I woke up from my afternoon nap in time for evening service feeling groggy and slightly disoriented. Went in to the church and other than having TzuAnne who's visiting for a week, was like any normal Sunday evening service.
Until Shelly*, an 11 year old from the neighbourhood, appeared and made her way to sit next to me.
Some context to the 'neighbourhood kids' - these are kids who are not that well off, and if not materially, emotionally and some to a degree, mentally but certainly spiritually. These are kids who have to learn to be street smart at a very young age, and some of the kids certainly don't have the kind of love and attention rich middle-class parents give their children.
Shelly is particularly attached to me, though I suspect more because she realises I'm her passport into all the attention she can get from adults rather than purely affection for my person. Now 7 year old Betty is a different story.
Anyway, for a while, we've been encouraging the kids to come to church, which makes it easier for us, because we don't have to set aside too much time to spend time with them in the field right across church where most of the neighbourhood kids play. But most of the times, they only come after the service for the chocolate biscuits.
So to see Shelley join the service was very exciting. But even more exciting was when I saw a 13 year old boy, Steven, follow after her.
Now Steven is a different story! He is extreeemely excitable, and his father we suspect is a drunkard, while his mother we suspect could be a drug addict. Nevertheless, the influences in his life is so extremely negative but yet no matter how annoyingly unruly he can get, Steven has a special soft spot in everyone's heart because you can really see his heart peeking through all the negative influences he has. He's calmed down a lot, particularly without his closer friends around so it takes away his need to show off, and inappropriate behavior and words have earned him some rebukes and also because the older guys have shown him that he is accepted by them, without him needing to impress them.
Nobody would have thought he would walk into the church service, but I immediately called AC and only said, "Steven is here!" and that got him rushing to church.
A part of me looked around the faces of the people in church and wondered why no one thought it was tremendous that these two kids were sitting with me. But I guess no one really knows the kids as well as a few of us who try to be as involved with them as possible. Or the fact that for a number of these kids, their lives is slowly but surely being changed in ways not any one of us can understand or anticipate through the small interactions they are making with the church. And if all our efforts help keep one of these kids from believing that they have no choice to turn away from bad decisions, or that if one of them comes to know the joy of salvation found from the cross, then it is far more tremendous than we can ever hope for.
*All names of neighbourhood kids are changed
Making changes
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