"Roses and Lilies"

Susana  in class making an art project. Summer 2011

Summer is always an exciting time, and for the CROC community is a time of welcoming our family from the North. Even when we don’t share a family name, we share God’s love for each other and especially for this community. This year the excitement was reduced in quantity of teams we received, from eight to two teams, but enlarged in blessings received from these two teams, the love shown by the summer staff and the unending joy we see in the kids. The words of Dietrich Bonhoeffer come alive in our community during summer when he says, “communal life is the roses and lilies of the Christian life.”

The teams that visited us more than making the daily lives of the people living here more pleasant by doing paint jobs and even building a merry-go-round. They shared with us a new hope to continue doing ministry in this place by giving us words of encouragement and by showing us with their example that those who believe in God shall not fear when helping the neighbor. For me having the summer staff among us was a blast. It was like having four little brothers and one sister with whom I laughed, played, and learned. Even when they were

different in many ways all of them shared a servant heart. The way they used their gifts to bless this community has shaped they way I see ministry in a powerful way.

When I started my journey in ministry to God I never imagined that I would end loving kids the way I do. Even when my academic formation prepared me to work with and for them, God has taught me that He was not kidding when He said that we need to be like a child to enter His Kingdom. When I feel discouraged and ready to give up the smile of a kid changes everything. Suddenly all my tiredness vanishes. I can certainly say that the joy I have received while serving these kids is the best gift I have gotten from my heavenly Father.

The hope, the laughs and the joy I have experienced during this summer have become the roses and lilies of my life.

Susana Melissa Armendariz
Club 121 Director