Sunday July 20, 2014
Today was rad. We went to Rio Bueno Baptist Church for service. The church was small and only a handful of people from the community came. One was a little boy who was 8 years old. His name was Kevin.
He was sitting in the back of the church dressed up nicer than any of us were. And he was sitting by himself. Kevin’s in the 2nd grade and likes to play futbol. He was quite, and shy. He didn’t say much but what he did say said a lot. I asked him where his family was and he said they were at home. This 8 year old boy came to church without his family. I was shocked. At 8 years old you wouldn’t find me at church. Shoot my parents still wake me up for Sunday morning church and I’m 21. This little boy wanted to be there. He chose to be there. This gets me STOKED for vactaion bible school (VBS). Even if one kid came, and we are able to touch that one life. That would be enough.
After the service, we took flyers, broke off into groups and went out into the community. One of the most humbling experiences. Homes with no roofs, windows or doors. Beds stacked outside the walls. Kids carrying buckets of water from a main water tank to their own homes. Clothes hanging on clothes lines. And even with all of this, they were some of the nicest, most sincere and genuine people.
We were walking through the streets passing out flyers and we came to a dead-end. We made multiple turns, and ended up somewhere that we were unsure of. I approached a home hoping to have someone help us get back to the main road. There were 4 people in this home. A father, a mother and 2 children. All of them were laying on the same bed. The only bed in the place. The man stood up and asked if i was ok. I simply asked if he could point us in the direction of the main road. His response, “No problem mon.”
The stereo typical word “mon” is more than 100% accurate. Everyone here says “mon” after almost every sentence. Forget dude and bro. “Mon” is gunna start replacing those words in my vocabulary.
So this guy, (his name was Raasch, if that’s how you spell it) didn’t just point us in the right direction. He walked us the entire way and showed us through the neighborhoods so we could pass out more flyers. Genuine kindness.
Where is this kindness to stangers back at home? What happened to southern california that even a simple conversation between strangers is rare.
Monday July 21, 2014
Woke up late for breakfast. Whoops. 8:15 rolls around and the vehicles are loaded with all the necessities for the day: tools, art supplies, footballs, soccer balls, hacky sacs, etc. So we load up and head off to the church. Rio Bueno Baptist Church.
Before we even have time to stop and get out, kids are standing on the stairs waving at us. This was amazing. The kids were so excited for VBS they actually got there early and waited for us. It showed me how much these kids enjoy having people to hang out with. People to talk to and play games with. They had something different to do today and they were excited.
When we got started today, I’d say we had about 20 kids. Slowly this grew. 25 kids. 30 kids. And then out of nowhere, we had about 100 kids. I don’t even remember it happening, nor do I understand how it happened. I take that back. God happened. He called all those kids there for us to pour out love to. Kathi was stressed. I would have been too trying to lead the madness. It immediately went from a structured setting to chaos. The music wasn’t working. Kids were running from group to group jumping on leaders. We could barely get all the kids attention at one time and things were just hectic. We even had a couple of troublemakers who thought it would be funny to pinch us, slap us, bite us, you name it. But through the midst of it all, it was fun. The kids were having the time of their lives and learning about Jesus. This is what really matters.
One little girl asked me to pick her up, so I did. Her name was Djohnee. She was 4 years old. After a few minutes I tried to put her down. Not happening. So sure enough I ended up carrying her around for I’d say a solid hour. Great workout. Mom’s with kids, props. Mega props. But while I was holding her, I asked her about her friends, her family, school, anything I could think of. And sure enough I had to ask her about Jesus.
“Do you know how much you are loved?”
No response.
“Do you know how much you are loved?”
Nothing.
“Djohnee, do you know who Jesus is?”
(Shakes her head yes)
“Who is he?”
(mumbles under her breath)
“Can you say it a little louder?”
(singing)
“Jesus, loves me this I know, for the Bible tells me so. Little ones from here below, they are weak but He is strong. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes, Jesus loves me. Yes Jesus loves me. The Bible tells me so.”
She had the biggest smile on her face. And then I got so excited I think I scared her..
Before that, I was speechless. This little girl was singing to me. Singing about how much Jesus loves her. Shoot, I thought I was going there to fill these kids up with God’s love. I didn’t think I was going to be filled up. Not as much as I was. And am even right now.
Djohnee was the biggest blessing to me. And this was only day 1 of VBS. 4 more days to go.
So many times, we are scared to go into certain situations. We scared because we don’t know how to react. We don’t want to feel helpless. We want to do something to help people but what and how? And what if it doesn’t go as planned? What if things get crazy? I can’t control the situation so why should I go? When these starts start to flood us, aren’t we putting our feelings before other people feelings? Aren’t we saying that I’m not comfortable so I don’t want to.
What people miss, is that just by showing up, we are making someone’s day. That is helping them. So many kids, and people just want someone to talk to. Someone to tell share their story with and what they know or learned. Listening to someone shows more love than we understand. Listening, processing and understanding them and through that responding to them. Love.
It’s not just physical need. Its emotional need. Whether we realize it or not. People young and old feel loved just by seeing a smiling face. It was so awesome working with these kids and being able to talk with them, play with them, and love them.
alifethatechoes 