how the other half live...

On Thursday we went back to Family Believers Church to run the children's club for the children who live in the surrounding area (I've previously referred to it as the slums). This is one of our favourite places to go as the children are so lovely and excited to see us and we love singing songs and playing games with them.

This week, the children's club had some visitors. A class from an International School came to meet the children and see where they live. We arrived before them, so were playing with the children and going over our planning. I popped outside and saw a line of very smartly dressed children with their two teachers walking towards us. They came into the church and sat down and were incredibly well behaved. 

Anna described it as a 'paradox' and I think she was right, the contrast between the two sets of children, at first, was crazy. Lots of the children from Family Believers are often dressed in hand-me-downs and a handful of them don't wear shoes. The international school children, however, all had pristine white shirts and shiny black shoes. I'm sure this was an eye-opening experience for the children themselves, let alone for us witnessing it.

 The children were then taken on a tour of the slum and went inside some of the homes. Lots of the Family Believers children came with us too, it's unlikely that you'll be able to walk round there without having a child on each limb!!

We all came together again in the church and Moses and Anna led some songs, and I did a game. By this point all the children had integrated themselves and they all joined in with the same enthusiasm. I was reminded that half of these children have had a very different upbringing to the other half, but they're all still children who need love and attention and laughter and support. We all got into a circle, and at that point it didn't matter who came from where or who had what, everyone joined hands and sang "He's got the whole world in his hands".

He's got the whole world in his hands, the children from the international school, the children from the slum, the teachers, the gappers, the smile volunteers, He's holding each and every one of us.