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Global Urban Trek 2008
Kingdom DiapersJuly 24, 2008
The hard part about children is what Jesus says about them: "The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these."
These words become a real problem when you're trying to teach six-year-olds the ABCs, in Arabic. It's a hassle when you're with violent handicapped kids who don't speak Arabic. And it's hard to reuse a white cloth to wipe babies' bottoms until it becomes impossible to tell whether or not the cloth was ever white at all.
Mike took care of a baby at Sisters whose legs were paralyzed. She would just sit in one place and stare. But she wouldn't cry or complain for attention. One day Mike found her feet all red with strange marks on it. The Sisters told him ants had come in the night and bit her.
On Stephan's first day he learned how they only change the babies when it's absolutely necessary, at the point when they’re leaking and staining their shirts. Stephan realized that they don't have baby wipes – too wasteful. One of the Sisters handed him a small brown rag. It wasn’t sufficient, so he had to wipe with his hand and then clean the rag.
We respond to everything with prayer. Stephan told me he had been praying for a while to be given the heart of Jesus for the children. One day he was in the room looking at a picture of Jesus with the children and it hit him. God wants us to genuinely love children from our hearts and bless them as He did.
After that, Stephan always prayed for them. He prayed over food before he fed them, "Lord, bless this food." And he fed them in the name of Jesus. Remarkably, they seemed to receive it with thankfulness and in peace. The child Mike cared for also began to recognize him and flail her arms when he came by.
It's still very difficult to bless the children when they are violent, when they pout, hit and become stubborn and disobedient. Our teachers at A.P.E. have the children out their hands while they smack them with a hard plastic rod and the tears come. We Americans are horrified, but then we find our fists tightening around the rod as they continue to disregard our words, and violently lash out at each other.
"The Kingdom of Heaven belongs to such as these."
Is not God our teacher? Does not His fist tighten around the rod to strike us? When we repent does He not rejoice over us? God is our Father. It is strange that God would ask us to be like him by placing children at our feet. What a blessing.
We are learning the patience of God because through it all we see that we are really just like them: forlorn, selfish, lost without a guide. And so we must cling to our Father at all times, seeking His face.
We are in Mokattam and we are at His feet.
- Tim
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