We Don't Know What We Think We Know

"We Don't Know What We Think We Know"

By Kate Gifford

The first day my kids and I tried our hands at this tutoring thing with WOW Kids was a hands-down fiasco.  I, with a teaching degree, with a couple of decades experience with kids in various capacities, with a small army of helpers, could not keep ten primary-grade children under control.  There were less than two kids to every helper.  Excellent odds for maintaining control, no?  No!  Those kids ruled the roost.  They shouted me down and danced on the desks. Anything in their hands became a projectile missile.  We dodged and they dashed out of the classroom.  And after they dashed, they screamed a frightening array of choice vocabulary that left my own children goggle-eyed.  My family huddled up and changed tactics, to no avail.  The city kids won that week and the next week.  And the next.  And the one after that.

We started this thing in our own strength but turned to prayer in a nanosecond because truly there was nothing else to be done.  This is a dark place and, but for the Lord, we fight an impossible battle. Five months later, we’re still at it but before we open the doors to thirty or so hyperactive children, the handful of volunteers meet to beg for God’s mercy on the lives of these children, to take our meager abilities and multiply them into something powerful, something beneficial.  I’m always impressed as we gather together, The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.  We seem too few to do this job.  How can we do this work?

We are too few to do this job.  But for the Lord!  Little by little, month by month, we inch ahead.  We get to share hope with these kids.  We get to share the love of Jesus.  There is something different about sharing the love of Jesus with a well-fed, loved, self-sufficient friend or relative and sharing the love of Jesus with second graders sprinkled with burn marks because they can’t count on adult help to cook their meals.   There is something powerful about holding the face of a fourth grader, looking into her eyes and telling her she is beautiful, she is valuable, she is important to myself and more importantly to Jesus and then watching her react to these words because where she comes from, hopeless people aren’t equipped to offer a lifeline of hope. We get to share Bible stories and principles that speak to their lives; stories they can relate to in ways that we sheltered middle-class suburbanites simply cannot.  (Cain’s murder of Abel is a favorite.) We get to demonstrate that God is love by loving them, by sharing the imperfect but healthy bonds of love in our family.  We get to show that God is just by stepping in and administering fair discipline (as many times as it takes.)  We are careful about the promises we make and even more careful about keeping our word. By doing so we build credibility and show them that our God is faithful. 

But for all this, God has shown my family more.  When we wrangle a rebellious child back into order in the classroom, God reminds us, You, too, are rebellious and I love you enough to tackle the places where you go astray.  When we hug a child reeking of dirt, smoke and worse, before we wrinkle our noses, He whispers, Your pride is sooo much more offensive than this.  When we are frustrated by the magnitude of the work, the one step forward, three steps back, He says, So it is with you. I love you. You are worth the effort.  It is good to be knee-deep in sin and the literal darkness, mud and desperation of the Projects because that is the perfect picture of every area where we live our lives apart from Christ.

These children are amazing.  They are curious, resilient, and joyful in the face of chaos and uncertainty.  They can be moody, disobedient and out of control, but over time the children are letting down their guard, beginning to trust.  They are started to show us their tears, share bits of their stories, wrap their arms around our waists, nestle in for comfort.   And that makes the many journeys across the tracks to an overlooked part of town well, well worth the effort.

Kate Gifford is a wife, a mom with a houseful of kids and a recipient of God's great grace.  She and her children teach the K-2nd class at WOW Kids Tutoring on Tuesdays.