cWOW!

6-22-2008

Sunday morning after breakfast a few of us decided to go the park to do a devotional on the armor of God together. As we opened up in prayer a man approached us offering various items for sale. Immediately thereafter, a group of kids ages 7-12 came and sat directly infront of us on their shoe-shining kits. Without even asking us if they could shine our shoes, one of them started playing the traditional wind flute. We listened, bewildered at what had just happened as we prayed for God to move. One of the kids, Julio, sat next to Donna and greeted us. While the other kids were jumping and fooling around, we noticed that Julio was the leader of the group. He seemed mature and calm for his age, playing close attention to what we were saying and responding with answers that reflected his knowledge of Christ. Another kid standing next to him was wearing a gospel bracelet. When asked if he knew what the colors of the beads represented, we were surprised to hear him answer correctly. This is what began our conversations on Christ and it gave us an opportunity to teach them about the love and of the peace of God.

We had made a deal with the kids: if they participated in our devotional and prayed with us, then we would invite them to a warm meal. The kids, filled with excitement, agreed and without realizing it, we began our time of church without walls (cwow!). It seemed like the armor of God was a great theme because the kids were attentive and ready to talk about what an armor looks like. Shields, helmets, belts and swords...somehow these reminded the kids of wrestling and we laughed out loud as one of the youngest imitated several characters from the wwe (world wrestling entertainment).

When we finished the devotional, the kids were so excited for the warm meal ahead. We went to the local market and when we entered the cafeteria area, several ladies from different open restaurants rushed to us to pressure us to buy from them. We treated nine kids but more of them appeared from  nowhere.  The kids who listened to the devotional said that they didn't want to share food with the ones who had come late.  Upon hearing this, we told them that just as God had provided us with the money to buy them lunch, that we hoped they would share what they had with others.

It was an amazing experience.  Although we were a bit discouraged when seeing some of the kids not paying attention, we were also reminded that we are seed planters rather than harversters of these kids and that God is in charge of changing their lives. In other words, our acts of love and the words of truth we shared from the bible are preparing the soil of their hearts for a deeper faith that will come in the future.