In the children’s session tonight, one
of the kids got angry and lashed out at his sister, hitting and
kicking her. We separated them as quickly as we could. She ran out,
but we got him to sit down. He was fuming. I sat next to him,
talking to him. Heather tried to comfort him. I told her not to
encourage him yet. First, he needed to know that what he did was
wrong.
He ran out of the room. I gave him a
few seconds and then followed him out. I found him at the door of
his tent. We talked about what he did and I told him it was not okay
to hit people. He argued and said she had pissed him off by rubbing
the fact that he lost a game in his face. I said, “I don’t care
what she did. It’s not okay.” He made excuses for his behavior,
but I kept telling him that what he did was not the way to handle it.
He got quiet and it seemed like he was
starting to get it. I told him he would need to apologize to his
sister. He argued, but after a little bit agreed to do it.
We went inside and we sat in the back
until the lesson was over. I was nervous. I didn’t know how I would
be able to get him to go to his sister. His sister was a bit of a
nightmare anyway, and I didn’t know how she would react. I was
afraid for him.
Andrew, the head of the camp, came in.
Even though I was nervous about leaving him, I got up for a second to
relate what had happened to Andrew. He said he would get involved
and also let the boy’s father know. As I was going back to my seat,
the lesson ended. The kids gathered together to sing a song. In the
midst of this, the boy had gotten up. I looked around, wondering
where he went, worried he had fled outside. Then I saw him in the
middle of the group of kids, talking with his sister. He hugged her.
I went over to Lauren who was standing
next to them. “What happened with those two?”
She said, “He came up to her and
said, ‘I’m sorry. Can I have a hug?’ But she didn’t do anything at
first, so he said again, ‘Can I have a hug, please?’ And they
hugged.'”
I melted. A little while later I
crouched down next to him and told him how proud I was of him. He
didn’t say anything, but later he asked to be carried to his tent. I
picked him up. He was so small in my arms. I pretended he was a
plane, zooming him over to his tent, then set him down as gently as I
could. Never before has a kid effected me like that boy effected me.
