In Their Own Words

Two days down. 184 days until summer break. This is what the boys said, in their own words, about their new school, their new teachers, and their new classmates.

Keagan:
I sit by two kids. One's a boy friend and one's a girl friend. I looked at the boy friend and said, "Hey, I'm Keagan. You wanna be my friend?" The boy said no, and I said, "Why not?" He told me he already had a friend so I looked at the girl friend that sits on the utter side of me and I said, "You wannna be my friend?" She said okay and so now my friend is Elizabeth. She is a girl. I asked my new girl friend, not the boy friend, if she wanted to eat with me and Miss Banks in the butterfly garden.

I got to go to PE today and we had to run laps. I started runnin' and I passed everbody and when I went by the boy friend that didn't want to be my friend, I waved and said, "Bye-bye. Don't get lost in the dust." I passed him going speed. I crossed the finish line first.

We used our mats today for quiet time. I fell asleep and this kid that gets on my nerves woke me up by steppin' on my foot. I said, "This is how you wake me up? Steppin' on my foot? What? Are you autism or sumthen?"

Evan:
Mom, let me tell you something embarrassing that happened to me today. When I was at PE this girl came up to me and said, "Do you like girls?" I told her, "Well, yeah." And then she told me her friend likes me. I told her I am not into having a girl friend but I will be her friend... On Monday I am NOT spiking my hair. I don't care if it makes me cuter; I don't want girls disturbing me when I am working.

I made a new friend today. I knew we were meant to be friends because guess where he came from? He came from Germany and I told him I was born there and I am going back there! That means we are both German. His name is something that I can never remember. I think it might be Jecovah.
I asked sarcastically, "Was it Jehovah?" And Evan exclaimed, "Yeah, that's it! You know him?"

My Little Evangelist

My friend Bridget calls Evan "the little evangelist" because last year Evan was always bringing invitations to school inviting her son Caleb to church. If it wasn't the outdoor movie series, then it was the Christmas bonfire.

This year Evan has had several encounters with kids at school regarding his belief in God. And while I have a very difficult time believing that my quite, introverted son would be outspoken about anything when he still refuses to speak to our friends at church that we have known since our arrival in Virginia five years ago, his teacher assures me that he is Mr Popularity and the center of attention at school. His "lively and outgoing personality" makes him one of the most well-liked kids in the class. If you are reading this wondering if perhaps my Evan has been confused with another child, then you are thinking much like I did when I received this news several months ago. However, after hearing all of that, it makes the following all a bit more plausible.

At Ramadan, Evan told a small group that Mohammad could not be God because he was a man, a man that couldn't be powerful because he wasn't the Son of God like Jesus. At Christmas time, he approached his Jewish classmate about her belief in the coming Messiah and boldly claimed she had it wrong because Jesus is the Messiah and he has made his arrival on Earth. His teacher threatened to move him to "yellow."  Last week, he asked another friend if she believed in God. When she said that she didn't, Evan asked why. She told Evan she wanted to believe in God but because her parents didn't, she couldn't. Evan told the little girl that you can believe in God even if your parents don't. And then he told her to ask Jesus to live in her heart.

In the past year, he has grappled with some very difficult theological questions. And because he is only seven year old, his level of understanding often surprises me.

This morning at church we had our sermon and I leaned in to ask Evan if he understood the lesson. He made a comment that seemed to me like he was really processing some big issues, he was looking intently at the pastor, and then he whispered, "Mom?"

That's when I knew it was all coming together for him. I was on pins and needles ready to hear the new observation he had made while processing this new information. I leaned in closer ready to hear the big revelation he had in store for me.

And he asked, "Mom, when do the NFL games come back on tv?"

So clearly we aren't there yet, but I can't wait to hear the story he tells this week at school about the Book of Life and this week's sermon.