Getting Punched

As I sat around the circle of people during prayer meeting at Mahathai's community center, I felt so warm and fuzzy. Man, I love these people at Mahathai. I turned to my left to endearingly touch the face of the new kid sitting beside me. And before I could think, in response to my endearing touch, the four year old threw up his fist and hit me in the face! As I was trying to realize what just happened, he hit me again! Wow.

That same kid came to church on Sunday for the first time with the truckload of other kids we pick up from Mahathai. Through lunch, he screamed. I sat there and smiled. When we started this church two years ago, it was all staff and Mahathai kids. They come without their parents. They don't know how to sit in church or be quiet. But slowly with patience and teaching, they are learning. Some kids come in so reluctantly with their parents. They run around during the service stealing the music from the keyboardist or rattling the powerpoint screen, as we run after them to put them down in their chair again. (Parent discipline in Thailand is very different than that of America.) But just last week, another little boy who usually puts up a hard fight of coming to church, came in smiling and happy to be there. God is growing and changing the hearts of his kids too. But there are always new faces, so that helps me not get too comfortable.