cemetary

Tonight was a regular night at the jessi household. just a few kids hanging around, eating watermelon, brianna (white girl...) getting her hair braided, watering the garden, watching reality tv, talking about michael jackson (one of the kids thought fo sure i was crying when he died..), and so on...no big deal.

Here's a conversation from the living room chairs:

A (kid): singing....singing stops. Miss Jessi don't you remember that song?

me: which song are you talking about?

A: you know that one we sang at camp.

me: A, we sang songs every time we moved at camp, which one

A: you know, that one, Cemetary.

me: Cemetary?, hahahahah, you mean Sanctuary

A: hahahahahaha yes, that one Santuary

This was followed by a rousing round of Cemetary and much laughter.

This is home.

cass and elizabeth

Thanks to many generous supporters we often get to go to different sporting events in the area. This particular night we had Tigers tickets and I was excited to spend an evening at the ballfield, without children. Well, like most events in my life a few of them manage to sneak in. So, I loaded the Bonnie up with the two interns (who I adore and am not considering them the children :) and two neighbor girls. I thought they had been to a game before but they acted like they had never even seen downtown! We weaved through the streets and found somewhere to park amidst the baseball fans and Aretha Franklin fans that were also attending an event downtown. The girls had the job of remembering the streets we parked at. One remembered Cass and one remembered Elizabeth. They practiced the whole short walk to the ball field. On the way in we saw a homeless asking for money and one of the girls was so sad she had left the three pennies on the floor in the car, she wanted to give him money so badly. This, from a child who most would consider poor. Clearly, she is not poor, but rich in spirit. We can learn so much from children.

Another beautiful thing about taking children on outings with you is seeing them discover things for the first time. We were walking (all the way!) around the stadium and one of the girls stopped in her tracks. I thought from the shoe that had broken about 100 times on the way in. But, after I picked her jaw up off the ground I realized she was marveling at the amount of people. She said, "there are 4 million people here", she had never seen something so large before! After she picked up her jaw, she also found a nickel on the floor. She was so intent on keeping that nickel safe and that we walked back the same way to cass and Elizabeth to give the homeless man her nickel, and she did. What a testimony to us all.

We didn't make it through the whole game, and mostly played with each other more than watched but they got a round of Take Me out to the Ballgame in and that's all that matters in my book. So, after we did the 7th inning stretch we made our way back to the car, gave the nickel to the poor man, and ended with a drive through the McDonald's drive-thru. Successful night indeed.

Here's a few pics, enjoy!

the girls, me, the tiger

the field

Interns- Brianna and Donna (the twins)

girlies- Angel and Ashley (twins, for real!)

Camp Beechpoint

June 28th at 2:30 pm we loaded up the gracious partner church's charter bus minus two, 28 out of 30 is pretty good. The kids were gleaming and saying their last goodbyes, with only a few tears. Excitement though is what most were feeling. Camp Beechpoint was new to everyone this year and there were millions of questions. But, after the quick 2.5 hour trip we arrived to a beautiful place right on the lake with pretty much even more questions. All the kids got settled and myself included and the fun began! We were so busy. We had so much fun despite the coldish weather! Lives were impacted, tears were shed, laughter was shared and we are so grateful to camp beechpoint's commitment to giving kids in the inner city an opportunity they would not normaly get.

Here's just a few highlight:

Jonathon at the archery range...not sure he made it to the target...
Khalia getting ready to head down the zip line

Terry and Jaylin showing off their skills

Kenneth go-carting, I think he's enjoying it (by far the most enjoyed activity by the boys)

Ashley, Amanda, Dannah, and Indya canoeing their faces say it all. This was right next to the girls paddleboating that fell out..missed that photo opportunity!

BONUS: We had kids camp the week before camp with Kensington Community Church. This was supposed to be held at the park- due to a few rain days we had kids camp in Jeff and Dana's basement. 60 kids in the basement doing superhero camp, no big deal. They were awesome- kids and leaders!

Summer session for school starts tomorrow in the mornings and four weeks of programs in the afternoons. I can't believe how fast this summer is flying by! We are having a good time. Thanks to all those who've joined us, supported us, prayed for us, and loved on us. We coudln't do it without you!