So today was the last day of summer camp at the Club. It was a hectic, busy, relaxing, beautiful day. We had a cookout at the park with all the kids and some of the parents...

So the end of summer camp means the beginning of my new job working with all the Charlotte Clubs. Yes, it was a little bittersweet as the mother of one of the Club members whom I have known for the past 7 years gave me a journal that all the kids had written in... tears couldn't help but form in my eyes as I read through it, just as they are now... but mostly I was ready to start a new chapter in my life... I had the entire summer to prepare mentally to leave the Club, and now I just have to do it physically. I love my Club kids... I love who they are becomming and I love the potential I see in each of them. I want them to understand how much they mean to me, and even more, to the God who created them... what's great is that now when I go over to the Club to work with them, I can devote my attention completely to them... although it won't be daily, it will be good, quality time... and I'm excited about that. Here's to a new beginning, and here's to all the beautiful kids who are finding a home away from home in our Clubs!

I love how Pink Floyd, in all their drunken, drug-induced hazziness of the 60s and 70s, was able to see the suffering and pain and apathy in this world... how they were bothered by the neglect and head turning of the people who have the ability to change the darkness in the world...how a musical group that some would be so quick to judge and point fingers at and not allow into their place of worship can have such a Christ-like view of the world...I appreciate the irony there. And for some reason today, I am appreciating this song:

On the turning away
From the pale and downtrodden
And the words they say
Which we won't understand
Dont accept that what's happening
Is just a case of others suffering
Or you'll find that you're joining in
The turning away
It's a sin that somehow
Light is changing to shadow
And casting its shroud
Over all we have known
Unaware how the ranks have grown
Driven on by a heart of stone
We could find that were all alone
In the dream of the proud

On the wings of the night
As the daytime is stirring
Where the speechless unite
In a silent accord
Using words you will find are strange
And mesmerized as they light the flame
Feel the new wind of change
On the wings of the night

No more turning away
From the weak and the weary
No more turning away
From the coldness inside
Just a world that we all must share
Its not enough just to stand and stare
Is it only a dream that there'll be
No more turning away?

I guess it goes to show that you can find Christ where you least expect Him, and sometimes, in the places where you most expect Him, He is nowhere to be found.