" A babe in the house is a well-spring of pleasure, a messenger of peace and love, a resting place for innocence on earth, a link between angels and men." -Martin Fraquhar Tupper

Today our lovely veteran teachers took us to a new church, where they speak English! Well, sort of. This church is Guyanese, and in Guyana they speak English, but it's like a Caribbean English. So they'll be going along and you'll understand every word they're saying and then all of a sudden a phrase or word comes out that has no resemblance to any English word you've ever heard, but it's English to them. So then you ask them to repeat what they said and come to find out they really did say an English word! They just pronounced it  toooootally different, I mean to the extent that it might as well belong to a different language. This being said we were still very grateful to have understood 99% of what was being said verses the 25% we had last week : )

About a quarter of the way through the service the pastor announced that the children could go to Sunday school, and so all of the children started to get up and leave. I happened to be sitting next to a young daughter of one of our fellow teachers, and so I asked if she wanted to go to too. She was a bit timid about going so I told her I would go with her, and oh boy I'm so glad that I did- we had so much fun!!

The class was divided into two, one side was done in English and the other side in Dutch. In our little English group we had a total of four students (myself included). The other two were these two tiny Hindustani boys, named Victor and Nathan and ooohhh my goodness they were so cute! There aren't many chubby children here in Suriname, but Nathan was a bit on the chubby side, and had the cutest little chubby cheeks. And then Victor, about three feet tall, was dressed to a T, and to top it off had a little comb over. AH they cracked me up all class long.  THey were both about the age of five and gosh I had forgotten how funny little kids are.

At one point during class victor raised his hand and said Ms. blabidiblah (I dont remember the teachers name), Nathan is digging for gold again. I didn't know what he meant at first, so I looked over at Nathan and he was sitting there picking his nose. Bahaha I died laughing. The teacher didn't find this very amusing, nor did she find it amusing that I was cracking up. Ah children are so refreshing. As a high school teacher I don't get to be around little kids much, so I really appreciate them  when I do spend time with them.

To me it seems so evident that children come from God. The innocence that they possess, and their eagerness to love even a perfect stranger after only several minutes has no other explanation other than that they were created by a loving God and have his mark imprinted on their hearts.

We always think of role models as being adults, grown men and women who have traveled along the treacherous road of life and overcome its obstacles, and from these experiences gained a great deal of knowledge. But see, I think sometimes it is our  knowledge that blurs the simple truths that were instilled in us as children. For instance, as children we know no other way but to love uncondontitionally, but as we walk throughout life we unavoidably run into someone whom we love that hurts us or lets us down, and because of this experience we build up walls around us that protect our hearts from ever being broken again. And what we don't realize is that although we are safe inside these walls, we've shut ourselves out from those standing on the outside of the walls and no longer does our love flow freely from us.

And then of course the societal influences that surround us begin to creep their way into our morals and beliefs, and self-interest replaces the interests of our brothers and sisters as our underlying motivation for all that we do. This inborn innocence that children possess is like none other on this earth and unfortunately its fragility is often crushed by the evil influences of this world. Sometimes I think we overlook its value and neglect the opportunities we have to learn from it. Perhaps if small children were the role models we looked up to, this world would be a different place.


Matthew 18: 2-6 says: He called a little child and had him stand among them. And he said: "I telll you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven. Therefore, whoever humbles himself like this child is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven. And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name welcomes me.

Then again in verse 10: See that you do not look down on on of these little ones. For I tell you that their angels in heaven always see the face of my Father in heaven.