I rolled out of bed Saturday morning and passed through the dorm, met Julia, one of the Polish students on the stairs. She was hoping to go to the Folk Festival with a group of RAs and the like...but no one was there...so I was like "hey, come to the children's home with us, we're having a BBQ," and she was like, "Sure." And sure enough, we ended up having an extra seat.
Kel, my mentor and immediate boss for my time at SLI, is pastor at a church that has adopted one of the local children's homes. The home houses about 80 kids, and they're there at least weekly. So one of my SLI highlights is getting to visit. It's been extremely tempting to stop doing SLI and instead do their "SLP" program there at the children's home. But the kids at SLI actually speak English (more or less) and God has used me in such big ways here. *sigh* Cloning? (My Russian friends also were involved in an orphan camp last summer)
So Kel always has very clear roles for everyone. My role is "distract the little guys with the guitar so they don't get into the fire." I distracted a couple of them anyway. There were two kids who really stood out. D., who played probably 10 songs with me, him strumming and me switching the chords, was just so excited to play. There was also a blind girl, probably around 4 or 5 but maybe not even that old mentally, I don't remember her name, but she was fascinated and super excited to touch the strings and hear the sound come out. Another one of the kids with a mental disability raised his voice when I raised mine. "Oh Gosh," I thought. I think he's crying. And then I realized he was smiling. He was singing. Even though I've only been to this home some 5 times, I'd say I know about 5 or 6 of the residents pretty well now. We recognize each other and I remember personalities. I can't tell you how much joy it brings me to be with them, and it ignites my heart, even as I know that these kids will probably never be "mine" even in the sense of mentorship.
Went to pizza and to the folk festival with a bunch of students. It was kinda awkward, most of the students were ready to leave as soon as we got to the festival, and I waited for them two hours to go with them cuz I couldn't get a group together sooner. There was some impressive singing, but it was just okay. Came back disappointed, the conversation was mostly in Russian, which left me de facto with the one student who doesn't speak Russian. (I would be fine if everybody was speaking Russian, but speaking it when some of the group doesn't is just rude)
In the evening I had a prayer and songs night. It was awesome, many students were very excited to sing. It made me angry, that these musicians I would have found and met on the first or second day of SLI with a piano in the lounge were just now coming out of the woodwork a week in. But maybe God used that. The prayer time was also moving, and we sang for two hours, until I had just about nothing left. We sang a little in Lithuanian and Russian and did two songs mixed, so there was some Polish and Spanish (via yours truly) as well as our three others on Open the Eyes of my Heart and How Great is Our God. But mostly they were just excited to sing I think, although we did share a few testimonies, many of the students were Christians, and the prayer time, although mostly a painfully long silence for an American, was beautiful. I was blown away. Although I've thought the week was going quite poorly, God would not be thwarted. Students have already been asking me "will you be back next year?" and a lot of very natural conversations are occurring, even if I feel awkward and out of it some times. I think, my emotions have been the place that the devil tries to get me off...caught up in stress or self-critique. I want to be more present with the students this week. Cuz we still have two more and already SO much is happening. !Gloria a Dios!
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