"I want to see.”

May 3, 2012

Dumalang, my dearest friends! I hope all of you are doing well and enjoying the excitement of spring. I cannot seem to grasp the fact that this we are already in May!  I was talking to Sandy about this earlier this morning and she said that time just goes really fast when you’re in another country.  She also said that I have been so busy, that time is actually trying to catch up with me!  As time goes on I think this is becoming even truer.

On Thursday morning last week I began my theologizing project at Cheshire, the disabled community center. I’m working with physically disabled children ages 6-12, with the teachers involved, of course. We started off by reading the story of creation, how everything was made in by God, and how Adam and Eve were created in God’s image - and that all creation was good. I really talked to the kids about people being created in God’s Image. And I asked them what they thought that this meant.   It was interesting, and shows what a good place Cheshire really is, because two different children were immediately responsive. They both said, in different ways, that in God’s eyes each of us is beautiful. This really helped get the others to pipe up in the discussion, and soon they were all saying that God loves each of us and that we are just fine the way we are – disabled or not.  Even the adults were really getting into the whole Bible thing and encouraging the kids. The children wanted me to read the story over and over, and they got really into the idea that God accepts them as they are, and has made them in his image. So having “normal” healthy bodies and perfect minds is NOT what we mean by the image of God!  This matters so much here.  To be made like God, able to love and to be loved, to be creative even in small ways as God is – this is what they were hungry to hear.  Even the adults have not considered this in this context before – that the Bible speaks for them and to them – even about this most deep insecurity: being “different.”

 After we finished with the story I had the children draw their story of God’s creation of themselves. I asked them to put themselves in the midst of the whole creation, in the way they themselves picture God creating them!  The self-portrait that they chose to draw was, of course, based on their own experience and understanding of how God created them in his image – that he knew them before they were born. Some beautiful pictures emerged, too!  It was so much fun watching them trying to be as creative as they could be, seeing themselves being created!  And I was very pleased to see how excited they were about doing this. Each child drew something very unique, and they were excited as well as proud to have done something creative on their own.  I was proud of them too, because I saw how much this reassurance from God meant to them, and how eager they were to express it. After our Bible session was over it was time for the kids to do their P.E. activities. It was so encouraging to me to watch them play happily and freely, with a new and conscious joy that they are made in God image – somehow LIKE God!  That they are NOT “junk” or made “wrong” – that they are made for God, by God, for joy!

The night before I began my project at Cheshire, I really took the time to pray to the Father about what He wanted me to teach these kids, and what he needed me to engrave in their tender little hearts. I understood that it was the fact that he created the world out of his LOVE – that he loved them and wanted them to trust Him. By doing this project I’m seeing that encouraging the disabled as well as the non-disabled adults who also participated, about God’s unending love is so vitally important.  Even the Christian adults who were there heard it in a new way, I think, and found it kind of exciting to hear the Bible their way, as a story – to imagine God seeing them before they were born and choosing to create THEM!  God is showing me that doing this sort of thing is what I love doing, and I am realizing that helping people to see the love of God, to trust Jesus, to see that the Bible is FOR them, not against them, is my true calling.  Encouraging unbelievers to trust God who loves them, and encouraging believers to trust him more, is all joy! And helping parents and teachers to see the children with new Bible-eyes is best of all!

          Another exciting thing is that I’m back to teaching the 3 and 4 year olds at St. Peter’s and right now I’m working with the story about the blind man, Bartimaeus, who received his sight from Jesus. This is one of my favorite stories from the Gospel of Mark because it is all about the blind man’s persistence and determination. God waited for him to push forward.  He wanted to see Bartimaeus willing to cry out for Jesus no matter what. Bartimaeus was just a blind nobody, who was annoying the heck out of all those around him because he would not stop calling after Jesus. The crowd got upset because I think in their minds they were embarrassed and could not see why Jesus would bother with someone like that! Bartimaeus, however, ignored the crowds’ multiple attempts to shut him up and kept calling out to Jesus to have mercy on him. He knew what he wanted, and he was not going to let anyone distract him or get in the way of what his heart desired. He persisted through the disapproving crowd…  Many rebuked him and told him to be quiet, but he shouted all the more, “Son of David, have mercy on me!”  When Jesus called the others to bring Bartimaeus, and asked Bartimaeus what he wanted - to which   the blind man said, “Rabbi, I want to see.” Bartimaeus knew that only Jesus could heal him, but this is also cool, the way Jesus RESPONDED…. Go,” said Jesus, “your faith has healed you.” Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus along the road. Bartimaeus was persistent in the face of the judgmental crowd.  I want to be this persistent too – and I want the children to be persistent in their faith and their courage – in their childish desire for Jesus – as they grow up -  no matter what the obstacles are - and there are MANY obstacles in their lives.  I want this story to encourage them – and their teachers and caregivers. God will answer us when we ask Him to help us. God will give us what we ask if we ask like that! We don’t really need new physical eyes, or arms and legs, but, for example,  I DO need to see Jesus, even though I have good eyes, and I DO need to “walk” more faithfully  - even though I do not need new legs!   There is much for us to see. It is not only physical blindness that hurts us, after all. Most of us need to trust Jesus to help us see. We think we see Jesus better than we do. We think we see the love of God, but really, we hardly see anything yet! We need the Holy Spirit to set us free to SEE.  We are blind in ways we do not even guess. 

          Well, my dear friends, its midnight and I am suffering from a bad cold, congestion and a sore throat. A fall cold in May! It’s getting cold now, can you believe it?!  So I’m off to bed now - and I promise another longer blog full of more adventures with God in Botswana soon.

Love to all! Minda