About a 20 minute drive from Alabanza, we hold camp at
Maethog school. Our first day of camp, we had 40 children who came. We are praying for more children to come and brave the cold to be able to hear about Jesus. We are not concerned with the numbers, but with the one that God has placed before us to pour His love into. Our schedule is similar to that of last week at Refilwe.
What we know is that these kids come from vastly different backgrounds. Last week at Refilwe, most of our campers were street kids and fought for everything they had in life, it was a way of survival for them. Many times we would have to break up fights during camp, they were cold to each other, and would lie straight to your face if they thought they could gain from it. They were not bad kids, just kids caught in a bad situation crying out for help. They desperately needed love and had very little exposure to Jesus. It was challenging, yet rewarding working with these children.
This week, our kids go to a middle class school, mostly on scholarship. They are packaged completely different than our last group of kids, arriving well and warmly dressed, and also in different clothes everyday. Many talk of having computers at their houses. During our recreation time I even found lots of small change out on the field-293 cents worth in their money…Jenny found 249 cents as well…700 cents equals $1….it isn’t much monetarily but enough to buy small candy, etc.
Many people walked buy it acknowledging the money was there, but uninterested in picking it up because it wasn’t worth much. This is a vast contrast to those we encountered last week.
These children this week have a lot of exposure to Jesus and have a lot of head knowledge. What it comes down to is this; all of these children, well off, comfortable, or fighting to survive, are the same-they need Jesus. They all need an encounter with God, to personally experience God’s love for them and have a personal relationship with God through His son, Jesus Christ. They need to know they can’t earn their way into heaven, their friends and family don’t make them Christian, but there is a decision to make…to accept Jesus as their personal Lord and Savior and follow Him or to reject Jesus. This decision is available for all to make and therefore being a Christian is not exclusive or earned, it is a gift from God.
These children have the same need, but different backgrounds…making them same, same, but different.
