Today was the hump day for the week as I saw it. The newness of the experience is beginning to fade, the bed has a much greater hold on the campers (and the staff), and the humidity is starting to wear on everyone a little bit more. I mean, you can only take 3 showers a day for so long until it starts to be a little ridiculous. :)
However, although you may begin to understand the routine of camp and have to fight the urge of calling it mundane, what is just now starting to crack out of it's shell are the campers as they tell you about who they are as people. Fist bumps, high fives, and "what's up dude?" are now transforming into real conversations with real words and real problems.
Without fail, every day I will take 10 - 15 campers to a local oasis that is filled with their favorite candy, pop, snack food, and all other kinds of Taiwanese fare. It actually has a catchy name, but we will see if it every has the legs to last. It is called 7-Eleven. Yep...that's the place we go...every day...every...every...every...every day. And, although they all leave with a Diabetes Starter Kit in their bags, there is one thing that is common to all of them.
Instant Noodles.
Each night before the campers go to bed there seems to be a tradition that has held from years past. Around 10 or 10:30 pm the campers will dive into their plastic bags of convenient store miracles and pull out their choice of noodles. All of them huddle around the hot water dispenser, meticulously stir, and craft their very own instant good night snack until it bubbles to a Sodium-Filled foam.
Chop sticks fly and jokes are told as they unify around a food that sends shivers down the spine of any college graduate. They clean up, recycle their containers, and head to bed for a salty, good night sleep.
It is fascinating!
But then it dawned on me. Instead of watching them enter into this nightly ritual as if I was on an African Safari safely in my tan Range Rover, I needed to do something different.
Buy some freaking noodles!!!
Sit down and enter into what they do and listen to what they hate, love, or are going through. Slurp up some salty water and listen to them talk about the pressure they are going through in school, the pain in the butt their dad is to them, and how their little brother annoys the snot out of them. Grab a pair of chop sticks and awkwardly try to pick up a few freeze dried chicken pieces, but look them in the eyes as they tell you about their questions of God and their fear of being the first Christian in the family.
Spend $.50 on a Cup-O-Noodles and get something priceless in return. A glimpse into the mind of a young man or woman who will one day lead our world.
You know, this isn't just a Taiwanese phenomenon.
There are people all around you that are begging for you to meet them where they are at and enter into their world. They are doing it not so that you will understand what they do, but so you will be available to listen and to love them. Don't let yourself get caught up in watching their lives from the sidelines. Dive into their lives with both hands like a 5 year old in mom's cookie batter.
Of course, choose your timing and don't try to be Superman and save the day. Let's be honest, you and I have stuff we need to deal with too. But also don't have regrets in life. Don't feel like you were living life looking through a screen door. Get in there...love one another...love yourself...love God.
Grab's some noodles and make a difference!
Yup
Posted by: Rex | July 14, 2010 at 07:59 AM