So, after a summer long neglect of posting anything on my blog the weather has churned up more than just hurricane Irene but that post storm feeling of a clear day, a new season and the fact that that it’s time to get back to business baby!
I think in looking back in my huge attempt to keep the summer simple. I failed.
We’ve had an amazing summer- I’ve taken the second class needed in my Biblical Studies degree in the Old Testament while single handed (one is holding a book) managed to keep the kids entertained, fed and somewhat safe. We did a lot of swimming at our lake beach, had a vacation on Cape Cod, drove out to my parents in Pennsylvania. The big ticket happening was that my boys all got brand new shiny bikes for their birthday. We have also done some camping with our church at Indian Hollow and in the backyard during those extremely hot days. But, like all journeys sometimes it’s been uphill. We’ve battled lice, now fleas with the dog and trying desperately to get the kids to read just twenty minutes a day in preparation for 3rd grade and not letting their brains ooze out of their ears before they graduate elementary school.
I think the most memorable event this summer, was hosting a Fresh Air Fund child that came up from New York City. These kids come from poor disadvantaged areas of the city, and many of them have never been away from home or put bare feet in backyard grass. We took our friend Evan camping and he was exposed to a lot of new things. Like water. Sleeping in a tent. Riding a bike. The highlight of our friend Evan’s trip, was his chance to sit on a horse. He’d never seen a real live horse before...not even in Central Park. Because he was one of those kids who even at the age of 8, had never gone to Central Park.
Last year in Red Hook Brooklyn (now much of it is flooded after hurricane Irene) I watched kids play in the hot oppressive city by throwing water on each other from garbage pails. It was a scene like Sesame Street, fire hydrant going and kids having a blast. My kids love playing in “the hood” with city kids when we visit our friends in NY. But last year it was really clear to me, after living in New York City for 17 years and now living in Amherst all that I have access to and what these kids don’t have. So thus, the pressing of what God would have me do. It was clear that we were to sign up to do the Fresh Air Fund program, the nation’s oldest non profit in our country’s history.
Despite trying to keep our schedule simple and failing mostly because we crammed so much in in so little time, I feel like what was meant to happen and the experiences my kids had were vital to their perspective. In opening our home to someone that does not have the same kind of home life that they do, we also exposed parts of ourselves that are resistant to sharing “our daily bread” with someone that might be disadvantaged. It was in the study of James that deeply convicted me that my children needed to be trained from a young age about what it means to truly have faith. Not just going to Vacation Bible School or camp and learning about Jesus in church, but how we need to have faith in action in our own lives regardless of what other people do or don’t do.
James 2:14What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
What amazed me about the Fresh Air Fund is it’s history. It’s rooted in this scripture. Truly the man Rev. Parson’s was a visionary but he also called his church to take heartfelt faith in heartfelt action. Today there are only 18 families in the Pioneer Valley that host a child. We are a so called “friendly town” for the Fresh Air Fund and this year the director told me the buses in years past used to be filled with kids. This is not because the need has gone down to host. If we are a “friendly town” it seems to me that we are not that “friendly” in reality.
I think in looking back in my huge attempt to keep the summer simple. I failed.
We’ve had an amazing summer- I’ve taken the second class needed in my Biblical Studies degree in the Old Testament while single handed (one is holding a book) managed to keep the kids entertained, fed and somewhat safe. We did a lot of swimming at our lake beach, had a vacation on Cape Cod, drove out to my parents in Pennsylvania. The big ticket happening was that my boys all got brand new shiny bikes for their birthday. We have also done some camping with our church at Indian Hollow and in the backyard during those extremely hot days. But, like all journeys sometimes it’s been uphill. We’ve battled lice, now fleas with the dog and trying desperately to get the kids to read just twenty minutes a day in preparation for 3rd grade and not letting their brains ooze out of their ears before they graduate elementary school.
I think the most memorable event this summer, was hosting a Fresh Air Fund child that came up from New York City. These kids come from poor disadvantaged areas of the city, and many of them have never been away from home or put bare feet in backyard grass. We took our friend Evan camping and he was exposed to a lot of new things. Like water. Sleeping in a tent. Riding a bike. The highlight of our friend Evan’s trip, was his chance to sit on a horse. He’d never seen a real live horse before...not even in Central Park. Because he was one of those kids who even at the age of 8, had never gone to Central Park.
Last year in Red Hook Brooklyn (now much of it is flooded after hurricane Irene) I watched kids play in the hot oppressive city by throwing water on each other from garbage pails. It was a scene like Sesame Street, fire hydrant going and kids having a blast. My kids love playing in “the hood” with city kids when we visit our friends in NY. But last year it was really clear to me, after living in New York City for 17 years and now living in Amherst all that I have access to and what these kids don’t have. So thus, the pressing of what God would have me do. It was clear that we were to sign up to do the Fresh Air Fund program, the nation’s oldest non profit in our country’s history.
Despite trying to keep our schedule simple and failing mostly because we crammed so much in in so little time, I feel like what was meant to happen and the experiences my kids had were vital to their perspective. In opening our home to someone that does not have the same kind of home life that they do, we also exposed parts of ourselves that are resistant to sharing “our daily bread” with someone that might be disadvantaged. It was in the study of James that deeply convicted me that my children needed to be trained from a young age about what it means to truly have faith. Not just going to Vacation Bible School or camp and learning about Jesus in church, but how we need to have faith in action in our own lives regardless of what other people do or don’t do.
James 2:14What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, "Go in peace, be warmed and filled," without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? 17So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead.
What amazed me about the Fresh Air Fund is it’s history. It’s rooted in this scripture. Truly the man Rev. Parson’s was a visionary but he also called his church to take heartfelt faith in heartfelt action. Today there are only 18 families in the Pioneer Valley that host a child. We are a so called “friendly town” for the Fresh Air Fund and this year the director told me the buses in years past used to be filled with kids. This is not because the need has gone down to host. If we are a “friendly town” it seems to me that we are not that “friendly” in reality.
I would say the numbers clearly reflect the state of faith in New England. We want social justice, we want to educate the poor, we want to give kids like these opportunities here in the Pioneer Valley but in opening our homes for two weeks? That is a pain in the butt. It’s a hassle. Yeah, parents have to work. Yeah, you don’t have space. Yeah, you go on vacation. This agency was created during the era of immigration and tenements in NYC a time when kids used to work in factories and sleep 8 to a room. Do you think a clean air mattress and a week at a local camp isn’t the most exciting thing in that child’s life? An experience like this can have the potential to change not just your kids perspective, but that child learns there is something more to life beyond his neighborhood. Many have been propelled to strive for an education and rise above their current situation,like Mariah Carey. You can speak Truth into that child’s life. And most of all, it does something in you. God worked out a lot of kinks, more than what I thought I had.
Consider being a host for a child next year. Let’s be more friendly. Let’s have more faith.
I would love to see those buses filled again.
http://www.freshair.org/programs/our-history
Consider being a host for a child next year. Let’s be more friendly. Let’s have more faith.
I would love to see those buses filled again.
http://www.freshair.org/programs/our-history
