First off, I need to share this photo of new baby Hadley… check out that South African onesie. How loved am I? Thanks, fam.
My month in South Africa was hard, yes, but it was also one of the best months of ministry that I’ve gotten to experience.
Mostly, on the Race, ministry looks something like this: meet the contact, learn about the mission, try your hardest to master concrete pouring/wall plastering/preschool teaching/gospel sharing on the street. Almost every month, I enjoy the ministry, but I don’t necessarily feel like the work fulfills any particular passion of mine (other than sharing the love of Jesus). This is not a bad thing. I really like learning various skills, and knowing how to caulk will surely come in handy one day.
Because of this, it seemed too good to be true when the Lord handed me a month of work that fed almost of all of my heart’s desires.
The first week: Vacation Bible School as the teacher of preschool girls. When I say that my class was composed of angels, there is no exaggeration. They were precious. All of the little girls followed me around like ducklings as we traveled from assembly to crafts. We sang. We performed motions. We colored. They fought to be in my lap when we sat down between songs, and I hugged them all day every day. With chante on my hip, I had an almost perfect week of loving sweet babies and talking about Jesus.
The remainder of the month: wait for it… wait for it… I got to be an ART TEACHER! Talk about dream job. Let’s just mix Jesus and kids with shading and color. I even had an excuse to wear my sweet, artsy hat in honor of my new job. I told you. Too good to be true.
Three of our teams worked with Fellowship Bible Church this month; it doubles as a school for kids from kindergarten to seventh grade. The children who attend either live in an orphanage or walk from farm communities every day. A large portion of the student body suffers from Fetal Alcohol Syndrome (FAS), and life at home is usually far from stable and loving.
The school is the source of stability for these kids. They come to enjoy two meals a day, obtain a Christian-based education and receive loving discipline and encouragement. Without FBC, my sweet babies would be on the streets.
Each age group came to my class once a week, and Katie (fellow art teacher and Exposure student extraordinaire) and I planned lessons according to their units (winter, soil, community workers, the Olympics). We colored, we outlined, we mixed paint… we crosshatched. My inner Peek was shining as I was able to share my passion with mostly willing kids.
With FAS comes major behavioral issues. For every child who was eager to learn shading techniques, there was a kid who had trouble handling emotions or focusing on an assignment. At first, teaching was frustrating. Is that Zanele running after Lindsay with scissors?! But story after story continued to melt my heart until compassion and love were the only things left during lessons.
Billy is abandoned. He has no stable home and has already had his innocence taken.
Simoney was taken advantage of just a few days ago. Be sure to give her extra love.
The blank stares or rude comments turned from annoyances to triggers that brought the deepest sympathy. All of a sudden, teaching art became an opportunity to praise kids that rarely hear positive encouragement. So praise we did.
After every class, I would take pictures of the kids with their artwork. Katie and I would ooh and ahh over every Olympic medal and each completed coloring sheet. I found myself genuinely feeling so proud and saying things like, “Did everyone see Chadley’s value scale? His ability to mix paints is REMARKABLE! He should be an artist.”
By the end of week 1, kids were finishing their projects and asking for more. Make me melt. I found myself thinking that this is what the Lord must feel when we truly desire to do His work and please Him. All they wanted was affirmation from us. When Samantha would hold her pictures up for me to admire, I realized that love has never flowed more easily from my heart than it did with these kids.
Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him. John 14:21
Once again, the father’s love for me was confirmed through ministry. Once again, it was really hard to leave. More and more faces are forever engrained in my memory as goodbyes become harder and harder to say.
