Day 11 on the World Race
Hello there. This is Sasha! What a goof who quickly became one of my favorite little humans! He is one of the kids that has been coming to the camp we have been helping out at this week.
Can I tell you a cool story that God spoke to me through this little boy, Sasha?
So for camp, my team is split up into different teaching groups. I however am not in a group, I am going around taking photos & videos for the camp to be put into a video for them each day. So with that, during the actual lessons I have more free time after I get some footage. On day two of camp, Sasha started following me around. He kept leaving his lessons and would hang around me and follow me from place to place as I got footage. It was clear he wanted my attention and he was content when he had it. Yesterday he found me upstairs, ran to me, showed me his bag of snacks and shared them with me. On the outside looking in, Sasha to a lot of people was one of those kids who just disobeyed because he wouldn’t stay in class and kept adventuring around, which is a lot to handle. Definitely a little bit of an outcast because he was around everywhere! But I didn’t see him that way. I felt drawn to be his friend because he was different. Sure, he should have stayed in his lessons but God reminded me of something through Sasha hanging around me.
As silly as it may sound, sometimes God just wants us to hangout with him. We don’t always need to be doing anything specific, God wants us to just simply BE with Him. Without the distractions of anything else. Just like Sasha just wanted to hangout with me and have my attention. It makes sense that we are called children of God!
I will say though, it was kind of hard hanging out with Sasha because he would try to talk with me but we didn’t understand each other very well because we speak different languages. So we communicated through actions. We’d play, we’d color, eat snacks, bounce on the trampoline, run around (which was more of me chasing him around because he took my lens cap to my camera). We just hung out. And as I got to hangout with Sasha, I saw how great of a kid he really is. Sure he has his moments when he gets upset and doesn’t listen sometimes, but I also saw him stick up and protect a girl who was being picked on. I saw him share. He helped me clean up after games. I saw how big of a heart he has.
Hanging out with Sasha, I couldn’t help but see Jesus in that and how Jesus just loves to simply be with us.
I am thankful for that!
After day 1 of not having a group, just taking photos and videos I kind of felt like my job wasn’t having as much of an impact compared to if I was in a group. But that thought quickly changed because it gave me the opportunity to be Sasha’s friend and love him well. It makes me think of the story in the Bible of how Jesus left the 99 for one!
“If a man has a hundred sheep and one of them wanders away, what will he do? Won’t he leave the ninety-nine others on the hills and go out to search for the one that is lost? And if he finds it, I tell you the truth, he will rejoice over it more than over the ninety-nine that didn’t wander away! In the same way, it is not my heavenly Father’s will that even one of these little ones should perish.” – Matthew 18:12-14
I am thankful for this “behind the scenes” job because it allowed me to have a unique opportunity to show Jesus to Sasha. Jesus isn’t confined to a church or a building. Sometimes showing Jesus is jumping on a trampoline with a little kid, or befriending someone who is different.
Never underestimate the impact of what seems insignificant.
Till next time, much love
T.
P.S. Keep an eye out for a short video of what ministry looks like, there are some fun clips of Sasha!
