Inspiring Kids Through Learning

I have an important rule for myself at the WOW Kids Tutoring Program that I run on Tuesdays and Thursday:

If I'm not having fun, the kids aren't having fun.

(I honestly think that I had more fun at the Kids Creative Discovery Museum than the kids did!  It was a field trip this past Sunday for the well behaved kids at the tutoring program)

It's a simple rule, but harder than it seems.  It's easy to print out a couple work sheets and be done with planning in five minutes.  But I've learned that if I am not excited and jumping up and down because my lesson is just so awesome, than it's probably an blah lesson and the kids aren't going to like it either.

Another thing is that black children love sensory and they speak through touch.  They are really kinesthetic when it comes to learning.  If they're mad, they hit someone.  If they're happy, they hug you all day.  If they're curious, they want to touch it.

One example is when I was volunteering at East Lake Academy and I put together a 1,000 piece puzzle for the Social Studies teacher.  She had me wrap it with some clear stuff to protect it so the kids wouldn't mess it up when they touched it.

Why in the world would they want to touch a puzzle? I wondered.

Of course, she was right.  Those kids weren't in the classroom five seconds before they saw the puzzle and ran over.  The first thing that they did was "Ooooh!" and run their hands all over it.

Sadly, kinesthetic learning is the last thing that they get in their inner-city schools.  They don't even have art class!  I interned at East Lake Elementary for 15 weeks and I've volunteered at East Lake Academy for three years.  I basically try to run the tutoring program as different from their schools as possible.

We have a craft ready for them when they come in.  It's interesting to watch them create because they never get a chance to.  They don't do it at school and most of them don't have any art supplies at home.  I have a love/hate thing about giving them glitter because they love to mix it with their hands.  Again, they love sensory.

We enforce procedures and rules.  We actually have a whole class devoted to Manners and we talk about the importance of eye contact and saying yes m'am and yes sir.  We role-play talking respectfully to adults and teachers and their peers.

Something new that we started recently is decorating the rooms according to what they are learning.  This is huge because the learning environment is very important.  When I interned, I barely made it through my first day without screaming.  I was stuck in a small room that had bad lighting and no decorations with 23 kids for seven hours every day.  It was horrible!  The kids hardly ever got recess because of bad behavior and I knew that if I was going crazy in that room, then the kids must be too.

The first room that we tackled was the Bible room as the kids learned the story of Jonah in November.

You can see how we decorated the room and the door.  We also drew a picture of Jonah running away from God on the chalkboard.  We also had a cool rain activity with shaving cream and food coloring one day.  

The kids LOVED the Jonah room.  One kid came back to our program after being gone a few weeks because he thought the program was boring and Iyssis told him, "They decorated the room!  And we had a game where we popped balloons!  It's SOOO much fun!"  She kept gushing and gushing about everything we had changed and how much she loved it.

Our next big project was to tackle the Language Arts room.  The kids had been complaining that it was boring so we decided to change that!

We decided to work on listening skills and picked Focus On the Family's radio drama of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe for the kids to listen to.  We pulled out costumes and decorations to make it even more fun!

Usually it's hard to get all the kids to participate during craft time.  Today I had Eden dress up like the White Witch.  The kids didn't know that we were decorating the room, so the White Witch passed out paper snowflakes for the kids to decorate and told them that if they decorated enough snowflakes, then the Language Arts room would have a spell cast over it and cover Narnia in snow.

The kids LOVED it.  They were decorating snowflakes like crazy.  Devon cracked me up.  He said, "White Witch!  I need another snowflake, but don't get to close 'cause you're a witch!"

They really got into it, especially Jarquasha.

These are some of the small, but fun, ways we are inspiring kids through learning!  It's a big challenge, but we're enjoying every bit of it!

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in East Lake.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.

Now is the Time to Help a Child, Not Later

WOW Kids Outreach runs a tutoring/mentoring program on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 4-6pm.  Like everything else we do, we have a ton of boys who come to our program.  The boys usually out number the girls in most of our programs.  We desperately need guys to come and invest in these boys who are going to grow up to be men one day.

The tutoring program is what I love most.  I'm in college to be a teacher, so it's a perfect fit for me.  I have volunteered at East Lake Academy for three years and I interned at East Lake Elementary.  I have been in these children's schools and they are broken.  Very broken.  Believe it or not, the elementary school is actually worse than the middle school. 

