I recently had the opportunity to visit the congregation at The Haven of Hope Corps in Regina, Saskatchewan, where my daughter, Corinne, and her husband, Steven, are the corps officers. They had shared with me that a very special part of the worship service was to be the dedication of a brand new baby, so, when I was invited to be responsible for the children's time, I decided to build it around the meaning of the baby's name, Sophie. Sophie is an English derivative of the Greek word “sophia” which means wisdom. I spoke to the children of the hope that Sophie's parents would have that she would always make wise choices, and suggested to the children that it would be a good idea for them to invite Jesus to help them make wise choices, too.
The need for the children to learn to do so had been brought home to me in no uncertain terms as a result of engaging, during the days immediately prior to the dedication, in one of my favourite “Grandy activities” – reading aloud to my grandchildren. Anna is only four, so my reading to her still consists of the traditional fairy stories that I used to read to my own children when they were small. However, I received a real wake-up call when I began to read a 300-word “chapter book” to Robbie, 10 and Ben, eight. They are now able to read to themselves, so it was a particular joy to know that they still enjoy Grandy reading to them. The book was called “Blood Money”, in the Alpha Force series by Chris Ryan. Despite its title, the book is deemed to be age appropriate, and Robbie had borrowed from the school library.
The first surprise came in finding that it was set in a remote village in India, where the members of the Alpha Force, young 20 something's, were engaged in building a desperately needed school. The first chapter spoke of such things as “stand-pipes” (the modern equivalent of the village well) – new vocabulary for the boys – but, fortunately, familiar to me since I had the privilege of spending several weeks in similar villages a few years ago. Other words that were new to them were words like “saris” and “monsoons” – each provoking searching questions.
As the story progressed we were all in for more surprises. The storyline began to focus on the fact that one of the young village girls who was working with the Alpha Force was concerned that her mother was contemplating selling a kidney in order to pay for her “dowry.” Needless to say, this prompted even more searching questions!
Again, fortunately, three years ago I had spent two weeks in England as a support person when my younger nephew, Tim, donated a kidney to his older brother, Andrew. This followed the prompting of the doctors at the famous Guy's Hospital in London, because Andrew had, by then, been using a dialysis machine three times a week for several years as he waited in vain for a suitable match. Thus, I was able to give some positive explanations of the practice of living donor transplants, while not condoning the selling of such aid. All of this was in the context of helping them to understand that the way of life in other countries, particularly developing countries, is very different from that in Canada – yet, nevertheless, with the goal of encouraging them to be “wise” with decisions that they are already beginning to face, at a very early age.
I record these reflections today with news from Haiti continuing to ring alarm bells regarding the danger of the many orphans from the recent earthquake being trafficked. Yet, juxtaposed with the knowledge that, when an appeal for aid was made in the boys' school, Ben came straight home and emptied his piggy bank in order to make a donation; a lovely reminder that in the midst of horrid headlines there are glimmers of hope – in this case from a child who has already been taught to make wise decisions.
And it brings to my mind part of an old song line from the musical “The King and I” that says:”….if you become a teacher, by your children you'll be taught.”
It causes me deliberately to choose to misquote the song line and say: “….if you become a parent/grandparent by your children/grandchildren you'll be taught.”
Corinne's grasp of social justice, and the fact that making a wise decision regarding such a simple change as foregoing a “treat” grocery item in order to be able to afford the more expensive “fair trade” coffee, that is finally becoming more readily available, has welcomed me to another aspect of “the real world.” That is possible to make a difference in “the real world” one wise decision at a time. My recent reading of: “Stop the Traffik” has had a similar effect, introducing me to the awareness that there are a few chocolate brands that do not involve children working in slave conditions in parts of Africa in order to produce them. And an ongoing wise decision that I was prompted to make some months ago is that of praying through the bi-monthly newsletter that is issued by The Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission.
Yes, Sophie has many choices awaiting her. May she always live up to her name, and may my reflections upon yesterday always remind me that I, too, have need of continuing wisdom if I am to be the person Christ calls me to be – in “the real world.”
