A lot of my race has been kids ministry. Since the race started, I have done some form of it in every country except Bulgaria (8 out of 9 months). What baffles me about kids is how unique each one is, yet how similar they are across countries, cultures, and backgrounds. I have coached kids from wealthy families and poor families, taught kids who speak Spanish at home and English at school, helped out in kids ministry in West Austin and the streets of Til Til, Chile. What I’ve learned is that doesn’t matter where they hail from, kids across the world have these things in common:
They like to sing songs
They want to talk and they want you to listen
They want to know your name, and definitely want you to know theirs
They want to play soccer and are most likely better at it than you are
They love to dance
They want to touch you, hug you, hang on you, be held and then spun around until your arms fall off
They will probably be the reason you get sick
They are surprising
They are hilarious
They rarely run out of smiles
They fight
They are exhausting
They are image-bearers of God
Right now in Ethiopia our main ministry is kids ministry. We spend two days a week at a local refugee camp, one day with the orphans who come to the feeding center, and the other two days taking care of manual labor projects around the compound. We are following in the footsteps of a previous World Race team who just completed three months of service here and was spending every other day at the refugee camp. The locals recognize us as the “forengees” who have come to teach and play and love. I was absolutely not prepared for what we saw at the camp. While the poverty level of the camp was not far beyond what I’d seen in South America, Asia, or in the Roma communities in Europe, the deepest unmet need these children have is for attention. I could not believe how much love these children craved. I have never had my hands physically fought over for who gets to hold them. I have never felt so needed yet also so helpless in a sea of kids who just wants a moment of eye contact and a round of double-double-this-this. The twelve of us forengees plus our two hosts are swamped with kids from the moment our bus arrives to the moment it pulls away. Beyond that, seeing children in need is always heartbreaking. They don’t have clean clothes, toothbrushes, medical care, toilets, shoes that fit, shoes without holes, or sometimes shoes in general. They are operating on such a basic level of needs met yet rejoice at the sight of a soccer ball. They are resilient and joyful, eager to learn and eager to play.
The lord has exposed me to a lot of need over the past nine months. In seeing the insurmountable needs he has gently reminded me that it’s not all my burden to bear. He has shown me that I could spend the rest of my life working at Hope Home in Thailand and there would still be millions more who I would never meet nor help. He has shown me just how big our world is and how great our need for a savior is, and that the savior isn’t me. Our savior is Jesus, he already came to the world, and he is using and working all things for good, despite the evident brokenness of the world. That is something I have had to declare over myself hundreds of times so far on the race. I can’t meet every need of every person I meet, often I can’t even meet a few. But I can help the one he puts in front of me. I can hold a child who never gets to be held, I can provide a new ball for the hundreds of kids who make do with a single flat one. I can show a few kids how to do a proper cartwheel, and sometimes that’s all Jesus asks of me. He exposes me to needs and the consequences of sin and reminds me that while I am commanded to serve his people I am not commanded (or able) to save them. We can each only do so much, but if all of us do our little parts then the world could be in a little bit better of a state.
Here are the faces of some of the kids we’ve met at the refugee camp. Some are in my English class, others just come around during the afternoon to play. They love taking and seeing photos of themselves, and I am very thankful for teammates who make sure to snap a few amidst the organized chaos of the afternoon.
