Becky, I am totally bummed that this happened. If we can do anything to help, let us know. Matt has a few ideas, did he talk to you about it? When you told me about it, I was thinking it sounded like a junior higher did the graphitti-- sounded like that was the maturity level.

I actually sometimes think graphitti is a beautiful form of art. Of course this is the unnecessary, cruel destruction of someone's property. I thought it might be cool if cities bought designated areas like slabs of pavement to be used a graphitti art walls. It would take the thrill out of the crime, but it would be a way to display art in a recognizable way. I'm sure my thoughts are flawed on this.

I was trying to find a quote my friend told me once. It was something like 'before a person sees a breakthrough victory, adversity hits high." (my version).

Maybe you guys are about to see something huge. HANG IN THERE.

 That's terrible that somebody would graffiti something that brings joy to so many children - I'm sorry to hear it :(

 What a bust.  The thought that just entered my mind is that, bummer as it is, this is an opportunity to pray for the kid who did it...  a kid who may have never benefited from unheard prayers and unseen faith of someone else.  Now that we know about him(I can only assume it is a him after seeing the grafitti myself), we can pray specifically for him.  We may never even see the results, but somebody else will.

 your victory is just around the corner from your biggest adversity

that's the quote. don't know who said it though...

you guys should submit this story to the newspaper. I think this is newsworthy

 Oh my!
This is awful!!!  What on Earth gets into people?  This is a hate crime!  It's not really "graffiti" that's the issue, it's the hate.  So this isn't gang related, or teritory marking, it's destruction for the very sake!  Have you called the police?  Let us know if we can help some how.

-Rhiannon

 First, the photo upload issue.  To upload a photo with a blogpost like here on Sheeky's post, you need to have the photos on your hard drive.  When you're on the post composition screen, under the text box, you'll see the "add photos" box.  Click browse and find one photo at a time on your hard drive and select them.  On your RaisingBakersfield screen, you should see the photo file uploading, and a thumbnail-like image will appear when it's done.  If this isn't working, please email me directly and let me know what you're seeing.

Now, the vandalism.  B/c that's what it is, vandalism.  If it was just some tagging, I'd be with the folks suggesting harnessing the creative energies of some some erstwhile artists into something less illegal (I've done that kind of project before, murals, art lessons, teaching the history of grafitti as a political artform and part of hip hop culture), but this seems like something on another level entirely.  It's not about visibility or marking territory, it's about destruction of property.  I'm so sorry this happened.  Please keep us up to date on what you learn/do next.

 I hope  you can at least feel comfort that it only happened to slow down what a wonderful job you guys are doing with your ministry.  which means your ministry is WORKING!!!  Maybe park it right outside where it was tagged and give out free ice cream to those around who want to help clean it up (after the real naughty parts are cleaned up).  maybe your culprits will even be there without you knowing it and have a change of heart in seeing face to face who they're hurting.