Sermon February 8

God loves Children – Jamaica Report 2009
Mark 10.13-16 (page )

We got back from Jamaica on Monday night – I want to thank Lindon and Betty for taking us up to the airport and thank Dave for picking us up. When we left it was about -8 degrees and still cold when we got back. It is always 80 to 90 degrees in Montego Bay.
This was my 11th time going on a mission trip to Jamaica. Many of you have gone with us and hopefully in the future, more of you will go. It is a trip that is in some ways the same every year, but also unique every year. We had a total of 18 people on our trip. A large part of the trip is taking things down with us to give to the orphanages and schools we visit and I want to thank you for what you gave us to take down. We took the school supplies you brought in last summer. You gave us close to $500 to spend. I spent about $350 for medicines at Medicap Pharmacy – Thank John Engelhardt – this included children’s Tylenol, cold medicines, anti-biotic creams, and a new kind of Pedialite for the kids. While we were there we spent the rest of the money on other supplies the orphanages needed, including a new printer for the office at Blossom Gardens Children’s home. I thank you all for what you contributed this year – all of you.
Why do we go to Jamaica each year? There are a lot of answers to that question; including it is warm down there and very cold up here in February. It is fun for me to swim in the ocean every day. But there are other answers to the question.
1. We are showing love to children that God loves. In Mark 10.13-16 Jesus told us very clearly his attitude toward children. Read. Jesus had been in a serious discussion with the Jewish people and his disciples. These were important matters that needed to be settled. But right in the middle of all of that, some of the parents came with there noisy little kids to have Jesus bless them. The disciples of Jesus, Saint Peter, Saint John and all the rest, tried to keep the kids from Jesus. When he saw what they were doing, he got very upset at them – indignant is the word. What are you doing? It would have been normal for kids to be excluded from a teacher or rabbi. They were just a bother – they did not pay attention to what was being said and they may even talk out loud when they should be quiet. But Jesus loved them – all children – very much, so he told his disciples to let them come to him. Listen again to what he said to the disciples – read 14-15. The kingdom of God belongs to them – they are God’s children, and he loves them very much. If we as adults do not receive the kingdom of God like these kids, we will not enter the kingdom of God. Do you see the love Jesus had for these kids? He not only blessed them, but took them in his arms and held them. There is something almost divine about holding a special little child – Jesus experienced that, and so do we.
Then Jesus took the children in his arms and blessed them. This is what we do in Jamaica, for the Lord. We show God’s love to them in very special ways. These kids are taken care of from a physical sense – enough food, clothes, etc. They are taken care of very well we believe. What they need is someone to talk to them, hold them, play with them, and pray for them. That is what we do. Blossom Gardens has a lot of little babies who have been abandoned or taken away from parents. Some were just a few weeks old. They also have toddlers – a total of 50 some kids. (This number is down from 60 to 70 kids in years past.) The workers there take care of them, but there are just not enough laps and arms to hold all of them. We get to hold them and play with them, and they just absorb all of the love we give to them. (Like little sponges)
One of the things we encourage all of the team members to do is pray for them – we composed this HUSH prayer a couple of years back to pray for them as we hold them. Read. We pray this prayer and we just pray for them, telling them I love you and God love you. We have seen God bless them in special ways. It is hard to describe, but it was seen this year that the kids are a lot better off than in the past. They are more able to share, less aggressive, and even more relaxed it seems. Things are better at Blossom than they have been.
We also spent a couple of days at Westhaven Children’s home. This is out in the country a few miles from MoBay. It is for older kids – mentally and physically handicapped – from 8 or 10 years old to in their 20s or more. Some of them were little babies at Blossom when we first started going there. In some ways they are harder to deal with – they will never get better and most will spend their whole lives there.
One difficult thing was the death of Marlin last year. He was a teenager who developed some tumors a couple of years ago. He was supposed to be brought to the US to have them taken care of, but that never happened, and he died last May. He was a joy to talk to there and greatly missed. We are really praying for his twin sister, Marlene, who needs to get out of there. She is developing the same kinds of tumors. She is not mentally handicapped – very normal – probably put in there just as an orphan. Do any of you want to 17 year old to raise?
One of the things I do each year is take a book with me to read. It is hard to decide which book I am going to read down there, but usually they have been pretty good. This year I read the book Desire by James Huston. The main thrust of the book is that we need to develop a deep desire for God and the things of God. The desire for God is unique in that God fulfills that desire as God gives us himself and his peace to us. He fulfills our desire. But also there is a lasting hunger for more of God – more of his love, more of his joy. So we keep on seeking God.
One of the sections of the book referred to a passage of scripture in Romans 8 where the apostle Paul uses the word – ABBA. This is the word in Aramaic for what we would us as Daddy or as my son Peder calls me – Pops. Jesus used this word when he talked to his Father – God. This word was never used to refer to God, but Jesus used it. Then it is used in Romans 8.13-17. Read. Abba, Father. The morning after I read this section of the book I was holding one of the little kids and thought – this is an Abba child – the Father’s child, God’s child. I am getting to hold this little one for a few days to show the love of God. God know the name of this child and loves him or her very much. He is an Abba child. All of the kids around the world are his, no matter what color or language, rich or poor. They are Abba kids.
In the same way, all of us here are Abba children, kids of the Father, children of God, and he loves us very much. I had a Dad and Mom who loved me, but even more than that I have a Daddy, God himself, who loves me with a love that is wider, longer, higher, and deeper than I can even imagine.
God loves you, and offers to all salvation in Jesus Christ.