We begin each morning here in Lebanon with a devotional and
time of reflection. Today, as we talked
about “doing good” and “expected” and “unexpected” results I thought about our
work here with the children. The
children are divided into classes and we spend time each day helping them with
their math, English and Arabic (yes, Arabic) lessons. I have been working with the kindergarten
class. When I met the 5 wonderful boys
that would be in my class I expected them to be calm, attentive and to eagerly
get their lessons done. Did this
happen? No way! In fact, the class might often feel more like
chaos than learning. Not what I expected!
Has my class learned any new math, English or Arabic
skills? I’m not sure. (I know they
haven’t learned any Arabic from me.) But as I thought about “unexpected”
results today I realized that even though it may seem like chaos, the time
sitting on the floor with puzzles, reading books, singing silly songs, or just
playing together is also important. The
children have an opportunity to learn to share and to be patient, kind and
respectful. Throughout the week our
group has tried to show all the children the love of Christ in our smiles, our
laughter and our hugs as well as the Bible stories, crafts and activities. We have seen so many positive unexpected results
and have received so many unexpected blessings from the children.
I don’t know what the long term results of our time together
will be but I trust God to do unexpectedly great things in each of our lives
and the lives of the children here in Lebanon.
-Clara Holleyman
No comments:
Post a Comment