And The Children Waited

Life can sometimes be full of disappointments especially for children in a third world country.
We have a great work and witness team here from Australia.  They are helping to build some desperately needed employee housing for the hospital.  Some of the team wanted to do bible school activities with children from the surrounding villages and I arranged the times and places and drove the cruiser.

We were scheduled to go to Lena's church on Friday.  Lena is our friend who is working at the volunteer house, cleaning and helping in food preparation for the team.  On Thursday, she asked that we reschedule to Tuesday.  She was worried that there might not be many kids attending on Friday because it was the end of a holiday week.  Well . . . through a series of miscommunication, the children expected us on Friday.  They all went to the river to wash and then dressed in their sunday best and waited.  We didn't come.  Lena got home that night from her work and reassured them that the missionaries would come on MONDAY.  (No, it was Tuesday!)  The excitement mounted again!  By 10 a.m. on Monday morning, everyone was again clean and waiting.  They waited.  And waited.  They sent runners up the dirt road to watch for the mission landcruiser.  They waited until 4 p.m.  We knew nothing of this!  Lena came home from work and explained that tomorrow was the day for the Pikinini Klub.

With great faith and probably lots of hope, the children again washed, dressed and waited.  Would the missionaries come this time?  Thankfully we did!  They were ecstatic!  We had a great time.  People from throughout the village were drawn to the church by the happy laughter of the children.  Thank you, Australian team members,  for caring about these children!

JB