It started with the headmistress of the school wanting to once again change all the kids around (the kids that Camp Sonshine Africa are helping to catch up as they are very far behind in their academic progress). This is an ongoing debate / tension that we have as we do not believe that it is in the best interest of the children to keep switching them and changing them around. We feel that our purpose is in quality rather than quantity, we feel that it is far more beneficial to fully educate a few kids to the best of our ability rather than give many kids 15 minutes a day! Anyway, we have a meeting planned for tomorrow (Monday) to further discuss this issue, I just wish that it would become resolved once and for all (according to the signed agreement that we have).
On Wednesday during our after school enrichment program some money was stolen from our office area. One of the kids had opened some letters from pen-pals and managed to find some money in an envelope that two of our kids had earned while doing a movie shoot. We spoke about steeling and how wrong it was and asked the person to come forward and speak to one of the leaders . . . no luck. It left me with a horrible feeling, one of the kids that we are trying to help is now steeling from us. It is true that we should not leave money lying around, but the fact that it was not in plain sight, but in an envelope seems to make it worse - someone was looking for something.
On Thursday evening our after school care container was broken into! Fortunately we have lots of burglar bars, so none of the big stuff was able to be taken, but there was obviously a small kid involved as no one bigger could fit through the bars. The place was left a mess and annoying things such as our multi-plugs, small desk-top stove plate and CD players were stolen as well as more letters opened. I am not going to lie, my first response was not to give thanks that we were able to provide these things for someone who needs them! I was extremely angry and honestly felt like packing up and getting a "real" job! When you work hard trying to help people and you are thanked like this, it is not a good feeling!
Having had the weekend to think things through I realize that it is only "stuff" and that really, it is not our "stuff" anyway! God has given us all that we have to run these programs, now through no fault of ours someone else has some of this stuff. It can all be replaced or we can do without it, we were blessed with it for a time. I now feel sad for the person who did this, why do they feel the need to creep up in the dark and take what they know is not theirs, this seems a sad existence to me. I pray that they will find what they are REALLY missing inside themselves.
It was so fitting that we are currently doing a series called "@ WORK" at church. We have learnt about the fact that we are not working for man, but in all that we do we are working for God, no matter what our job is. Today we learnt that we need to be faithful in the small things - do an excellent job doing what God has called us to do, when He sees that we can be trusted with what we have been given, He can trust us with more. We need to control the things that we can - such as our attitude! It really made me think about how I deal with the situations of the week, it is OK to use it as a teachable moment with the kids, letting them know that this is NOT OK, but getting angry and bitter about things would not glorify God. Something that really stood out to me was when Jeff (Henderson) said that trying times are fertile soil for building our character. I am in the fertile soil right now . . . I pray that my character will be built in a way that is pleasing to God!
I think your character is being built in a way that is very pleasing to God! Been thinking about you alot this weekend - praying for a way to be helpful even though we are so far away!
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