Stockton
I went to Stockton today for a one-day mission trip, and it was amazing.
We (my church) went and did a one-day VBS type of thing. So teaching, games, music, etc… We went all out! And it was so much fun!
I got to lead a small group (which is always something I thoroughly enjoy), and got to just spend the day hanging out with inner city kids exposed to gangs.
Most of the kids were latino and spoke Spanish as much as English. I had never been in an enviornment where the majority of the people spoke a different language than me. It was crazy trying to communicate at times. There was a kindergartener who I thought was just shy because she wouldn’t speak to me or answer my questions, but later I found out that she didn’t speak English and couldn’t answer my questions. She just followed my hand gestures and turned around when I said her name. Crazy. Also, to see the contrast between what I consider normal and what they consider normal was HUGE. Not only the language but the whole cuture was different. I remember David Rios was doing a concert (in almost totally Spanish) and all the kids were SO into it. I had no clue what was going on, and I just sat back and stared in shock because this was only an hour away from my house. It was radically different and yet so totally interesting at the same time.
Another thing that saddened me was that the kids really are exposed to gangs and violence and drugs and alcohol daily. At the end of my small group, I asked if any of the girls wanted to pray and one did and prayed that God would protect them and keep them safe. While she was praying, it struck me how important it was for her to pray that. It wasn’t that hard for God to keep me safe in my cozy home in suburbia, but they lived surrounded by absolute danger constantly. They know what it’s like to have people killed, to have people break into their homes, to have people threaten them…daily. Just wow. Michael Mozley was speaking and he was talling a story about his house being broken into in Ghana (he was a missionary in Ghana for 11 years) and him ebing terrorized by gunmen and it hit me that the kids probably relate to the story he told more than I did because that’s their life. They deal with that fear and that reality, the youngest to the oldest. It doesn’t just happen in poor places halfway around the world, but it happens near my own little world.
One of my favorite parts of the day was having a tagalong named Sherlyn. She totally clung to me and sat with me and ate five whole pieces of pizza to show me that she could. When she was leaving I said it was good to get to know her, and she said “I know.” Lol! (She also told me that I was too skinny and should eat more food and forced me to eat a cookie I really didn’t want to eat…yeah…). She was just a funny and adorable little girl. There were others, too, who were amazing and funny and adorable and hilarious and whom I will remember with a smile.
All in all, the day was amazing and I want to go back so badly.
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