come.unity

i dont know why i made that title... but the past 24 hours was just soo much community... and it was just random community, like just joining with random people, or people we didn't know, and just hung out with them and stuff....

so the past few days, we've started doing a BBQ at lunch time to raise money, aiming the jr. high kids at Brookview Middle School, next door to the church (literally next door, 10 feet away)

so at lunchtime, we bbq hot dogs, and sell pop outside and we play outdoor ball with the kids... usually i just get to interact with the same bunch of kids that come to the after school program, but these bbqs are really bringing out all these new kids, that usually dont come out, and it's great.

it;s really great to be connecting with these kids that we never usually see, that don't go to any of our programs... and we're starting to see some non-black kids come out... cause it's usually just the black kids that come hang out with us, but we;re starting to see some other cultures, which is great, and even a couple of adults walking by came and supported our bbq fundraiser. (since today was soooo scorching hot, i have a pretty distinct tan line on my neck....:P)

after that, us interns had lunch together, then we had some time to read the Word...
later today, instead of going downtown to hang out with the homeless, we went to the Seniors Home next door to the church (another 15 feet away, on the other side) to just hang out with some of the seniors. it was a great, very different experience... but still cool. the first guy we met was a guy from Jamaica, and he was 66 years old, and he was telling us he works a night shift... somewhere, it was a bit tough to understand his english, cause it was kind of broken, kind of lost in his accent, and me and one of the other interns Laura (the one that does graffiti) were trying to follow along, but it was really difficult. He's apparently divorced, has 2 kids, believes in God, goes to church, and has a lot of opinions about people and the world and stuff, though im not entirely sure what he was saying, but he seemed pretty content with life and how God is so good in his life. so taht was good. nice man, tho, lives a very nice, simple life.

the second guy we met up was this guy from guyana, and his house was... very... decorated.... lol. christmas lights in his apartment, smelled strongly of curry, and just, his apartment was just sooo full of....stuff! but he was a very interesting guy, he apparently has been going to our church for a long time, sits in the same spot every week. he attends the weekly bible studies held at the church and he loves the discussion and stuff, and this man just seemed very very knowledgeable about christianity and the bible, it was great, he was also very hospitable. though he's divorced, he seemed to have a lot of love for the bible and for continuing to study it, and he just seems to love to dig deep into the Word.

last guy we met up was with this guy i met at a luncheon we had with the seniors a couple weeks ago. i met this guy and he actually remembered me, so that was cool. this guy is from guyana, as well, and is such a great guy. he lives with his wife, and their place was very very well kept, very clean, very nice guy. he was showing us this wall covered in awards/certificates and stuff of all the stuff he volunteers at, and all the community and other organizational things he's involved in, and like leadership awards, citizenship awards, and stuff, this guy is sick. he also had an amazing view of the jane and shoreham area, he lived on the 10th floor, and you could see out of 2 sides, and you can really see everything. he has a couple kids and a couple grand kids, and i think he goes to another church, i think he said his brother was a minister or something. i dont remember, but it was really cool hanging out with him and the other guys we met up with. they really really appreciated the bit of time we were able to hang out with them, and they really enjoyed it. i intend to meet up with them soon!

after that, we went back to john knight's house/the intern house, since 3 interns + john and jessie live there + 2 other girls. and there was a basketball net moved near their backyard, so me and my roommate ian (john's brother), and laura, played ball with some of the kids there, and some kids also slowly started to make their way into the backyard to hang out. it was sooo hot, sarah and asha went to go get a big bog of ice cream, and so we just had some ice cream and offered all of the kids around some ice cream too, then they were all so interested in laura's graffiti, and they were all waiting for her to graffiti their t-shirts, and then before you know it, there;s all these kids just hangin out in the backyard, singin songs, dancing, and just chilling... this one black girl came up to me and made up a hand shake between me and her, she's hilarious. there's some lebron-ish high five elements in there, mixed with some dwight howard's souljaboy 'yoouuuuuu' in there too. hahahaa, this girl is soo jokes, she made up a hand shake with ian and sarah too. when really young black kids are talk so ghetto, it;s hilarious. i love it.

the thing that was soo good, was that we didnt know most of the kids there... we just kinda met them and invited them to hang out, have some ice cream, chill, and then community just started to happen, and they didnt even wanna leave either when it got dark. so we told them to come back and chill some more another day. so it really is...like neighbourhood-community, getting to know your neighbours and stuff.

anyway, tomorrow, i'll be taking 2 boys downtown to harbourfront, to play ball with them there, and get some opportunities to mentor them and just keep building relationships with these kids, so hopefully today goes well.

thanks for reading, loyal readers!
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