Children tug on heartstrings: Tales of Asia Challenge Teams

Foggy, sunny, variable Saturday mornings, find me crossing the river with a local Sister to the village opposite. After pressing through the crowds of merchants disembarking from the ferry, and after a quiet sideka, a fabulous, rickety bicycle-sidecar contraption peddled by a man in a straw hat, ride down long dirt roads between hovels up on stilts and fields and cows, we end up at a small concrete house, where every week 80+ children await us.

Dirt, scabies, lice, shouts, grins, tiny dark faces smeared with thanakha, a paste made from bark, used for sunscreen, tiny dark feet covered with sores, sparkling eyes. A cluttered din of local languages and other dialects swells as the children, many of whom come from immigrant families, crowd around us: “Teacher! Teacher!”

We take turns teaching songs and telling stories about the Master, stories that the children have never heard. Some listen intently, some poke and tug and pinch at my strange pale skin, some seem fixated on doing nothing but cause trouble. I don’t know why they all come, or why the group multiplies every week; whether it’s for the stories, or for the chance to get out of the house, or to get into mischief. So many of the children simply need love; they crawl all over you, they jostle for a place next to you just to rest against your shoulder, they bring their crying siblings to you to comfort. The sheer numbers are overwhelming, and it’s hard to understand whether our stories and hugs are making any impact, but the sparkling little faces keep coming. Please, please remember these children, and the task of getting through to them.

Last week, one four-year-old girl invited us to duck into her small, dim home to celebrate her birthday, allowing us time to eat with the family and listen to the grandmother’s stories. I wish so much that I could paint the faces for you: not beautiful in a striking way, but if you give yourself a moment to let your eyes pass over the faintly etched wrinkles and deep, dark eyes, and smears of thanakha, you’ll discover something so much more than beauty there.

Something very deep and complex and grieved and hopeful and innocent and wounded lying below the surface, like a story you cannot quite understand yet cannot put down for its enchanting pull on your soul...”

These are the children our ACTers meet week after week, sharing their lives and their faith.

OM’s role in the Church is to mobilise people to share the knowledge of Jesus and His love with every generation in every nation. OM pioneers and leads initiatives to redeem lives, rebuild communities and restore hope in over 110 countries.