The city of Chattanooga and Hamilton County are letting us use the old Piney Woods Elementary school building right across the street from Emma Wheeler Homes for our tutoring program.  It hasn't been used as a school since 1992.  From the outside it looks abandoned, but the inside is very nice and full of potential.  Before we came in, it was a huge building that was underused with just a Family Resource Center.  Now it is full of kids every Tuesday and Thursday.

Our tutoring program is off to a wonderful start and every week we talk and tweak stuff to make it even better.  This is not your average help-with-homework-and-go-home tutoring program.  We split the kids into three groups: Pre-K, K-2nd grade, and 3rd-8th grade.  3-8th grade are put onto different colored teams and transition throughout five different classes in two hours.  The five classes are Math, Language Arts, Bible, Manners, and Drama.

We don't just have classes.  We also have a computer lab with twenty new computers that were donated.  We also have a library that has been organized and labeled with a ton of great books.  We even have a thrift store full of clothes, school supplies, and toys for the kids to go shopping when they earn WOW Bucks for good behavior.

It doesn't stop there!  The kids are able to earn Sunday trips every two weeks if they have good behavior.  These trips can be anywhere from the aquarium to the zoo to on top of the mountain to hike and play on the Pumpkin Patch Playground.  All of the places I just listed are places that these kids have never been before! These kids live in the shadow of the mountain, but most of them have never driven up it before.  Most of them have never been to a museum before.  Most of them have never been to the Chattanooga zoo or the aquarium.  One of our goals are exposing these kids who live in the projects to the wonderful world around them that they hardly ever get to see.

All of this is happening every week and we are still working on putting even more into our program.  We talked to people today about starting a basket ball program this June.  One of my biggest desires is tapping into every kid's potential.  Whether that is through a basket ball program, a jewelry making class, a knitting class, a computers class, etc.

What we desperately need is YOU!  We can do all this without you!  I can have all these wonderful ideas, but it takes you to kick them off.  If you just want to volunteer and be that one person who gives a kid the attention that they really want or you have a skill that you would like to teach them like computers, drama, music, sports, chess, photography, knitting, etc every little bit helps!

I recently went to a conference where a man was teaching a photography workshop with inner-city boys.  The boys loved it.  He shared that one day it hit him that he would die and all his knowledge would die with him unless he took the time to pass it on to the next generation.

We are working with Chattanooga's future.  The next generation.  You decide what kind of Chattanooga that you want your kids to grow up in.  Now is the time to invest.  We can't wait until these kids are grown or getting in trouble to help them.

Last week, I was dropping kids off at home in Emma Wheeler after our tutoring program took a field trip to Silverdale's fall festival.  It was late and the moon was already up.  We drove right past three cop cars that were surrounding a boy who looked like he couldn't be older than twelve or thirteen.  They had him sitting on the curb with his arms handcuffed behind his back.

When we drove past, he looked up at us and the expression on his face was one of the saddest things that I have ever seen.

"Just think." My mom said.  "If he has been with us tonight at our tutoring program, he wouldn't be getting arrested right now."

Who knows what talent that boy has.  Who knows if his talents will one day rot away on a jail cell because of a stupid decision he made as a teenager persuaded by some wanna be gangsters looking for something to do on a Thursday night.

(Newspaper article about Chattanooga's gang problem)

I sincerely believe that the only way Chattanooga is going to overcome our gang problem is by the Church being willing to go out of our comfort zones.  A lot of people have never been to the projects or been a minority before.  I know that I never had until we went to East Lake Courts to pass out clothes a couple years ago, but God opened up a huge door and now I help run an inner-city ministry.  Can you say WOW?!

Now I'm in the projects almost everyday and I love it.

Why don't you come down to the projects and check out our tutoring program?  We would love to have you visit (the kids love visitors!) and check it out.  Shoot me an email if you're interested (parisakins@gmail.com)!

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in East Lake.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.

Something Beautiful

(East Lake Academy's WyldLife club on Monday nights)

"Something Beautiful"

By Madison Akins

I'm writing this from the back of our fifteen passenger van after dropping off a load of kids.

On Monday nights I volunteer as a leader for Wyldlife, a middle school Christian club. The one I help at with Paris and Cecily is in the inner-city of East Lake, Chattanooga, TN.

Earlier we were finishing up the last game when my sister came up to me and whispered that a girl was crying.

