A day of paper airplanes and tears…
The team had the morning off. We rolled out of our warm beds around 8am, studied our Bibles and had some great conversations over hot African coffee. For breakfast, Kevin made everyone a glorious piece of home: bacon & eggs! After devotionals, we all piled into the kombi and landi and headed back over to Pastor Jack’s church to have some time with the orphans that stay there to eat after school.
When we got there, the kids all came running out, hugging and tackling, and making popping noises with folded pieces of paper. The children attempted many times to teach me how to do it, but apparently I don’t have enough flick in my wrist to make it work! So I decided to grab Dan Erickson and the large package of paper in Williams bag, and show the kids how to make paper airplanes! It was a hit, and in a matter of minutes we had fifty airplanes flying around the room, usually aimed at the “funny” Americans! It was a full on battle of the planes!
After all the adults had temporarily confiscated the planes and we gathered at the end of the large cement room, Amy and I taught on the Good Samaritan by doing an interactive skit with the rest of the team. It wasn’t until after that we were told that there had been a huge language barrier because most of the children were to young to fully understand English. At first we were bummed, because how were these children going to understand the meaning behind the story if they couldn’t understand our words? And then it dawned on me; the good Samaritan was about loving those who are your enemies, those who are different, and that includes language differences. So for the rest of the day, we just loved on these children. We played soccer and Frisbee, blew bubbles, braided hair and just sat with them.
Later in the afternoon, Amy and I jumped in and started playing clapping/rhythm games with some of the girls that we had learned at the other orphan centers. Then they all agreed that they needed to teach us a harder one. Oh, great! I can barely walk and talk at the same time, let alone sing, clap and dance! Luckily the girls were very patient with us and repeated the song over and over until we started to get the hang of it. Since I was so caught up in getting the movements right and not stepping on my partners little toes, I didn’t really pay attention to the words being sung around me. And then I heard them. These sweet girls were singing, “I sold myself for a piece of paper, so what, so what.” I stopped short and had a hard time breathing for a moment. These children were singing a song, a child’s song, that was all about selling themselves. I had to stop; I couldn’t do it anymore. Each one of these beautiful little girls are worth far more then any piece of paper and yet they have been brought up in a society where they are worth very little. Christo said that this is just part of their life; it’s their way of coping, turning painful things into fun games. He said that he knew this young girl that sold herself over and over. She said, “I’d rather die of AIDS, then die of hunger.” How do you respond to that? How do you tell someone whose life seems to mean so little that they are the world to God?
“Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” Matthew 19:14
That night we drove back to TUT University for the second session of the Amazing Grace Seminar. It was an off night…we had a smaller crowd, the musical tech stuff wasn’t working and people didn’t seem to enthusiastic. And yet once the worship started, we forgot about the things going wrong and were able to really connect with our peers around us through the crazy movement of their dance. At one point I even went down with them and created a huge circle where they would take turns going in the middle and dancing! It was like a huge dance off for Jesus! And since I was the only white girl dancing, I was called out to the middle where I “got down!” They hadn’t realized that I love to dance, and everyone was laughing and cheering. It was fun!
At the last second Amy and I were asked to share our testimonies…not having time to really prepare, I prayed that God would slow my words and speak His love and grace through me. I was really nervous and emotionally overcome that half way through my testimony, i started crying. But everyone shouted out encouragement and I was able to finish. Amy then did an amazing job and really poured out her heart. Pastor John told us that one of the greatest ways to show them love is to open up our hearts and be vulnerable….and we did. Afterward students came up to us and thanked us for sharing, that it was a blessing and a sign of hope to see what God did in our lives! I thanked God that He was able to use me to reach out and share His hope with the students of TUT University!
