No. Not at this time. I work full time and have 3 small children of my own. It's not fair to them that mommy is gone so much as it is. But he told me to pray about it... Yeah "okay" knowing full well my answer would stay the same.
Sometime went by and Brandon and I had a serious discussion about "The Lord's calling" he was saying that people were called out of conviction, I-feeling argumentative- insisted that it was out of obligation. But there is some truth to that isn't there?
A week later, a friend of mine was speaking to our congregation about her recent mission trip to Africa...upon stepping foot on the church grounds my heart was floored. There were easily 20 children on campus from the neighborhood running around, playing on the jungle gym.
Conviction.
Here were all this unsupervised children just needing a place to go, someone to commit to them, teach them about The Lord. And so, I called them over and told them if they wanted to come back the following week I would be there to teach them about Jesus.
The next week, 15 kids were waiting for me as I pulled into the parking lot 45 min. EARLY to set up!!! I taught them a story and introduced April's Bible verse for the month: "your word is a lamp unto my feet and a light into my path" psalms 119:105.
During the story I brought a flashlight as a demonstration and asked the children if they knew what it was for? One child very innocently and honestly answered:
"It's for when your mom can't pay the PG&E bill and you need to see at night."
Talk about break your heart!!! Such a humble answer.
The following week I had one little boy acting out-hitting and cussing and my last straw-stole a brownie from another girl. I asked him to apologize and he told me NO!
Now, if there is one thing that makes my blood boil faster than butter melts in a skillet-it's blatant disrespect. So I gave him one more chance to comply, and for the second time in my history of working with children (10+ years) he challenged me again.
I picked him up and set him outside the building, got down low in his face and strongly let him know that it is NOT ok to talk to me that way and if he DOESN'T want to listen to me and obey then HE DOES NOT have to come back! He looked at me with eyes of rage and spit in my face, threw his cup at me and called me a B-I-T-C-H while storming awayDid I mention that He's 7 years old?
He came back not 15 min. And started beating the church door with his skateboard while I was teaching the rest of the kids. I got up, walked out and told him to go home. He ran away. I resumed teaching, he returned and started beating on the door again. I got up, went outside and caught him by the arm before he could run off again. I then told him that if he continued I would call the police. He looked at me, decided I was serious, sat down and cried
"I just want to hear the BIble story!!"
Now, seriously, what would you do? Yeah, I caved...and told him he could have "one more chance" he was PERFECT the rest of the night!!!
The following week my husband went to the church on Tuesday for a board meeting and said that when the neighborhood kids saw our car they came RUNNING to church and they were disappointed to learn that it was not church night.
Tonight marks 1 month since God CONVICTED me, melting my heart for these children. Tonight I prepared my lesson for 25 kids even though I usually only have about 18 or so. Tonight I had 34 kids show up!!! Yes, 34!
Upon driving up, the boy mentioned above saw me and disappeared, running into the apartment complex, only to reappear with a flock of children. I could barely get my own children out of the car. They took all of my lesson materials from my hands and carried them inside for me. Again, I was about 45 min early.
I had to literally hug each and everyone of them. Tonight was like every other Wednesday-chaotic. These kids are not used to discipline, order or authority. Right now the only thing I am able to express to them is my genuine love for each of them. They know it, they feel it, and they return it happily. My heart is overflowing. 34 kids. Praise God. I pray that I can establish some sort if routine with them. I pray that we can figure out a way to make it more orderly, organized, quiet? But until then I am just going to keep showing up, keep loving them, keep praising God for bring them.
I also want to get a HUGE shout out to my dear friend Julie Penrod for faithfully showing up, assisting me (which is not easy to do considering I stink at asking for help!) and patiently and happily putting up with the chaos!
My gratitude also extends to Sam, Barbara and Heaven for helping babysit my youngest two as well as the other younger neighborhood children so I can focus on "teaching." I also extend my graciousness to Aunt Pat for her love and devotion to the kids.
By the way, tonight my problem-some 7 year old was not perfect by any means but when I corrected him, he quickly listened and apologized to those he offended. So I say there's progress there!
Please pray for them. Pray for us on Wednesday nights if you think about it. And pray that they eventually lead their families to church and ultimately to the Lord.
No comments:
Post a Comment