I looked up and easily spotted one of the only white girls in the room, and yes, she was crying. This wasn't very unusual, considering that this young girl is often picked on by the other kids. She's the one they all make fun of, avoid, and groan when they hear that she's going wherever it is they're going.

Why? I don't know. Maybe it's because she is a different color then them.  Maybe it's because she smells bad. Maybe it's because she's smart, or comes from a crazy family.  For whatever reason, they just don't like her.

I've often felt sorry for her, and when I saw her crying, I felt the same. I walked over to try and figure out what was wrong, but she was hard to understand through all her tears.  Paris pulled her away from the staring kids, and I tried to talk to her.

"What's wrong? Why are you crying?"

She sobbed and rambled on about something someone did thirty minutes ago, and honestly I couldn't understand half of it.  Finally I told her to calm down, stop crying, and we'll talk about it. It was kind of loud, so I took her into the hall.

She looked at me through red rimmed eyes and said, "I'm always bullied!  I was never bullied in New York! I've been bullied ever since I moved here." The tears started up again. "Sometimes I just think this is a mistake. I shouldn't be here."

We've all heard those stories of kids that were bullied. Bullied so much that they decided to end their own lives. It's so sad and tragic.  Now, I'm not saying that this girl was thinking that far, but to have an eleven-year-old girl cry and tell you she thinks part of her life is a mistake is just heartbreaking.

I felt the pressure of being the one to encourage her, so I briefly closed my eyes and said a silent prayer. "Lord, give me the words to say to her."

I took a breath and knew what I needed to do. I needed to speak life over her. Hope. Let her know that this isn't the end, it gets better.

So I did. I leaned close and said everything I knew was true.  "I love you. God loves you. Miss Akins and Mrs Kara love you. This won't last forever....things will get better. Just think about the story you're going to have. One day you'll be able to help kids who have gone through the same things. You can tell them what God has done for you..... the Bible says that God works all things together for the good of those that love Him.  God will make your life beautiful."

I just encouraged her, and told her her truth until I thought she heard. And prayed it was enough.

After talking with her, a song came to my mind. A friend of mine had sang it at her church before, and the words seem to fit this girl's life and what I was trying to tell her perfectly. I really wanted her to hear it.

As I climbed into this van to drop kids off, I asked her to sit by me. I told her there was a song I wanted to sing for her about trusting God to make our lives beautiful, even when we don't understand. She wanted to hear it.

I sat here in the back of van and sang:

"I lean not on my own understanding

My life is in the hands of the Maker of Heaven

I give it all to You, God

Trusting that you'll make something beautiful out of me"

Afterwards, she looked at me and said, "You guys always say the perfect things when I'm sad."

So God had answered my prayer and given me the right words. I know one talk won't fix her problems forever, and I know she will cry again, but I hope that now she has something good to remember and cling to. I was relieved and whispered, "Thank You, Lord."

Because when there's a young girl crying about her life, I don't want to waste the opportunity to let her know that God can make it into something beautiful.

"To all who mourn....He will give a crown of beauty for ashes, a joyous blessing instead of mourning, festive praise instead of despair." - Isaiah 61:3

Madison Akins is a 16-year-old college freshman who loves God and people.  She enjoys being healthy and spending time with family and friends.  She's passionate about helping impoverished children and singing (which she does all the time).  More than anything, she wants to grow forever closer to her Savior.

They Keep Coming

"They Keep Coming" 

By Kara Akins

One of the greatest joys of WOW Kids is working with a variety of churches, organizations and volunteers. God has been faithful to keep a steady stream of people coming to the projects. It is nothing short of a miracle.

When we first began WOW Kids we knew our family alone couldn't feed and care for so many people. The first person I spoke to about church groups sending out crews from their own congregation told me that he doubted we could get one church to commit, much less several churches on a rotating basis. He could have been completely right. It's hard for someone with as little influence as I have to get anyone to do anything. But God. Only God has the ability to stir people's hearts. And He did!

God loves these children. He is father to the fatherless (Psalm 68:5). If we are willing to be used to meet real needs in their lives, then He is willing to use us. Any of us. 

And the thing is the children recognize His love. The love that compels us to go to where these children are, is the very love they feel when we are near them.

