One of the things we quickly realized
is that there are TONS of children in this area. The property that we
are staying on is the church’s property and is a safe haven for
children. At any time I can look out my window and there are at least
20 children playing in our front yard. After school is out there are
around 50 children running around, hoping that we come out to play
with them. On the weekends the children never seem to go home; I
don’t think a lot of them eat lunch. Between the two Sunday church
services approximately 200 children attend Sunday School. It’s crazy
and very reassuring.
Many of the families around the church
are very poor. As we learned on a prayer walk many of them do not
have jobs and thus do not have the means to provide for their
families. When you look into some of their eyes you can feel the
hardness of their lives, the innocence that has been lost, the
hardships already experienced and the lack of appropriate family
love. You can physically see the signs of malnourishment, eyes that
are sunken in, yellow and brownish tints where only white should be
seen, and an overall small and frailness to their bodies. Every day
children that look like they could be on one of those commercials for
children who need sponsors. Many of the families can barely afford
food let alone to send their children to school to receive any type
of education; unfortunately this only feeds the cycle of those
children’s futures.
We’ve come to bring them hope. Many of
these children, despite what they are going through are full of joy
and smiles. They long to just stand next to one of us and hold our
hand. To stand with us as we attempt to dance. To fight over who gets
to hold our hands. Glimpses of joy, peace, innocence, and hope.
Our team has decided after things we’ve
seen, learned and heard from sermons by Jennifer Toledo that we want
to teach these children not only about Jesus (because they have heard
about Him most of their lives) but about the Holy Spirit that dwells
inside of them. That these children have the same power and authority
to pray as adults. That these children can hear God’s voice just as
much (if not more) than adults. There are just some things that
children seem to understand that we as adults can not make sense of
because we try too hard and complicate things that have always been
meant to be simple. We are excited to see the way that God is going
to use these children in this community; we’ve already begun to see
glimpses of it. Just this morning we taught on healing, the story of
the woman who touches Jesus cloak and is instantly healed from 12
years of illness. After the teaching we asked if anyone was sick, all
the children pointed to one child. Then, all the children – all 40
of them – stood around that child, stretched out their hands and
prayed. It was probably one of the most beautiful things that I have
ever seen in my life.
