A calling

Hey friends,

If you know me then you know I love kids, honestly its probably the only thing most people know about me. I’ve been volunteering in kid’s ministry since I was 9 as an assistant teacher for a bible study’s child care. And it’s always been one of the most assured and consistent parts of my life and where I was happiest. My mom has always said you should serve where your gifting and passion collide and that was it for me. 

These last 8 months have been different than anything else in my whole life in a lot of ways, but one of the biggest has been on how few times I’ve been able to play with kids. In the beginning it was hard because of the language barrier and because that’s something I’ve never experienced ( children’s ministry being hard I mean) instead of rising to it I shrank away from the challange. 

The Lord has been using the time and space to show me a lot of other things I’m good at that honestly I never would have tried had I not been avoiding kid’s ministry. Before the Race being good with kids had become my identity so the Lord had to take it away to show me who I am in him and that there is so much more in life than just that. 

Recently the Lord allowed that passion for kiddos back into my heart in the sweetest fashion as is his style in my life. Back in Romania he allowed me one day and one day only of working with kiddos and it lit a fire in my heart that had been missing. Our first two weeks here in Albania I watched as almost every other team on our squad had the privilege of loving on kiddos at VBS camps all over the country. Meanwhile my team was left to ATL (Ask the Lord), it’s a really cool concept but something my structured self hates doing. I’m sad to say for the last two weeks I’ve been throwing an absolute pity party asking God “Why?” About a lot of things actually but one of the biggest things was “Why are you giving every one else my hearts desire? God, you know I signed up for the Race because of a VBS and that it’s been my deepest wish to do that!” (I always have a flare for the dramatic when I talk with my heavenly father/best friend). 

Well over the last few days I’ve really poured out my heart and wept so many tears, but as I’ve spent time with the father’s heart my gaze has shifted from my own disappointments to things so much bigger than myself. Yesterday I made it to the point of not even mentioning my frustration because it just didn’t matter anymore. 

And what should our ministry be today but literally just playing with kids all morning. I only know one word in Albanian and don’t even say it right, but this morning that didn’t matter. My actions were so much more important than being able to say more than “Hi”. We played a version of duck duck goose, a game with following directions (in a language I don’t know, you can imagine how it went lol), musical chairs, did several albanian dances, and laughed the whole time. These precious little girls, ranging in age from 6 to 8, saw that I didn’t understand and took it upon themselves to make sure I could play too. For 3 hours I constantly had a little friend holding my hand and showing me where to go and what to do. Here’s a couple of my little friends, Angola and Ami. 

As soon as we got in the car to leave my first thought was “how soon can I do this again” I had a longing to work with kiddos again. These sweet friends helped to confirm a calling the Lord has put on my life and while I can and will do other things for God’s kingdom I’ve been created for and called to showing Christ’s love to children. I have no idea what the future holds or how the Lord will use this gift he’s given me but I can’t wait to find out!