When you’re thinking about or planning to go on a mission trip, you generally want to go to make a difference and teach the people you meet all about God. But while you’re there, you realize something. You realize that the people you’re serving and loving on begin to shape you in ways you weren’t expecting to be shaped.
The smallest things make the biggest impact for both sides involved. Marley and I help teach a 3 and 4 year-old class. We can go to the school and love on our teacher and the kids and make an impact without even explicitly trying. Same thing goes for our teacher and kids. They impact us by doing the smallest things, things that they do without thinking.
Our teacher is Cynthia, also known as Teacher Cynthia. She is 22 years old and has a sweet daughter named Precious who’s only a year and four months old. Precious was constantly sick when she was born. After having illness upon illness you wouldn’t think she was a year old. She crawls around on all fours and still talks in her own baby language. Teacher Cynthia said Precious is stubborn on learning how to walk and talk.
Teacher Cynthia has the kindest soul you’ll ever meet. She graduated high school in 2012 and decided she wanted to be a teacher. Although she didn’t go to college, she got a job teaching the baby class at Amazing Grace Preschool and Daycare. She loves teaching but hopes one day she can move up to teaching older students. She has been the biggest inspiration for me. Being a single mother is never easy and she makes it look so beautifully simple. The love she has for her daughter and for her students is like no other.
The kids in my class, although frustrating at times, are so loving. Before eating, they all put their hands together and pray, ”Abba. Father. Thank you for the food. Blessings for the men.” They may not know exactly what they’re praying, but they never forget to thank God. While they’re eating, I always notice that some of the kids may not have much more than a drink and a few crackers, or they may have nothing at all. Without hesitation, all of the kids start sharing their food. Even the little troublemakers share their food with their friends and classmates that have less than them.
The people of Zambia have so little, yet give so much to each other and they have so much joy. It’s really a slap in the face. We take so much for granted. We are so blessed/spoiled that when we don’t get our way or don’t have as much as someone, we get upset or pout and throw ourselves a little pity party. Yet we so easily forget that we are beyond loved and cherished by the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. What could possibly be better than that?
