Life Lessons From A Four Year Old

So today I was reading over the old mission trip daily blog posts and I realized that I haven't really told you guys what I do, day to day, like we do with the mission trip entries. Well today things are going to change. If all goes well I shall tell you about my day, slip in some God insight, and teach you a bit of Portuguese. Here we go...

I started my morning off at 6 AM which is 5 AM your time. I had a quick breakfast of papaya, a roll, and really strong coffee before leaving the house. After that Nubia dropped me off at Eliane's apartment because she had an early class. Eliane (First Portuguese lesson of the day: Eliane is pronounced like "el-i-on-ee") Eliane is the Vice President of Espaço da Criança (Second Portuguese lesson of the day: this is translated to the Space belonging to the Children or as we call it, the Kid's place. The pronunciation is "es-pa-so dah kri-on-sa"). Eliane is such a delightful lady. She always wraps me in a hug whenever she sees me and she is just full of warmth. I really am able to work on my Portuguese with Eliane because she doesn't speak very much English. I've been teaching her a little each day because she is coming to America in December and has been begging me to teach her. She is such an eager student and always laughs when we actually are able to understand each other. As soon as I get in, she makes me a glass of chocolate milk which she discovered that I love and a piece of pound cake. Keep in mind it is about 7:30 in the morning but that is just Eliane for you. I'm grateful because of my small breakfast and scarf it down. After that and a little reading while she gets ready, her husband drives us the Kid's Place. When we arrive the children are all ready there, obvious by the talking and giggling you can hear from the street. I go put my backpack down and go join them in the outside area. I'm greeted by my favorite sound, "Tia!" and a few hugs. I sit down with the children while one of the teachers gives directions or announcements. I see some new faces today and I think our numbers have increased. When I sit down, Caluane (pronounced "cal-wan-ee"), who has become my little buddy, crawls over and plops herself in my lap. I'll talk more about Caluane later but to keep the day moving, next we did Praise and Worship. This is one of my favorite times because almost all of the kids dance and sing and just give glory to God. I'm actually starting to learn a few of the songs so I sing a long in my best Portuguese accent and dance with Caluane and a few of the other children. After we are exhausted from toting children around dancing, we meaning the tias, we go to story time. This week's story is the story of Lazarus. I really enjoyed seeing how engaged the children were in this story. The story time leader Kidia and I acted out Lazarus (me) rising from the dead and walking to Jesus (Kidia) while all the children shouted "Lazarus, come forth!" in Portuguese. I think they really enjoy the stories. After that we went to art time where the kids were split into groups and given a large sheet of poster paper and we had to draw the story. This was more difficult than expected with about 10 opinionated 4 to 6 year olds who each have their own color crayon. We did end up with something quite abstract and colorful though. After art time we went outside, Lila (a fellow tia) blew up some balloons and we played until lunch time. After that I played with the kids until someone came to pick them up and then read my book until cooking class. The Kid's Place offers certain classes for the mothers of the children to help them develop some skills such as cooking and cosmetology. This helps the mothers be equipped for better jobs instead of turning to other less desirable ways of making money. The cooking class I went to today had had about ten mothers and an instructor. I had to quickly become a visual learner mimicking the other mothers as we made a type of Portuguese pastry that was like a mini pot pie. They actually turned out really good and I was able to meet some new friends amongst the mothers of the children I've been playing with for two weeks. Quite a successful day. Now back to Caluane. Caluane is a little girl who has climbed into my heart and taken residence and I just have been so blessed by her presence these past couple of weeks.

This is Caluane and she is four years old and has just started coming to Kid's Place this semester. I always enjoy her company because she is loving, and just chatters at me and doesn't expect an answer, which my limited Portuguese would hinder me anyways. She is completely unaware of the other children around her and definitely dances to the beat of her own drummer.

During Praise and Worship we listen for a while and tease her about her crazy hair. She isn't really into dancing this morning so I just hold her and dance around with her that way. I call her my little monkey (meu macaquinho pronounced like "may-oo moc-ah-keen-yo") because she is always climbing all over me. If I'm not holding her she climbs up my legs or waits till I grab her arms and the she just goes lifeless forcing me to hold her up. When I do hold her she is constantly climbing all around me or falling backwards expecting me to jerk her up before she hits the ground. She just has this blind faith that I will be there to hold her no matter how close she is to the ground when she dangles off of my hip. As children, I'm sure we all had those moments when we would fling ourselves backwards from an adults arms knowing they would be there to pull us up and not allowing us to hit the floor. Or perhaps you might of dived off of the diving board or side of the pool into the arms of a waiting family member, perched ready to catch you, easing you down into the water. As children we do these things because we trust and rely on the adult there to protect us. Jesus saw this in Mark 10:15 saying that we should receive the Kingdom of God like children, with trust and reliance and blind faith. I often think that I trust God, but how often do I rely on Him? I typically just go through life thinking I'm handling it all and usually call on God whenever it is convenient for me usually when I want something or have a problem. A few of the pastors of the church here in Brazil just recently returned from Nigeria from a mission trip. She talked in her sermon about how the people there rely on God because He is all they have. The people there wake up every morning and pray that they will have food for their families, clean water, and a roof over their heads; things we take for granted everyday. They rely on God because He provides for them. I know I trust God but do I rely on Him for even the most basic needs? I rely on my parents to provide food and shelter. Most of you rely on your jobs to provide you with money so you can buy the necessities. It is just habit. We are comfortable this way. We just call on Him when we can work it into our schedule. How often do I wake up and pray that I will be able to have breakfast? Or that when I turn on the sink clean water will come out to drink? Just like Caluane relies on me to pull her back from falling out of my arms I think we should rely on God for the many things we take for granted, things that others rely on prayer to receive, just to live another day. God longs for this reliance, this blind faith in Him that He will be there to provide for us. We should acknowledge it in our lives. He's holding on to us waiting for us to trust Him enough to lean back into the unknown where he will be there to pull us back up. Caluane and the other children are teaching me more than I'm teaching them. Today as I was holding Caluane she nuzzled her little nose into my neck and I just started to cry. Such love from a little girl who I've only known for a couple weeks. I can see God everywhere in this place and he is doing awesome work. I'm sending my love! Keep all of us in your prayers!