Blog: Fresno Fun
Menu
Fresno Fun - Wednesday, August 3, 2005
Well.. I've been back from Fresno for 4 days, but I've been putting off writing about it because I knew it would be a long entry. Yes, that's a warning, if you have a short attention span (like I do). ;)
First off, I'll say that I ate more unhealthy food those 5 days than I have in the last 5 years. Pizza, hamburger, croissant, sausage, ham, Snickers, punch - those were just a few. Add in only 2 cups of milk and no juice the whole 5 days and that says a lot.
But when your choices are Eat or Starve, you quickly modify your restrictions. (Ask the people on the TV show Survivor) I'm very grateful to Mr. Lu, who took charge of preparing all our meals and buying supplies. He even got up an hour earlier than everybody else to make breakfast!
From the very start, God was challenging us to get out of our comfort zones. Most of the people on our team I had either not talked to in a while or not talked to ever. We had also been expecting to work mostly with Hmong people, who aren't TOO different from Chinese people. Instead, upon arriving, we found out we would be doing a three-day Bible Club in a community consisting almost entirely of African Americans and Hispanics. Oh the shock!
So the first day, we drove to the neighborhood and walked around inviting kids to our outdoor Bible Club. I was surprised at how many came (almost all without parents)- we had about 30. (If some stranger came to my house and invited me out to some club, I would immediately assume their intentions are malicious) We had games with super soakers and water balloons (who doesn't love that in summer?), followed by songs, a memory verse, a mini-sermon, and a story about a boy named Ernesto. Oh, and lots of candy. Kids can't resist that.
The first and second days went pretty smoothly. It was encouraging to see some kids already waiting for us when we returned the second day. And on the third day, there were even more. We had 68 kids that day, and that was when things started getting a little chaotic. Kids naturally have short attention spans, so getting them to pay attention when it's hot and when all their friends are around gets difficult when there are a lot of them, especially with black kids, who aren't as reserved as Asians. ;) Ultimately though, I think we did alright, especially since we had no pre-preparation. We've done our part in sowing the seeds of faith. It's up to God to cause the growth.
Sometimes a little nudge is needed for somebody to take the first step. God upset our comfort bubbles by throwing us into uncomfortable situations. The result? Seeing the world with a new perspective. We worked well as a team and really bonded with each other. I think we interacted well with the kids too, and I hope the Bible Club was as wonderful to them as it was to us. I found myself growing in confidence as the days progressed. And surprisingly, not once did it seem difficult to talk to somebody, teammate or otherwise.
That was the bulk of what we did. I could go on and on about the other stuff, like serving food at the Poverello House, cleaning the storage room at World Impact that was aptly named The Dungeon, the pool party with Hmong teens, the basketball tournament with Bible Club kids, the black church we went to, or the hilarious games and discussion time we did as a team. But that would bore people to tears (assuming anybody got this far already), so I'll just give you a link to some pictures and wrap it up by saying that the Fresno trip was an AWESOME and UNFORGETTABLE experience, and I'm definitely signing up if they do it again next year.
First off, I'll say that I ate more unhealthy food those 5 days than I have in the last 5 years. Pizza, hamburger, croissant, sausage, ham, Snickers, punch - those were just a few. Add in only 2 cups of milk and no juice the whole 5 days and that says a lot.
But when your choices are Eat or Starve, you quickly modify your restrictions. (Ask the people on the TV show Survivor) I'm very grateful to Mr. Lu, who took charge of preparing all our meals and buying supplies. He even got up an hour earlier than everybody else to make breakfast!
From the very start, God was challenging us to get out of our comfort zones. Most of the people on our team I had either not talked to in a while or not talked to ever. We had also been expecting to work mostly with Hmong people, who aren't TOO different from Chinese people. Instead, upon arriving, we found out we would be doing a three-day Bible Club in a community consisting almost entirely of African Americans and Hispanics. Oh the shock!
So the first day, we drove to the neighborhood and walked around inviting kids to our outdoor Bible Club. I was surprised at how many came (almost all without parents)- we had about 30. (If some stranger came to my house and invited me out to some club, I would immediately assume their intentions are malicious) We had games with super soakers and water balloons (who doesn't love that in summer?), followed by songs, a memory verse, a mini-sermon, and a story about a boy named Ernesto. Oh, and lots of candy. Kids can't resist that.
The first and second days went pretty smoothly. It was encouraging to see some kids already waiting for us when we returned the second day. And on the third day, there were even more. We had 68 kids that day, and that was when things started getting a little chaotic. Kids naturally have short attention spans, so getting them to pay attention when it's hot and when all their friends are around gets difficult when there are a lot of them, especially with black kids, who aren't as reserved as Asians. ;) Ultimately though, I think we did alright, especially since we had no pre-preparation. We've done our part in sowing the seeds of faith. It's up to God to cause the growth.
Sometimes a little nudge is needed for somebody to take the first step. God upset our comfort bubbles by throwing us into uncomfortable situations. The result? Seeing the world with a new perspective. We worked well as a team and really bonded with each other. I think we interacted well with the kids too, and I hope the Bible Club was as wonderful to them as it was to us. I found myself growing in confidence as the days progressed. And surprisingly, not once did it seem difficult to talk to somebody, teammate or otherwise.
That was the bulk of what we did. I could go on and on about the other stuff, like serving food at the Poverello House, cleaning the storage room at World Impact that was aptly named The Dungeon, the pool party with Hmong teens, the basketball tournament with Bible Club kids, the black church we went to, or the hilarious games and discussion time we did as a team. But that would bore people to tears (assuming anybody got this far already), so I'll just give you a link to some pictures and wrap it up by saying that the Fresno trip was an AWESOME and UNFORGETTABLE experience, and I'm definitely signing up if they do it again next year.