This is how it really went...
A couple of
weeks ago, my husband was in a planning meeting for the Young Lives Christmas
party and called me to ask if I could put together a two-hour program for 60
kids ages five and under. I immediately
said no which caused him a lot of angst (since he already told the other people
in the meeting that I would be more than happy to do it). Once I realized that I didn’t have to write a
play or put on a puppet show – that I could just “recycle” a Waumba Land lesson
or two – I was on board.
As the days
went by, a two-hour program turned into three hours. I wasn’t going to know who my volunteers were
until a few minutes before we received the children (since the volunteers could
decide if they wanted to help out with children, set up tents, or serve food). That meant that I only had 30 minutes to get
the music started; explain how to man the registration table; divide the tasks
of and explain all of the activities, Bible stories, and crafts that I wanted
to do; and decide how we were dividing up the children. The space that I had to receive the children
was very bland and I needed to “jazz it up a bit” (as my grandmother says).
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| Me going over the day's strategy with some eager-to-serve volunteers. |
Once the
doors opened, it was a bit chaotic.
These children are not used to leaving their mothers AT ALL nor
socializing with other kids, and some of the moms were skeptical of leaving
their children with us strangers.
Sufficed to say that there was a lot of crying going on in a room with
an echo. My strict schedule that I
created to keep me and the volunteers organized flew out the window! It turned more into crowd control rather than
a structured time of teaching children about Jesus being born and the Wise Men
going to visit him.
.JPG) |
| My wonderful volunteers, Laura and Vanessa, who told the Bible story to these two sisters. |
I had to
continually remind myself of something that I said to motivate my volunteers,
“The most important components of today’s event is not the lesson, but being
the hands and feet of Christ by showing His love to these young mothers and
their children by smiling, greeting them warmly, and providing a caring, safe
environment for the kids.”
After the
moms picked up their little ones, lots of people asked me how it went. I was worn out from receiving kids, finding
juice boxes, making crafts, and answering lots of volunteers’ questions. I didn’t think that my part of the event went
well because it didn’t go according to my plan.
But I must remember that my plan doesn’t matter. It’s God’s plan that matters.
We showed
up to serve, the kids eventually calmed down, and some of the older ones actually learned the Bible verse! The
moms had lots of fun acting silly and feeling carefree for a few hours. They felt something that a lot of them don’t
get at home – love. So how did it
go? Perfect!
