I'm going to be honest, I don't jump at the opportunity to do ministry with children. This month, and really, last month in Romania as well, we participated in and organized many children programs. For some reason I consume myself with ESL or the college ministry or something other than the kids' programs this month. Today though I participated in a kid's ministry for the first time this week and, despite the fact that I was fighting a headache when I entered the ministry, it was rejuvenating.
These children ranged from the ages of what seemed like 6 yrs old or younger to 13 yrs old. Every Saturday and Sunday they come to class for 1.5 hours and learn about Christ and they worship. When we walked in the door they were giggling and, although shy at first, began coming up to us with excitement and asking what our names were and shaking our hands and just surrounding us with their smiles and joy. More than anything they just wanted to attach themselves to us and love on us, as we loved on them.
One and a half hours is more than we normally have by ourselves to conduct a program, so my teammates (the kid fanatics) came up with a few new games and stories. We sang a few songs like "Making Melodies in my Soul", "Father Abraham", "the Lord's Army", and "Oh LeiLei". I was impressed by how the kids already knew these songs and so many more, except "Oh LeiLei". All of these songs have motions that go with them that cause a person to completely forget how old they think they are. The kids also sang a couple of songs that we didn't know and taught us some motions to go along with them. We did a skit on the story of The Good Samaritan (Luke 10)…it just keeps getting better every time we do it. We also did a skit where the kids took roles as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in the fiery furnace to teach the kids that the God of Abraham prevails (Daniel 3). Further, Erin gave a great testimony about grace from her childhood, playing basketball. We also played the “impulse” game which is where we form 2 lines and one of us stands in between the 2 lines at one end, holding the hand of the end person of each line. As soon as we squeeze the hands of the end person from each line they have to send the impulse down the line until the last person feels their hand squeezed. They the last person picks up the bottle that sits at their end of the line in between the 2 lines. It’s a race and they love it, although it’s quite difficult for the young kids to catch on.
The eldest girl (she is 13 years old and wants to be a doctor) stayed close to me the whole time we were with them, as well as a group of younger kids. They would call me over if I walked towards another group of kids or to another part of the room, or actually come get me and pull me close to them. Most of our time at this ministry I was sitting with them, holding their hands and interlocking arms, as others were upfront doing skits or stories. They repeatedly asked me if I was coming back and repeatedly told me, as they stared into my eyes (which by the way is the most precious thing ever when a child hugs you tight and looks up with their big tender eyes and smiles, knowing that they don’t ever want to let go), that they loved me. The most precious and heart questioning feeling arose within me. “These children need us. How can they love and express this love so easily and desperately with me? What is their family life like?”
Towards the end of our time with these kids we handed out crackers. Before I knew it they were shoving crackers into my mouth and as I said, “no, no, I want you to have them,” they put on a sad face. [Side note: when we do children programs in villages many kids, and even adults, come in expectation that they will get food at the end because this has become a norm and they don’t always have food and can’t always afford food.] Not to say that these kids were in such situations but to assume that they may be and to know that they weren’t as well off as even I am, it was so humbling to experience their complete joy from sharing their food with me. The eldest girl even took a nice bobby pin out of her hair and put it in my hair for me to take as a remembrance of her. In return, I gave her a bracelet that I was wearing. My friend, Jamie, made a bunch of bracelets to sell in support of this trip and I brought a handful of them to give to people that touch my heart this year.
As we were leaving it was like saying goodbye forever (not knowing if we’d be coming back to this ministry while in India) with lots of hugs, hanging onto, and “I love yous”. I have never had such love expressed to me in such a short time of knowing a person. These kids had it down. They were Jesus to me today.
