A Great Day

Yesterday we went out to one of the orphan day centres just to play with the kids. It is school holidays right now, so we were able to take our kids along with us. Here is a photo of our girls playing with some of the orphans (our son was off "coaching" a soccer game out in the dirt road. He doesn't know how to play soccer and yet he has an uncanny ability to order people around with a charming smile on his face, and would you believe they all follow his lead!?)

It struck me that our girls, who came from a relative life of ease in California, were outside playing with girls who live in poverty out in a township, and there was really no difference. They had just as much fun playing Chinese jumprope with a dirty string out on a dirt road next to some shacks as they would have had playing on a jumping castle in an upscale neighbourhood in California.

I cannot tell you how blessed I feel to be able to raise our children outside of the American "bubble" - to expose them to different cultures and to teach them that people are people no matter where you go, no matter what the circumstances or challenges. Everyone - EVERYONE - is made in the image of a Holy God who loves them deeply, and that is something that binds us all together.

Yesterday I didn't go shopping at a mall, I didn't eat at a restaurant, I didn't go out for coffee. I got dirty and mingled with people who live in very different circumstances from myself. It was a great day.