Week Four- Undignified

           Let me start by saying this week has been hard emotionally, physically, and mentally. My body is tired, I'm missing my life back home, and the devil has put all kinds of lonely thoughts in my head. However, I am not sick, I am resting as well as possible, and have really reached out to family and friends that mine as well be family for encouragement. Thank you to all who sent emails and have continued to pray for me, I cried through most of them, I do not deserve the love and kindness I have been shown.
          My kids are great. Since we last spoke I have won the favor of the boys. Some of them are completely in love : ) They say one day they will go to America and find a beautiful wife just like me. So now at night I have about twenty kids sitting on the floor, or buckets, or laying on the bed. A couple of days ago one of the boys set beside me for an hour not joining in with the conversation just holding my hand and stroking my hair. I am such a new creator to these kids. They touch my freckles, trace my veins, pinch my skin to watch it turn red, etc. One little girl asked me why my blood was green, talking about the color of my veins. I truly think I have been asked every question possible about America, my life, or my skin and hair. However, I wouldn't have it any other way. I have been an open book to these kids. The oldest that is around now (since the highschoolers already left for boarding school) is about 13. I remember being 13 and having a zillion questions about life, love, my body, finding my individuality. They have NO one to ask questions to, their older siblings are away at school and they do not have older role models that are not authority. Sometimes the questions are super personal and I would normally completely avoid answering them but as we will discuss later I have sucked up a lot of pride and answered them anyway.
        When I have all the kids around I usually open my bible and ask them what their favorite verse is, as always they impress me so much. One girl named Regina, she is what I would call the Lauren Hill of the Sister Act cast. Regina leads the songs with her AMAZING voice and she is so sweet and meek and mild. Anyway, when asked about her favorite verse she takes the bible and reads this, “Your beginnings will seem humble, so prosperous will your future be.” Job 8:7 Another girl goes next and reads Zephaniah 3:17 “The Lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing.” Now let me ask you, when is the last time someone turned to Job or Zephaniah to read you their favorite verse? These kids are really something else, right!?!
        In 2 Samuel 6 there is a story about David dancing in very little clothing while the ark of God makes it way into his house. Some people looked down on him and vocalized their disgust when David heard he responded by saying, (v. 21-22) “It was before the Lord.... I will become even more undignified than this.” This story was brought to my attention by Francis Chan in a book called Forgotten God. Which then made me think about this song we use to sing at Camp U by Matt Redman that says “I will dance, I will sing, to be mad for my king, nothing Lord is hindering the passion in my soul, I will become even more undignified than this, some may say its foolishness, I will become even more undignified than this, lay my pride by my side” If you have never heard it you should look it up on Youtube it is a good one. I am always looking for new songs to teach the kids and they have really liked this song! I hear them singing it all the time and even heard one of the cooks humming the tune the other day. So, I say all of that to say this, it has really started a thought process for me about what it even means to become Undignified before the Lord, or just in general really. I think kids really show this the best. They don't care one bit what they look like, how they smell, if people are going to laugh at them, if they want to dance or raise their hands during a song they will. Now I know that some GCC goers out there are getting worried about where I am going with this. You are thinking now wait a minute Candice we are a contemporary church but dancing? That is for other churches. And that is not a point I am here to discuss, it is way more about the feeling than the action. When is the last time that you openly walked into a situation knowing you were going to look silly to those around you? That your actions were going to be considered out of place or not socially excepted? I think about Rhonda, Donnie, Penny and all the other children's church workers that put on costumes and dance around for the kids. This is becoming undignified for the Lord and they will be blessed for it. Mom and Dad told me about the outreach weekend our church is doing this summer and I think it is awesome! I think this is the perfect opportunity for some of our people to experience what I am talking about. I don't know what the service projects are going to be but I'm sure they are going to take long hours, hard work, and (hopefully) even some humility. I deal with this every single day here. I have had to set my pride aside 100% and for those that know me well that is a WHOLE lot of pride! I have not seen a mirror since I got here, I don't ever actually feel clean, my bathroom is a hole, I usually eat with my hands, just to name a few of the many things I would normally get very embarrassed about. But from the beginning I have thought it to be very important to show the kids that we are one in the same, therefore I have to suck it up be a Kenyan. Notice I didn't say anything about dancing around or acting a fool with the kids because that comes very natural for me, no embarrassment. So here is my challenge, who is around you that you need to become undignified before the Lord to show them that you are one in the same? Should you invite your drunk of a cousin over to dinner even though the rest of the family is not going to like that? Should you volunteer in the children's program? Should you take some college students out for lunch because you know they are poor (very poor) and can always use the extra encouragement even though you don't know them so well? College students, look around everyone needs something, if you see a need go buy the dollar ice scraper even though you know the gift will be looked down on at first they will really appreciate it in the end. Lose the pride, look like the fool, become undignified for the right reasons and you will be blessed.