Railroad ministry, Phnom Penh.
We sat on a dusty, dirt road next to railroad tracks with about 20 kids surrounding us. Ants were crawling on my legs and dust was already finding its way into my shoes.
To make matters “worse,” I had gooey white glue all over my hands from the paper craft we were making with the kids.
The kids were energetic. Smiling back at me whenever I caught their eyes. And they were excited about the craft.
The young boy sitting next to me pasted the little colored stars onto his paper binoculars with such care and precision that you would think he was working on a masterpiece. He requested more dots of glue from me every few seconds.
After a while, I gave him a thumbs up and attempted to communicate that he had had enough stars and didn’t need any more, but it wasn’t good enough for him. He wanted more!
And so there I sat in the dirt with glue on my hands, adding more dots of glue to his paper binoculars. And then he would follow with the stars.
We had a whole system figured out.
And as I sat there adding more glue to his paper, something clicked in my mind. I realized that what I was doing was important. Not the fact that I had glue all over my hands or that we were making binoculars, but that this kid had someone sitting in the dirt with him.
I couldn’t help but look at this kid and fall in love with him.
I looked around me and began to see the twenty or so kids surrounding me with the eyes of our Father. I saw how important they were to him. How much they mattered to Him.
And I felt how much he loved them too. I began wondering about their lives and about their families. Do they go to school? Do they have parents? Are their parents working? Are their parents believers? Do they have a bed to sleep in at night? Will they even have dinner tonight?
From the way the neighborhood looked, the answer to a lot of these questions is most likely “no.” These kids live in metal shacks, their clothing is worn, the young girl sitting closest to me has a baby brother at her hip, taking care of him as if she was the mother.
These kids are the “least of these” in their city, the ones with broken families and hard living situations.
But these kids are also the ones our Father loves so, so much. So much that he sent a group of six twenty-somethings to come sit in the dirt with them.
It reminded me of how much the Father loves us too.
Something he has done time and time again over these past seven and a half months is come and “sit in the dirt” with me during some of my worst days. He has pursued me and been with me through thick and thin. I’m learning that His love doesn’t falter, it doesn’t stop, and it isn’t contingent on how good I look or how well I am doing.
He loves me because I am His daughter.
And he loves each of you because you are his child.
If you think about it this week, pray for the kids by the railroad track. We get to work with them this month and I am praying that the Lord does big things in their lives and in their community.
(Photo Credit: Eva Cranford)
(Photo Credit: Eva Cranford)
