I’m having a hard time expressing myself about what’s going on in my heart about being in London. So instead of trying and failing at that I’m going to tell you a little anecdote.
During our ministry time last week, one morning I and some of my teammates got the chance to help out at a mother/toddler kid’s time. We jumped at the thought of going to play with kids. Ah, at last, something we’re familiar with on the Race–kids! We can handle this; it’s completely different from street evangelism…
When we got there we soon realized this was nothing like our other kid-times on the Race. Here are the differences:
(1) these children had a command of the English language!
(2) these children have mothers (and most of them probably have fathers too)
(3) there were lots and lots of toys for the kids to play with
(4) all the kids were pretty clean, had clean clothes on, and had normal lengths of beautiful hair
(5) there was food provided to give the kids and mothers, AND food leftover and uneaten!
(6) we weren’t the main event when we arrived…in fact we rather blended in to the background…
(7) we weren’t immediately surrounded by children vying for our attention.
Oh, I miss kids in third world countries.
I was at a loss. I had NO idea what to do with the kids or how to play with them. They didn’t really care that we were there and hardly noticed us, much less needed us or our attentions. They didn’t think simple things like high-fives, slap games or making silly faces was interesting or fun to do. We were just a few of many adults, and weren’t in charge. No singing “Oh-Lay-Lay” or “A-roo-cha-cha”, my favorite songs to lead.
THIS is now a foreign atmosphere! (below: this is a photo of a photo–we saw an exhibition about Afghani women)
