Someone Get This Boy a Frisbee!

On Thursday we took a bus to a village on the outskirts of Barranquilla, Colombia to visit a brand new church that was planted by RiverTree Christian Church in Canton, Ohio through Stadia and in partnership with Compassion International. All that to say people in this village are learning about Jesus, children-at-risk are being cared for, and a community is being transformed by the love of Jesus.

We were welcomed by 100+ ecstatic kids from the Child Development Center in the church, most of whom had probably never seen people with light skin like ours in person. The buzz went out throughout the village because a bunch of kids starting showing up outside the church. To get a better view several kids even climbed a tree to get a glimpse of these strangers.

One little guy (shown on right of the photo below) quickly attached himself to me. We watched together as one guy on our trip, Eric met his Compassion child he sponsors. The two hugged and then Eric gave the boy several gifts.

About ten minutes later, my little friend walked over and climbed into my lap … he was clearly sad about something. He  said something I couldn’t quite translate with my semester of High School spanish. I called one of the translators over who helpfully explained, “He wants to know if you are his Compassion sponsor and if you brought him a frisbee.”

Doh.

Look at my face in the photo. This was my expression wishing I could magically conjure up a frisbee out of nowhere. A frisbee. A toy we have in the states that is so cheap and mundane we leave them in our yards behind bushes. We know they are there but we can’t be troubled to walk ten feet out of our way to put them away. And this kid would have done anything for a stinkin’ frisbee.

If someone from RiverTree reads this blog post and recognizes this boy … please … please … please send that kid a frisbee. I think I’ve got one in my yard somewhere if you want to send mine.