Please forgive my utter lack of posts. I got busy with my kiddos (read: eight performances in less than a month) and then took some time to recuperate. I know all of you are terribly disappointed, since I have oh-so-many followers ;)
I did have a few moments between programs to get in the Christmas Spirit, however. This year, our church has been focused on becoming missional, and the upside to teaching where there is a lot of need is that I have a lot of opportunities to put this into practice. From the smallest of moments, like choosing to use positive reinforcement instead of negative, to helping to meet the material needs of my students and their families, I have tried to make this a idea of being missional a focus in my spiritual walk as well. Hopefully this trend will continue in 2011 (can that count as a New Year's Resolution?)
In case I've never mentioned it, I have some fantastic students. There is a particular family who has been close to my heart for quite a while. This attachment started last year when I learned that they were living in a shelter. There's a lot to their story that I won't include for privacy's sake, but suffice it to say that these kids were put into a hard situation by no fault of any of their family, and chose to make the best of it anyway. Through it all, they've worked hard at school, even asking to make up all of the work they missed the month they were absent from school because of their "housing situation." If that doesn't warm a teacher's heart, I don't know what will :)
So in the second week of December, I had this nagging idea that our small group should adopt their family. God sort of kicked the whole thing into motion, and I was helpless to do anything but send a thousand emails in an effort to coordinate the whole thing. Next thing I knew, our group had banned together and provided these kids with a fabulous Christmas. The trunk of my car was PACKED with gifts for this family, complete with a gift card to help them as they move into their own place soon. Completely overwhelmed, I couldn't help but tear up as my dear husband loaded everything. It is humbling to think that God chose our group of misfits to do His work.
My husband and I were allowed to deliver the gifts to the family. Anticipating a teary-eyed mother, kids bursting with excitement, lots of hugs and thanks for what we had done, I prepared myself for what I thought I would encounter. However, my preparations proved vain. As soon as we pulled up, I was immediately faced with a painful reality.
There were three different families outside of this shelter, all with kids that could have been my students. I had no gifts for them. They all looked curiously at us, in my mind asking "why didn't you bring me something?" when I'm sure in reality they were confused about why we were unloading trash bags from our car. But still . . .the thought never left me.
The most precious girl opened up the door for us so that we could bring in the armloads of gifts that weren't for her. She smiled at us anyway.
The second eldest child had just gotten sick moments before we arrived, so mom was busy trying to help her and I didn't have time to say what I really wanted to say. I mumbled a few things, thankful I had written in the card attached to the gift we were to give her, thinking maybe this way she could get something of the "why" behind our actions. The most heart-piercing moment of the evening, however, came from the little boy who was following the family around. Wide-eyed, he was beyond excited about all of the gifts we were bringing.
"What did you bring me?"
I tried to ignore it, act like I hadn't heard him. I kept talking to the family, and then he asked again. The lady escorting us laughed and told him to go play somewhere else, which luckily, for my guilty conscience, he did.
But I couldn't ignore the fact that I had nothing. I had no gift for this poor child.
I had only been prepared for four. Not a shelter full.
And that's when it hit me: what we were doing was just a drop in the bucket. Nothing of statistical significance, nothing that would change the course of time. A simple drop in the bucket, a small act that would barely alleviate the overwhelming need this family, let alone people worldwide, face daily. It made me feel insignificant, like a hummingbird trying to put out the fire in the forest.
And then God, in His loving tenderness, reminded me that it was still something. This one act will likely not bring about the end of poverty or hunger, but it was something. At the very least, these kids now have much needed new uniforms and Mom can buy food for a little while. At most, God was able to work in their lives (and ours) and remind them that, no matter what they feel, they are not alone and He is mighty enough to provide, whatever their situation.
A drop in the bucket? Yes. Completely wasted? No.
“He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’ Matthew 25:45
