February 14

It has been a few weeks that I have not had the inspiration or maybe I should just admit - no energy to hit the keys and pound on my brain to blog! But tonight I want to write a few words to summarize my night. Today is February 14!!! And no - I do not have a Valentine, so after work, I came home and ate dinner from left overs of a week ago and went to church. I have stopped going to Wednesday night service but tonight I have signed up to help in the children's ministry. I often said that I don't do kids, but since my experience with the kids in Cebu last year, I felt that God wants me to serve here too. I arrived just in time to meet Angel and Jackie, the husband and wife team who leads the Childrens ministry. They let me observe first then asked me to help with little things like giving out the toys or checking their work about the bible. In the beginning, during the worship and singing, I noticed that the kids are very well behaved inspite of their being typical kids; active and loud. There were more than 30 kids but one boy in particular I think had a sack of sugar for dinner. He was using his thighs as drums then he would jump then beat on the chair and was really enjoying himself. The boy next to him, caught some of his energy too but was pretty mild compared to him. They sang a song that was written by this boy named Ezekiel, and the drummer and the guitarist really produced a good melody to it. You can tell Ezekiel was pretty proud after they sang the song.
I was pretty proud of myself too, because I found myself really enjoying the kids, when I used to be annoyed with their noise and chatter. I am not maternal and I don't think I am good with kids, but more and more I am now beginning to understand why God gives us kids---to help us understand why inspite of our disobedience He still loves us. One kid was trying to cheat his way to get a reward and demanded what I should give him while another kid was very meek and tried to explain to me that he did his homework but could not find the book, could he please get his reward. As I stood back during the break and observe silently, I realized that if God can be so patient with us adults, why are we so easily mad at kids misdemeanor?
My adrenalin was pumping from the chattering and shouting of the kids in that room but as I was leaving, one boy shyly asked me if I wanted a valentines card. Before I could even say yes, he put it in my hand and ran away. It was not even a valentines card, but a sports card and he wrote his name on it. I did have a Valentine after all..thank you, Andrew.