I have heard parents express concern when they are pregnant with their second child that they won’t be able to love their second child as much as the first or that their love will be divided between children. I never really understood this concept until I came on the race.
Our first month of ministry my team and I were blessed with amazing contacts. They treated us like family and loved us really well. I didn’t think any of the following months our contacts could compare to that first month. Then our second month of ministry came along and we stayed with a pastor and his family. Pastor Jaime was entertaining but also encouraged us spiritually (similar to Pastor David first month) and his wife made us amazing food and the family really strived to make us comfortable and welcome. For our month here in the Philippines we have been blessed with contacts who are our friends. Our contacts for both street light ministries and the orphanage we are currently at are our age and we have been able to do lots of fun activities with them and just hang out with them. We have gone zip lining, to karaoke, to see Mockingjay (of course we all braided our hair like Katniss) had a bonfire and have some other activities planned for here in Malabalay.
Our first month our team worked with kids a little bit and were able to form some really close connections with a few of the kids at the school but we didn’t spent extensive periods of time with them. The last two weeks in the Philippines we have spent Monday-Friday pretty much all day with the same group of about 10-15 kids. We were able to form relationships with them in the short time we were there and all had our special way of loving on the kids. For one girl that was playing chess, for another it was reading or playing dominos, Laura was able to bond with the kids playing basketball (along with other ways) or it could have been just sitting with the kids and cuddling and singing Frozen. Leaving those kids was hard because I loved them a lot and wanted to stay to be able to celebrate their victories and watch them be able to move from the streets into homes. To be able to watch them get off drugs and walk in the freedom Christ wants them to live in. But I know they are in good hands. The ministry has great people who are committed to staying with those kids and love them. I didn’t know if I would be able to transition to the orphanage so quickly and be able get attached to another group of kids.
However, I am learning that love can be multiplied and not divided. It is possible to love all our ministry contacts the way we have loved the first three. It is possible to love all the kids we do ministry with the way we loved the kids at street light ministries. God places us exactly where he needs us and where we need to be and although each month and ministry looks different I can love each one equally, that doesn’t mean I have to love the first ministry less because love is multiplied each month not divided.
