it was only an hour long but it was LIFE CHANGING for me.
i heard in my head while watching all those kids sing and dance...
"God is HERE. He is still good and still HERE...even in kroo bay. HE is good even in this place."
that is embarassing.
it's just that...my mind is warped by the world.
my mind sees earthly wealth and thinks "good"
but when it sees poverty or slums it thinks "bad".
not good or bad PEOPLE but just a general thought...bad meaning sad, uncomfortable, wrong.
and that is wrong.
everyone knows that....i assume.
but i think it truly was my default.
without even realizing it.
i needed to look past the obvious...the dirt and the lack of "stuff"...to see what was there.
GOD was there.
200 children showed me.
when they see the staff from WMF walking through Kroo Bay the children know it's time to come.
they followed us down the hill to the doors...so excited.
this was the church before the kids came in while our group was getting instructions.
and outside...the kids were so excited to come in.
they file in...
quietly.
impressive...they were so good.
they went over the bible story of the previous week....
and then there was worship music.
WOW.
it was beautiful.
like deep deep down beautiful.
it makes me cry as i am typing just thinking of it.
i have never heard anything like it.
during the instructions for us before the kids came in we were told
"sometimes the kids get sleepy or fall asleep...if you see that just walk them around to help them"
and i thought "really? they fall asleep with all the other kids here?"
really.
it was the sweetest...the mother in me was aching to hold them...as much for me as for them.
i was missing my own kids.
he's crying because of me.
he was afraid of my white skin.
it's good...because i wouldn't have wanted to put him down for the rest of the day if he'd have let me.
one of the pastors gave the lesson about what kind of man Jesus was.
he first acted demanding and rude...yelling at peter to get him food...water...clean his feet.
then asked the kids "isn't He King? isn't He Master? then what does He act like?"
the kids were watching with intensity.
he then showed the Jesus we know in the bible.
loving and caring for his disciples...and then HE washed their feet.
i was totally crying at this point.
as a treat each child who is there gets a hard boiled egg to eat.
even that was humbling.
would my children be satisfied with an egg?
would they even eat it?
i can promise you that every child there ate it and was very happy about it.
it was an honor to pass out eggs to these sweet children.
before each child left a grown up prayed with them.
this place was joyous.
this place was love.
this place was my favorite memory of my time in africa.
God is there.
