Awake

When the good things happen...

Saturday was a lazy day. Very lazy. Sloth-like, even. Coming down from 24 marathon, not easy, in a very pathetic kind of way. Went to church to teach 4 and 5 year olds about Joseph storing grain for 7 years, an act of God's provision for the people for the 7 years of famine. The activity sheets had a picture of the grain storage units. Admittedly, I don't know what an ancient Egyptian grain storage unit looks like, but the kids in my class didn't think what was pictured on the activity sheet was even close. No, in their minds, it was a tornado, a bee hive, something to be shot down and blown up (not joking). It was funny but the thought did occur to me that I had been ineffective in my teaching of the grain storage unit, so on the suggestion of the girls in class, we built a giant fort out of kids' kitchen furniture and had snack on bean bags, behind rocking chairs, on a play picnic table, surrounded by play kitchen stoves, refrigerators, sinks, and ovens. Some disappointment was expressed at the lack of giant blankets (how are you supposed to make a fort without blankets???) but we managed.

From there, attended worship service for the first time in 6 or 7 weeks; it was really good. In the meantime missed 2 calls: Mom (are you coming over?) and Ruth (are you coming over?) To Mom: (no, tomorrow). To Ruth: (busy signal). I started down Murray Blvd. Ruth's apartment is only 5 minutes from the church.

I arrived at Ruth's apartment about 9:00 pm in the evening and finally got through to her on the phone ("I'm here; I'm knocking.") I got to meet her mom and 3 other women who live in the apartment complex. Ruth and I checked out her antenna-less TV and then we headed over to her mom's apartment to check out the crib situation. Sure enough, no screws for the crib. But I found out that the crib was going to be for a 4 year old (who looked 2 years old. I think some of these kids are underweight). Now, that crib would be nothing but a jungle gym for that kid (and the 10 others who hang out in that apartment). He needs a kids' bed. Last night I was over at my friend Stephanie's. She's gearing up for a yard sale and one of the items on her list is a toddler bed. Perfect. I just have to find a crib mattress and that kid will have a place to sleep of his own.

While I was over there, I started to informally find out who else needed a bed (a 6 year old girl) and if there were some kids who needed shoes (yes, a toddler). Focusing on the group of refugees living in this apartment complex, I've decided to get as concrete an idea as possible of what the clothing and bedding needs are of these kids. Armed with a notebook, a scale (fitting kids' clothes by weight is more accurate than by age), and some kind of foot measuring device, and Ruth to help me with names and ages and other particulars, I'm going to find out who needs a bed, who needs shoes, which boys need boy clothes and which girls need girl clothes (right now some of the boys are in dresses).

I also want to get my friend Nathan over there (who works with Public Health and has done Community Health Education in India) to see if he can do an assessment of the health and sanitary conditions in the apartment where all the kids hang out. Maybe then he can tailor the CHE material for them and start doing CHE classes in Ruth's living room for the women in this complex.

Eventually, I'd like to rent out an apartment in that complex and turn it into a community center for these women and their kids. Maybe I could write a grant for the lease. Hmmmm.....

The morale of this story is that I am not a morning person, or really even much of a day person, especially on a Saturday. Give me the night and let God light up the place. That's when the good things happen.