The first of September is said to be “Knowledge Day” in this part of Europe. The question that nags at me is this: What if the children who have just begun first grade know more than me about life? What more, then, can I teach them?
Where did I get this crazy idea? Maybe from the fact that twenty out of twenty-one children who began first grade at the school are from disorganized families. This means that they have only one parent or that one of their parents (or perhaps both) are alcoholic. This means that they know better than anyone the practical meaning of the word “poor”; they know what it means to go to bed hungry and to wake up even hungrier (in Russian the saying goes “hunger is not your aunt; she will not invite you to eat”); they know the world is not a playground but a place of hurt; they know that people may give you some change but they are not ready to give you a smile; they know wine is more important than bread for your own children, that life is hard and “hard” is not an adjective (they will learn this in grammar class), but a hunger, and not so much a hunger for bread, although a piece of bread or an apple sound good at any time, but a hunger and thirst for love.
This hunger makes them walk with their eyes to the ground and drag their toes in the dust, disappointed that their parents choose not to give them the love they need and knowing, somehow, that no one else will give it to them. The biblical question, “And who is equal to such a task?” (2 Corinthians 2:16b), even if out of context, is the question that comes to my mind.
What we will try to do this year with the children is this: simply to be present with them; to show them that they are precious by giving them our time which is so expensive in the capitalistic world in which they were born.
We also want to show them that they are loved by God who was ready to give His only Son for every one of them. We want to be near them when they learn to hold a pen in their hands, and also when they celebrate a birthday. We want to learn to laugh together, and to cry when appropriate, to play soccer and to write their first words. The list of all we hope to do together could go on, but I will stop here and invite you to come by for a visit to see how we are doing and enjoy our fellowship.
Thank you for walking with us as you are able and as you know best!
“Lord, save us! Lord, grant us success!…from Kishinau we bless you!” (Psalm 118:25-26)
Vitali Dyackenko