Our People

This past week a team from Alabama came down, and they were a blast. There were 13 kids under 12 years old (the youngest was 3) and their families along with a few young adults. At first I was nervous about having so many kids down here, but this week has been a blast for me. I enjoyed hide and seek, soccer, wiffle ball, and Skip-bo so much. But I also learned a lot from these kids.

One of my favorite things about kids is that they don't care. They just don't. Tell a 5 year old to dress themselves and you'll see what I'm talking about. Most kids aren't super worried about what people will think about them, and they don't let obstacles that would stop most adults even slow them down. This week it warmed my heart to see the Alabama kids playing with the kids from around here. It didn't matter that they were from completely different cultures or spoke completely different languages--they just played. And that was enough.

Another thing I loved seeing this week was how open these kids' hearts were. One little 8 year old girl in particular made an impression on me. When we went to the migrant camp to show a film, she spent the entire night playing with a boy even smaller than she is. She gave piggy-back rides and played tag and duck, duck, goose, and she had a hard time saying goodbye. We were going to go back on Thursday, but VBS ran late. As I mentioned to her mom that we wouldn't be going to the camp that night, I saw her smile disappear. Her voice trembled as she begged to go back and see her new friend. To see this little girl show so much love for a child she barely knows--I just wish adults loved so easily. If the grown-ups with the power still had the open hearts of children, this world would look so different.

Seeing the kids intermingling, playing together and loving on each other--it made me think. These kids saw no differences that couldn't be overlooked. They just looked at each other and saw friends. And I hope they always do. When they grow up and grow into a world filled with war, racism, and violence, I hope that they will remember this week when "those people" became their people. Because that's how the world will change. We can't kill people we're friends with. We can't go to war against soccer teammates. And I think there would be a lot more peace if we remembered that everybody is somebody's baby. The day "those people" become "our people" is the day hatred ceases to exist. And I pray that day comes soon.