DAY TWO: Addendum

I forgot to add three statements I especially liked from Tuesday. Each has a little background.

1. Among our church family is a girl of 9 or 10 with thick, wavy brown hair and an oft-knitted brow, whose name is Chelsea. Chelsea is one tough nut to crack, probably through no fault of her own but life circumstances. I've never made any headway with her until this week.

At the end of her Munchie time -- only half-way through the VBS adventure we call Fiesta -- Chelsea reached out to hug me. She said, “This is my very favorite part of Fiesta! I wanna come here every day!”

Oh. My. As my heart melts, I ask myself -- isn't that why we're here? So a sweet, stern girl can relax her facial muscles in a place she wants to visit every day. I want this child to be my youth helper next year! (Listen to my insanity... signing up again after ONE favorable review.)

2. Any VBS attracts a certain number of "repeat customers" whose families have nothing to do with the host church 51 other weeks a year. In our case, as the same intertwined group of "outside" kids keeps coming back "in," year after year, we count this as its own success. It's a little blessing, really, to get to love the repeats!

This year's Hot Pepper group had three such repeat boys -- all growing LARGER since last I saw them and nursing attitudes to go with their size. I confess: I didn't get these boys names straight until Day Three, so I can't say for sure which of the them made this comment to me on Day Two.

Large, Pre-Teen Boy with Marginally Bad Attitude: "I remember you from last year. And the year before.... (small pause, as if gatehring steam) ...Do you always have to play the weird roles?”

Me: Abrupt laugh. "I ... guess so! Should I be offended? Do you think it's typecasting?"

Boy: Confused expression. (Vocabulay word alert.) Then small smile. And, grudgingly: "Yeah, well, at least you're good at it."

Amen, brother! I am GOOD at being the village idiot. A life skill, for sure.

3. As VBS is about a whole group kids -- many of whom I don't get to see often -- I try not to sepnd that much time with my own kid during. In fact, I find things work best if I kind of ignore him once I hand him off to the Coyote group. I still think this is a good policy, but... In the car on the way home from buying bribe treats on Tuesday, my own little treasure let me know that he needs a little more.
Miles to me, back seat to front: "Um, Mom.... Next time, when you ask my group about the story, can you think of some easy questions that I can solve?"