Time to Wake Up?

We went over the weekend to Joy Village to visit with the children and their Momma's.  We arrived with bags full of activities and gifts and dreams of playing and cuddling with the children.  And of course, all of that happened.  Our many treasures were a huge hit with the children and we found ourselves making friends quickly.  The warm feeling that comes from doing things for others was flowing in abundance.

We were guests of individual families and given beds to sleep in, good food, and pans of hot water for bathing.  As I sunk into the life of Momma Peninah’s family of nine children, I had an opportunity to observe how she did her job, which is a 24 hour endeavor.  She cooked numerous nutritious meals from scratch, cleaned, helped with homework, administered medications, supervised the children’s chores, led them in prayer and song, and even took time to make an awkward guest feel welcome and at home. I will always remember her checking to see if each child had a clean handkerchief before they went off to Sunday School.  “Ah,”  she said, “now is the time for myself for an hour.”

Peninah and I also had time to talk without children present for a while.  “This is my calling, not just a job.”  She related to me that she had tried many careers: selling second-hand clothes was one of many.  None of them had worked out for her. “I was always a failure!”  She said she had a dream of taking care of children even though her children were grown.  She had talked to her pastor about this and he talked to her about following a calling to do what she was meant to do.  When I watched Peninah pouring out her love for those children and changing their lives with every minute of the day, I knew that I was watching someone following their calling.

We went off to church together which is an adventure to describe another day.  However, during a long and spirited sermon the pastor said something that intrigued me.  “You should go to a place where you will wake up” (He had been busy holding up the sleeping disciples in Gethsemane as a bad example.)  I had traveled a very great distance to be there and I had experienced so much for the past week but there now seemed to be a huge question.  Was I awake?  Was I just having an amazing journey leaving me with many stories to tell or was I alert to what God was telling me?  I suppose it’s the sort of thing that time will answer one way or another whether I work at it or not.  What I do know for sure is that when Peninah ventured toward where God was, she quite definitely was awake




.Dawn