Kids

June 30, 2006



We are still cataloguing books. It seems to be an never ending task, I think I am almost through, then another stack shows up. And this is just the books in the house. There are more in the container that we are waiting to put up more shelves so we can sort properly.
Anyhow. This morning James took me up the road to Pastor Samuels house. This is a man who Kathleen and James have worked with for several years. He has a church that they hold in a shelter just off their house. Anyhow, James was encouraging the pastors to not just think about Sunday morning, but to do something for their communities in the week. So Pastor Samuel decided to start a school. A free school (schools here you have to pay to attend, and many people can’t afford the fees). There is over 100 children from ages 3 to 14. We went up there, and I carried with me two footballs (soccer) that were donated by a man Karl Reuthers to give away. I almost didn’t want to take the balls out of the truck as I was afraid of starting a small riot. When the children saw the balls, they all started smiling and talking excitedly, all the chldren wanted to shake my hand, I could tell they could not wait to start playing with them. Football here is huge, as well as kickball. They were all very appreciative. Half the kids went off to play with the ball, the others stayed around me, I guess to have a look. I took some of their pictures. Then I suddenly had a following of children all wanting to be in a photo. I talked to Pastor Samuel and will be planning to go up there once a week and holding a childrens club. It is summer now, so there is no school. I will take a guitar and sing songs with them, tell bible stories, play games and hopefully share the love of Jesus with them. Some children here are not well cared for and some have to grow up very young and expected to work hard at home doing chores, or selling in the markets. This is an opportunity to be an example of love and care and to hopefully let them know that they are precious and worth so much in God’s eyes. In the bible Jesus said, “let the little children come to me, for such is the kingdom of heaven” God values children, and so should we. I know it will be overwhelming trying to work with so many children, with such a broad age range, but I am hoping that I can recruit some people to help me that are like minded in seeing the value of investing in children in this way. Fyffester, I am wishing you were here right now:)