It sounds funny now, but as a kid I loved the soundtrack to the broadway show “Cats”. The song “Memories” was a particular favorite. How fortunate am I to have such warming, loving, family memories from childhood.
It hurts my heart to ponder what kind of memories my boys most have from their youth. It angers me to now there are millions of children developing horrific childhood memories because we adults, fathers, families, Christians, Churches are failing miserably. On different occasions I have almost tried to force new memories into our 16 Ethiopian young men’s heads. A couple of those memories I know have stuck and it surprises me sometimes all they can remember since the first day Birukti met them till now. Times like our first New Years, after being kicked out of our first house, or early days of me teaching them baseball, and so forth.
This past Ethiopian Christmas or Gena was another chance to make indelible impressions on our boys. We had a ton of fun. First, our boys acted as volunteers that served about 80 kids during a Gena celebration at our sister org. The Entoto Mountain Project. They served food, organized the kids, MC’d some, and were a HUGE part of keeping the chaos limited. They are amazing with young children.
Second, we had a creative fun day at our house. We had three stations of fun, creative type of play. It was a competition in which we divided them into 3 teams. We had a station that used an airplane kit to make paper airplanes. It was hilariouos, these planes were no joke, I couldn’t figure most of them out. Another station were 3D puzzles or wood models. These were hard too, but our boys did them very well. Finally, we had an art station where they were encouraged to draw, or create anything that was representative of Christmas for them.
It was a great holiday of memory making. I am so thankful for these memories for myself, but also pray God uses these good times to encourage, grow, and help our boys in the future and the rest of their lives.