Building Living Stones: Second Annual Pool Party

Bam bam—they banged on the door. “Pastor, it is time to get out here—we need the tools for the yard!” They remarked impatiently.

For over a month, the kids from Cajueiro Claro have been banging on Pastor Flavio’s door at 7am, ready to help with any odd job available, especially the yard of the church. It has made Pastor Flavio doubt the sanity of moving into the second Sunday school classroom and turning it into a small apartment for himself: Living Stones doesn’t begin until 8am on weekdays, and there went sleeping in on the weekends.

Their zeal for yard work began when we put a date to our second annual pool party at the Alcance. It was one of the highlights of last year, and something that was always at the front of their minds: when can we do it again? St. Patrick’s (March 17^th) was their lucky day.

The children vigorously went about helping at Living Stones, calling attention to their good deeds, and general sucking up in hopes of being chosen to go to the pool party. We carefully explained that the requirements were general good behavior, attendance, and filling out one page of information/parental permission, but the 7am wake-up calls continued nonetheless. To simply say they were excited would be understating the facts.

The one page of information we required from them asked questions like their emergency information, school grades, and what it meant to them to be a Christian. Then they were to have their parents sign it. Who knew how much trouble one page could be? No one has an address in Cajueiro Claro. There are no street names. Most of them do not have telephones, and cell phones, if they have them, don’t have any credit. So much for emergency information.

No one has gotten a report card yet this year. Many of them didn’t get one last semester either. That is the kind of public school we are dealing with. Three of the children threw a fit when they found out they would have to fill out the page of information: only afterwards did I discover that was because they didn’t know how to read or write to fill out the information. Edivaldo, age 16, is still in 3^rd grade (and will never pass) because he doesn’t know how to read or write—he could only sign his name.

When the children started returning the filled out papers, there was a big smudge on every one, right where their parents were supposed to sign. So many of the parents cannot write their name that they color their thumb with a pen, and then put their thumbprint on the paper instead of a signature. It made my heart hurt. Paulo M.’s mom has never been to school. Paul’s mom dropped out in 4^th grade because she was pregnant with her first child. The lack of education is overwhelming.

This is the generation that ends illiteracy. Now is the time that we take responsibility and say, “These children are not going to grow up without the basic skills of reading, writing, math, and being able to support themselves and their families. They are going to know that God loves them and they can do amazing things with their lives.” These children are ours now: we are responsible for what we tame.

Thank you for joining with us in these goals. Our pool party was a huge success with 16 children, 6 volunteers, 80 hot dogs, lots of dessert, no clouds in the sky, and one crystal clear pool.