Sometimes it can be difficult to believe that I am making a difference in people’s lives. Am I leaving them better than I found them? Am I displaying God’s love, gentleness, kindness, patience (and more) to them? Does my presence matter here?
Sometimes we don’t get to see or ever know the affect that we have had on others…
but sometimes we do.
At the beginning of our time in Kazakhstan, my team had the opportunity to work with a group of special needs and handicapped adults. I have absolutely no experience in that area, so I was feeling rather unqualified for the job.
While we were getting ready to leave our apartment and go to the class, I felt the Lord prompting me to bring my watercolors, brushes, and paper with me.
When we arrived, we introduced ourselves to the group of about ten adults. There was a language barrier, but smiles went a long way. The activities started, and I noticed a little girl of about five years old— the daughter of the facilitator. I went over to her, showed her my paints, and asked if she wanted to watercolor with me. We sat down at a table and got to work. She painted some beautiful pictures of flowers and landscapes. The creativity and artistic talent of children amazes me sometimes.
After a little while, I got up to use the restroom. I opened the door, and there was a man standing in there. I quickly shut the door and yelled, “Sorry!”
I waited a little longer, then tried again. The man was still there.
I kept working on my watercolor, and then I realized something: the man in the bathroom hadn’t actually been using it; he had just been standing in there, like he was hiding. There was a lot going on— it was loud, there suddenly were six new people around, foreigners who spoke another language.
I think he was overwhelmed (heck, I was overwhelmed) and he went to bathroom to have some space and to get his bearings.
He finally came out of the bathroom, and he noticed the watercolors. He leaned over to look at our paintings, and he stared at them for a little bit.
I pointed at the watercolors, and asked if he wanted to join us. He nodded, and I handed him a piece of paper. I asked his name— Azmat.
I felt a little guilty for separating myself from the rest of the class, but I also felt like this was the reason I was there.
Azmat painted multi-colored stripes on his paper. He finished his first painting, then looked at me. I smiled at him and told him, “Good job! Do you want another piece of paper?” He nodded, and the process repeated multiple times. Each time he finished a watercolor, I smiled at him and told him it was beautiful and that he did a great job. He would smile, then say “Good job!” back to me.
Art transcends language and I believe that using our God-given creativity unlocks things within us.
It was a brief interaction, and my team soon left to go to another city. However, some of our friends on another team arrived in that same town the day after we had left. They were going to be working with the same group of special needs adults that we had worked with during our time there.
About two weeks later, I talked to Gina Marie, a friend on that other team, and she told me all about this guy Azmat, who was so happy and outgoing and who was always the first to volunteer for something.
That made my heart so full, and I told Gina Marie about my interaction with him. What a change that was!
One of my teammates said to me, “Kelly, you did this— you brought this out of him. You broke the ice and made him comfortable.”
Really, all I did was listen to the Lord’s prompting to bring my art supplies, then invite others to watercolor with me.
But the Lord was clearly doing something in Azmat’s heart in those moments. Something bloomed inside of him, and then my friends got to build on that foundation and continue to cultivate relationship with him.
In the Scriptures, we find Jesus stopping for the one, going out of his way for the one. The one matters to Jesus, and the one should matter to us as well.
The Lord has kept bringing up watercoloring to me in the last several months. He has been using it to bless and encourage others. I wrote a blog post about it two months ago when I was in Georgia. Read about it here!
