There is a reason you teach children how to swim when they are very young…they are Fearless!!! This week we’ve had a swim team in from Taiwan and they’ve been teaching the toddlers, teens, adults involved in the ministry (who want to learn) how to swim. There’s a reason you start with blowing bubbles and putting your head under the water. There’s a reason (thinking back to my swim days) you throw rings in the water and kids dive for them. There is a reason you do not take a child and throw them into the deep end…they haven’t built up the skills to handle an experience like that….but often times we as Christians assume people that don’t believe in God or new believers can handle an experience like that. WHY???
Two swim experiences from this past week that greatly impacted me…helping a teacher work with a teenage girl in building skills to swim…this was totally new to her…she was uncertain and definitely fearful…but it was building trust and assurance that we had her/held her as she tried to float/sink…learned how to move her hands and feet to swim. It was a long process…and when I had to leave to meet my team I just tried to encourage her that it takes YEARS to learn how to do this…that she had made huge improvements and was doing well. Sometimes you don’t have many words but you know anything is better than nothing at times. What I learned from this is that sometimes whether a seasoned believer or someone just getting their feet wet for the first time…going back to the basics isn’t such a bad thing. It’s healthy, natural, and beneficial to really search out / review what you believe and why you believe it.
Swim experience number 2…waaaaayyyy too much fun. Asian kids just melt my heart…like butta. One of the girls was sitting with my teammate and for whatever reason she just wasn’t havin’ it…ie swimming that day. We all have days like that in our walks as believers. My teammate needed to take care of something and the kiddo I had been working with was passed on to another teacher. So I got Miss Cutiepants who didn’t want to swim. So what do you do in a situation like that??? Focus on their STRENGTHS. She was having a good ole’ time with her flutter board playing with the water but not wanting to be in the water…ha ha ha little did she know I had a mad plan. Let’s face it…kids LOVE to get people wet when they are near water. Miss Cutiepants and I took turns dumping water on each other…and the next thing she knows we’re on the next step of the pool still playing away. Eventually we were in the water kicking forwards and backwards and the rest is just history. Sometimes as believers we need to be reminded how much we LOVE the water…loving being who we are as Christians.
Swim “lessons” finished up and each little munchkin was wrapped in a towel and we marched them back to their nursery. Such sweet moments! God has these moments with us too…these drowned rats, nothing to offer you back moments, where I just know he’s like awwww let me hold you and wrap you in my LOVE, my goodness, and my protection. We finished the day and I’m not gonna lie I was a bit weepy-eyed…I just kept thinking of my niece and my family back home. My niece has an army of people that love her and care for her…and I just keep thinking of these little ones that are so desperately looking for FOREVER HOMES. I can’t wait till they find them!!!
