Precious Stones

This morning I got up and went to serve in Precious Stones. Precious Stones is our ministry at church that serves people with Special Needs. In SO many ways, it reminds me of camp. I will be serving two Sundays per month back there, and I am enjoying getting to know people that serve in the program, as well as the young people.

Today we had our usual crew, and one I hadn't really spent time with before. He was there the last time I was there, but he wasn't feeling well and he sat the whole time. Today, the young man was in full motion, and I LOVED IT. At first I followed the lead of another volunteer, and then she left early and I took over. I LOVE figuring people out. *grin*

Moveable Boy is so used to attention in a certain way, that I flipped it, and he really responded well to it. At first he went to color on my page, and instead of being told, "Don't do that", I said, "Oh, look, you're making it look even better with your coloring!" He laughed, and paused. Like he didn't know what to do. *grin* I went ahead and colored a little more, but he thought it was more fun to take my paper. I was a-ok with that. *grin* He wound up taking it home too.

After Volunteer Friend left, our lesson was over and we could play with the little soft ball. We wound up throwing the ball back and forth, and I LOVED IT. All of my attention was on him, and he loved it. We did some good throws, and he would purposely throw it to where I would miss it and I would act all put out. He would laugh. And, I honestly loved every single throw that was out of bounds. It made him smile.

Partway through the ball game, he wanted to erase the marker board in the room. He wanted to see my reaction. I told him that was very nice of him to do. He paused. I told him he could do that, it was fine. He smiled. Then he gave me the eraser. He told me where to erase, and I did it. He loved it, and several times I tried to get him to erase, and he didn't want the eraser. Then he wanted to move the table that was there. I blocked the movement with my body without saying a word. (little trick I do at camp too) He stopped trying after two attempts and we went back to playing ball.

I loved it.

Every.
Single.
Moment.

I did play off and on with other kids, but Moveable Boy would always pull me back to play with him. At the end, we wound up with three balls, and we were shooting at the basketball hoop that was there. When parents arrived, Moveable Boy gave me a high five before he left, and I was thrilled.

I left church this morning smiling. I've been at the church since November, and I am fitting right in.

Hmmmm.

It's as if He wanted me there or something. *wink*

*grin*
LIFE.
IS.
AWESOME.