“Let the little children come to me; do not stop them; for it is to such as these that the kingdom of God belongs. Truly I tell you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God as a little child will never enter it.”
Dear Beloved,
It took a little bit longer and a bit more energy than we thought, but I am so content and at peace to be writing this prayer letter on our bed in our apartment in La Boca, Buenos Aires . Thank you to each one who prayed for us over the past couple of months as we sought to find a home. May God continue to give you the desires of your hearts as you grow in love for Him and for the world around you.
I began with the scripture above because I have never been able to quite understand what Jesus' was talking about. When He said that God's kingdom belongs to children, what did he mean? “We have to have childlike faith”, “We need to trust God like a child trusts his parents”, are some answers I have heard. But do we really mean those things? Do we our attitudes and actions reflect the spirit of what Jesus was saying? Do we trust our heavenly Father like our children trust us (or do not trust us). Do we bargain with God and over-rationalize when obedience is required of us? These questions and others surround Jesus' words in this passage whenever I read them.
In the epistle to the Romans, we find an explanation of what the Kingdom of God is. Paul writes in Romans 14:17-19, “For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit, because anyone who serves Christ in this way is pleasing to God and approved by men. Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification.”
An experience of a little boy that I recently read of has shed a ton of light on Jesus' words. The Word Made Flesh community in Rio de Janeiro , Brazil works with street children who are surrounded by terrible poverty and violence. One little boy has become a treasured friend to that community. In the words of one of the WMF missionaries there, “Raphael is one of our street children. He is 14 years old and is one of the sweetest kids. The other day an elderly gentleman and handicapped friend were having problems walking up the road. Raphael went over to them to offer his assistance. The man assumed that the boy was begging for money and handed him a few cents. But Raphael refused it saying he wanted to help. Later Rebecca (WMF Rio staff) told him he had done a good thing and he replied, 'God put us here to help people.' We were moved to see the hand of God work through this little friend more and realize the lesson of servant-hood he taught us.”
Raphael, unknowingly, has helped me understand a little bit more about the meaning of Jesus' words concerning the kingdom of God . His actions in a simple yet profound way made a path to peace and mutual edification.
Adriana and I have also come to another realization. Because our roles within the mission are now going to be primarily focused on our Regional Coordinator responsibilities, our support account as it stands is not going to be able to absorb the amount of travel that we'll be making within the next 9 months. In October we will be attending the South America Regional Retreat in Bolivia that we're organizing. For Thanksgiving we will be making a field visit to Lima , Peru to reconnect with the staff and the street youth. And in March 2006, Word Made Flesh is gathering a few leaders from each field for a Field Forum (previously called a Director's Forum) in Sri Lanka where WMF is helping with the continuing tsunami relief. Adriana, Cora and I are also planning a field visit to Rio de Janeiro in the first half of 2006 to connect and be present to the Word Made Flesh staff there.
So we are inviting those of you who may never have supported us financially or have done so once before to prayerfully consider supporting us again with a one time donation or becoming a monthly supporter. Also, many of you have supported us monthly so faithfully over the past 7 years and we are deeply and overwhelmingly grateful for your sacrifice. If you also feel able to contribute with a one time gift apart from your monthly support, we invite you to do so as well. We are not in a financial crunch, but we do want to be wise and plan ahead so that when the time comes to purchase airfares we don't find ourselves in a bind.
Please take time to pray through this and the following prayer requests.
Pray for solid connections with existing ministries to street children.
Pray for us as we have begun observing a group of street kids and for God to open the doors to begin getting to know them personally.
Pray for us as we seek to be godly parents to Cora and servant-partners to one another.
Pray for our neighbors Artur and Astrik and their two children, Tomas and Tamara. God has established a nice relationship between us and we want to be examples of God's love in their lives.
Peace,
Walter