Small Miracles

Sometimes the little things are the best! Here are 2 stories that touched my heart this past week. I’m so glad God lets me be a part of these small things.

Story One: My cousin is a 3rd Grade teacher in VA. Her class wanted to write letters to the children here in South Africa. Along with letters, they also sent really great books...One book for each child. We have a set of twins here at the Day Care (Andiswa and Andile). Their Mom is a sweet woman who can not read a thing! She can’t even write her own name. She is determined to make sure her daughters get a better education than she had. When I gave her and her daughters the letters from the kids in America, she asked me to read them to her kids for her. Then I picked some super easy books for her daughters. I read them and showed her older daughter how easy it was so she could read them to the 2 younger ones when they got home. The books said things like "I am yellow, I am red, etc."

The next day Nhlanhla (the mom) came to me and said "I read those books to my daughters last night. I could remember the words!" Wow! A Mom who couldn’t read was able to read 2 books to her daughters! What a miracle! This is an experience she would not have been able to share with her kids if those books hadn’t been sent. All I did was hand out books and read them. But through that I got to see a small miracle happen!


Story Two: On Saturday night a bunch of volunteers were all going to go bowling together. We all met at the Door of Hope before leaving. We were going to take one of the babies with us because he had been having some breathing trouble during the day. As we were waiting to go, someone made the comment "His color isn’t looking so good." It was chilly and he was wrapped in a couple of blankets and I was nervous, so I said "If it was me, I would unwrap him and WATCH him breathe just so I wouldn’t feel so nervous." So that’s what we did. And sure enough, he had stopped breathing. So 2 of the volunteers instantly started CPR and hopped in the car and rushed him to the hospital.

Now I KNOW that these ladies are good at what they do. And I KNOW they would have caught the fact that he wasn’t breathing just as quickly with or without my comment. But I got to be a small part of catching this problem and praying for this baby as he headed for the hospital. What a blessing to get to be part of such a miracle.
(The baby is in the hospital now. He has stabilized and is receiving great care.)

Power Cuts

It is common to lose power for 4 hours at a time. This happens about 2 to 3 times a week. The power company just cant keep up with demand, so they "load shed" by cutting power in different parts of the city throughout the week. This power outage affects many stores, who have turned to generators to keep their businesses open. It also affects stop lights....which is a nightmare in rush hour traffic! But generally speaking, since we know they will happen, we just live with the power outages.

Yesterday was a different story. We lost 4 hours of power in the morning (which reset my alarm clock...Thank God for a flexible work schedule!) Then we lost power again at 2PM. This would have been fine. With the usual 4 hour cut, we would have gotten power back at 6PM...just in time for dinner. BUT NO...our power DID come back on at 6PM...for 2 minutes!!! And they cut it again!! So Sara and I lit a candle and laid around for a while talking. Then by 8 we were hungry. So we went to get dinner at a restaurant. And when we got home, we only had to wait a little while and the power finally came on and stayed on.

I dont know why we were so lucky to have our power turned off for 12 hours in one day! But I sure hope this doesnt happen again!

Children Singing

There is this wonderful, magical, God-given pleasure I get when I hear children singing praise songs. I firmly believe that God gave us music just so we could enjoy the process of praising Him a little more. And I also believe that children crave music, rhythm and songs. Add the two together and you get this beautiful world where singing doesn’t have to be good or planned. The verse doesn’t have to be finished. There is no need for an audience. A child singing to God is pure worship. They don’t have to pray to be ready to worship. They don’t have to have a full band playing to make the music good. They don’t need good lighting and a powerful message. And they don’t need to be alone in their cars to sing at the top of their lungs. When children feel the need to sing praise songs, they sing. And I LOVE it. I love to hear them sing when they don’t know I’m listening. I love to hear them sing when they are in front of church. I love to hear them sing along with me when I’m trying to teach a new song (...and they don’t know the song yet, but still sing along and mess it up, and somehow it sounds even better because of their impulsive need to just SING to GOD!) And I especially love to hear them sing when they invite me to listen or join in.

Children inherently know that there is power in music. Songs just get stuck in your head. How many times have you found yourself humming a tune? Have you ever just NEEDED to listen to a certain song? I often wake up with a song already running through my mind.

Now think about the music that runs through your mind, and more importantly, the music that runs through your child's mind. What types of things do you want them to dwell on? What types of things do you want to pop into their heads at the most unexpected places and times? Christian music comes in ALL flavors these days. Explore! I thank God that there are options for every musical taste out there.

Try to learn a lesson from these wonderful children and allow your praise of God to come naturally, all day, without thought or effort. Listen to good praise songs until they are popping into your head at the strangest times. And dare to sing in the car, sing in the shower, sing when no one is watching, sing when you are happy or sad.....just sing to God and let your heart dwell on Him throughout the day. Dwell upon the Lord and He will dwell in you.

ALL My Kids

I added pictures of each of the 60 kids to my flickr picture website!

http://www.flickr.com/photos/amberdawny/sets/
This link is half way down on the left hand side of this page. It says "My Photos Website"
Click on the folder named TLC Kids

Each photo has the child, child's name, a parent and parent's name. Check out all 60 photos. Pick one to pray for!

In The Grocery Store?

All Chrisitans must know how important it is to share our Jesus with the rest of the world. But if you are anything like me, it’s not something you easily do on a daily basis. Even as a missionary, I rarely lead someone to salvation. (Of course that fact must be backed up with the fact that I work with preschoolers all day.)

