This month my team is in Malaybalay, the Philippines working with Kids International Ministry. We've gotten to help out with a sports camp, VBS, Bible study and preaching, painting, and just loving on some kiddos (my favorite part).
We take shifts working in the nursery where there are 8 kids under 3. My favorite shifts are the night shifts. I get to help with dinner, which is always crazy and chaotic. Rice gets everywhere, on the floor, in the kids' hair, in my hair… After dinner, it's time to get the kids cleaned up and ready for bed. It's during these times that I'm so grateful for their smiling faces and their precious giggles. If I weren't surrounded by that, I'd probably start crying because this is when it gets real that these sweet children don't have mommies and daddies.
Then there's the grand finale: bedtime. When I'm in the nursery at night I have the high honor and priviledge of telling the toddlers a bedtime story from their picturebook Bible, singing a couple Jesus songs with them and praying over them. Last comes the moment that always pierces my heart: hugging and kissing them goodnight. I move down the row of 4 beds to hug each child and kiss him/her on cheek before receiving my own kiss on the cheek. Then I quickly have to turn out the light before they see the look on my face. It's a bittersweet thing. I love that I have the grace to be the one to tuck them in at night, but at the same time it pains me that it isn't a parent doing that for them.
Adam (name changed) is a favorite for many of us (ssshhh don't tell the other kids!). He's an adorable, joyful, and patient 3 year old boy with cerebral palsy. It is pretty obvious that he wants to be like all the other kids and do what they're doing. One night, I was getting the little ones ready for bed and they started jumping on a mattress, giggling, and being goofy like kids do. Adam started nodding his head violently, trying to mimic what they were doing. So, I picked him up and helped him grab onto the side of a crib, then I held him around his tummy and bounced him. He jumped right next to his friends. Oh man, I wish I could've recorded that moment. He had the biggest grin and he was laughing so hard. When I thought he probably had had enough, I stopped bouncing, but right away he asked "Again! Again!" I bounced him until my arms were too tired.
That simple moment is one of my fondest memories on the Race. That is exactly what I want to do with my life; bring children, like Adam, a little bit of joy. Over these 11 months, God has really developed a passion within me to help kids be kids. I want to hug and kiss the orphans who haven't been shown affection; I want to help kids with disabilities, who are so often neglected around the world, to feel "normal" and loved; I want to show the street kid, who has had to grow up too fast, how to play; I want to affirm a young girl who has been sold into sex slavery that she is beautiful and someone to be treasured, that she does not have a price.
God has been giving me sweet dreams for starting a ministry that fits with my passions. Please be in prayer for me as I myself pray into pursuing this. I'm learning that the end of the Race for me is just the beginning.
(Also, I would like everyone to please note how clever I was with this title and the double meaning of "sweet dreams")
