Wow! What a week and it's not over yet! When we first moved here the first thing I noticed was how many children lived in this neighborhood. Our neighborhood is not really that loud and in fact there are times where it's super quiet. But the children is what I have noticed most of all. There are so many I thought it would be easy to get a few to go to VBS with us and if I had to I would borrow the church van or have a couple different cars pick us up.
So I talked to my kids and I told them that I wanted to show them how to be missionaries where we are. We have talked to them about the possablity of going as full time missionaries in the future. I wanted to show them that I am not afraid to be bold and practice what I preach. So we decided that we would pass out fliers to kids as a family and we wanted to see how many we could get to come with us to VBS.
I in the mean time asked my mother-in-law to find out what it would take to drive the church van. The Secretary printed up extra postcards for me. All was lined up and God's hand was already starting to work.
The first night we went out we handed out 22 fliers it was a Saturday evening and it seemed like most of them were out at least on our block anyway. Robby and Jack were so eager to invite kids that they had met. Even Ahna started becoming bold and knocking on doors with fliers in hand saying "we habbing BBS at our chuch and my mommy's gibbing fwee wides". I met some parents who were hesitant but willing to comply to give their children something to do in the evenings instead of having them out on the streets. One set of grand parents made a comment about how "the kids practically raise themselves in this neighborhood". This made me think a lot and kept me up that night.
The second night we just handed out 6 fliers but it felt good even though we walked in the rain for a little bit. I told myself and God that I would be happy with 5 children. God had a bigger plan.
Monday- we had our first night of VBS. When I went to pick up the van I discovered that 3 of the 4 back bench seats were not in the van. We located them and were prepared to put them back in and even recruited some muscular arms to helps us. One problem it was poring down rain and by the time we had found the seats and help we were soaked! God has a great sense of humor and we recognized it as such.
God brought 7 children to my door that day asking for permission slips (parents had to sign) to ride on the van. I had my brother-in-law Patrick come and pick up Jason so that I could just focus on the 10 kids in the van. On our way as I drove up the street a little boy, who had come to my door very disappointed because his mother said he couldn't go, followed us on his bike. When we got to the main street he followed us as far as he could go and it broke my heart I had to bite my lip.
Tuesday- we had 10 kids and with my 4 we had 14. Jason was picked up by Patrick again and the van was full.
Wednesday- one word "Chaos" we went from 10 to 15 , 19 if you count mine. We filled the church's 15 passenger van plus my mother-in-laws 7 passenger van to the brim. Unfortunately I had 14 children by myself in the van and this did not work
Thursday - we decided to do 2 trips with the church van. We had 17, 21 all together So much nicer and organized and it took longer but I felt better about this evening.
Tonight the salvation story was presented to the kids and for my neighborhood kids you could tell that some of them have never heard it before. Have you ever seen a child's face light up when they hear for the first time that God loves them and that Jesus died for everyone? I saw that light on 3 children tonight that I brought in the van. A light I will never forget. Will they become children of God? I am praying that they will and I am praying that I can be a light in a dark neighborhood.
Tomorrow is Friday and we have seeds to water.
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