My Lesson in Humbleness
One of the hopes that I had coming into this year was that volunteering opportunities would come their and give me a chance to give me the chance to help out. A chance to give something back after receiving so much. That's when I heard the announcement about Transformers at fellowship. Transformers is a group within CCF that goes out around Kingston and helps in the community, whether it be shoveling snow, soup kitchen or spend time with kids. When I heard it, I figured, this is exactly what I was looking for.
This past Saturday, a group of us volunteered our afternoons to help out the Salvation Army with their Rally Day, an event organized within Rideau Heights of Kingston. It's suppose to be a day of fun activities for kids around the area. Stuff like playing basketball or soccer with these kids, giving them cotton candy, spray painting on the graffiti walls and so on. Essentially, just giving the kids lots of attention and care. All the kids are incredibly sweet, especially the little ones under 8 years old who have not a care in the world. Of course, interacting with kids has never really been my strength, so I just try to ask questions and let the kids do all the talking, with me trying to put in the occasional words of wisdom that I've acquired through 21 years.
Something that was really interesting was that one of the coordinators, an incredibly nice guy named Bram, was telling me about the type of family situations these kids are coming from while we're picking up garbage. More often than not, these kids are from single parents, mother's most of the time. The father is either serving time in the local penitentiary or gone the way of a dead beat. These kids very often have more than 4 siblings, sometimes not coming from the same parent. The families themselves tend to live in government housing and are more often than not on the move all around the area. This on it's own makes it really hard for them to develop a group of friends because they can't settle down.
The whole day was a lot of fun, just playing around with the kids and putting a smile on they're face. One thing I start realizing is that I can't even begin to comprehend what their lives must or have been like. Comparing that to what my childhood was like and it makes me realize how incredibly blessed and unworthy I am to have what I have. There's a bit of irony to it as well. When I had the chance to talk to the kids, I try to pass along any bit of advice I could offer. In the end though, I really think that I learned more just from being at Rally Day than the kids did from me. I learned a lot about trying to be humble and trying to really appreciate what we have. Especially in the rough times, when we think we have absolutely nothing, we probably have so much more than we ever really imagine. The circumstances that we find ourselves in is absolutely incredible. Today, I just thank God for opening my eyes a bit more.
This past Saturday, a group of us volunteered our afternoons to help out the Salvation Army with their Rally Day, an event organized within Rideau Heights of Kingston. It's suppose to be a day of fun activities for kids around the area. Stuff like playing basketball or soccer with these kids, giving them cotton candy, spray painting on the graffiti walls and so on. Essentially, just giving the kids lots of attention and care. All the kids are incredibly sweet, especially the little ones under 8 years old who have not a care in the world. Of course, interacting with kids has never really been my strength, so I just try to ask questions and let the kids do all the talking, with me trying to put in the occasional words of wisdom that I've acquired through 21 years.
Something that was really interesting was that one of the coordinators, an incredibly nice guy named Bram, was telling me about the type of family situations these kids are coming from while we're picking up garbage. More often than not, these kids are from single parents, mother's most of the time. The father is either serving time in the local penitentiary or gone the way of a dead beat. These kids very often have more than 4 siblings, sometimes not coming from the same parent. The families themselves tend to live in government housing and are more often than not on the move all around the area. This on it's own makes it really hard for them to develop a group of friends because they can't settle down.
The whole day was a lot of fun, just playing around with the kids and putting a smile on they're face. One thing I start realizing is that I can't even begin to comprehend what their lives must or have been like. Comparing that to what my childhood was like and it makes me realize how incredibly blessed and unworthy I am to have what I have. There's a bit of irony to it as well. When I had the chance to talk to the kids, I try to pass along any bit of advice I could offer. In the end though, I really think that I learned more just from being at Rally Day than the kids did from me. I learned a lot about trying to be humble and trying to really appreciate what we have. Especially in the rough times, when we think we have absolutely nothing, we probably have so much more than we ever really imagine. The circumstances that we find ourselves in is absolutely incredible. Today, I just thank God for opening my eyes a bit more.
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