I was with some boys from our after school program the other day. They were brothers. I knew the younger one but not the older one. While we were waiting to go on our field trip I was allowing them to play with my phone. I know some adults don't like to see children with cell phones but I don't mind IF they are willing to practice sharing and it's not during class time, etc. But any strife means I take the phone away until they fix the problem.

Strife happened so I reached to retrieve the phone. The boy who didn't know me had a very negative reaction. He didn't understand that all he had to do was muster up some self-control, say some right words and the phone would be returned. So he started throwing around a very bad attitude. 

But it was what his younger brother said that touched my heart and completely changed the entire situation.

"She's not mean. She's different. She really does loves us. All you have to do is the right thing. She'll help you. When you do the right thing you get the phone back," were his words.

But all I heard was, "She really does love us."

Oh, I would give hundreds of iPhones for them to know it. But it wasn't the phone that made him believe I loved him. It was the love that made me want to share my phone, share my food, share my smiles, share my Bible verses and whatever else I could. That's what love tends to do.

"For God so loved the world that He gave..." (John 3:16)

God has placed people on my path that share a love for these children. Like magnets we come together at the most unlikely places: Chick-fil-A, Walmart, Fall-festivals, schools, FaceBook, churches. And we begin to talk about the children in the projects and in unison our hearts burn to show them that love. 

Because "the greatest of these is love" (1 Cor. 13:13)

With so much coming against these children, nothing less could ever do. Love, after all, is the only thing that never fails (1 Cor. 13:8). When so many things tend to fail isn't it nice to bring these children something that won't?

And do you know why love won't fail? Because God is love (1 John 4:8). Not our twisted version of love. He is the real thing. And kids discern the difference. 

Kara Akins married Mr. Jack Stephen Akins III at age 18.  She is now the mother of six children, ages 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.  Her "7th child" is her niece, Cecily, who also lives with the family.  She has one boy in the bunch who is spoiled rotten.  Along with being a mom, she also volunteers extensively with Young America Ministries and is a speaker for the Be Still, Get Real team.

Fundraiser for the WOW Kids Dance Team

WOW Kids Dance Team

Malek

Kay-Kay

Kimberly

Jamal

WOW Kids has started a dance team with four kids that live in East Lake.  We performed for the first time at the WOW Kids Music Camp this past Sunday.

One of our goals for the dance team is for the kids to stay culturally relevant as they bring the Gospel to their community.  One of the ways we do this is through Lecrae's raps.  The kids in East Lake LOVE Lecrae so much!

Lecrae is on the Unashamed Tour right now and they will be in Atlanta next Friday (October 19th).  This would be HUGE if our dance team could go to this concert.  Not only would it impact them spiritually, but they would get to see African-American men using their talent to glorify God up on stage.  They never see that in their community.  All they see are the secular rap stars on TV.

I know that this is super-short notice, but I believe that if God wants these kids to go then He will provide.  He provided for my 18th birthday wish to the Atlanta Dream Center and I'm praying that He will provide for this also.

The Cost

• $132 for tickets.  The tickets are $22 a person and we taking four kids from the dance team and two chaperons.
• $100 for gas to get to Atlanta and back home.
• $100 for dinner.

Total Cost: $332

If you feel like God is laying it on your heart to contribute in any way, please contact me.  Thank you for taking the time to read this!

Email: parisakins@gmail.com or winourworld@gmail.com

Phone: Paris Akins (423) 645-2991

Facebook: Paris Akins or WOW Kids

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.

A Generous Act

A Generous Act

By Kara Akins

Today at church I was sitting at a table with some inner city kids when a very elderly lady walked by.

One of the children remarked how old she was. When I looked up to see her my heart was taken. She had reached the age that standing up straight was not even an option. Each step she made was slow as she ebbed along with her walker. I marveled at the sight of her. To me she was so beautiful and represented a spectrum of life that we all face but rarely take the time to ponder.

I exclaimed to the children how much I loved this lady, a stranger, yet so familiar to me. I exhorted the children to love her as well. I wanted them to have the ability to recognize things that are clearly precious but so often wrongly overlooked.

I didn't realize the Lord was going to return the favor. God was planning that very day to use an elderly person to see something about the the inner city kids that many people overlook. That they, too, are precious

After church we took the children out to eat. There were 24 of us in our entire group. My husband, Jack, went to stand in line to place our order as the children and I pulled tables together so we would have a place to sit.

