Our Community's Stories

Dmitri and Summerfest

 by Jasmine

Rising 5th Grader

 

     Summerfest is a play for the church in which we get together for a week to put the play together, not including memorizing lines.  The only problem with this year's Summerfest was a boy named Dmitri.  He wouldn't behave at almost any circumstance.  He was a freckled face Russian boy and didn't speak English.  God challenged me that week to love Dmitri.

     Dmitri was a bad boy!  He stomped on our feet, messed with our hair, pushed us down to the step lower than the one to go in our space, and punched us.  He also took our name tags that marked our places of the steps and ripped some apart like a mean lion.  I got really mad at Dmitri all of those days.

     I had realized what really happened, though, when I looked back.  The Chernobyl Nuclear Plant had a meltdown, and he lived there.  There is radiation, but it didn't blow up.  Luckily, he found a new home but comes here with other Russian kids every summer to escape the radiation.  Our church sends in money so they can do this.

     I think I know why Dmitri acts the way he does.  He was laughing, so he might have thought it was funny.  He didn't have much of a part, so he might have been bored.  If I came from a different country and spoke a different language than everyone else, I would be a little scared and would want to go back to the host house.  Maybe he didn't want to be at the unfamiliar church.  I can understand why he was acting like this.

     I learned to love him because I remembered God can see Dmitri for the good person he is and loves him.  God knows what happend at Chernobyl, and God understands why Dmitri acted the way he did.  He is my brother in Christ, and therefore, I am related to him.  God had challenged me to love Dmitri that week.  Dmitri was hard to love during Summerfest, but I learned to love him anyway.

Editor's note:  The name of Belarusian boy has been changed to protect his identity.

Amber

by Jessica

Fourth Grade

     "Come on Amber.  If we don't finish this project by tomorrow, Ms. Bonnite will have our heads,"  I uttered.

     We were half way done until "Knock, knock, knock," went the other side of the door.

      "I'll do it," Amber said as she put the scrapbook project gentaly down on the bed.

     When she opened the door there was no one,......and no floor either.  She was plummeting down faster and faster.

     "Catch!"  I screamed, as I threw an umbrella down.

     "Thankssss," I heard her say as her voice fadided away.

     The next day I worried dearly about the incident that happened last night.  My stomach twisted and turned when I thought of her.  Why didn't I notice the pit before?  Why couldn't I save her?  I thought about this all day until I got home from school. 

     When I got home, I found Amber laying on the bed.

     "What happened to my room?"  I shrieked.

     "Oh I just redesigned your room and expanded from how long it was to well how long it is now," she said, grinning from ear to ear.

     I stood in the doorway with my mouth opened now knowing how it felt when she fell.

     "Hey since when did you have wings?"  I remarked.

     "Oh, since now.  I brought you a pair too."

     That day I found out that Amber was really a witch like Sabrina.  The reason I couldn't see the pit before is that she made it only for her and forgot to close it up from her last lesson with Prince Loepard.  (Prince Loepard is the best witch in the witch world!)

     The next day was my birthday.  Good thing Amber was going home tomorrow, and not today.  When I got home I thought it would be a new room again, but it was the same one I always loved.

     "SURPRISE!" everyone said.

     It was a surprise party!  We did all sorts of stuff.  We saved the best part for last.........opening presents.  Amber's present was last.  I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw the white most cute tiny purple main with tail.  It was a unicorn!  I thought it was the best present ever.