We are on the final week of our summer ministry experiment, Steele Street School. It has been amazing. We’ve served 25 different children thanks to 16 church volunteers and 45 youth from LAST (Learning and Serving Together, a service-learning program for youth run by our very own Rev. Jeff Lowery). We’ve learned about bees, llamas, recycling, connections, Canada, and more. This week we are busy putting on a play this week. We’ve played with bubbles, made tons of crafts, created a tree’s worth of paper airplanes, mastered Uno, added to the wear and tear on the playground equipment, done yoga, built k’nex masterpieces, and read lots of stories. I am exhausted. And exhilarated. It’s been lovely having the building full of children, getting to know these amazing young people, and seeing our volunteers light up at the connections made with others.
The rhythm of the summer has been chaos and calm. Which is really the rhythm of the holy spirit. There are periods when we’re making chalk art on the sidewalk or finger knitting, or eating lunch when everything is pretty peaceful, but before long we’ve got chaos as some kids play house while others race their newly built vehicles and still others are playing hide and go seek all in the same room. And it’s been perfect. It’s holy. Steele Street School was designed to be a fun place for kids to be kids. Our goal is to provide some learning opportunities and encourage reading while having lots and lots of kid directed time. Today one of the girls decided to use chalk to make the large play structure pink, and she did. It was so cool to watch her engage in the project and work hard. Others spent their outside time looking at leaves and noticing all the different plants in the courtyard. It was fun to see them applying things they had learned this week and in week one. The volunteers sat and supervised, intervened for safety’s sake when needed and softly chatted as the children enjoyed being outside.
We have evaluations to write, meetings to have, and discernment to pray for, but no matter what we decide about the future of Steele Street School this summer has clearly been a success. One extra bonus for me has bee the fantastic opportunity to do this work with Jayde, our associate, and Kat, from mom’s coffee and campaign manager fame. I’ve learned so much from them both as the summer has gone by which will make whatever we do next together even more awesome.
Summer is the perfect time for calm moments and chaotic moments, a perfect time to experience the spirit a new. I’m looking for a few more moments of this as the week continues.
-Eilidh
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