So for those of you that know me, this may come as a bit of a surprise, but my heart is not completely into kids ministry. Don’t get me wrong, I love kids a tons and would love to have a bunch of them myself one day…but when it comes to doing ministry, kids really aren’t my thing. I feel more comfortable and my heart is more into working with teenagers. Even in America it’s hard for me to throw myself into working with kids, so add the fact that I can barely speak their language, and it makes for an awkward few days helping with the after school program in the very sketchy neighborhood we are living in. Because of that, one of the days I was having a very hard time forcing myself to go outside with the kids. I had already found just about every odd job I could find inside the building helping people with whatever and had run out of things to do so I had no choice but to go outside. This sounds terrible, but I’m just being honest. There is a point though.
On my way down the stairs, I was praying to God that He would give me a love for these children. No sooner than when I got outside, I started playing with this little girl…I would pretend to not be watching her as she came closer to me and then I would turn around quickly and start tickling her and she would laugh and laugh. She has the most beautiful smile. The back story to this little girl is that the days before, my team and I had all tried interacting with her and she wouldn’t really give us the time of day. She was super shy and wouldn’t smile at us for anything. But here she was…smiling and laughing and begging me to hold her for the rest of the time and spin her around and dance with her. She would lay her head down on my shoulder and hug my neck. Needless to say, I was a gonner…this little girl had my heart.
Ever since that day, pretty much every time I see her, she immediately runs up to me and begs to be held and played with. After one such day of holding her and dancing about and spinning, I set her down so she could play and noticed that my shirt smelled oddly of pee. No, she hadn’t peed on me (I knew this because I wasn’t wet) but she had apparently at some point peed and still had it on her clothes.
At this moment, I had another choice to make…was I going to freak out and be disgusted and not pick her up or play with her for the rest of the day, or was I going to see her for the complete treasure that she was and still love on her with the time I had. I can tell you truthfully, rejecting this little girl wasn’t even an option that went through my head…there was no way that I was going to stop playing with her and holding her.
Why? because God had answered my prayers and had given me such a love for this precious little girl. So the rest of the time we played ball and chase and anything else she wanted to play…all the while me smelling like pee.
Did I enjoy smelling like pee all afternoon? No.
Did I run upstairs and take a shower and wash my clothes as fast as I could when the kids left that afternoon? Yes.
Would I do it again? Absolutely.
Why? Because sometimes being the physical expression of Christ and His love is messy and dirty and smelly. And because sometimes, when God changes your heart and gives you His love and His eyes on a situation…walking around and smelling like pee really isn’t that big of a deal.
