We typically have a thank you dinner for our interns each
semester. This has been the first Summer I’ve actually had official interns to
help with our program. We were really blessed to have a young couple with a
little guy actually live with us and help and also had four college interns help
that made a huge impact on our group of little kids to older teens. I know that
my passion for wild at risk youth in the hood isn’t necessarily shared by
everyone so having a quiet couple with an 8th month old guy live
with us could have been a disaster. Yet, ultimately this turned into a huge
blessing as a friendship is birthed and now we have our first grandkid by
having him stay with us the longest out of his real grandparents.
We started the night with me handing out random pictures
from the summer with the different interns in their involvement with our group.
Next we had each intern talk a little about their experience during the summer.
Ryan, who grew up in Phoenix and now attends a Christian College in LA, shared
his story of growing up in a broken home where he became his mom’s key helper
with the family. Ryan is someone who loves to dive in and do crazy things so he
fit amazingly well. Most of the teen gals had crushes on him. He has such a positive
outlook on life and can see the good where others seen just the bad. I will miss Ryan big time as so will all of
the girls and actual guys too.
My other son, by his living with us for 3 years, Terrance,
was fun to listen, as he is a key help with driving and helping oversee most
events. He has a tendency to overact to some of the teens that also tend to
purposely push his button. What was funny as he was sharing about his learning
patience with the kids was funny to see his hyperactivity come out between his
walking around as we listened to others and then had this habit of messing with
plastic forks which would ultimately break. DH, our oldest intern, then
mentioned how if Terrance were in the Matrix he could clearly put the fork back
together by just thinking about it.
Emily, our other college intern, has been part of our lives
since she was three or four years old. She comes across as a very quiet and
proper type. So I was a little concerned that the kids and their high energy
might blow her away. Yet, she volunteered to oversee our Kid’s Club, which
required a lot of planning and putting together crafts for a four-week session.
Everyone mentioned how excellent of a job she had done. It was obvious that the
little kids loved her, especially because she is very tall and gentle and is a
good listener. She was a great help with driving to events because her family
has a mini-van. She also mentioned that she was taking the GRE soon and between
her help with us, going to Europe for two weeks, taking a biology class that
she thought she was prepared.
Emily, our live in mom, had lots to share because of her
heart for teens and affinity for one of our young moms. She had worked at ASU
for four years as a Campus Worker with The Navigators. She talked about her
desire to get a few of the girls to do a Bible Study. So providentially one of
our girls spent the night and ended up watching her do a personal Bible study
and journal that morning. So the next week she invited this teen and some of
her friends. Exciting to see how something as simple as doing your laundry at
Dave’s can turn into something special. Emily was also able to connect with one
of the older teens in her group who was 8 months pregnant when her and DH
arrived. I knew that Em and Des would become good friends and share lots in
common with having their little guys.
DH shared his high tech attempt to bond with a few of the
guys via the music route. He admitted that he had tried to force some of his
music on some of the teens to no avail. Yet, there was a night when he actually
allowed some of the louder teens, clearly all girls, to ghost ride. This is
something rather crazy where you ride with the doors all open or the driver
steers with just his or her feet. I know that DH would never have done that. DH
was much more able to connect with the little kids. He went out of his way to
help some little twin guys who were
going through a tough time with the death of their grandma who they had lived
with for more than half of their lives. They made trips to the library and to
our house. (I don’t think he allowed the guys to ghost ride.)
Toniel, Terrance’s best friend and future wife, shared about
her struggles with the girls in our group over the summer. She is very pretty and I think too often the
other girls are jealous of her. She comes out of a very sad background where
her birth mom had to give up all of her kids because of some horrible things
happening. She was very fortunate to be adopted by her aunt who has raised her
and helped to become a very mature and spiritual young woman. I selfishly am so
glad that Terrance has someone like her to push him to be better at thinking
ahead, not losing his wallet or phone all of the time and saving some of his
money.
My Anne shared about how amazing it was to have this diverse
group of interns assist us be better at helping our group figure out life. I
too shared about how I loved doing our Job Life Skill Group with many of my
adult friends help out with sharing their stories and passion in life. It was
humbling to have Emily share about their experience of living with us during
the summer. Yeah, we have four dogs and then Mango the big dog at the end of
the summer; compete with Phinny’s naptime. Emily was quick to share how Phinny
had fit into our crazy summer scenario and had adopted us as grandparents. We will miss them as they move to their own
home in a week or so.
We laughed much together and sensed that great things had
happened during the summer and that all of them will be missed as they
transition back to school. Terrance I think broke another couple of plastic
forks or spoons. We made a few more jokes about DH’s ghost riding and then Ryan
mentioned his trekking up some mountain in Colorado. I prayed for everyone and
then a few had another small piece of fancy pie as we said good night and then
did the dishes.
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