My First Day For Inner City Kids

After leaving the Ministry Center, we went to our cottage. This was where we were to stay for the week. When we went in, our luggage had already been delivered. I found out that the counselors had taken our vehicles and luggage there for us. My Grandmother and I shared one room, while my mother and sister shared another. It was a small house, but the perfect size for our one-week stay. We checked our schedule and discovered that dinner started in thirty minutes. The theme for dinner that night was “Night at the Ballpark.” We dressed up in our baseball uniforms and headed for

As a young adolescent the smell of a delicious home-cooked breakfast would be the reason for me to get out of bed on a sunday morning. My father would knock on my door and command me to eat breakfast and prepare myself or else we would run late to our church service. As we hurried to church, due to my lackadaisical attitude, I was often forced to sit in the first row to the stage. This was always embarrassing because as a child I was reserved, and I dreaded walking in front of everyone. As the hour long church services took place, I would find myself languishing away only to be alerted by the soft glares of my dad.

When we got to the dinner, the first thing the kids did was run up to Robinson and yell “Uncle Robby!” and gave him a hug bigger than they’ve ever given to Ava or me.

I woke to a hot and sunny day. I took a hot and relaxing shower. I ate a toasted plain bagel with cream cheese for breakfast. My family and I would be going to Epworth United Methodist Church or Epworth for short. I had been going to Epworth since I was about 5 and it was a very welcoming church. My Grandma and my sister left early because Grandma had to do something. After about five minutes Mom told me to go to the car and wait for her and my little brother Mike. I waited for two minutes and they came down the steps and we got into Mom’s car. Mom started the car and fired up the cool air and we drove for about three minutes until we reached

In the afternoons, my youth group put on a vacation bible school for a local daycare. I stepped off the bus and looked around. It wasn’t anything special. They had a basketball goal with the net ripped off, a small playground, and an old, rusty swing set. I walked towards the old fire hall that was somewhat remodeled into a daycare. The

My parents and I were so happy that we’d get to see the little person we’d soon be able to hold.

First before I could even start to begin to speak of the challenges in inner city schools, I must define “what an inner city school is.” An inner city school is located in the central area of a major city, where most people live in townhouses or apartment buildings. Sometimes when people hear the word “inner city” the first thought that comes to mind is a lower income area. You may also think of the people who live in the inner city. This population can be quite diverse, with racial groups such as African American, Hispanics, and so on. The biggest issue facing the inner city is the schools that lay in these areas. Since many people in these areas are minority and live below the poverty line, this has caused issues with financing area schools. Schools receive their funding from the federal government, but mostly from their local and state government which is also responsible for collecting property, sales, and other taxes that fund

All summer I had been looking forward to seeing God change my life, but I had seen nothing. One of the leaders, David pulled me aside and began to tell me that I was important and God was working in me. As we left that site I felt filled with the Holy Spirit of God. That night our group went to the top floor of the hotel for worship and it was so powerful I broke down and cried. I was so amazed by God's presence, it made me sad to think that others don’t know him. I started to pray for my friends and family and when I finished I felt filled up with the Holy Spirit. I went to bed that night feeling content wishing the trip would never end. The last day, we went shopping, and went to the beach, and some people managed to buy machetes. We went back to the hotel and had pizza for dinner. The pizza tasted really good after six days of chicken. When we finished eating we shared what God had done on the trip. I proudly shared my story of God working in my life. Dallas and I went up to our room to pack for the next day when we finished we fell into bed and went to sleep. We went to the airport the next day, the airport was smaller than DIA, so security went pretty fast. We waited by the gate for a while then moved on to the shops. As me, Jason and Dallas moved from shop to shop I reflected on the trip. God had really shown his power and spirit in my life. Even at the

