Some Highlights from Ray of Hope

This summer I was with the 5 year olds. Not just like run-of-the-mill psycho 5 year olds. These are kids that have been identified already as either emotionally or behaviorally challenged. You can imagine what this might look like.

They did a lot of hilarious things, including but not limited to:

- Pooping their pants (in a variety of locations - our classroom, the lunchroom, on field trips). One young man pooped his pants twice in one day... at the waterslides. Did he have anything except his swim suit that day? Nope. So what do ya do? Just rinse and go.

- While throwing a tantrum so severe that he had to be physically restrained, one child screamed out "I KNOW YOURE ALL ROBOTS!"

- One delightful little fellow got angry at a staff member so he left the lunch area, went back to our room, and stood in front of a fabric rocking chair and peed all over it.

- There is a worship song that we sing that has a line that goes, " I want a heart that beats for You!" meaning God. One of my co-workers was trying to talk to the kids about what that meant later during the day, and one little guy sighed and said, "I want a heart that beats for Nicole." Ha!

- Every time we had a small group discussion, we discussed topics like love, respect, responsibility, etc. EVERY day, one of my most creative (yet least truthful) little campers told a very long story about how her mom pooped her pants and tied it in to the topic we were talking about. For example:

"When I was a baby, my mom went to the beach and then she pooped her pants. [laughter from group] And it was very disgusting and it was so gross that my grandma fainted. And then they went home and my mom pooped her pants again. [laughter from group] On the couch. And they had to get a new couch. And then my mom peed on the kitchen floor. [laughter from group] And that's how my mom learned about courage."

And those are just from my group, which is 1/8 of the camp.