In my final month of ministry, we’re doing something pretty unique.
My team is working alongside a education consultancy, where the children of the most elite members of society come to learn life skills: like painting, manners, drama, and generally how to get along with other kids.
It also subsidizes a program to teach the absolutely poorest of children English, to give them a fighting chance at life. Along with English lessons, however, they inevitably get a few life skills along the way. How to tie your shoes, how to behave in a classroom, how to tell time, how to listen and pay attention for long periods of time, how to excel.
The backgrounds of these two groups of kids could not be more different. Some are children of diplomats and master surgeons, and when asked for a word for the letter “b” a boy said “brand-name shoes”. Well, he wasn’t wrong. Some of the others are children of women that dig through trash to find recycling to resell, or sell lottery tickets. If they’ve done well enough at that, they can sell cigarettes on the side of the road. According to society, their kids are destined the same fate.
The likelihood that these two walks of life would ever intersect is so slim that I’m fairly certain its zero.
But at this particular place– they do. At first, the Lasan kids (the children born into poverty) are all taught English together, divided only by their skill level to help everyone excel at their pace. The life skill kids are taught on separate days, because their level of English and other skills would be daunting. But little by little, the Lasan kids are invited to attend the life skill classes, and little by little, they do.
It reminds me of the second chapter of James (my favorite book), where it says we are to have no partiality. We aren’t supposed to favor the rich over the poor, the smart over the unintelligent, the beautiful over the plain. Why? Because ultimately none of that matters. God sees us all as beautifully equal, despite what situation we were born into, what our face looks like, or what brand name shoes we wear.
And that’s why I’m so excited for camp.
Every year, both sets of children are invited to camp. A 3 day camp where both extremely rich and extremely poor can let go of all societal expectations and just be kids. In those 3 days, they don’t have to grow up to be lawyers, surgeons, or cigarette sellers. They just get to be kids.
More than that, they get to see how normal the other side of life is. They get to see that the poor aren’t gross creatures that don’t deserve love, but children that love to play. They get to see that the rich aren’t mean people that don’t care, but children that love to play. They’re aware of the differences, trust me, they know. But in those 3 days, it doesn’t matter.
And maybe, just maybe, for some of the kids, it’ll never matter again. What if some of these kids grow up to be diplomats that affect policy change, and remember their best friend who’s mom dug through trash for a living? What if that child who’s mom dug through trash was afforded the opportunity to lift her eyes above that, and see that she is indeed smart enough for more, if only she had the education to do it? What if the two sides looked at each other as friends, and equals?
What if?
My team and I will be attending camp this next coming week- so if you’d like to help get us there, feel free to send us a few extra dollars, or even just a few extra prayers. It’ll be exhausting, but what a great way to finish out the Race.