June 24th, the day had arrived, and I was jetting off to Weaverville, NC. I didn't think I had the inner ability to serve the Lord, and be an example when I had so much left to learn. Before I could blink, I was weaving up the mountains of Windy Gap. I was so nervous my stomach was doing flip flops; as I came to the realization there was no turning back, I held my tears. The first thing I see is a gathering of people who were about to change my life. They are jumping at the opportunity to take my phone, the last connection I have to reality and submerge me into the bubble of Young Life. I had yet to realize, I was just given one of the greatest gifts, the opportunity to serve a month of my summer at Windy Gap, a Young Life Camp. There, I worked alongside other high schoolers serving campers day by day as a Laundry girl. Meticulous effort and thought put into every movement at camp. Our days were long and tedious, filled with tasks of setting tables, serving campers, clearing tables, cleaning EVERYWHERE, washing, folding, mowing, raking, weeding, wiping, lifting, hauling, carrying, and presenting. I was forced to treat 50 strangers as my new family if I wanted to make it through the hot summer

I knew from the start we were gonna have a lot of stops because we have six kids and one is a baby who can't control her bladder. In addition to that we only had our parents that would trade off on driving so they had to rest at one point. We’ve been driving for about four or five hours now barely getting into Nevada by reno or Vegas I couldn't really remember. My mom turns around and asks “hey are you guys hungry?” “what do you wanna eat?” of course all of us said “yes!” we were practically starving. My dad suggested we go through a Mcdonald's drive through to prevent us from all geting out the car. So after we ordered our food and received it we were off again eating food that smelt like gourmet food but was only a dream and the joy of singing in the car with

My team was vs the blue team first and I was the last one standing! The Pastor told me to come up so I could throw the ball. My heart was pounding and I felt weird. I threw the ball but someone caught so I got out. But we won two games. My cabin leader took us to a little park they had. And the pastor’s daughter was there her name is Faith. She was 4 years old and my pastor name is Pastor Josiah and his wife Pastor Marie,she is pregnant. She has 2 kids and one on the way It is a girl. My church is called Freedom House. Faith was scared of the red fire ants but she still was on the swing with her older brother. We when back to the cabin and talk and when to dinner. When we were done, we when to the store and bought some

When I woke from my nap, my mom was praying under her breath, and our car felt lopsided. I kept quiet. We had to almost be there. I think my mom heard me in my head because she said, "Thirty more miles." I looked out the window on my side and concentrated on the sagebrush. I didn’t want to look ahead because it hurt my eyes trying to see Grandma and Grandpa’s house in the distance. We were on a gravel road, and there was a lot of dust flying into my window.

When the morning came to drive to our church and then make the 3-hour pilgrimage to Frostburg, I was a little scared. It was my first time away from home without parents for more than a couple of days, and I also worried I wouldn’t physically be able to do all the work expected of me on the worksite. More than anything I was just excited to be doing something so meaningful. When we arrived in Frostburg, counselors led the teens from four church groups attending that week’s session in some ice-breaker games while the leaders went to survey the worksites. My church, The Church of the Good Shepherd, had brought four leaders and twelve teens, so we were assigned two different houses and would be split into two separate work crews. One of the houses was particularly far out in the countryside and required lots of painting and scraping. I was assigned to the other house, which the leaders said was one of the most decrepit, difficult houses they’d ever worked on.

We rushed to the car and my driver sped away. I had never been to the city or the church where they were taking me. I knew nothing about it or even how this last minute decision happened. I laughed inside as I contemplated how one goes from not speaking to speaking in the blink of an eye. I just smiled and asked the Lord to give me something to share.

Everyone goes through hard times in school. It can vary from reading to writing, math to science, or simply just interacting with the people that are in class. In this instance, reading and writing were not strong points for me before third grade and didn’t get much better as the year went along. The teacher that I had was a terrible teacher; she gave me absolutely no help and handed me bad grades without clear reasoning. In fact, I realized how much she hated me, but to this day, I will never know why. That year made me learn being a good student in class, participating and asking questions frequently are rude habits to have in the classroom. Since the teacher and I did not see eye to eye, this made weak points such as reading and writing