So, yesterday we kind of ruined the afternoon…for the teachers. All the kids were sitting so quietly doing their homework when we thought it would be fun to go in and introduce them to Lego’s and Mega Blocks! Yipee! To say that we had fun, would be an understatement. To say that we created a little chaos would also be a HUGE understatement! I’m not sure I have never heard the children that noisy nor do I think I have ever seen such huge smiles and heard as much giggling. (except maybe when we drew water from the well for the first time – see previous posts about those projects)
About four weeks ago, I was sitting on my sofa watching my two oldest children play. They had their dishes out and were making me “breakfast”. I was thinking about this trip and the children at the school and how different my children’s lives are. How they have so many toys to occupy their time and spark their imagination. And I found myself thinking, “you know, the kids at the school don’t have toys.” It just kind of crept into my mind and I found that over the next couple of days, I couldn’t get that thought out of my head. So I thought, well it’s not a life and death thing. It’s certainly not a necessity. And I put the thought away. But it kept coming back every time I watched my kids play. So, I thought, well I am going to put the want out there and see what happens. So I asked if anyone wanted to donate their old Mega Blocks and Legos.
Legos? Mega Blocks?? Really, Becca. Yes. It is hard to imagine the life that most of these kids live. They eat, sleep, drink, and breathe poverty. For them it is a way of life. They’ve never known anything different. To them, having an old crushed water bottle is cause to team up and start a game of “kick ball”. I wish you could have heard their beautiful laughter and sweet little giggles as they played. I wish each of you who made this possible could have been here to play with them and see their smiles and joy. For me, I am homesick for my children. I want to see them play and hear them laugh and having the opportunity to see and hear these kids enjoying themselves; and it reminded me why I took this trip in the first place – because my kids could be these kids. They could have been born into a life of extreme poverty, with little hope for a future. I cannot look at the children, with their swollen bellies and skinny arms and not see my kids. I hear their voices in every untreated cough; I see their faces every time I look into the face of a hungry child and I think, “God, that could have been Sarayah, Aidan or Israel.” And I know that the work we do here is worth the sacrifices. It’s worth the ache I feel from missing my children and my husband. It’s worth the long flight and “scariness” of navigating a foreign country. Because if those kids were my kids…if those kids were your kids…wouldn’t it be worth anything, just to see them have the joy of playing with a toy – a simple toy. I can tell you they were so excited and so happy. Thank you. Thank you for investing in this trip. Thank you for investing in this ministry. Thank you for investing in these kids.
– Mama Aidan (Becca)