Meet the Kids

One evening at Bible study, one of the ladies pointed out a pretty good-sized group of predominately little boys who come to church most Sundays. Many have very little English, but they keep coming to our English-speaking church. We decided as a group to come early one Sunday to…”Meet the kids”. We showed up an hour before services started and called the handful who were running around over to us. They certainly thought they were in trouble, so we quickly pulled out the cookies and started talking to them. All the non-Kinyarwanda speaking people had a ministry partner to help them translate.

There were a lot of assumptions I had made about these kids—I figured they were mostly street kids with no parents and were there just to steal from people at church. I was talking with one of the shyer ones and had my ministry partner ask him why he came to church. He told her in Kinyarwanda that he comes because he wants to go to Heaven. Shame on me! I’m not sure what he learned, but I certainly learned a lesson that Sunday—stop being a judgmental snob.


We missed the following Sunday, but were back to “Meet the kids” this morning. An hour before services, we pulled in and saw about 15 waiting for us. My housemate got a beach ball out and we played ball with them and then a little bit closer to services she had a coloring sheet for them. We are getting to know their names and that many have parents and are in school. By the time we were ready to go in for service, there were about 27! I’ve tried to make sure when we go into services to grab a couple to sit with me. When we take communion, I watch and make sure they aren’t double dipping, or taking more than they should. And because we are developing a relationship with them, they listen to us.

I’ve been asking myself a lot recently why I go to Sunday services, or what is the purpose and what are we supposed to be doing. I think I’ve finally realized Sunday is not about me. Maybe you already knew this and I’m just the slow one.

My Sundays used to be sitting and drinking coffee and eating breakfast, often spending some quiet time with the Lord. Now, I try to get up a little earlier for a little quiet time and then we leave early to meet the kids. Those kids belong to the church and are all of our responsibility to guide and pour into. Some days I feel like I don’t have a lot to offer, but it is just the smallest bit of attention with these little guys.

After church as they come down from their Bible class, I get high fives and hugs on the way out. I want to yell at myself sometimes—open your eyes, Jamie! Do what you can where you are! Stop judging or making things complicated. We don’t need an agenda or schedule, we are just there...
meeting the kids.

Comments

  1. AnonymousMay 1, 2015 at 5:04 PM

    Jamie, I made a comment on a more current post, and totd you that I have a blog. It's mainly Children's illustrated Bible stories, but you might be able to use it with these little guys: eileemandjesus.blogspot.com ;)

    ReplyDelete

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