Bears Bags and Children

Well. Its been, what...ten whole days. Crazy. Time is ticking along quite steadily and I am begining to think about my return home. When we get home it will be almost Christmas, which will certainly be a shock with the hot weather we have here. The last thing on my mind is Christmas. Here, there are no lights, no stores playing Christmas music, no advertisments on TV, cause, well....no TV. We did celebrate the first Sunday of Advent with waffles and lighting the Hope Candle. But, yep, still seem like summer to me:)
This past Friday Heather and I held a special kids club. We made up some gift bags for all the kids. Compassion International, who helped us fill our container with some used clothes, and hospital beds and other items sent all these knit stuffed bears, inside fabric drawstring bags. We took those, added some crayons, candy, notebook and a colouring book that Heather designed. Tada..gift bag. The bears were very cute, all with different expressions, and outfits. Anyhow, the night before I was making carmel corn for our festive event, and then stuffing bags with the goodies. Our colouring books were taken to the printers, but still we didn’t have them back. Club starts 9 am. Yep, I was a little worried. The sheets for the books arrived at 8:30, so we were frantically (okay, perhaps I was the only frantic person) collating, folding and stapling the books together. Oh, and the printers did the pages on two sizes of paper, some on 8.5 by 11 and some A4. Arg. So we had to trim down the A4 to the right size. Anyhow....I say to Heather, why do I come up with these ideas.....it always happens, crunch time and I am worrying about how it will all turn out, and feeling like nothing will work out. The night before we counted the bags. There were 59 bags. The week previous at club, there were 59 children. I was thinking, if they know it is a special club, there may be way more kids....so I start worrying. Heather tells me, don’t worry, God will have it all figured out. I stlil worry. So 59 bags. I had extra candy and crayons, so we took those, and one extra notebook and a few extra colouring books. We arrive, only 15 mintues late. I say Heather, can you count the kids...She counted, I don’t know how many times. Maybe six times. Problem with kids....they move around. She came up with a few different numbers. Finally, she comes to 59. The end comes, they have had their snack, we have taken a group photo (very challenging let me tell you. There were several carmel corn related altercations that broke out) Then we get the kids to sit down. I pray, and Kathleen and the Ngenda children bring out the boxes full of gift bags. I tell them. Stay in your seats, you can look in the bags, but don’t take anything out now, wait till you get home....As we pull out the first few bags...their voices start to chatter excitedly. We go down several rows. By this time some of the kids have looked in the bags to find the teddy bears and other items. The excitement grows. It gets louder and louder... it grows to a virtual roar. They were soooo happy and so excited to get a teddy bear for each one, and a bag. I turn around and one is putting the bag over his shoulders. I look in the front row at the smaller ones, and not surprisingly they have ignored my stern directions, and have their bears out, dancing on the tables. Everyone of those children was so happy and appreciative. Even the older boys, who I was worried would be “too cool” for the bears. The last row. Everyone has a bag, except one boy. I go back, there is one bag left. Wow. Talk about the perfect number. I had prayed to God all morning, please dear God, let there be 59 children or less. And He answered our prayers. Zechariah, one of the older boys, he came forward, and on behalf of all the children said thankyou. I could tell he was very happy, and moved. He kept saying, we have nothing to give to you, but we want to say thank you. I tell them, that is was our joy to give them the gifts, and it made us so happy to see them happy. That is a special memory.
On our way out, there was one boy who couldn’t be at school, because he was sick. I gave him the extra notebook and candy and crayons and colouring book. Unfortunately we had no bear and bag for him. There are several other children hanging around, that aren’t part of our group, so I give them all the rest of the extra candy and colouring books. I am reminded, there are so many children here. So many needs. The children who were walking by, probably about 10 years old were working, carring loads on their head to sell at market. They don’t go to school. So many needs. I am happy and sad all at the same time.