My black skirt is covered in tiny dirt footprints from barefooted children clinging to my legs as I lower them off my hip. My hair is a wreck from many tiny hands playing with unfamiliar hair. My black leggings have turned a brownish color from siting in the dirt with many children on my lap. Today I’ve been sneezed on, pulled on, spit on, climbed onand sat on, but it doesn’t matter because they call me auntie.
All thoughts of dirty feet and messy hair go away when I hear the words “Auntie please take me” from the mouth of a smiling child with their arms raised for me to pick them up. Three or four five year olds surrounded me as they each wait for their turn to be held. As I pick up each kid I get a smile, a hug, an “I am fine” and my heart is happy.
I don’t know if they have parents, I don’t know if they have HIV, I don’t know if they have food at home, I don’t even know how to say half of their names, but I do know they are loved. They are loved by a Heavenly Father who knows each of their stories. They are loved by a Heavenly Father who has never stopped loving them. They are loved by a Heavenly Father who has blessed me with the opportunity to be His hands and feet this month at Murray Camp Carepoint preschool in Manzini Swaziland.
The Father’s love for these precious, snot nosed, preschoolers hit me hard when they started singing “Jesus Loves the Little Children”. The song is familiar to me, but the context was new. Never have the words “Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world” sounded as sweet as when a dirty, smiling, precious little girl screamed it on the top of her lungs in her broken English. By the feeling in my heart each time they smile at me or call me auntie, I can tell that Jesus truly does love all the children of the world, because He has placed a fraction of His love for them in me.
So I will cry when they all scream their prayers in unison with their eyes squeezed shut, and I will laugh when they tickle attack me. I will teach them to count and help them write their names, and I will let them climb all over me. Because they are loved by the Father and they are loved by me.
Little side note, I am still 2,700 away from my July 1st deadline. As much as i love home, I do not want to leave the race. Please pray for my fundraising.