I've found that even though I live in South Africa, a strange and foreign land, I'm still living in a very safe Christian bubble. My roommates are Christians. My co-workers are Christians. Most of my spare time and social life is spent hanging out with members of the church or other volunteers...who are ALL Christians. And the times that I do directly speak about Jesus, I'm talking to children. I pray that I'm planting seeds in the hearts and minds of these little children. And perhaps some day they will grow up and be mature enough to make a decision to love Christ.

But I often wonder what I should be doing to tell others about Christ. I can't deny that I want every one to know the peace of salvation. We all know we have sinned....even the best of us are rotten at times. And being a good person isn’t going to get us into heaven. The only way to be close to God is get rid of sin. And the only way to do that is through Jesus. It’s easy to write it here, so why can’t I share this with the lady in the grocery store, or my neighbors, or even the security guard at my apartment complex. Would hearing about Jesus in a random way in the middle of their day be an effective way of showing them God's love? I know that I need to show God's love as much as I talk about it. But is there a point where I need to just shout it? Or do I just try harder to let my life be an example and hope God directs conversations so that I have a more natural opportunity to talk about Him? I wish there were hard and fast rules about when and where and what to say to people. They might go a little something like this.....

Rules for Sharing God with Others--101
A. Always talk about Him in the grocery store.
B. No matter what people say, always reply "God Loves You"
C. See how often you can redirect conversations by referring to Bible stories.
D. Speak to at least 3 non-church-goers every day and invite them to church.
E. Keep your windows down in traffic so that when you are stopped at a red light you can talk to the guy in the car beside you about Jesus.
F. Always wear Jesus shirts, jewelry and other paraphernalia....if you can't talk about Jesus, at least your shirt can.

Hahaha Unfortunately, I don't think we can know when and how to share God by making lists like that!

The one thing I have definitely learned while in South Africa is that serving God comes in many shapes and forms. Teaching children, caring for abandoned babies, leading youth, starting new churches, building new churches, playing instruments, delivering donations to small towns, leading Bible study, planning church fellowship time, passing out food parcels, hanging out with kids in the park, sending care packages with Little Debbie Cakes, donating money and time, planning retreats, sharing the good news of God's love with words...........I could go on and on. There are so many ways to serve God. I pray that God makes it clear to me (and to you) how to serve Him TODAY. Do we have to share God by talking to the people in the grocery store? Maybe, but thank God there are hundreds of other ways too!

Random Thoughts Put Together

We have had low numbers here at TLC the past week. The public schools are year round schools. They take 4 breaks throughout the year. There is a 3 week break happening right now. Since the older school kids are not in school, they often keep their younger siblings at home during this school break. This makes low numbers at our Day Care. To take advantage of the low numbers, the teachers have been taking turns having a day off. I’m loving the low numbers for several reasons.
One: The children are better behaved (because there are fewer of them and we catch them misbehaving easier).
Two: It's easier to spend more quality time with the children. (Like teaching them the rhyme "Miss Suzy had a baby..." Once they realized what it was about they laughed SOOO hard!)
Three: The rush of every day activities has slowed down a lot. This has given me the chance to get some work done on the curriculum.

The only down side to the school break is that our "after school" kids have not been stopping by. I miss helping them with their homework and playing tic-tac-toe.

The weather has been beautiful since I've been back. Bright and sunny, high 70s. I hope this stretches on for a few months before winter sets in. I'm not looking forward to another South African winter.

We went to a BIG church on the nice side of town on Sunday night. The worship team did a great job. The bass guitar player was wonderful! And the message was good. But it was such a vivid contrast to the church I usually attend. The size of the church, the color of the people, the socio-economic status, and level of education were all very different. Not to mention the differences in the sound system, size of the building, organization and appeal of the physical building. The people at the BIG church give their money and time to help the less fortunate people in the surrounding communities. They give from the excess that they have and seem to give gladly from the number of out-reach/help programs they have going on. But the people from Troyeville give sacrificially of their money and time in their community. They have so little, but are often willing to give until it literally hurts to help others who are less fortunate. They understand the needs around them, because they have lived through them. When I see people at church with no job and little money place what they do have in the offering, I am humbled.

Are both churches serving God with their money and talents? Absolutely. Are both churches blessings to their communities? Absolutely. Are both churches meeting the needs of God's people through prayer, Bible study and community outreach? Absolutely. I don’t want to suggest that one church is better than the other. I'm only trying to point out how amazed I am that God's people can be so diverse. I'm so glad He loves us ALL! Rich and poor, black and white, old and young, big and small. I'm so glad our God is a God of diversity.

Back to Work!

I was welcomed back to South Africa with a group hug from 20+ children...which nearly knocked me down! But it was fantastic to know I was missed. I can’t begin to explain the joy I feel when I look into these caramel brown eyes. There is no color like it. A golden brown that looks richer than chocolate and softer than a cat resting in the sun. And I get to look into 59 pairs of these eyes every day!! (The 60th pair of eyes are sky blue!)

Now that I’m back in South Africa, I feel like I have a very limited amount of time left. 3 months to finish this curriculum and love on these children and try to solve all the world's problems (at least the ones that fit into Troyeville). Having a deadline has definitely helped me refocus and prioritize.

I often get the feeling that I’m spinning my wheels here. But God is good and gives us a word of encouragement when we need it. Just a couple of nights ago, one of the VA Missionaries commented "I can really see a change happening here at TLC." He saw the Preschool before I arrived and has seen things as they are now. I was so blessed to hear that there are visible and obvious changes. Even when I feel like I’m getting nothing done, God is making things happen here! Please keep praying for the children and the teachers.