Because I am lonely...

A few months ago my church asked if I would begin a Sunday School class. It has been a challenge. My first Sunday there were three kids, then seven, then twelve, ... last Sunday there were nearly 30 between the ages of 3 and 12. There has never been a Sunday School class at our church so the kids are starting from the very beginning: 'Yes, Jesus was really a person.' ' Yes, God can hear our prayers even if we don't say them outloud.' ...that sort of thing.

Because of the language difference, age range, and different learning style of these kids I rarely forget that I am teaching in an environment that is still beyond my understanding. Last Sunday this really struck home.

It was our fourth Sunday learning about prayer and we were talking about what sorts of things we could talk to God about. We were making prayer flowers that would help us remember these things: each category of prayer would have a different color of flower petal. Three pink petals would represent the people we could pray for (parents, friends, teachers), three green petals would represent the things we could thank God for (food, clothes, and television)... My helper and I would write the word in Setswana on hundreds of paper petals and the kids would color them in and glue them to the paper flower center. The next category I shared that we can pray to God about situations in our lives. I shared from Philippians 4 that God doesn't want us to worry.

I asked, 'What do we worry about that we should share with God?'

Expecting the usual answers like 'tests at school' or 'that my friends won't like me', I was startled when a soft voice whispered, 'loneliness because my parents are dead'.

This came from a little boy around seven or eight who was in my class for the first time; they were the first words he had said all morning. I looked around at the rest of the children and wondered about the burdens they carry that are completely beyond my comprehension.

God, give me grace.

Some left over prayer petals