Break my heart for what breaks Yours...

Let me just start by saying that yesterday was hands down the best day of the trip so far. It's been hard, because I've been really discouraged by my school placement, since I'm not really doing a whole lot of anything in my classroom yet. It's also really hard for me to communicate with my teacher because while her English is pretty good when she's teaching, it's really hard for her to talk to me one on one. So that's been really discouraging. Yesterday I lead them in their memory verses and explained the new one for this week. After that, I sat in my chair in the back of the room for most of the morning, and then once math time came I helped out one of the kids that was struggling with his long division. That was really great, because I could actually see him coming around and understanding the problems. After that though, I sat in the back for a while, went to lunch, and came and sat for the last half hour of school.

After school is where my day started to turn around. I came home and relaxed for a couple hours (as usual), and then around 3 or so I went with a group to the children's home. We stayed there until about 4:30 or so, and it was really great! The kids loved having us there, and we loved being there with them! Around 4:30, Jillian & I decided to head back. On our way, we heard some little girls behind us that were walking with someone calling to us and trying to ask what our names were. So we stopped, and both girls grabbed our hands. We walked down to the gate of where we're staying, and by the time we got there, there were about 5 more kids. Before we knew it, close to 10 or 15 kids were hanging all over us. Soon, more members of our group had joined us, along with about 20 more kids. These were all the street kids that live in the squatter camp surrounding our house. These kids don't go to the children's home, because they technically have families. What they don't really have though is someone to love on them. There was a little boy that literally attached himself to me for a good hour. Anytime I tried to put him down, his hands instantly shot back up and he was grabbing at me to let him back up. I spun, bounced him, sang with him, and he had an enormous smile on his face. I don't know his name, because he was too young and didn't speak enough English to tell me. At this point, there were probably around 8 or so of us from Taylor, a few members from other groups that are here, and at least 20 or 30 kids hanging all over us. There was one point that we all (and I mean ALL) started singing "Baby" by Justin Bieber...I'll never hear that song and not think of that! Even my little boy was "singing" along with everyone, and it was so sweet.

My heart absolutely BROKE for those kids. I was journaling yesterday, and as I was praying I realized that this is why I'm here. Sure, I'm observing in a classroom and I'll teach a lesson or 2 while I'm here. And sure, I have my kids in my classroom who need me to love them and praise them, because even though they're pretty well off, they don't get praised enough. Even the kids in the children's home constantly have people coming in to play with them and love on them, and they're used to having people coming in and out of their lives. But those street kids...they have no one. They have families, but those families are so big that there is no one to keep track of them and care about where they are. They don't have people to pick them up and carry them around. They don't have people to spin them around and bounce them and sing with them. They have no one who will come and spend hours simply loving them. So I've decided that that is where I'm investing my time here. I want to pour all of the love that I possibly could onto those street kids. Even though I leave in 2 weeks, and I don't know if the other groups that pass through will even acknowledge them, I still want to plant seeds. I don't know if the kids I play with while I'm here will even remember my name when I leave...but what I do remember is that they'll remember that someone took time out of their day to love them.

The other night we had a corporate worship night with the 2 other groups that are staying in the house. One of the songs we sang was Hosanna, and the bridge hit me REALLY hard. So I'll end with that. Again, thank you so much for you prayers...and thank you for listening to me rant. :)

Love and miss you all,

Kristen

"Heal my heart and make it clean. Open up my eyes to the things unseen. Show me how to love like You have loved me. Break my heart for what breaks yours. Everything I am for Your kingdoms cause. As I walk from earth into eternity."     ("Hosanna" by Hillsong)