This particular Sunday I had been recovering from being sick. I was in no means happy to be going to ministry which proves how sick I still was. I love going to see the kids!
Hundreds of kids come out to learn and play and sing.
You see kids of all ages. You see kids of all ages taking care of their younger siblings.
At first, everyone is together in one room till the little ones go up stairs to the playroom… Or shall I say the "war zone."
I've never been up stairs before. It really was a war zone.
Kids hanging all over.
Kids running and screaming.
Kids hiding.
Kids wanting picked up.
Kids crying.
I was playing with a little girl. Throwing her in the air. Spinning her. And playing with a puppet. But most of all trying to keep my iPod away from her reach. Lol.
Suddenly I see a little boy wandering and crying.
I assumed his older sibling would soon find him so I thought nothing of it.
The girl I was playing with left to play with her friend. I saw the kid pass by me crying again so I picked him up.
We walked for a while looking for his sibling. He wanted down so I assumed he found someone.
A little while later the kid comes running to my arms crying. I of course pick him up and wander with him again.
Next thing I know is the kids start lining up to leave so I sit down with the boy still crying in my arms.
Another boy come and leans on me wanting to play.
So I am patting the crying boy and tickling another.
This goes on for quite awhile till the crying boy gets up and wanders.
The other boy hops in my lap and is trying not to get his finger caught in my hand… A simple but easy game to play with no translator. Lol
The crying boy comes back to me and is now having a full blown tantrum.
Arms flying and feet kicking.
I pat his back and make sure no one gets hit.
Meanwhile, the boy in my lap had enough of the crying so he left.
Then the crying boy leaves.
I look over and see a girl start to cry while looking at me. In my head I was like "oh man." The girl was too nervous to come over herself so another girl drops her off in my lap.
Then the crying boy comes back still in a tantrum.
I turned to Anna and asked "am I the consoling booth?"
The two kids heads ended up hitting each other and the girls lip got cut. So she went to one of the moms who were in the room.
I then stood up with the crying boy and held him and walked with him away from all the loudness.
He would stop crying every once in a while but then remembered that his older sibling wasn’t here with him.
His older brother came and got him probably ten minutes later.
He immediately stopped crying as they left.
I believe that I was supposed to go to ministry this day just because I was supposed to hold this child.
Why?
The kids we see aren’t allowed to cry. When they cry, they get hit.
I know this child needed all the love that I gave him.
Maybe the main reason I was supposed to go wasn’t because of the child?
Maybe I was there to show the parents that they don’t have to hit their kids at the first cry. As the kids were crying in my lap and in my hand, the moms were starring with interested eyes. They noticed that there is a different way to take care of a child.
I believe that I did open their eyes to a new way of loving.
