Blessing in Disguise

Today, some of the team went to the landfill to do foundational construction work on homes and the rest of us went to the school that Lakewood helps support, Rayitos de Esperanza, to do VBS. While at the school, we split up into different groups to go into each of the classes. We worked with ages anywhere from 4 years to 2nd grade.

To begin our time at the school, we sang a few songs with the children and then they had a few songs prepared for us! Once we finished with the group session, we went to our classes; I was in the 5 year old class. The lesson today was from Ephesians 6:11-18, that talks about the Armor of God. We read them the story and had a visual that was made for us that showed why we need the Armor of God. My favorite verse from this lesson is Ephesians 6:11 that says "Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil." For me, this is strong. Sometimes it is hard to grasp the concept that God is there for me no matter what and no matter what type of situation I am in. It is hard for me to let go of things and whole-heartedly put things in God's hands. It's almost like I don't have on the full Armor of God on because I think I can handle things myself. But this lesson not only taught the kids to put on the Armor of God and stand for on His firm foundation, but also taught me to do the same.

We had recreation time, snack time, story time, and arts & crafts. These kids loved to color and it was such a joy and pleasure to be sitting with them and interacting with them. Every chance they had, they would run up to us and show us their picture and name tags they colored. They would have smiles ear to ear when we told them how good they look and how great of a job they were doing. This made my heart smile!

One of my favorite moments of the day was after everything was done, we read the kids a children's book about how much God loves them. This book told about how they are put on this earth for a reason and how God has great plans for them. At the end of the book it asked the question of "What kind of blessings has God given you?". Several of the kids had the answer of family or friends or something of that nature. But the answer that stuck out to me was when a little boy said my school. It made me think of how I've had my moments, as many of us have, saying that I don't want to go to school a particular day or that I wish I was done with school, but these kids beg to go to school and love going to school. It made me take a step back and be thankful and appreciative of the kind of education that is offered to me.

"I will praise the Lord God with a song and a thankful heart" Psalm 69:30

Courtney Brooks