Tasting Goodness

I am the most terrible in keeping up with blog posts, I know. I have been wrestling with the Lord for quite a while, being unable to reconcile with myself – battling between career and life choices. Of course it would seem hypocritical of me to write devotional posts on this blog when I am struggling myself. I only thought I needed the time to seek God and heal. For the time I had been away, I apologize. But this time, I come with great news. I hope it would make up for the hiatus.

Restoration has always been God’s expertise. After weeks of testing and struggle-praying, I could say the Lord is in the process of renewing me again – desires, priorities, and compassion have apparently been updated – and once more, the Lord has entrusted such a big task to me in such a time as this; I still could not believe the privilege. I could not.

Last month was Vacation Bible School, a yearly summer activity at church for the children. I remember the last time I volunteered as a teacher, I was only fifteen and I had no idea what I was doing, being a teacher to kids around my age (I was assigned to the young teens age group), but this year (being 20), I was given another chance to serve the Lord through ministering to the children.

Ptr. RJ on sharing the gospel.

The kids (ages 7-9) drawing the last time they trusted God.

The kids I have had the privilege to teach were a lot more different from each other than I have expected. Marie, for example, coming from a well-off family, had the opportunity to attend school with all her needs and wants provided. She is church-grown with godly parents and siblings and she had every opportunity to be taught about Jesus. It was a pleasant experience to teach and watch her learn, actually, and I never had a problem with discipline. Jandelle, on the other hand, was the type of kid who has a different mind of his own. In many instances, he’d slip from the group and either go out to play on his own or tail behind me, asking for lollipops or a chance to play with the church’s drum set. During VBS week, I noticed he was wearing the same shirt every day. It was a school uniform undershirt, so initially I thought he just has several of those kinds of shirts. During the third day, however, I realized he did not smell as good as he did on the first day. The day after that, he smelled worse. That was that. I realized he didn’t change shirts, much less showered, and I felt a jerk in my chest, a sorry feeling that his parents were not taking care of him the way the other kids’ parents were. On graduation day (obviously, he still had the same shirt on) Pastor RJ told me he just learned from Jandelle himself that he lost both his parents and some of his siblings to the super-typhoon Sendong (internationally known as Washi) that hit the region on December 2011; the boy was crying when he retold the story. I felt bad for not setting aside time to understand him and only brushed him off as a kid who had attention issues.

Jandelle and Marie

The more silent children started talking, too. It was at this time that I learned that every child needs special attention. So I started calling the silent kids at the back and insisted on having them sitting next to me. The look of uncertainty and relief pass through their eyes that I could only thank the Lord for urging me to walk the extra mile for them.

VBS 2015 Graduation Day

The Lord has taught me so much in such a short time, and He has rewarded me with so much more. Of course a huge part of our time was spent talking to the children against quarrelling (at random times at least one would start crying and complaining that somebody hit them), but at the end, when you could see them all as friends, celebrating Jesus as their Lord and Savior, I could not even begin to explain how exceedingly wonderful and satisfying it was to watch.

After classes, random kids would just start flocking around, hugging, and thanking me for being their teacher (adding requests for me to play with them, of course). At first it caught me off guard because I knew I was never good with children, but then I realized that as I saw the Lord changing the children into God-fearing children, He was also transforming my heart into a heart of compassion for the children.

In continuation to God’s Grace, I also finally got accepted by our church-school (Timothy Christian Academy) as a preschool supervisor. As I am writing this, I am inside the preschool classroom I am still trying to prepare for the June classes. Rewinding to several years back, I would not have imagined myself being a full-time minister to children. Thinking about how the Lord has chosen me for this simply takes my breath away; I have never been this excited for something, and having gone the training for the curriculum only fueled my excitement – finally being able to minister to the kids through letters, numbers, and stories of the Bible. This, I realized, is something big.

I still have a few more weeks for breathing although I knew I have a lifetime to learn. From today ‘till beyond, I will praise the Lord for the goodness I have tasted.