Thursday, May 24th
Hearing a marvelous sound and much needed rain. Wellington is currently in a crisis. We praised God for each drop knowing this means so much for the people who live here. Today we went to the Mosaic Community Center and spent time with Ma's of Wellington who work with the preschool aged children in the mornings. We met with Nuzuku to learn about the program and what they do for the children. The start of the program was singing and a few of the Ma's did a skit about not littering. Children were hesitant to take responsibility to pick up the clementine peels and other trash. When the Ma's asked if I was the culprit I hopped up to lead them in collecting the trash. Multiple kids swarmed the area to collect the debris. The Ma's sat in chairs around the children some on the floor with the holding them. Drew, Ashley, Jonathan and myself sat with the children during the program.
When they started to sing the song telling the children that God loved them we were invited to sit with the children. I had two laying with their heads on my lap. Drew laid on the floor and had multiple children surrounding him. Each of us embraced by the little ones and personally I was moved to tears. We know that these beautiful women are spending time to help these children feel loved, fed, and have a place to come for part of the day to stay off the street. The group was smaller today because of the rain but still wonderful experience. After the song and some quiet time the children were slowly gathered by the Ma's to go to their designated tables.
Serving the children pasta, and meat sauce, clementines, oranges, chips, and juice pouches. The Ma's also received the pasta with meat sauce, an orange, and bag full of clementines which are all donations. Providing and sharing all the food helps provide nourishment for these little ones and their family. With hugs the children dispersed back into the community. The Ma's had circled up again and our group sat in the middle. Jen spoke about our group and said that some of Hopewell's congregation had prayed over the scarves with each stitch. We all handed out scarves and prayed over the Ma's. I prayed for the rains to continue as these women pour out their love to the children, and that the children would extend their love to those in the community. The Ma's embraced us with hugs that seemed to never end and it amazing to feel their love for us. The love was unconditional for the children and our visit to extend back to all of those back home who have contributed and supported Mosaic. Once the program ended we helped to clean up and met with Nuzuku again before heading out.
We took a trip to the local grocery store to shop for food for the remainder of the trip. Drew and Amy cooked delicious grilled cheese sandwiches. We had some down time before we would return to Mosaic for the after school program. When we arrived the children greeted our team and some of the children remembered Ashley, Jen and Amy by name. We gathered in the large room to sing and pray. The children selected Amy and Ashley to help washing younger children's hands. Craig, Drew and Alex went to the kitchen to help prepare the food. Jen and I stayed with the younger children and once they were fed we broke into different groups to play and learn. Jonathan was with the older kids helping to create picture frames. The youngest children practiced counting, tracing numbers, coloring, learning colors and building with blocks. We went out to play in effort to release their energy. The rain started again and we returned to the hoop sang closing songs and prayer before saying goodnight.
Amy and Jen made chicken, spaghetti, garlic bread that everyone loved. Cornel came by to visit and talk about the prison ministry she does. The group looked forward to going to prison to serve and eat with the prisoners. Each day has been unique and memorable, I feel blessed to have the opportunity to come see the work previous teams have down here at Mosaic.
Deborah
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