Grace like rain

I just finished reading an awesome book, "The Rope Walk" by Carrie Brown. The story is about a young girl, Alice, and the moment in childhood when we still want to wander in the woods and build forts but we also begin to understand that we can't build walls to protect us from the storms of life. It reminded me that what we need to do is open our umbrellas but learn to embrace the rain. Side note-Listen to the song by Todd Agnew, Grace like Rain. Last week, God gave me the gift of reminding me about my own umbrellas while I was a volunteer for an awesome Bible School Day Camp for 3,4, and 5th graders. These children were the age of young Alice in the book. Maybe it was because Carrie Brown had helped me step back in time to be ten again, but I have a new perspective on all the difficult problems in our world.

I learned, with the campers, how 1 in 6 people in the world don't have access to fresh water. We didn't just hear about it, we each took 1 gallon of water home and used it for all our water needs for 24 hours. I learned how a lady in Richmond visited a homeless friend who was proud to have an apartment for the first time. The lady walked through the door into a completely empty room and she did something about it. She started an organization which hosts house warmings for people who are trying to make a home, they call them blessing showers. We made hashbrown casseroles for the homeless. I helped three girls pour sour cream, slice butter, and stir love into this casserole. The next day we took the kids to serve lunch to the homeless. The children visited the elderly. The children raised enough money to buy 18 mosquito nets to protect people from malaria. Each day the kids learned different ways to pray, singing, journaling, intercessory and breath prayers.

Before we started all of these lessons, I was skeptical if the kids would really be able to understand all of these deep lessons. I was worried about whether we should bring the sad problems of the world into the minds of these innocent children. God showed me that I didn't bring the problems to their mind but rather the solutions. I learned that experience, empathy and prayer is the best tool we can give to kids to help them through the storms of life. We shouldn't teach children to build walls to protect us from life's storms, but rather we should give them umbrellas and tell them to listen for God in the raindrops. God reminded me of my own umbrella (see the picture).