November 11

This weekend was an “at home” weekend.  The school vans take students half way home so parents do not have to drive for two to two and a half hours to pick them up from school and then turn around to go home.  Last Friday evening, one student rode the van to the rendezvous spot but was not picked up.  Calls were made.  Mom could not take care of her this weekend, An Aunt said that she was too busy to pick up the child that night but could get her Saturday morning. Does this child arrive at school feeling loved and cared for by her family?

A student has an older brother who has been removed from the home by abuse allegations made by the older sister. The mom feels she can’t discipline the younger children (who attend our school) because of the allegations. Discipline balanced with love is a foreign concept. Children are abused or left to run wild. The older sister has a child who also attends our school. The older sister does not have custody of her own child because of chemical dependency. This sister comes to visit her daughter with her partner -- the young child’s “daddy mommy.”  This is how they live.  Do these children show up to school on Monday morning ready to learn?

Many of our children are already in self-preservation mode. They have been forced to think only of themselves in order to meet their own needs. When we talk of slavery to sin, we think of addiction to drugs, alcohol, immorality, gambling, etc. But, my third graders have given me a new perspective on slavery to sin.  They do none of the above, yet they are deeply enslaved to sin.  They lack discipline. They lack self-control. They lack compassion for others.  They lack the ability to practice delayed gratification. They walk in the door thinking only of their needs.  They want to be in control. They want to be the god of their life.  I understand why, but that is still the original sin, wanting to be god. I have been amazed to observe that Satan has the same power over these little children as he does over the addicts; they’re enslaved.

 

Fortunately, not all of the students are like that all of the time.  God is working.  We pray for wisdom as more and more is revealed to us.  Please pray for these students’ culture and their families.. Above all, pray that God will break through the hardness of their enslaved hearts and allow them to find the true freedom they are looking for in the One who can make them free indeed.

The Everetts