VBS

Ah, so I have not been taking pictures lately... I apologize...

I have been taking my group this week to VBS in an inner-city church. It is more of a summer school program that attempts to prepare children for school, catch them up, and also teach them the gospel. We were told that we cannot let the kids cuddle with us and climb all over us. At first I thought, well, ok, if that is what they want. I sort of assumed it was probably for our own protection.

As the week has progressed, I have been helping out in the four-year-old room. These two twin boys are perhaps the cutest little things I have ever met. However, the little dears also come to camp tired, cranky, and with drooping eyes each day. One of them so desperately wanted to use my lap to lie down and rest that it just broke my heart. I started to question the rules. Why can't we let them cuddle with us? He just wants a hug and wants to snuggle into a nice warm lap. However, this is precisely the problem.

After hearing the testimonies of some of the people who have suffered great pain in their lives, starting with childhood, I have heard evidence of why children must be careful to trust strangers. The great comfort that these kids felt after meeting us for a day should be scary to a parent when we live in an awful world. After talking with a leader and a former teacher, I wanted to cry all over again for these kids.

In addition to causing them to trust strangers, we also have the potential to hinder their social development and their ability to function independently. On mission trips and in service opportunities, well-meaning volunteers often baby the children and encourage behavior that would not be accepted when they grow up because we feel bad for these inner-city kids. We also encourage their affection for us and then leave them and forget them after our week of service is done. I still remember the way a little girl cried when I left an after-school program I volunteered at while on a mission trip in ninth grade.

I am left wanting to be there permanently for children in need, whether through adoption, foster care, or else volunteering or through my profession. I don't know. However, I am also left here struggling with how to be in places of temporary relationships with children and how best to communicate the caution groups must exercise when dealing with children. I want to love unselfishly and with the recipients in mind, not my own feelings.