A Proud Mama!

We had such a fun time yesterday at Tiddlywinks! Tiddlywinks, is a play group for children and their carers (whether that be their "mum" or their nanny) and it serves as an outreach ministry for the church. I have been blessed to become involved with the leadership of Tiddlywinks (we have monthly prayer and planning meetings, as well as organize "Mom's Night Out" for the mums who bring their children to Tiddywinks). And, I must say, it has been such an amazing gift to work with the leadership, women who have such a big heart for children and sharing the Gospel.

Many of the "carers" who attend with their children are not Christians, and wouldn't ordinarily step into a church. But because of the friendly, warm atmosphere, they are drawn to come back week by week. And so every week, it is a new opportunity to show them the love of Christ as well as to entertain the children with stories about Jesus! Last term, we did a series of lessons on "Jesus parables"! And I got to do the story of the Lost Sheep (anyone who knows me well, knows that I really like sheep, that is why my baby sleeps with lambies each night) and we made little cotton sheep for the children to take home!

And this term, we are doing "Miracles of Jesus" and I got to choose the story for this last Tuesday! The story that I chose was Jesus heals the blind man with mud! First of all I love the story, Jesus picked up dirt, and spit on it (MULTIPLE times too) and made mud and then put it on the blind man's eyes! We had to teach the children specifically not to spit and not to put mud on people's eyes, but it is a beautiful story of God's compassion, power and love for this man who could not see (and was condemned by others).

And then we made a very fun craft, which for me, always, includes some sort of sweets... IT was MUD (which they have never had here) !!! It was so much fun for me to introduce everyone to the American treats of "pudding" (which is something very different here, pudding is cake or sometimes "dessert" in general and they don't have chocolate pudding like we do) and Oreo cookies with a gummy worm on top! All of the kids loved the craft, and many of the parents were thanking me for doing it with them (which I didn't expect at all, I almost expected that the parents would get upset that their children were having something sweet to eat before lunch). But I think the parents just LOVED that their children were enjoying themselves so much. They were so cute with brown mess all over their faces and noses. My only regret is, I wish I had remembered to bring my camera with me.

But I have really enjoyed Jillian having the opportunity to be involved with children of multi-ages! She is learning to share and to communicate so well. Yesterday, another child wanted to get on her little tractor that she had just been riding outside. But she began to almost start to throw a fit, but I said to Jillian, " can we share?". And do you know what she did!?! She patted the seat for the other child to sit down! I almost started to cry right then. I just was so proud of her! Sharing can be a very difficult for children and I know Jillian is going to have a lot to learn about sharing in the next few months with the expectant arrival of her brother and sister (WE FIND OUT TOMORROW!). But I am just so blessed she took one of the first steps yesterday! :) I am a very proud mama!