Summer is coming! And it was hot yesterday.
I was so excited to pop into Mama Charity's yard for a surprise ice cream cone party!
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| All photos by Laura Uechi |
It was a huge hit for the 5 minutes it lasted!
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| Kevin after ice cream. |
When we were all sufficiently sticky and sugary, I sat down in the dust in front of Mama Charity to share Scripture. I told her what God had been telling me. And asked what He'd been telling her. We flipped from Daniel to Hebrews to Haggai, and we remembered together the Kingdom that cannot be shaken.
She was having a rough day, and the Truth was hard to digest as she sat in a borrowed yard, in front of her borrowed shack with nothing but 5 kids to her name. But we prayed together, and we prayed boldly. I believe she got a little taste of Love as she listened and licked that ice cream cone.
After all of yesterday's sweetness, I marched into the feeding program today to find Mama Charity there waiting for me. And when I say I marched... I mean, I stomped.
Stressed. Worried. Anxious. Overwhelmed.
I told her about it. And that I needed help remembering what we had just read... what I had just preached to her in her yard 24 hours before.
When I came home today, after all that stomping and after feeding almost 300 children, Laura shared the pictures she had taken from the previous day's ice cream party. I loved what I saw... Because while Mama Charity and I were drinking in the Word, Kevin and Karabo had snuck away to the corner of the yard with my water bottle and were having their own little party.
It was just a water bottle.
The same old one I carry with me all the time.
But so many different delights came from an almost unnoticed moment in the yard.
They played and played and played.
They laughed and celebrated, and it had nothing to do with the big ice cream cone surprise.
I want to live that kind of life and have that kind of faith.
I choose the kind of life that's greatest joys and deepest drinks come from everyday moments with your family in the corner of the yard. The places where that belly-laugh bubbles out uninvited in the most unnoticeable moments.
I stomp and pout and forget and worry when I'm waiting for the ice cream parties.
And as soon as I finish the ice cream, I get thirsty.
I'm taking life lessons from Kevin and Karabo today. Their circumstances say they are bound to poverty. Their eyes, their smiles and their hearts say they were carved in the image of Freedom and Love.
Beautiful brown eyes sparkle with delight, not at the ice cream, but at the one bringing it to them.
Cravings reach beyond the scrumptious gift, and long to share it with the one who gave it.
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| This isn't (really) as bad as it looks... or maybe it's exactly what it looks like: Given and I racing to see who can get to the ice cream on the spoon first. |
No worrying about how to pay back, but instead reaching for the water to meet the next need.
Simply because they know that all of my resources are theirs too.
It wasn't just a water bottle. Inside there was enough joy for that day. And there is satisfaction for every day.
Wonderful!
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