dear jesus, heal my boubu.

this past week i found myself volunteering at a day camp in Winnipeg's inner city. While i have in fact been working with kids for the past month, i was almost terrified when anticipating the events of this week. the stories from the extremely challenging and draining experience the rest of my coworkers remembered from two years ago didn't help matters much.

and so i approached the week with a mindset of prayer. i knew that i would need it. and the devotionals led each morning by one of the day camp's staff where all about letting god work through us. though the theology was a lot more charismatic than i am used to, i tried to take the message to heart.

i was placed in a group with three amazing aboriginal girls: 6, 7, and 8. they loved to cling to me, and i much appreciated the love they poured on me, but they also loved to run off and challenge my authority. i spent a lot of my time chasing after them and trying to keep them from fighting, complaining, or getting hurt.
unfortunately, they did manage to scratch themselves, or bump their knees, or fall off the their chair, just as kids do. and when they did these girls made the most of the sympathy and cried, cried, cried. much to my chagrin, i found myself saying quick prayers to simply shut them up:

"Dear Jesus heal Jill's finger. Make all the pain go away and bring a smile to her face. Amen".

at first i prayed these prayers reluctantly, but as i prayed them more and more often i realized the power there is in bringing God into every situation, even the little bumps and bruises. the more i prayed these quick little prayers with the kids, the more i found myself asking God for help with energy, with a creative way to distract a kid from their decision to be bored, or with a mindset of love and forgiveness towards the staff that i felt were slacking in their duty. by bringing God into the simple situations ( where, to be honest, a prayer really doesn't do a lot to heal a scratch that has already disappeared) i was more open towards letting God into all aspects of my day.

and by voicing prayers that seemed useless, i was adding more to the lesson on prayer i've been learning this summer. what, in fact is prayer if not simply an opportunity to add God to the picture? or to see the presence God already has in the picture?
and so, i want to be comfortable asking God to both heal my boubus and bring about shalom in the middle east.

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