I wrote the following to share with the Jr. High Sunday school class this morning. I read it before we stuffed socks to give out to the homeless that our church will serve breakfast too on Christmas Eve morning.
Imagine yourself in your least favorite outfit. You're standing outside waiting for the bus, wearing a coat, but no gloves or hat. You don't have boots, so even though it's cold and snowy you're just wearing your sneakers. You didn't have breakfast because there wasn't anything to eat. Your stomach growls as you stand there trying to stay warm. You left your backpack at school because they gave you an extra sack of food to eat for dinner, but you didn't want to share it, so you left it at school to eat this morning. One of your parents lost their job and has been working part time jobs. It wasn't enough to pay the bills, so you had to move out of your house. Your family sold everything; your xbox, playstation, wii, even the tv. You're living in a small apartment. You have to share a bed with your siblings. For those of you who don't have any siblings, you're sharing your apartment with another family and you have to share a bed with their children. There is no hot water, because the water heater broke and the landlord won't fix it. You would rather not shower than try to take a freezing cold shower in a freezing cold apartment. When you get to school, your friends don't want to have anything to do with you because you've worn the same outfit and you smell a little, to put it nicely. You had really hoped one of your friends would invite you over to hang out, their mom would fix dinner and you could play the new video game that just came out, or try that new color nail polish. But your friends have started to avoid you and you will go through your day all alone, cold and tired. Your family has no money for Christmas presents. What little money they have, they're using to put food on the table. Which is a joke, because there's barely enough food to feed one person. They are also trying to pay the rent to keep a roof over your heads. They already told you that you won't be getting anything for Christmas, xbox games and all of that other stuff are far from your mind. Your stomach growls again as you stand at the bus stop, still waiting for the bus. You wish you had a pair of gloves. Even boots and warmer socks would be nice. Couldn't your parents afford at least one of those things for Christmas? Then you remember what they told you about not getting anything. You sigh, here comes the bus for another day at school. Maybe today someone will invite you over...
It's not happy, but I was trying to get the point across. Last week, we successfully packed twenty-five socks for women and twenty-five socks for kids. But it was a struggle. This group of 7th and 8th graders are great, but it's clear they have not been exposed to a lot of community service. They could not understand why we were making these socks and why it was such a big deal. In fact, there was a good deal of complaining. Mostly from the boys, the girls did pretty good and they certainly weren't complaining. The girls tried really hard to stuff everything into the socks. For those of you who don't know what Casey's socks are: you take a pair of thick, wool knee socks, roll one up and stuff it into the toes of the other sock. Then you take full size toiletries (which we shopped for the week before Thanksgiving) and put all of that into the sock. The girls were stuffing the women socks and we had shampoo, toothpaste, a toothbrush, deodorant, a comb, a pack of travel tissues, a bar of soap, a couple pieces of candy, a pack of crackers and cheese, gummi bears (I think they were Elmo), chapstick, gloves and a knit cap. Yes, all of that gets stuffed into the one tube sock. It was tight, but we did it. The girls were complaining about not being able to fit everything. "Can't we leave out the soap?" they would ask. No was our reply. These people have nothing. So, after being somewhat discouraged by the overall attitude of the group, I sat down and wrote that scenario to help them understand. I think it worked. They were at least quiet after I read it. (That says something too, they don't shut up for anything.) It is depressing, but I needed to make a point. We'll see how they do at work camp and next year...
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