Picture This

Visiting a young person in the hospital with my team

You walk through the front doors of a school. The floors have been freshly waxed, the windows are clean, and there is light shining through the window. You walk into the office, greet the office staff, sign the visitors sign in and collect your visitor badge that is needed to wander the school halls or be in the school. The students are all in class so before the stampede of a thousand children fill the halls, you say a quick prayer as you hustle down to the room where a games hub is held.

The bell rings and students stop by to say hello, or come in to the room to play games for the lunch hour. You sit down in an uncomfortable blue school chair to lose at a game of UNO. As you are playing UNO, the youth decide that yellow is the preferred colour today and even though no one has any yellow cards, they continue to change it to yellow. They chant the word “yellow” throughout the entire lunch hour and you join in because it is better to be part of the annoying group than to be annoyed by the annoying group.

The bell rings. You wonder what you are doing with your life. You just sat in a room and chanted the word “yellow” obnoxiously for 30 minutes. As you are cleaning up the games and getting ready to leave, one young person sticks around. You ask how they are doing and they just say “fine”. And you still wonder why you are here. Why do you show up every week and do things like chant the word “yellow”? How could this actually make a difference to anyone?

This young person is still standing with you as you clean and you ask “is there something you want to talk about?” They reply saying they had spent a few days in the hospital. They are working through an eating disorder and it is going well. They have new medication that has been helping them eat. This is great news! They are acknowledging they have a problem and they are getting help.

I often have trouble remembering that even in the days where I feel like no progress is being made, there is work being done behind the scenes that I cannot always see. So this day, it was my job to show up and be present. It was my job to listen and share love with the hurting youth around me.

As always, thank you for enabling me to show up! Thank you for helping provide a supportive adult for these youth. Thank you for helping me be the one positive adult that some of these youth ever see (even on the days that don’t feel very productive). No words could ever express how thankful I am for your love, prayers and support.

-       - Amy Seiler

Serving hot chocolate at Walnut Grove Secondary School

Timbit Tuesday at Mountainview Alliance Church
- a community partnership