Let me highlight one of the most touching parts of working with these children this month. Following on from my blog about meeting and being changed by kids with special needs let me tell you a way that this has ministered to me too. The kids in most of the houses are, as I have stated, just kids who need a little extra help, so it’s really humbling realising that preconceptions are not fair or right at all.
The baby house is slightly different though because, whilst these are really just the same as all babies, the way you engage with babies is different to how you behave with older children. You can’t try and start any real games, you can’t engage them with things like DVDs in the same way, you can’t try and talk to them like you might with other children. All you can do is play with them, feed them, change them and love on them. But do you know what? That is the most rewarding thing to do. Just love kids and be there for them. They can’t do some of this stuff on their own so they can only climb into your arms and let you love them and care for them.
The other day Sara and I spent the afternoon looking after four of the blind kids that live here. These children are slightly different from the other kids for a number of reasons but although I felt apprehension that I didn’t know what I was going to do with them for an afternoon the same truth applied. We fed them, played about a little and just held them. We took them in our arms and loved them for an afternoon and it really softened my heart and brought smiles to their faces.
Then yesterday a few of us went to look after the ‘severely disabled children’ for an afternoon. Now for one thing I want to throw that title out of a window. It builds feelings of fear for what to do when you’re told the kids you will look after are ‘severe’ – feelings that could colour the way you subsequently act toward those children who just need care. These kids may be more affected by their conditions but I found that I felt the same thing looking after them as I had with the above other two groups – huge joy at just being able to be there and love on them for an afternoon in these ways.
These experiences have shown me that I need to let go of fears or negative expectations and just open myself to letting God use me and love through me. One of my friends on the other team told me that God had taught him, and so is now teaching me, that in the same way that all these kids are able to do is lie in our arms and receive love and care from us, all we are really able to do is put ourselves in God’s arms and let Him love on us. After all, “God is love”.
