My daughter woke up at 6:30 in the morning and as usual started off into the streets (our house is just along the baranggay road). After a couple of hours she came back with a bunch of kids (around fifteen of them ages 4-11) announcing that she invited the children because her Mama would teach a Bible Study. It was the third Saturday of November 2008.
I then prepared our front porch for them to settle down. I was a little bit nervous. I haven’t tried to teach a Sunday school in my whole life and here I am facing children who know me well in our barrio as a stern woman. I started the morning with them about the love of Jesus supported by verses in the Bible. We sang short choruses then tried to make the activity a series so they would be excited to come every Saturday.
Enthused by how a church in Laguna I had attended before of their deep concern for children who needed to know the true love of God, I asked my daughter the day before she brought these kids in our house if she would be willing to help me start a Bible Lesson for children in our barrio. (Jesus said “…Suffer the little children to come unto me, and forbid them not; for of such is the kingdom of God.” “And he took them up in his arms, put His hands upon them, and blessed them.” – Mark 10:14, 16). This was the first day I started a Children’s Bible Study in our house.
In July of this year, I was able to usher these kids to a Fundamental Baptist Church about 5-6 kilometers away from our barrio. I usually go with them in their ride to the church and leave them there while I go to San Fernando to my church. One of the members of this said church that offered her passenger jeep to haul children and some members to and back from nearby barrios during Sundays was able to include our place in its route.
Five to six months after the Bible Study was started however, I noticed that some of the former children, who came, stopped attending while some just occasionally visited. I learned later that their parents did not permit them because they suspect our Bible Study as an initial activity to change their religion. Some parents also thought that I’m just teaching their kids some non-sense stuffs. This came about when I had to let the children identify themselves the bad versus the good values and which ones to keep and which ones to put away particularly the “washing of mouths from rubbish lingo” typical in the mouths of barrio people. Until now however, I accept, I am in difficulty checking the children in this said area because it is a normal idiom at their own homes. We do an activity that we call, “Values Check”. Before I tell them stories about Jesus or stories of people in the Bible, we usually check each ones personality and ethics and have to let go of unnecessary attitudes and some garbage that were harbored during the week. I tell them to also tell these taken for granted values to their parents.
Just as freeing the mouth of scraps, these kids are also regularly reminded of keeping their surroundings free of refuse one example of which is by simply putting candy wrappers into their pockets or bags if there are no trash bins available in the vicinity. With these simple moral codes that each one should live with whether a child or not, I was not spared of criticisms though. I am looked at by some parents as just one of the “pretending saints” who try to correct their children of rubbish standards by using the Bible.
During the third quarter of this calendar year, I involved these children (about 4-7 of them who regularly attended the Bible Study to date) in a prayer movement. I asked them to think of at least one concern and pray for it regularly in their own homes until the next Saturday that we would meet. Later, I told them that I would help them in their prayers so I listed each child’s prayer requests. (From time to time then, I ask them for their prayer requests which I include in my prayer list). I couldn’t describe what I felt during the first time I took and listed their requests. It was that time that I again realized how broken homes are today. Physically, yes, homes in the Philippines especially in the barrios are united but are truly broken in terms of emotions.
The following is a list I picked up from among the requests, which I perceive as prayers that need to be really prayed for. I was surprised that two little girls in the group (ages 4 and 7) have one each of the following requests:
- Parents NOT TO ALWAYS quarrel over money
- A prayer for a mother to stop smoking, getting drunk and stop betting in “jueteng”
- A prayer for parents to stop using bad words especially the “PI’s” common in Philippine country sides
- A prayer for a mother to stop hating a neighbor that often results to neighbors’ quarrel/s
- A prayer for parents to stop belittling their children’s capabilities and worst coupled with filthy language
- A prayer for fathers to stop drinking and smoking
All of these scenarios as the children claim keep them feel not loved enough because of tensions that they regularly witness around their small worlds. One of the above problems howver, did not spare my daughter who requested for fervent prayers for his Dad to stop his gambling hobby and getting drunk (her father chose to go back to his old ways so that many times I flood myself with millions of “why” questions. I also feel at times that my prayers are just in vain).
It is very obvious that these kids only wanted a peace and loving home. In fact, it is their entire Christmas wish!
Our lessons regarding prayers were I consider really a great change that I see in these children. For example, December is a month of singing carols when some of these kids including my daughter were in our front yard one early evening. They were practicing Christmas carols that they would later sing to some houses in the neighborhood. I got touched when I heard one of them say, “We should pray first, before we go.” I slowly sneaked a look at them and they were really in prayers, the eldest of the group leading it. They prayed particularly for protection.
At this moment, it is my fervent prayer that I will still have that STRENGTH as long as I live TO KEEP ON PRAYING not only for my concerns but more than ever for the “little” but serious prayer requests of these kids that come to our house and play in our front yard and strength to also pray for other people who need prayers. (“God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; … The Lord of host is with us; the God of Jacob is our refuge. - Psalm 46:1-2 & 7. “Ye have not chosen me, but I have chosen you, and ordained you, that ye should go and bring forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain; that whatsoever ye shall ask of the Father in my name, he may give it to you.” – John 15:16)