When Jack was in line an elderly man began to talk to him. The elderly man had seen us eating with our large group of children on another occasion. He let Jack know how wonderful he thought it was of us to minister to so many children. Jack even introduced the gentleman to me. To be honest I was surprised the gentleman could remember us.  He was very elderly, didn't seem to have good vision and we hadn't frequented that particular restaurant in weeks. His words were kind and I cherished what he said in my heart.

I went back to setting up tables and helping with drinks. As I did so the elderly man approached me again. 

"I want you to know that I really wish I could be doing the work you are doing with these children," he told me. "I really do wish I could. But the fact is I can't."

Then he placed something in my hand. I looked down and I saw what appeared to be a $10 bill. 

"I felt the Lord wanted me to give this to you," he shared.

I was again touched by his kindness.

"I will give this to my husband right now and he can use it to help pay for everyone's lunch. Thank you!" I exclaimed as I gave him a hug.

When I went to hand it to my husband I realized it was $100 bill, not $10.

WOW! 

I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that the Lord provided not only lunch for our crew of children, but that he also was providing for the desire of this man's heart. He allowed him to do exactly what he had seen us doing. Nothing complex. We just feed them. And we love them. And we see them for what they are: precious.

"But blessed are your eyes, for they see..." Matthew 13:16

Kara Akins married Mr. Jack Stephen Akins III at age 18.  She is now the mother of six children, ages 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18.  Her "7th child" is her niece, Cecily, who also lives with the family.  She has one boy in the bunch who is spoiled rotten.  Along with being a mom, she also volunteers extensively with Young America Ministries and is a speaker for the Be Still, Get Real team.

Case of the Stolen Camera

WOW Kids at BBC!

We took twenty-three kids from East Lake to Brainerd Baptist this past Sunday.  One of those kids was an eleven-year-old BB (Baby Blood) gang member, Federico, who attacked our car with carrots and rocks last time we saw him.  

We expect a lot from our East Lake kids when we take them out and we're strict, but we discipline with love.  For some reason, all the kids went berserk this past Sunday.  When church let out, they scattered and immediately started breaking rules.  We had kids yelling, running, going upstairs, going outside, fighting, etc.

I was very disappointed and the kids could tell.  I knew that my kids were better than this.  Wayyy better.  Most of these kids I've been working with for almost a year - a year of training and getting to know them.

I tell kids all the time, "You can fight on the streets back in East Lake.  I don't bring you to church so you can  fight.  I bring you to church so you can learn about God."  If kids aren't ready for church, we take them home until they are.

I was ready to take all the kids home because of their bad behavior!  Everything we were saying was going in one ear and out the other.  We eventually had to gather all the kids on the stairs and give them a talk.  The plan was to go to Coolidge Park after church, but we told them that we could only do that if everyone agreed to behave.  My mom (Kara Akins) told them, "We're going to see how you guys do in the car on the way over there.  If one person breaks a rule, it will ruin the trip for everyone and we'll have to take you guys home early."

We loaded all twenty-three kids up in our cars and headed to Coolidge Park.  On the way there, Jarvis got angry and yelled out a cuss word.  We had to turn around and take the kids home.

When I finally got home, I felt like it had been a really crummy day.  Did the kids even learn anything today? I wondered.  Or did they just go backwards?  Did I just waste half my day getting nothing accomplished?

I took a deep breathe and me and my mom started planning for next Sunday to prevent this from happening again.  I thought that it couldn't get any worse, but it did.

The next day, Monday, the church called and said that a camera had gone missing Sunday.  

The security cameras had caught a boy taking it.  

It looked like one of our boys.

I immediately thought that it was Federico who took it, but when we looked at the pictures from the security cameras, my heart sunk.

The boy caught on tape was my kiddo who never gets in trouble, my kiddo who has the cutest dimples when he smiles, my kiddo that is superstar material.

He's the kid that everyone loves.

We went to his house and he confessed and gave us the camera that he had taken.  We started talking and somehow Satan came up in our conversation.

"Satan?"  He asked.  "Who's that?"

"You don't know who Satan is?"  My mom asked.

"No.  Is it sin?"  He asked.

She explained who Satan is and asked him, "Have you ever been saved?"

"I don't know what that means."  He said.

It amazes me that, in the Bible Belt, there are kids who don't know this stuff.  When I leave East Lake, I count all the churches that we pass.  On one street there are seriously, like, five.  How can there be five churches on one street in the inner-city and I meet kid after kid who answers my questions about Jesus with a puzzled expression on their face?

