IMPACT 2006

Imagine with me for a moment. You are walking through a forest that is nice and peaceful. The wind is blowing through the pine trees creating a deep whistling sound that fills the whole valley. You hear the odd bird chirping in the trees, but aside from that, there is complete and utter silence. But as you walk along, the forest suddenly turns into a jungle and a pack of forty monkeys comes bursting into view, screaming, jumping around, and wrestling with each other. This, my friend, is Impact 2006. Forty hyper-active, screaming monkeys bouncing off the walls and giving each other wedgies. It’s weekends like these that cause me to question my calling as a youth pastor. But then again, one can’t change their choice of career just because of a nightmarish two days out of each year. I’m sure every job has its fair share of those.

Impact wasn’t without its nuggets of gold, though. I would like to tell you about the service project we did during our Impact weekend. Remember those forty screaming monkeys? Imagine giving each one a bucket of paint and a paintbrush. This is in essence what we did for our service project. On Friday afternoon we separated the students into three groups and set off to paint three different Sudanese schools. There is a large population of Sudanese refugees living in Cairo because of the current situation in Sudan. Many of these Sudanese refugees have children who cannot attend Egyptian schools because they are illegal immigrants. Through a partnership with our church the Sudanese are starting up some schools around Cairo in an effort to educate their children. We set out to paint three of these schools that are preparing to open.

After driving for about forty-five minutes, our bus arrived at a slightly unappealing building that had a few rooms set aside to be a Sudanese school. I had a team of ten students, along with a high school student leader. Together we were going to make our own EXTREME MAKEOVER: SCHOOL EDITION. But I forgot my camera. Oh well, the students played along anyways. I played the part of Ty Pennington. You know, the guy who goes around shouting at everyone, telling them to get to work and such. It was just like watching Extreme Makeover: Home Edition, only I had a pack of monkeys instead of a group of effeminate men and plasticized women… and, I didn’t think to bring along a megaphone.

When we first arrived the walls were just bare cement. We set off by priming the walls and then slathering them with a creamy yellowish color of paint. I can show you my sweater if you want a better look at the color of paint we used (darn monkeys). At lunchtime we were invited upstairs to a Sudanese man’s apartment. He is the director of the school we were painting. Also painting alongside us were two of the Sudanese teachers from that school. They were so grateful for us being there. By the end of the day we had painted nearly all of the rooms in the developed half of the school. It was neat walking from room to room seeing everything transform from a dull cement to a brightly lit up room. My team of monkeys pressed on for the better part of the afternoon to finish painting that school. Before we left, the teachers thanked us for taking the time to come and paint their school. They told us that the colors we put on their walls not only brightened up their school, but also gave them a sense of protection. I guess in the Sudanese culture a painted wall provides more security than a cement wall. Something like that, anyways. As our bus rolled away from the school a few of the Sudanese children made their way into the school and excitedly looked around with big smiles. They ran to the window and waved goodbye to us. It pretty much made all the hard work of that day worthwhile. I was proud of my monkeys. They did an excellent job! (This is the part of the show where you cry.)