Each morning we head out to local feeding centers to play with kids and teach songs or bible stories. The majority of the kids come from nearby huts to play, laugh and eat what will most likely be their only meal for the day.
Many of them run around in tattered underwear or T-shirts barely hiding their dirty bodies. Many of the kids are covered from head-to-toe in dirt and look as if they haven’t showered in months. Most of the young ones run around with bare butts exposed, using the field as their diaper.
As we climb out of our car, the kids swarm us smiling and instantly jumping on our backs. As much as I hate to admit it, I’ve never been that much of a kid person so the idea of a bunch of kids jumping on me and pulling my hair would not have sounded like my idea of a good time a year ago. Now as I get to love on children around the world, I have begun to look at kids in a different light.
Starting at the dump in the Philippines where kids would run around in their own human waste but still had a sense of joy and peace I wish I possessed. The captivating smiles and earnest eyes of children who found immense comfort in the arms of a stranger was hard not to love.
So now as I look into the pleading eyes of a young girl desperate to be held I no longer see a dirty child, but instead a beautiful daughter. Mother Teresa once said that it is in the eyes of the poor that you see Christ. How amazing is it that I get the privilege to minister not only to a bunch of children but also to Jesus.
