Our team spent Friday morning at the Sisters of Charity- Mother Theresa orphanage that is actually a hospital and family home of sorts. They care for the poor and are teaching the benefit of nutrition and maternal health and providing medicine for the sick.
Our task that morning was to play with the children. We learned there the power of play. The second we pulled out the parachute, we captured the hearts of at least 60 children who deserved to smile. The sister who was showing us around left us to run free in the compound with the simple command to, “Go and make the poor happy.”
This command was something that stuck with me for the morning and into the rest of the day.
I found a little girl who was probably almost two whom I held the whole morning. She did not want to let go of me, so, I played with the other children all the while holding her in my arms. Soon she began to fall asleep so I cradled her and walked her back to her mother only to find another little girl reaching her arms up gesturing for me to pick her up. I tickled her and watched her smile and then she began to kiss me on my cheek. All that I could think to do was to turn my other cheek. I remembered a verse that commands us to greet one another with holy kisses. These were surely holy kisses…
I put her down only to hold another tiny baby, this one the little brother to the first. He was probably five months but he held on to me tightly and stared with his bright eyes into mine, all the while with a smile.
We had a fun morning, yet, we struggled as a group to wrap out minds around the fact that we would walk away from that place, wash our hands of these people’s problems, and move on through our day. We would experience new things and they would remain there, forgetting what it feels like to play and smile.
Is it enough that we spent only a few hours making them smile?
It is bittersweet to realize the truth that for many of them it was the first time in a long time that they were truly joyful. I feel that I have learned to disconnect myself from me in situations like these because it is much easier to deal with the truths of poverty.
I felt drained the rest of the day both physically and emotionally. But I would dare say that the experience gave our group a spirit that we had forgotten in the midst of our struggle to understand all that we have been fortunate enough to witness. We have struggled with what it means to be the eyes and ears, hands and feet, for all of those who have sent us here.
That morning, instead of me making the poor happy, they made me happy. They reminded me of what it is like to play with abandon. They taught me to remember always to be grateful that I have unconditional loving arms to hold me when I stretch up and seek them.
Isn’t that how it always goes though? Just when we think we know just what we are to do to help, we are taught more than we could have imagined.
~Mary Beth
MB,
Here are a couple of quotes from my devitional guide that seem to speak to your post and those of the group:
“Be still and know. Civilization is littered with unsolved problems, baffling impasses. The best minds of the world are at the end of their tether. The most knowledgeable observers of our condition are badly frightened. The most relevant contribution that Christians make at these points of impasse is the act of prayer – determined, repeated, leisurely meetings with the personal and living God. New life is conceived in these meetings.”
– From Earth and Altar, by Eugene Peterson
“True obedience, then is both a listening to what we hear within us and to what we hear beyond us. It is being attentive to those we encounter in our daily lives. It is creating the empty, open space within us where we can hear God speak.”
– From The Potter and the Clay, by Thomas R. Hawkins
Having spent most of my adult life teaching Christian ethics, I know that the world’s problems can seem simply overwhelming at times, as if nothing can be done. But something is being done and the way it happens is one problem and one person at a time. Simply listen to God and tackle whatever God puts in your way each day.
Love you,
Dad
I’m glad you took the plunge and loved on the kids you described. It was a brief period of time and yet it was significant to the children and I hope for you. Children who cling to strangers have a deep need for affection and love. I’m glad you were a reliable and loving stranger who wanted to share something good with these children. These experiences are life-changing experiences for you. You will never be the same and you will be glad you are different as life unfolds. Thanks for sharing in this public forum.
Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts and feelings about the experience. It made me remember the way that Mister Rogers talks about some of the gifts of young children. He says that one of the real gifts of children is that they can “play” about all kinds of things.
They have the ability to play around when things are going well and when things are not. One of the most powerful things that he says about playing is that it also shows us how to pray as well. We can be all of who we are with God and know that we are loved exactly like we are. When we share that with others, I think that is some very holy ground we are walking on.
Thank you for sharing and being with those we are not able to be with. Thank you for your gift of “playing”.