Spin five times, fill up your cup, run down, pour it in your team’s saucer, run back, tag your friend. Repeat until saucer is full. Tag! Three-legged race team: run as fast as you can, tag your teammates on the other side of the yard. Pass water balloon overhead, under leg, over, under, until the last friend, busts water balloon overhead! Victory!
It was as simple as that or rather as complicated as that! As I reflect on today slash debrief, I am reminded of how patient the Lord is with me every day! Today my team and I put on a wonderful women’s retreat with lovely decorated tables, a photo booth, handmade and personalized book marks, drinks and snacks and it was all together beautiful, but not nearly as beautiful as the 30 daughters of the King that participated. We talked about our worth, worshiped with art and fellowshipped together! The morning was so delightful! Then it was a quick turnover to the Year Kick-off for the youth group at the same location (what we call the Hub). A different photo booth was set up, lots of food was to be made, a great deal of supplies to be gathered for the multiple games we had planed. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we were expecting 80-90 kids of all ages! The youth group is geared toward 12-18 year-olds but in this culture kids from 5-18 have attended the last 2 weeks we have been here. 2:30 that day came fast and 96 kids of all ages piled in, registered, received a team color and “Ready, Set, Go” had already come to pass. First, the ice-breaker that moved into a dance-off, then “donut on a string” eating contest, and then the moment of truth. The relay race! After much time quieting kids, explaining, translating, dividing up, and re-explaining, it was time for the 8 teams of 11 kids to get READY, SET, and GO!
Spin once, fill up the cup, run back, fill up the cup again! Tag! Three-legged race team to go! The entire three-legged racers go, first team spotted around the corner; launched every team into the over-under with a water balloon to start, and bam! RED team has the victory! Haha!
It was much work to adequately explain the rules, however, as I watched, the 8 individuals who started the relay spun around once and never tagged their friend and did not completely fill up their team’s saucer before the 16 three-legged racers started running! Exultation radiated out of me as I heard the Lord speak as clearly to me as I had mistakenly thought the directions to the relay had been. As I smiled with bliss at the kids I couldn’t stop from filling up their saucers and the Lord smiled with me and said, “Amy, I smile at you in the same way when you don’t get the order right either.”
How many times have I jumped before I was told how high? And how many times have I danced before the music started playing in my life? How often do I “go” before I get “ready”, or go before I get ready then “set”, yet the Lord still looks down and smiles with bliss at me. If I’m being honest with myself and with you, I “shoot, fire, aim” more often than not. In the midst of the chaos during the relay, the Lord showed me how patient He is with me, in the midst of my chaos. When I didn’t have it all together, when I didn’t fully understand what serving Him looked like, when I was a church girl on Sunday and seeking mans approval on Monday, the Lord still looked down and smiled at me! He saw me at my fullest potential. He still loved me with His steadfast love.
Today, I celebrate with Heaven because of the 60 kids who asked Jesus to be Lord of their life! And I sit in the new knowledge and understanding of the King’s patience with me, a sinner being made new who is still deeply loved when I “go, set, then get ready”!
