"It'll take a miracle"

Perhaps it's my inner 12-year-old, but one of my all-time favorite movies is The Princess Bride. (Or perhaps I just haven't seen that many movies.)

One of my favorite scenes in the movie comes when a ragtag band trying to thwart the evil Prince Humperdinck visits the village miracle man, Miracle Max, to bring their leader back to life. Max (played by a young-ish Billy Crystal) coats a magic pill with chocolate, gives it to the visitors, and sends them on their way. "Bye bye, kids!" he and his wife yell as they leave. "Do you think it'll work?" she asks Max under her breath. "It'll take a miracle," says Miracle Max dryly, as they cheerfully wave and call, "Bye bye!"

"It'll take a miracle." As best I can define it, a miracle is a transformation that can only be explained by a supernatural act. We think of dramatic healings, resurrections, reversals of the inevitable, as miracles.

Yesterday at our staff meeting, we reflected on how important it is to remember that true transformation of lives - whether the urban kids we serve at SCYM or anyone in the human race, for that matter - happens the way Miracle Max said it: "It'll take a miracle."

It's like the seed that the apostle Paul wrote about in I Corinthians 3:6-7 - "I planted the seed, Apollos watered it, but God made it grow. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God, who makes things grow."

We work alongside kids - loving, encouraging, challenging, listening. We help make the conditions - the soil - conducive for growth and change. We faithfully wait, we water, we pray. But ultimately when life springs forth in a seed - something that is mysteriously dead but yet possesses the potential for life - well, it wasn't us.

It's a miracle.

The young man who has anger bottled up inside, but who is learning how to forgive and love others? Miracle.

The girl who didn't care about her homework, her education, her future - or, frankly, herself - but who is beginning to care? Miracle.

The young men and women who have had lives full of conflict, violence, and fighting, but who make a choice to walk away from a fight for the sake of a future goal? Miracle.

As we work alongside young people who have faced many challenges in their lives - far more than most of us have had to face - we humbly recognize that any lasting change, any inner transformation, any community that begins to turn the tide of generational problems - does not come from us.

It'll take a miracle. And we rejoice to know and serve the God who delights in miracles.

Faith Bosland
Executive Director

Think Summer!

We know, we know - spring is barely here, but at SCYM we're hard at work planning for our 8th year of Kids Can! Summer Day Camp, scheduled for June 20 to July 15. Around 40 kids from city elementary schools will gather each weekday on the grounds of Zion Lutheran Church for five hours of fun, faith-building, learning, field trips, and good old-fashioned camp stuff.

I am amazed each year at the huge amount of donated resources and time that are poured into Summer Day Camp, enabling us to make it extremely affordable for kids from low-income families who would otherwise be sitting at home for four weeks. We don't just want to offer these kids "something to do" - we want to make it an amazing camp experience for them!

To this end, we need a lot of people and a lot of stuff. Can you help us make this year's camp another great one for city kids? Here is our current camp wish list:

Volunteer Wish List
- Folks (from 7th graders to grandparents) who can assist daily, weekly, or occasionally in all kinds of roles
- Field trip drivers and chaperones (Fridays only - June 24, July 1, July 8, July 15)
- Teachers for learning activities (mornings, 10:15-11:30)
- Lunch and snack preparers and servers
- "Janitors"
- Leaders for special activities such as archery, fishing, tennis, art, photography, woodworking, music, drama, crafts, chess, card games, board games, martial arts - or give us an idea! What did YOU love doing at camp as a kid? (afternoons, 12:00-1:30, one time or up to four times in a week)
- Two more summer ministry interns (10th grade and older) who will work with us from June 13 to July 15, daily from 8:00-4:00. If you know a mature high school student who loves kids, send them our way!

Items We'd Like to Borrow for 4 Weeks
Archery set
Tennis equipment
Fishing equipment
Cornhole
Horseshoes
Digital cameras
Foosball table
Ping-pong table
Board games
Chess sets
Karaoke machine
Badminton set
Croquet set
Bocce (lawn bowling) set
Portable basketball hoop(s)
Kids' hockey sticks


Items We'd Like to Have Donated
Art supplies
Craft supplies
Games of all kinds - cards, board games, puzzles, brain teaser books, mad libs, chess sets
Tie dye materials
Snacks of all kinds
Lunches for volunteers

We're excited about these four weeks and praying that God will use this camp to change kids' lives. Summer day camp is just one way that SCYM is "helping kids crush the odds with the love of God!"

Faith Bosland
Executive Director