Our son Nathan is on a one year internship with Urban Promise, a ministry “that exists to proclaim the love of Jesus, and to express it through the spiritual, social and educational development of children, youth and families living in government housing.”
April 20, 2011
Dear Friends, It has been far too long, and for this I apologize. I will do my best to make up for lost time.
In March, Urban Promise put on a march break camp, combining all three different Camp’s Children programs (Camp Hope, Camp Freedom, and Camp Victory). I was in charge of planning and helping run an hour of games each day, for just under 100 at risk kids. I must say this was indeed a harrowing experience, and I learned a lot about myself from the experience. Thanks to the very qualified staff of Urban Promise it turned out quite alright. I had the opportunity to work with the 5/6 year old boys, and we came in 4th place for most group points (each group were given points based upon behaviour). The 1st place team at the end of the week was allowed to pick 3 leaders that they wished to see pie’d (whip cream in a pie dish) in the face. Second place got to pick 2, and third place got to picked one. The first place team was full of 7/8 girls from my camp, and out of all the leaders from my camp, they picked me. I am still not sure if I should see this as a good thing or a bad thing, but I like to think they picked me because they like me the best. It was a good week. We taught about King David, and through that we taught a lot of valuable lessons about Jesus. A video was made about the week, and it turned out really well. I’ll put the link at the bottom of this email. (watch specifically at 1:54 to see me chase after 2 of my boys as they try and steal fallen goliaths sword in the middle of the skit)
A real highlight of this year has been seeing the kids who started off really tough break down and be friendly and act their age. My toughest kid (and one of my favourites) 5 year old Judah has taken up the habit of starting off each day by coming up to me, hugging me, and telling me he loves me. By the end of the day he usually retracts that statement, but it warms my heart every time regardless. At the beginning of the year I had a really rocky relationship with the 7/8 girls, and their favourite game was calling me stupid, telling me they hate me, and hitting me, and giving me time-outs. However now, 7 months in, one has unofficially adopted me and affectionately refers to me as her son, and the rest are either my “Aunties” or my cousins. They still give me time-outs though.
There is only a month left of afterschool program left. It’s crazy how quickly time flies. On May 20this are last day, and then May 21st I will have 5 weeks off. Looking back on the year, it has been such a blessed experience. I thank you all so much for supporting me. Without you I couldn’t be here. I have made so many friendships with such awesome kids, I can’t imagine having to leave. I have been accepted at Tyndale University in a course that will allow me to still work with Camp Freedom, and I will be close enough to visit in my off time. However right now I am not focussed on next year, but on the summer. From all I have heard Summer is a lot of fun. We are currently trying to decide on what to teach the kids during Word Up (Bible Study) and to decide which youth from the community to hire, as we only have a budget for a certain amount of Street Leaders. Please pray for us as we try to discern which ones and what topics best fit into God’s plans for this summer. Please pray for all the Interns who are leaving in a month, and for all the people considering Internships for the summer and next year. If you know anyone who has just graduated high school and doesn’t know what to do next year or this summer, I highly recommend an Internship with Urban Promise. Working with these kids has been such a blessing.
Nathan Sennema