Heart Healing

My son’s heart was broken a little a couple of weeks ago in his efforts to try and help others. Our church has been digging wells for communities in Zimbabwe.  The Children’s Ministry decided that it would be good for the children to “own” their own well by raising the money to dig it.  Great idea. I’m all for getting kids involved in charity. 

So, they were selling water at the Sunday services for a couple of weeks. Then, they decided to send “wells” home with the students in which they could collect money.  These were little boxes covered in crumpled up brown paper with handles on them. (I think they were Chinese food boxes.  Only heaven knows how they came up with enough of them for all the kids.) 

Christopher’s Sunday school teacher also had some bean seeds and gave them to the students so they could grow beans and sell them. That Sunday Chris came home from Sunday school so excited. We had brought a couple of his friends to church that day and their family owns a nail salon so they talked of putting the well at the front counter so they could collect money from customers. 

Chris took the beans and planted them in containers inside our house so they could get a head start before he put them outside.  It worked!  The seeds sprouted and then he put them in the back yard. 

That’s when the trouble began.  Chris went off to boy scout camp and when he came back all the sprouts were gone. You see we have some rabbits in our neighborhood and we think they found all the sprouts just a little too delicious to ignore.  First downfall for Chris. 

He was a little upset that his sprouts were gone. But he didn’t give up. He had some seeds left and he planted them in the ground outside again, this time encasing them in a chicken wire cage that he handily put together all by himself. Since I’m about as mechanical as a turkey with gloves on, I was proud.  Only so far, they’re not sprouting.  Disappointment time again.

So last weekend, I said we need to get out and get some donations for the well from our neighbors.  Chris is a bit shy so he wrote down what he wanted to say and brought his “cue card” with him. 

In fact at the first house, he actually read it verbatim.  But the neighbor was good natured and gave us a few bucks, greatly encouraging Chris who decided to talk on his own after that.  We went to a few more houses where no one was home.  Then we had a few where no one wanted to give, until finally Chris said he’d just try one more.  The lady stuck her head out the door and didn’t seem to want to talk to us, but she disappeared and returned with a dollar for Chris anyway.

So, in the end Chris’s heart healed and he got some money for the well in Zimbabwe.  He still has some time because the money’s not due for a little over a week from now.  As in so many things, persistence is the key to success, and to getting your heart healed even after it gets a little broken.