Party time.
Given that it’s the end of exams for the Pilas students and it’s the start of their week-long break due to Holy week, all the Pilas students slept over at Barb and Gerry’s. I’m sure you can imagine the craziness of having 8 youth sleep over. It was a lot of fun sitting by the fire pit, playing all sorts of games, and going to play soccer. During the week, because it was exams, they were all fairly business-like and studious for the most part. Of course they liked to have fun from time to time, but this was the first time we really saw them let loose. Because we saw them in this new light, it deepened the relationship hat we had built up with them over the week. The interesting thing about play is that you don’t necessarily need language to have fun.
I wonder if sometimes we take living God’s mission with too much of a business-like approach. As though it’s work all the time, there’s no room to just play. I wonder what we miss out on when we don’t just play. What if play tells people that you are important to them even when there is no set outcome? If we always see people as an objective to be accomplished rather than a person to be valued we miss the point. I believe that God created play to let us know that just as we can enjoy His presence, we can find space to play within the communities we have.