Learning about Jesus

One more Thursday spent with the teenage girls and precious children of Umuarama. If you know me, you know that I am not a gushy person who loves to be around kids. I am very awkward and clueless as to what to talk about or what to do with those who are under 14 years of age. But... I try... and tonight I learned a valuable lesson. Some kids just want/need attention. Even if you are not the most entertaining person in the world, the fact that you look them in the eye, hold their hand, touch their hair... wow...that can make their day.

As I entered the community center tonight I awkwardly sat between three little children. I asked the little girl beside me what her name was and she happily started to chat away with me. I quickly learned that she was taking medicine because she was sick and that she had ten brothers and sisters (might be an exaggeration, but you never know...). As we talked I felt a tiny little hand poking me and turned around to see a 2 year old girl pointing at her hair. She had come with it all split up into little sections and wanted to make sure that I noticed. I told her her hair was beautiful and asked her who had done it. A little boy beside her piped up that it had been her mother, and soon I learned that he was her 6 year old brother. Meanwhile, I feel a little hand on my other side tugging at my hair. I turn around to see the first little girl playing with my hair. I asked her what she was up to and she said she wanted to make my hair curly. I told her she could go ahead and make my hair beautiful (I wasn't quite ready for the fact she was going to be sticking her finger in her nose every two minutes and then readily sticking it back into my hair again!).

I guess I might be rambling but I just wanted to point out how needy for attention these little ones are. Clara shared with me afterwards that one of the little ones she was holding smelled like urine and she felt like she just wanted to take him home and give him a big shower.

After singing with the little children we split up into bible study groups and I took the girls with me to the living room. Only four came tonight, but I was once again thankful for the small number. We sang, reviewed what had been learned in previous weeks (every single time they forget the first topic we mentioned-- "why do we exist?" They never know the answer to that question! Either they are really shy or I am not getting through to them the meaning and purpose of their existence... they did remember other things, though, so that's exciting).

One of the girls really catches my attention. She is unkempt and a little wild. Last week, she had her thumb in her mouth the whole time I was talking (14 years old!). This week, she ate her bread rocking herself back and forth. But you know what is surprising? Out of all the girls she was the only one that memorized the first five books of the bible (this was homework for them last week-- when they have them all memorize they get a "Teen Bible" that I bought for each one of them a few weeks ago). I wonder how beautiful she will become when Jesus gets a full hold of her life.

Tonight I asked Juliana to share a ten minute study on the person of Jesus. She did a great job. She told me later that she had been VERY nervous, but I honestly couldn't tell at all. She gave a clear message of salvation and discussed that Jesus was the only way to God. The girls listened quietly, and I pray that the seed was planted in each of their hearts. God once again showed his power to me tonight, for as I talked to Juliana I found out that she had grown up going to the Umuarama ministry! She lives close by and is fruit of the years of labor of Tia Sandra. She became a Christian through the meetings and Tia Sandra, and has been going to my church for the past three years. She is from an unsaved family and works as a maid to support herself. It is so encouraging to see her serving the Lord with the passion and depth of character that she has.

I learned a lot of things tonight, but one thing that kept echoing through my mind was the fact that so many times we don't serve the Lord because we are afraid. We are afraid of looking stupid, we are afraid of being inadequate, we are afraid of failure... Juliana was so afraid, yet she allowed God to use her. She took that fear and faced it head on, treasuring the thought that maybe God would do her the honor of speaking through her and using her words to bring hope into the life of teenage girls who desperately need to find Jesus. May we follow her example and obey the Lord regardless of the fears that threaten to weaken our testimony in this world.