Getting the Kids Involved

 “What will the kids do while the adults meet?” I remember asking at planning meeting earlier this year for a large group gathering.

Tired out kid in large gathering

“They will be with the adults, listening!” 

I imagined the kids sitting with the adults, but antsy, tired and distracted. The message being spoken would be long, over their heads, and would be switching between languages in a way that would be hard to follow. We suggested that someone do something with the kids instead and a plan was made, but ultimately the speaker forgot to dismiss the kids and so they sat with the adults, not engaged and not getting much out of it, that I could tell. But the seed was planted and at the weekly smaller gatherings in our area, an adult has started doing something specifically with the kids.

Skip ahead some months and we were preparing for the large gathering which happened a couple weeks ago. One of the kids had lived on the big island and was used to the kids preparing something to perform. So she innocently asked, “Aren’t we going to do anything?”

Consequently, perhaps guilted by the earnest question, one island sister decided that the kids would do something!

Our daughter and other kids ready to go and perform

As foreigners we don’t focus our attention on kids much. Mostly because in this culture it would be seen as highly suspect. They are wary of foreigners feeding their kids foreign ideas. So we focus on adults and if a young person starts asking us questions, we ask that we meet with their parents too, or at least get their permission first.  Sometimes kids might be around as we discuss things with the adults of their household, but they may not be absorbing much of what is said, because the way that you talk, teach and discuss things with kids and adults is different.  The kids being physically present doesn’t mean they are really included or engaged.  It takes a conscious effort to get the kids involved.

Once it was decided that they would do something for the big gathering, there were rehearsals with singing, dancing, memorized verses, and a dramatization of the story of a miraculous birth. It was much more ambitious than I would have been for the first time around!  Prayers were said with the participating kids and explanations given, then came time for the big gathering, they were there— not just tired and antsy figures in the background, but with an integral part to contribute to the proceedings. They were probably still bored when the main speaker talked, but even those that hadn’t been part of the rehearsals livened up to watch people their own age participate in the gathering.

Our family enjoying time together

This new year we are focusing our prayers in a few areas, and one of those foci is on families, that kids, youth and adults would be growing and studying together.  May it be that in all future big gathering that it isn’t just the adults going on with the kids and youth in the background, but together moving forward in knowledge, wisdom and discernment.

PRAYERS ANSWERED
We made it safely to mainland Africa for some vacation and have been enjoying our time away and as a family.  We especially enjoyed the fireworks on New Year's Eve!  We are thankful for all of God’s blessings in 2023, He was faithful!

PRAYERS REQUESTED
On New Year's Day we were greeted with some sad news.  Ma Nadjma, our house helper of many years called to let us know her husband had died.  This all happened very suddenly.  He went in the hospital around Christmas, but before hadn't been ill.  It sounds like it may have been leukemia.  Although we did not know him well, we thought of him as a kind man who loved Ma Nadjma and their children.  He was not very old, younger than us. Pray for Ma Nadjma and her two kids in this time of grief.  We said goodbye to our oldest two kids this evening, as they fly back to Kenya for their new term of boarding school. Pray for safe travels for them and a smooth transition back into school life without too much homesickness and stress. Pray for the rest of us as we travel back to Clove Island later this week that we would be able to jump back into life and work feeling rested and ready to be back. Pray for this new year of 2024— it will be a year of continued changes on the islands as a several more workers leave and some new ones are welcomed. May God’s good work continue on these islands through all that He sends here and all those that He calls from among the islands themselves.
Happy New Year!