"Jesus Loves the Little Children"

"This Little Light of Mine, I'm going to let it shine"
 This tune and "Jesus Loves the Little Children, All the Children of the World" is going round and round in my head.  I've taken pictures in my photo album and put together

This little one is one of my "newest" nephews.  He came to us from St. Petersburg, Russia.
Richard turned 2 in August, and yes, he's one of the little children of the world
that Jesus loves.

              Seeing Africa Through The Eyes of Children

for the tutoring group I work with.

Some of these children were around when I went to Liberia, but for others this is their first viewing of a world very far away from the one in which they live.  When I returned from Liberia, I tried to show the children what "REAL POVERTY" looked like.  I don't think I did a very good job, because the American kids didn't "get it."  When I asked them what poverty was to them they said "Stewpot" or not being able to change clothes or only eating one meal.  They said they didn't know any poor people.

And sure enough those descriptions would fit in the Africa I have seen, but it's so much more.

Before Thanksgiving one of the volunteers was teaching the children about that FIRST Thanksgiving (which wasn't called Thanksgiving).  She told the children how children in 1620 lived and asked if they'd want to live like that today.  The "today" kids once again didn't seem to get it, and especially when I told them that there are COUNTLESS KIDS that ARE TODAY living just like these children of America's beginnings, except they don't have some of those benefits.  The children of today are not in stable families who know and love God like Pilgrim children.  They have no opportunity for education, even the homeschooling of our forefathers.

Maybe we won't get to "their regular lessons" today, but hopefully, today's class will come away with knowledge that will bless their lives.  If they "GET IT" that Jesus loves them, if they "GET IT" that we GO because someone needs to tell other children the stories of a GREAT SAVIOR and ALL OUR NEED for HIM, then today will have been a successful tutoring session.

On the wall of the school we visited in Rwanda were these and many other quotes by children sharing THEIR DREAMS of THEIR FUTURE.