Exactly one month ago today we started our new ministry. I remember so vividly looking out the window as we drove to the school where we were going to be teacher’s assistants and seeing how the beautiful beach town I thought I knew so well transformed into trash-filled streets, cows roaming freely, tin roofs, laundry lines, walls of manmade houses, little children wandering the streets alone, and teenagers carrying babies on their backs. I wasn’t sure what this ministry was going to look like. I knew we were going to be working with a school that gave two free meals a day to kids who mostly live in the townships and that a lot of kids were sponsored to come to the school because they couldn’t afford it on their own. Little did I know how much joy and love I would receive from this preschool. In the mornings, we always walk into the kitchen and are greeted by the kitchen staff. Then, we walk up the stairs and my classroom is hidden around the corner on the left. I remember the first day we got assigned our classroom the assistant principal stood outside warning us that this class was full of trouble makers and needed extra help, so both my teammate, Christine, and I headed into the seemingly awful class. As soon as the kids saw our faces they all ran, more like trampled over each other, to come and hug us. It was like hundreds of arms stretched wide running towards me yearning for love and knowing somehow they’d receive it. Despite my being a stranger, they were ready to extend their love and expectant to receive some back. “Teacher teacher” they would call all wishing I would just look in their direction. (I will tell you that this action of the kids running toward us lasted the whole time we served at the school.)
For the first part of the day, we would help the kids color or make crafts. It’s a simple job but so rewarding as each kid holds up their half-finished coloring and wait for a “good job” or smile until they continue to scribble. One day I was helping the kids write their numbers and a lot of the kids write their threes backward and their fives look like twos. I went around to each table and instead of encouraging their unfinished or incorrect work like usual I sat next to them and held their hands and helped them write the numbers correctly. As each kid did one right they would get so excited. One little girl I helped write a three and when she finally got it correctly she jumped up and started dancing while singing “three, three, three”. Another girl in the class didn’t know how to write an eight and so I showed her that an eight is just two circles on top of each other. After she did one she turned to me and wrapped her arms around my neck while saying “thank you, teacher”.
When it was time for recess I would walk out onto the grass and instantaneously be bombarded with a multitude of little bodies. The first day, I tried to run away for a while but eventually sat down. Biggest mistake of my life. So many kids piled on top of me I couldn’t breathe. By the end of our time there, I had learned to deal with three to four kids always hanging on me, I always sat against a wall for balance and at least personal space on one side of my body, they loved tag and could literally play forever so if I needed exercise that’s always a good way to get it.
My favorite memories were when their tiny, dark fingers were entangled with my pale and seemingly large ones. They would braid my hair not realizing that my hair is connected to my head and it hurts when they pull it in four different directions. I had one girl brush my hair with a lego and straighten it with a wooden block, while another girl was sitting in my lap playing patty cake. They always wanted to teach me Xhosa and would laugh when I couldn’t pronounce the clicking sounds. They loved to be held and could hide their faces in my chest forever if they could, and I would let them if there weren’t ten other kids trying to sit in my lap at the same time. There was one sweet little girl that always wanted to hold my hand and sit in my lap. She didn’t talk much but loved to sit with me and just be in my presence. She would wait by the door until I came to the playground and run up to me, so excited to see me. It’s things like that that I am going to take away and treasure.
I think back to our first week at the school: the African names of the little four-year-olds seemed impossible to memorize, but now I know and love each kid so deeply. I know that ____ is a drama queen and will cry on demand. I know ______ is the teacher’s pet and she knows how to use that to her advantage. I know ________ is a rule follower and wants to do what is right, and it takes a bit of work to make him open up and smile but he really wants love. He just doesn’t know how to lean into it. I know ________ loves to be held and he will play with whatever you have: my camera, jewelry, water bottle, or sometimes just my hands. I know ___________ has the sweetest smile in the entire world but is a little spoiled and doesn’t like to share. Each kid has a piece of my heart now and honestly, they are the ones who make it so hard to thinking about leaving.
I work with four-year-olds each day and absolutely love and adore each little face, but they are not the only ones that make this ministry so life-giving. The teacher who we help everyday name is Queen, but all the kids call her Ouma, which means grandma. She is in her seventies and yet has such a youthful spirit. I remember one of the first days we began serving at the school, she took all of the kids outside and lead a P.E. class. She was on the ground in a skirt showing them all the exercises they needed to do, and just the other day the students were practicing dancing for their end of the year celebration and after everyone was done practicing Queen gets up on stage and starts to dance. She is swaying her hips and waving her arms around with a huge smile on her face. It is so evident she loves these kids, although her passion is to preach and be a teacher of the Word, she loves Jesus and it is reflected through how she will hold the kids, laugh with them, or how she shows them how to share. I love talking to her. She knows the Word and is not hesitant to share all her knowledge. She knows who she is in Christ. She is a Queen made royal by her Heavenly Father. She believes in miracles and has incredible faith. She has been one of the biggest blessings of this ministry, whether giving me a good laugh somedays or intentionally during into me on others each day she so faithfully reflects Christ and just being a witness to that is beautiful.
I have been so blessed to serve the kids and teachers at this school. It has been one of the greatest highlights of living here in South Africa. As I continue to pray for this ministry, the kids, and the teachers will you join me? I want to invite you to be apart of what God is doing here in South Africa. It has been amazing to see kids get poured into from a place of Christ. As I mentioned at the beginning of this blog, the school is surrounded by townships (squatter camps) and there are many kids there that can not afford to go to school. If you would just donate $7 a month you could send a kid to school and give them a free meal every day. If this is something God is laying on your heart click the link below and you could sponsor a kid!
