women’s session. But it was so many years ago…” she trailed off but continued to examine my face as if trying to bring the memory back into focus.
The other staff member mentioned my book and the conversation went on into that direction when the last girl on my team came out of the shower ready to head back to the main facility. “I have a book,” I said to the staff member. “I’ll bring it to you.”
Later that evening I brought her the book and as she read the back her face got red and she said, “I am almost certain you were the one I talked to.” Not wanting to put her on the spot in front of other staff members we excused ourselves and went outside.
That is when she asked, “When you give the women’s talk do you talk about how you wished someone would have told you that even though your virginity was taken from you it wasn’t your choice to ‘give it to them’ spiritually…that you were still whole and pure?”
I nodded emphatically. “Yes, that is one of my main points because had I heard that at that time I might not have given up and felt so unworthy and used. I want young women, and men, to realize that no matter what has been done to them does not change their spiritual purity.”
Even though the sun had long since set behind the dusk of evening I could see her face light up. “Oh my gosh! It was you! Do you realize that hearing that from you changed my life?”
Stunned I didn’t know what to say.
She went on to tell me about her situation that she had confided in me five years prior at the conference in St. Paul, MN. Once she began to talk about it the memory came back because it was one that though I had heard of such abuse happening I had not heard a young woman confide this scenario to me but that one time. She said she had asked me for a book to recommend and apparently I recommended one but it wasn’t that helpful and as she said it she was holding my book and said, “I always wished that whoever that woman was who changed my life that day would write her own story because I knew that is what would help others! I can’t believe you went on to write your own story!”
Throughout the conversation my heart pounded in my chest because it was too surreal to be true. What were the odds that this one girl who heard me talk five years ago in St. Paul, MN would see me again in San Antonio at a work camp for junior high students? And what were the odds that as she kept talking she was validating some things I’d poured out to God in the most precious and sacred silence of that retreat? And then she told me that her ‘perpetrator’ had since apologized and changed his life around and was now offering his life up to God.
Gusts of wind blew our hair up and around our faces as we both continued to stare at one another as if we were looking into the face of God. “You are saying everything I need to hear. My mind can’t even process it fast enough. Everything you have experienced is what I long for other survivors to experience. This is why I put myself out there,” I managed to say before my voice caught in my throat and a sob racked my body doubling me over. I couldn’t contain the emotion. She had her hand on my back but I knew she was just as speechless as I. Finally I managed to stand. “His love for me is overwhelming,” I said through sobs.
“I know,” she said and went on to explain a few things she had been struggling with that our conversation was bringing to closure. There is no justice I can give to that moment in words. Awe & Wonder…gifts of the Holy Spirit is as best as I can explain what transpired between us that evening.
Who am I ever to doubt, or not trust, or worry? “And Jesus answered them, “Truly, I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and thrown into the sea,’ it will happen.” Matthew 21:21
I’ll leave you with Steve Angrisano’s ‘Go Make a Difference’ song lyrics (because it is stuck in my head and I want you to GO make a difference!)
Chorus:
Go make a dff’rence, we can make a diff’rence
Go make a diff’rence in the world
Go make a diff’rence we can make a diff’rence
Go make a diff’rence in the world
First Verse:
We are the salt in the earth, called to let the people see
The love of God in you and me
We are the light of the world, not to be hidden, but be seen
Go make a diff’rence in the world
Second Verse:
We are the hands of Christ, reaching out to those in need
The face of God for all to see
We are the spirit of hope, we are the voice of peace
Blessings
Shannon