Today started like many other Sundays for us. Sleep a bit late, eat a homemade breakfast with the kids (french toast...mmmm), Church and then Sunday brunch at El Charros (best mexican food north of the border).
A trip to Home depot to go look in the toy department and to get a couple of things for the house. Home in time for a short afternoon nap in front of the golf game on the tube.
Many of you probably do much the same thing. It's a normal Sunday in America and even better becasue tomorrow is a holiday. :)
This day though, we ended it a bit different..
Tonight we loaded up the truck and went back to church to meet up with the youth/teen group and make a short drive to the Georgia FFA camp here in Covington, Ga. which has been turned into a refugee camp for Katrina victims. Currently there are 346 people housed there with fully 1/3 of them being kids.
We took about 25 or 30 teenagers and a few grownups with us, loaded the vans with coloring books, arts & crafts, some footballs, kickballs and just regular kid type stuff.
We had an AMAZING time. What did we do? Nothing really spectacular, we just PLAYED. A great game of catch, a game of kickbaseball, we made some cool stuff with the little ones in the arts and craft area and pretty much just listened.
We heard stories of despair, stories of devastation, families looking for lost loved ones..Stories of lost ones found. Even one story about a woman who got out, but lost her whole family back home...
But we also heard a bunch of thank you's. Not becasue we brough any kind of donations..but becasue we brought something far more valuable.. Our TIME. So simple, so easily forgotten, so easily buried under the magnitude of it all.
These folks, while having lost all they ever have known back home, have all their living needs filled right now. They have food, clothing, shelter, medical care, social workers like ants running around, and all the rest.
What they are lacking is just human contact from the rest of the world. Even some of the grownups came to color and do arts and crafts. One grandmother told Pam how nice it was just to take her mind off of the situation and get lost in a coloring book for awhile.
It is just incredible how precious a bit of time and a smile can really be to these stricken people.
For the kids, just being able to cut loose for awhile and do something so simple as toss a football seems like it's a whole new beginning.
I sat and talked with some of the teens and the level thinking, maturity, and acceptance of the situation is staggering. I got called "the old man" and just sat there grinning..(The 'old man', it seems, can still boot a kickball with some authority..:) )These guys will be survivors..They WILL make it. Some are already planning a new start, some don't know where to start, but every single one of them... from the little 3 yr olds all the way to the high school seniors...asked us the same simple, yet overpowering, question...
Are you guys coming back to play tomorrow ?? When you come back can we play some football ??
It was emotionally euphoric and crushing at the same time. I cannot begin to put into words all that was rushing through my mind..
We take it for granted every day how good we really have it.
Every single one of us NEEDS to get down on our knees and tell the Good Lord above thank you. Thank You God for letting me pay more for gas, Thank You God for giving me the strength to stand in line at the grocer, Thank You God for allowing me to have my family, my home, and my business. Thank you God for sparing me, through your Grace alone, the tragedy that has befallen the victims of Katrina. It could have just as easily been any one of us, through some tragedy yet unknown, but you spared me God, and I thank you.
I hope some of you reading this will try to find some time in your busy, busy schedules to help in some small way. Even if you take a coloring book down and help a kid find a few moments to escape the new reality they now live.
Just wanted/needed to share this with you all..
Today started like many other Sundays for us. Sleep a bit late, eat a homemade breakfast with the kids (french toast...mmmm), Church and then Sunday brunch at El Charros (best mexican food north of the border).
A trip to Home depot to go look in the toy department and to get a couple of things for the house. Home in time for a short afternoon nap in front of the golf game on the tube.
Many of you probably do much the same thing. It's a normal Sunday in America and even better becasue tomorrow is a holiday. :)
This day though, we ended it a bit different..
Tonight we loaded up the truck and went back to church to meet up with the youth/teen group and make a short drive to the Georgia FFA camp here in Covington, Ga. which has been turned into a refugee camp for Katrina victims. Currently there are 346 people housed there with fully 1/3 of them being kids.
We took about 25 or 30 teenagers and a few grownups with us, loaded the vans with coloring books, arts & crafts, some footballs, kickballs and just regular kid type stuff.
We had an AMAZING time. What did we do? Nothing really spectacular, we just PLAYED. A great game of catch, a game of kickbaseball, we made some cool stuff with the little ones in the arts and craft area and pretty much just listened.
We heard stories of despair, stories of devastation, families looking for lost loved ones..Stories of lost ones found. Even one story about a woman who got out, but lost her whole family back home...
But we also heard a bunch of thank you's. Not becasue we brough any kind of donations..but becasue we brought something far more valuable.. Our TIME. So simple, so easily forgotten, so easily buried under the magnitude of it all.
These folks, while having lost all they ever have known back home, have all their living needs filled right now. They have food, clothing, shelter, medical care, social workers like ants running around, and all the rest.
What they are lacking is just human contact from the rest of the world. Even some of the grownups came to color and do arts and crafts. One grandmother told Pam how nice it was just to take her mind off of the situation and get lost in a coloring book for awhile.
It is just incredible how precious a bit of time and a smile can really be to these stricken people.
For the kids, just being able to cut loose for awhile and do something so simple as toss a football seems like it's a whole new beginning.
I sat and talked with some of the teens and the level thinking, maturity, and acceptance of the situation is staggering. I got called "the old man" and just sat there grinning..(The 'old man', it seems, can still boot a kickball with some authority..:) )These guys will be survivors..They WILL make it. Some are already planning a new start, some don't know where to start, but every single one of them... from the little 3 yr olds all the way to the high school seniors...asked us the same simple, yet overpowering, question...
Are you guys coming back to play tomorrow ?? When you come back can we play some football ??
It was emotionally euphoric and crushing at the same time. I cannot begin to put into words all that was rushing through my mind..
We take it for granted every day how good we really have it.
Every single one of us NEEDS to get down on our knees and tell the Good Lord above thank you. Thank You God for letting me pay more for gas, Thank You God for giving me the strength to stand in line at the grocer, Thank You God for allowing me to have my family, my home, and my business. Thank you God for sparing me, through your Grace alone, the tragedy that has befallen the victims of Katrina. It could have just as easily been any one of us, through some tragedy yet unknown, but you spared me God, and I thank you.
I hope some of you reading this will try to find some time in your busy, busy schedules to help in some small way. Even if you take a coloring book down and help a kid find a few moments to escape the new reality they now live.
Thanks for letting me get this out...
Cujo
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