“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of God belongs to such as these.”
Mark 10:14
Merry Christmas from Malaysia!
This month my team was partnered with Youth With A Mission (YWAM) in Penang, Malaysia. We have worked in a local soup kitchen, thrift shop, a Vacation Bible School (VBS), a youth camp and attended prayer meetings.
For the most part, our month has centered around children. I wouldn’t necessarily consider myself to be good with kids. Nor would I consider children’s ministry to be my favorite type of ministry. But here I am, hanging out with kids every day. And honestly, I’ve learned more from them this past month than I have during ministry my first two months of the race. Here are some of the lessons I’ve learned from the kids this month.
1. One of my favorite things about Penang is the diversity here. Pulling from 3 different ethnic backgrounds, Malaysia is full of culture and diversity in almost every aspect of life. One thing I noticed about working with the kids is their ability to not see color or differences in ethnicity. Kids look at one another simply. They see just another person to play with. We are taught to see differences in one another and to discriminate. Society (around the world) teaches us to feed into the differences and let them rule our preconceived notions about one another. It was refreshing to watch the kids interact and play together, share their snacks and toys, and to laugh and sing together. It was a simple but powerful reminder that we are all God’s children and that we should work to right the inequality that is so woven into our society.
2. Forgive & forget. As followers of Christ we are called to forgive those around us. We are called to cast away judgement and our record of wrongs between one another. I’m not sure at what point in life we learned to hold a grudge but after watching the children interact here, I’m noticing that this behavior of unforgiveness is not natural. I was watching two little boys play the other day. One knocked the other down. Rather than kick scream and cry. The other kid got up and knocked the first kid down. Now I’m not condoning the eye for an eye behavior. But what I’m saying is that after this quick 20 second episode between the boys they went back to playing like before, completely forgetting the incident that just happened. They were able to move forward in their friendship without allowing this to greatly impact their friendship, their game, their day. We should all be willing to forgive as quickly as these kids and move forward in our relationship with one another.
3. Comparison is the thief of joy. On Christmas Day my team and I worked with a church in the community. We were put on charge of the children’s program that morning. We sang songs, acted out the Christmas story for the perspective of the animals in the stable, did a craft and a scavenger hunt for Christmas presents. Each kid had brought a present for the exchange. We hid them and then let the kids loose to go find one. As we came back together we watched as the kids started to unwrap their presents. Excited, they all ripped off the paper as fast as they could. As I watched, I noticed that as soon as a kid saw the present they were given they were excited. Their eyes lot up and they began showing their friends. But soon the atmosphere in the room began to change as the kids started to compare their gifts to others. The excitement and joy turned into jealousy and envy in a few of the kids. This may be a silly example but we do this every day. We look around and compare our lives, the things we have or don’t have and compare them to other- family, friends, strangers. And suddenly what we have looks lesser and our joy is snatched from us. We must get up everyday and choose joy. We must choose to ignore the enemy calling us to compare, calling us to abandon our joy.
So here’s to the living the rest of the though the lessons learned by little ones
