After my experience at Oasis two summers ago, I vowed never to return again. But somehow, God wanted me there again this summer and I'm starting to see why.
First off, I love my kids! The first week, I just thought that they were alright. But now, I'm starting to see how much I really love and care for them. In a nutshell, all I can say is that, I've never met a group of kids who were so well behaved and good. Granted, they have their complaining moments and one of them is a little rebel who annoys me at times, but they're all so good at heart. The other day I couldn't help but think, "my kids are great! they're going to be so awesome when they grow up! I'm so excited for them!" Other people may not see them the way I do, but I can't help but feel that that is how God sees us. Even though we're all broken and completely worthless because of our sin, God views us in a way that makes us all worthy of his attention and love.
The other day, one of my supervisors asked the little rebellious one in my group what he wanted to be when he grew up. When he replied that he wanted to be a lifeguard, she genuinely and supportively said, "that's awesome, Jonathan. You can be anything you want in life, don't let anyone else tell you otherwise." There was no judgment at all. Maybe it was just the genuineness in her voice, but that simple statement helped me realize that I want to be a person that can encourage and support these kids in becoming whatever they want to be in the future. In fact, I want to be that kind of high school guidance counselor in the future. Despite the limitations and impracticality of some students' ambitions, I want to be a kind of person that can instill hope in the youth.
Yes, some high school students are not going to be fit enough to get into some colleges and universities, but the moment that a student tells me that he or she wants to go to a certain school, I'm going to try to do every thing in my power to help my student achieve that. Who am I to say that a student cannot achieve something when at one point in time we were totally incapable of receiving an amazing thing called grace?
Also, even though it's only been two weeks, I'm starting to see how some of my coworkers have my back. Today one of the parents was pretty rude to me and my coworker backed me up. I appreciated it a lot. I think I'm going to make some good friends here.
