My prayer to
stay longer here in the division was answered! Then I remember what the Lord
said in Jeremiah 33:3. What could be those great and mighty things that the Lord will show
and we know not yet? This is
what I’m excited to share to you in this another amazing story.
During our first Sabbath, we learned that
the Institute of World Mission (IWM) of the General Conference will be conducting training for
cross-cultural missionaries. This includes families and there will be
missionary kids to be trained as well. Ergo! An idea came that maybe, as we are
working on our Passport for Mission online course of the Adventist Volunteer
Services (AVS), we can volunteer to help in the missionary kids program. Truly,
The Lord is not slack concerning His promises - He said that He will answer and
He did! We were accepted to assist and lo and behold, great things await us!
Ate Maya assisted in the preschool class
with 2 kids; while I did in the primary class with 4 students. What is amazing
with the Lord is He just sets up everything in place. Imagine, He has extended
our stay here from 3 days to 3 weeks while we are on the process of accomplishing
the online course so we could officially go out and work in this vast mission
field; then here comes the missionary kids (MKs) training. Guess what? I
assisted Mrs. Enid Harris, the Assistant Director of IWM; while Ate Maya assisted Mrs. Anne-May Wollan, the Education and
Communication Director of IWM. The latter was actually our teacher in our
online course - the one checking and grading our online assignments. Praise God for its accomplishment just within two weeks! Now it wouldn't be that difficult for us to process our visa since God has already
placed them where we are – General Conference connections are just within
reach! Glory to God for He has again manifested that He is with us, even from
the inception of our journey!
The
training started and the “great things” were just about to unfold. I have been
teaching children during Bible prophecy meetings but this is totally different.
Children are taught more on stories of Bible missionary kids, transition from one culture to
another, and culture differences and adaptation. How wonderful because I was learning about them too; and also some children’s
choruses that I haven’t even heard and known before. Nevertheless, something invigorates me – play time! Kids love it for their
break time and I have no excuse for not being a kid again. In playing and
laughing with them, my childhood years’ flashes back! I am just almost of the
same height as them so none would really think that I’m out of place in running
with them in those “tag” games. I certainly had a tiring but enjoyable play time
with the precious gems!
MKs training is about worship time, lesson
time, craft time, artwork time, movie time, play time, and tour time: but the greatest
of them is tour time. I’m thrilled of it and we love it all! On board the van,
going to our destinations, we sing songs, play, joke, laugh, and share stories
together. We were greatly privileged to help out in the training
but God always has bonus blessings – eating in the cafeteria and going on excursions with
the children for absolutely free. Apart from that, we got to know of the kids' families and other missionary families who are going to serve in various countries and break down barriers of prejudice. God works in awesome ways! I believe he has a purpose why He allowed us to meet them all. I may have a finite mind to fully discern His thoughts but perchance
He will lead us someday to those places where He sent them so we could work together - hoping in the Lord!
The saddest part of this training is saying
farewell to the kids - as it has always been! Having my parting words to them, last dinner with them, last
Sabbath with them, last play time and laughing with them, and last group hug
with them – memories worth treasuring in my heart forever! Oh how I miss them and long to see them in God's perfect time again! Here are the video clip links of those amazing memoirs that you can watch:
We just asked, according to His will, but the answer from an Infinite mind and Omniscient God was overflowing. His
thoughts are undeniably higher than ours! God is always online, you just need to
call upon Him, and you will experience the same as we do and even more: because
“in this life, you will never know” – what God has in store for you!
