Fight! Fight! Fight! (The title is a chant)

It’s a strange feeling when you see summer mission teams coming into your neighborhood to play with the kids week after week. My first response was actually one that I didn’t expect, I took it personally. This was indeed strange and unexpected. Having gone on several trips to inner cities I have been in their shoes and experienced everything they have and were experiencing. One thing I do know is that living somewhere and visiting are indeed to different worlds. I know these kids so well and all of their little tricks, watching them and all the drama they brought to the teams trying to serve them was humorous at times. The last day the team was here they set up games in the park and were getting the kids involved and one thing led to another and before you know it small fights and arguments were breaking out all over. The mission teams looked overwhelmed as what to do. When the kids get like this they are fighting and yelling because the sky is blue. (They don’t know why) I started sending the kids fighting home, finally after 30 minutes I thought the crisis was over but like any good drama they just want you to think it was over. From the distance I heard something coming, It was like the movies where you hear the army before you see how large it really is. Here came one of the girls mama’s, screaming at the top of her lungs words that would make a sailor blush with her kids and 10 of the neighbor kids in tow. Everyone in the hood likes a good fight but when you get parents going after each other it’s a whole new level. I saw her coming and warned the leader from the group he had better be ready because there was a mad woman coming. The good thing was I knew her because I had met her the night before, the bad news was their puppy was hit by a car in front of my house and I had to bury it for them. She knew me by reputation only and I was hoping that would be enough for me to talk her down from her tirade. It was like getting into a car wreck where you see that you are about to get hit and there is nothing you can do about it, just wait for the impact. BOOM!!! she was upon us and the kids were fanning the flame. I grabbed one of my guys bikes and started dismantling her army sending them home one by one. I know all of their parents, and grandparents and they know I will have a conversation with their parents and that their parents will believe and act on what I say. Then I tried talking with her as I rode beside her on the borrowed bike. I asked what happened and why she was so mad. I told her that she was acting out of love for her daughter wanting to protect her and the other mother would be doing the same thing. Come to find out her daughter had misled her on some of the details on what had happened. We made it past the first block and were on the 2nd as I told her the missing pieces of the story and that her daughter wasn’t jumped and the girl in question was a foot shorter than her daughter. Mom stopped, this is a little girl? Yes I said I think she’s 10, and they were both just arguing with each other. What happened next was unexpected as well mom started to hit her daughter 2 smacks on her back and shoulder. Did I just make this bad dream worse? Inside I was like WTF just happened here, I yelled whoa mom there is no need for that. She stopped and we moved on. We made it through the final block talking the whole time and you could see that the fight was probably not going to occur. We turned the final corner and she realized she knew the other mom and the fight was not needed. I let the other mom know what was happening and how and who was involved. Now that reason had returned to the world mom asked the daughter how it started and she said the other girl was talking about her. Mom asked did you hear her? and the daughter said no, someone just said she was. You could see by her expression that she didn’t know why they were fighting. In the end the kids got yelled at vs the mom fight they were all anticipating. What a day, I went home and laid down. Thankful that I live in a place where I know I am making a positive impact and hating some of the things that I have to deal with day to day. Without the mess there would be no beauty. I live in a very beautiful place. For more stories check out www.timomara.com