Sometimes we’re called to do things that we aren’t necessarily qualified for and we never expected. Here are a few of the different hats I wore this last weekend:
– Medical assistant – I took a friend, her daughter-in-law, and her 20-month-old granddaughter to the clinic on Saturday morning to see what’s wrong with her eyes. It sounds like it’s cancer. In talking with a missionary doctor, she had said that I had to go with them to ask questions and get answers. So even though I would prefer to know nothing about medical stuff, there I was, and I had to help explain what was going on (thank you, internet, for explaining it to me!).
– Translator – After talking to the doctor with the sick girl and her mom, I had to go out to the waiting room and explain to the grandma what the doctor said. But the doctor had spoken in French and I had to tell the grandma in Jula. So translating medical things into Jula. Interesting!
– Reading specialist – I now teach my Compassion kids on Saturdays, and in my class I have 5 who really can’t read. So I’ve started working with them one-on-one to try to help them out. One even finished 4th grade and still can’t read a kindergarten level book. I’m hoping that a little extra help will be the encouragement that they need to help them make sense out of dancing letters on the page.
– Counselor – After teaching my Compassion kids, I went back to the family of the sick girl and got to sit and process this shocking news with them.
– Chauffeur – Going to visit the family of the sick family, I picked up my friend (the sick girl’s great-aunt), and drove her there so that she could hear the news as well. She had taken a spill with her motorcycle that morning, so it was better for me to drive her.
– Choir director – I got to choir practice after my “counseling session,” and found out that I was directing that night. La la la la!
– Message carrier – The great-aunt asked me to ask Jen a question for her.
– Plumber – I redid the plumbing in my bathroom sink, since it had rusted out. It still leaks a little, but not nearly as bad. One of these days I’ll call a real plumber to see if he can make it totally stop leaking, but it’s good enough for now.
Well, there are a few of the hats I wore this weekend. I was also hostess (when someone came over to visit), neighbor (visiting some neighbors), homemaker, etc. Gee, it seems like I have a whole pile of hats to wear sometimes, and I’m sure you do, too. I think that wisdom in knowing which hat to wear when. What do you think?
God is certainly using you in a lot of ways!
I’m a Compassion sponsor and am curious about your work with the children. Is it mostly teaching/reviewing things they should have learned in school, or are they taught other lessons too?
Great question, Shannon! I don’t know how it is in different Compassion sites (even in my city there are quite a few different churches that are Compassion sites), but I can tell you what I know about what happens at ours.
Every Saturday the kids come from about 8 – 2, and they are fed breakfast and lunch. The younger kids also receive 4 lessons each week (with the last Saturday of the month left for review) – a Spiritual lesson, a Socio-Emotional lesson, a Physical lesson, and a Cognitive lesson. It’s not really what they’re learning in school, but often more things that are helpful for them to know (how to be a good friend, how to prevent malaria, how to wash your hands well with soap and water, Bible lessons, etc.). The older students have different kinds of lessons, and I think that those may be more closely related to what they learn in school, though I’m not sure.
Does that help a little bit? Thanks for being a sponsor!
Thanks for the great information and for serving the children!