I look at this situation with the stolen camera and I see a story in the making.  Who knows, maybe this boy will one day grow up to be a strong Christian and when he shares his testimony it will start with how he stole a camera from a church and ended up learning what it means to be saved.

You never know.

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.

Church Daze

Let me start off by saying, this is not part two of The Ripple Effect.

I can already hear the groans of some of my family members. I'm working on it, I promise! - but I'm inspired to write what I'm inspired to write and that's just the way it happens.

When I was younger, going to church was something I dreaded.

Yes, I'll admit it. I didn't want to go - not at first. Why? It was something I was forced into doing. I had to wake up early on Sunday morning, get crammed into clothes I hated just to listen to a message that I really didn't care about for a couple of hours.

Church was a habit back then. It wasn't enjoyable, or something I spent the entire week looking forward to doing. It was a chore - and that ladies and gentlemen is definitely not what church should feel like.

I can't remember actually going to a church I liked until I was about 10 or 11; the first church that I felt I was actually learning something; the first church that made me want to learn more about the Lord. Humorously enough, it was actually my aunt Kara who found that church. She was trying to help my uncle find one to go to.

And we stuck to it.

Don't get me wrong, I still had my doubts. There were things going on in my life, and at my young age I couldn't fathom why. I was angry; I didn't know why God was doing this to me, or even if he was there - but I always went when I could because I loved hearing the Bible stories - I loved learning, and something deep down in my heart was always stirred.

I am so excited that we are starting our own church. Let me just repeat that: OUR OWN CHURCH!

I know that sometimes, especially for children whose situations are less than cheery - they only go to church so they have an excuse not to be at home. I don't blame them - when I was their age I would have wanted to be anywhere but home.

I want our church to be more than just an escape. I want it to be a place where these children feel free. I want it to be a place that learning more about our Lord causes an excitement in them like nothing else.

I want them to be able to worship as they please, pray as they please, and have their mind open to every endless possibility about God's plan for their future.


It is my heart's desire to keep these children from falling into a church daze, and I'm bound and determined to do so.

Y'all better get excited with me.

A Fairy-Tale Family

Sweet LayNasha.  She's so pretty!

Kids say a lot of crazy stuff.  I heard a ton of stuff during my internship at East Lake Elementary that made me stop, scratch me head, and say to myself, Is that really how this kid looks at life?

One time Angelica asked me, "Do you get food stamps?"

"Uh, no." I said.

"You will when you have a baby." She said and nodded like it was the most natural thing in the world to be talking about.  In her world, it is.  The kids at this inner-city school assume that everyone lives off food stamps - except rich people.

One time Terrance asked me, "Did you read the busted papers last night?!"

"Uh, no." I said yet again.  "Do you read the busted papers?"

"Heck ya!" He said.  "I gotta check to see who in my family's in there!"

A lot of people don't know that I went through culture shock during my internship.  I never knew that I could experience culture shock twenty minutes away from my house, but I did.  I spent fifteen weeks in Chattanooga's inner-city surrounded by kids who looked different than me, talked different than me, had different names than what I was used to, acted different than me and even ate different stuff than I did.

I spent fifteen weeks having conversations like the ones above every single day.

You think that I would be used to it by now, but LayNasha said something tonight at Wyldlife on the way home that blew me away for the millionth time.

"When I grow up, I want a fairy-tale family." She told me.  "I want a dog, a cat, a little boy, a little girl, and a husband."

What would it be like growing up and thinking that a traditional family is a fairy-tale? I thought to myself.

I wanted to cry for her and her dream.  I wanted to cry because she had been cheated out of fairy-tale family because of people's sin and mistakes.  I wanted to cry because I knew she hadn't seen her real dad in over six weeks.

I don't do WOW Kids or WyldLife just to give a kid a good time.  I do it for real life conversations in the back of a fifteen passenger bus at 10:00 p.m. as we're driving kids home, listening to a little girl share with me her dream for a fairy-tale family.

Paris Akins is currently a college student pursuing a degree in Education.  She loves diversity, Jesus, and middle schoolers.  She spends most of her time at school, helping with Chattanooga's Urban WyldLife, and with her kiddos in Emma Wheeler.  She also blogs over at Attempting the Impossible.