Two Performances, Two Little Children

Dear Prayer Team,

I know I say this every week, but WOW! What a weekend we had! Friday night, Dustin, Will and I met up with the bus near an exit off of I-5 on the way to Camp Winema which is on the Oregon coast. It was nice to climb aboard "Ginger" again. I've been getting used to riding in separate cars to the venues, which is nowhere near as much fun as going on the bus together. We're still selling the bus, but we'll use it from time to time until it sells.

We arrived at the campground after dark, got everything loaded in and did a sound check. Then we lugged all of the stuff to the bunk house. It was about 9:45pm when we got settled. Luke, Serena and Tyson were in the room above us, but the other five of us all slept in a big room downstairs. I felt like a kid again....except the part about my back not agreeing with the bunk mattress. We sat on our bunks and Josh told us some really lame jokes, and we shared some riddles and laughed a lot until we started dropping off to sleep. Snoring? ...Yes there was some but I won't mention any names. I guess Tyson did some singing throughout the night too! We woke up, took a walk up to see the beach, had a delicious breakfast and got ready. They were having an auction to support the campground and we were part of the program.

We had a very fun concert, talked for a while, prayed with a prayer team member, packed up, had lunch, and as we were heading to the bus we noticed this big slide that we'd been admiring all morning. It was one of those half tube slides where you sit on the burlap bags. It was two stories tall and it looked like it may have been a waterslide at some point. Since the rest of the campers were in the auction, we seized our chance to recapture the glory of our playground days. We ran up the two flights of stairs, sat on our burlap bags and sped down the slide. It was just about this time that one little boy and his mom came over and decided that we weren't going to hog ALL of the fun, so he grabbed a bag and raced us to the top. Then, Dustin came back from dropping his stuff off at the bus and noticed what we were doing. Even though we were winding down, he would not be denied. He ran up the steps and went down the slide about 5 times in 5 minutes. We could see that we had reached the point when it was time for us to spice things up a bit, so we all gave Dustin instructions like, "Hey! Do you think you could sit up WHILE going backwards or would you end up banging your head on the slide?" This was the kind of encouragement he did NOT need. He laid the burlap bag onto the slide, turned around and laid down on his back, head first.

It was then we heard the lone dissenting voice of reason.

"That's not a good idea. Nope! That's NOT a good idea!"

I looked around to see who was being the old fuddy-duddy.

"NOT a good idea at all!"

I kept looking and couldn't see who it was that was trying to ruin our fun.

Finally, as I aimed my gaze downward, I noticed a very serious looking six-year old, shaking his head saying, "That's REALLY not a good idea!"

As it turns out Dustin was just fine. No bruises at all, just a nice little raspberry on his forearm, but I was really struck by something in that little boy. He had all of the good parenting and confidence that he needed to stand up and say what needed saying even though he looked up to us, and even though what we were doing seemed like it might be fun. None of that seemed to matter, his mom told him NOT to horse around on the slide and he wasn't going to back down from voicing it. The next night before a memorable concert at People's Church in Salem, I met another little boy of about the same age. We had met he and his mother in the music room where we got prepared for the concert when he showed me a special Moroccan leather wallet that was given to him by a friend or relative who had done missionary work in Spain. I was fascinated by the way it folded in on itself, and the boy seemed very proud of it. During the concert, the music minister made a plea to the congregation for support on our behalf. The little boy took it to heart. After the program, the boy and his mother slowly made their way through the large crowds in the lobby to meet us by the product table. His mother said, "He wanted me to find you. I think he wants to show you something." He carefully withdrew the special wallet from his pocket and opened it up to show me that there were some coins inside that he wanted to give to RESCUE.

These two children taught me a lesson, common to both experiences. Childlike faith is not just obedient, it's also quite tenacious. One can be a bold witness of the things they are completely convinced of. One is capable of amazing, sacrificial giving, when they don't filter out and explain away the convictions and directives that God has placed in their heart.

Lord, help us to become as these little children.