Samantha

So over the summer we worked at this church. It shall remain nameless because I personally didn't have the best experience there. I had a hard time remembering my Purpose. We would pull up and I would ask "Why am I here?!?" I just had a over all rough time. I wasn't teaching or anything. They had me vacuum and clean and just sit there. I didn't really have any kids. one day I had like 5...but all I was suppose to do was walk them from one room to another which we also had like 4 other adults helping. I was just in the way almost everywhere I was. Pastor and I didn't agree on some view points and I just felt like I was the target for everything. I pretty much was over this by the end of the week. Then something changed. There was this girl Samantha in Bethany's class. Because we had so few kids the combined us with things. Well Samantha is very autistic and has anger problems  her mom stayed with her like everyday. Until Thursday, when she had no choice but to leave and head to work. Well Bethany sat with her and colored and she would interact with Bethany. She never talked. She yelled more like screamed when we had offering and she was cheering for the girls. Well Friday came and there was a huge storm and not a lot of kids came. We had maybe 6 in our two classes combined. When we went to craft time all the kids but Samantha sat on one end. There we did craft and I felt bad that she was sitting all by herself. So i got up and went down to her. I started asking questions and just talking to her. Kind of like a kid would talk. Asking if she liked ice-cream and I did. Said I like mint chocolate chip and sometimes I like really chocolaty stuff. I brought the one sided conversation to our beach theme. She nodded yes when I asked if i could sit next to her. So I made up this game. i knew she wouldn't answer with yes or no or anything verbal. I said we should use our thumbs. Every time we liked something or wanted to bring it on our picnic to the beach we would do thumbs up. Well after 6 or 7 questions she began to put her thumbs up!!!! She was smiling and laughing!! Then all the other kids came down and sat around her. She closed up but after they started asking her and talking to her and included her and just everyone was equal and the same and just kids having fun... she was ALL IN TO IT!!!! After our meetings with our couch and talking about everything that week... I can answer the question "Why am I here?" It was for Samantha. :)