Colonel Gwenyth Redhead is a retired Salvation Army officer. She and her husband, Robert, have held a wide variety of appointments in the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. However, her passion has always been to encourage others in creative responses to God through writing of scripts, stories, articles and lyrics (mostly to Robert's music). She has two daughters, Joanne and Corinne, and rejoices that they, too, use the creativity God has given them in ministry.
The need for the children to learn to do so had been brought home to me in no uncertain terms as a result of engaging, during the days immediately prior to the dedication, in one of my favourite “Grandy activities” – reading aloud to my grandchildren. Anna is only four, so my reading to her still consists of the traditional fairy stories that I used to read to my own children when they were small. However, I received a real wake-up call when I began to read a 300-word “chapter book” to Robbie, 10 and Ben, eight. They are now able to read to themselves, so it was a particular joy to know that they still enjoy Grandy reading to them. The book was called “Blood Money”, in the Alpha Force series by Chris Ryan. Despite its title, the book is deemed to be age appropriate, and Robbie had borrowed from the school library.
The first surprise came in finding that it was set in a remote village in India, where the members of the Alpha Force, young 20 something's, were engaged in building a desperately needed school. The first chapter spoke of such things as “stand-pipes” (the modern equivalent of the village well) – new vocabulary for the boys – but, fortunately, familiar to me since I had the privilege of spending several weeks in similar villages a few years ago. Other words that were new to them were words like “saris” and “monsoons” – each provoking searching questions.
As the story progressed we were all in for more surprises. The storyline began to focus on the fact that one of the young village girls who was working with the Alpha Force was concerned that her mother was contemplating selling a kidney in order to pay for her “dowry.” Needless to say, this prompted even more searching questions!
Again, fortunately, three years ago I had spent two weeks in England as a support person when my younger nephew, Tim, donated a kidney to his older brother, Andrew. This followed the prompting of the doctors at the famous Guy's Hospital in London, because Andrew had, by then, been using a dialysis machine three times a week for several years as he waited in vain for a suitable match. Thus, I was able to give some positive explanations of the practice of living donor transplants, while not condoning the selling of such aid. All of this was in the context of helping them to understand that the way of life in other countries, particularly developing countries, is very different from that in Canada – yet, nevertheless, with the goal of encouraging them to be “wise” with decisions that they are already beginning to face, at a very early age.
I record these reflections today with news from Haiti continuing to ring alarm bells regarding the danger of the many orphans from the recent earthquake being trafficked. Yet, juxtaposed with the knowledge that, when an appeal for aid was made in the boys' school, Ben came straight home and emptied his piggy bank in order to make a donation; a lovely reminder that in the midst of horrid headlines there are glimmers of hope – in this case from a child who has already been taught to make wise decisions.
And it brings to my mind part of an old song line from the musical “The King and I” that says:”….if you become a teacher, by your children you'll be taught.”
It causes me deliberately to choose to misquote the song line and say: “….if you become a parent/grandparent by your children/grandchildren you'll be taught.”
Corinne's grasp of social justice, and the fact that making a wise decision regarding such a simple change as foregoing a “treat” grocery item in order to be able to afford the more expensive “fair trade” coffee, that is finally becoming more readily available, has welcomed me to another aspect of “the real world.” That is possible to make a difference in “the real world” one wise decision at a time. My recent reading of: “Stop the Traffik” has had a similar effect, introducing me to the awareness that there are a few chocolate brands that do not involve children working in slave conditions in parts of Africa in order to produce them. And an ongoing wise decision that I was prompted to make some months ago is that of praying through the bi-monthly newsletter that is issued by The Salvation Army's International Social Justice Commission.
Yes, Sophie has many choices awaiting her. May she always live up to her name, and may my reflections upon yesterday always remind me that I, too, have need of continuing wisdom if I am to be the person Christ calls me to be – in “the real world.”
Colonel Gwenyth Redhead is a retired Salvation Army officer. She and her husband, Robert, have held a wide variety of appointments in the United Kingdom, Canada and New Zealand. However, her passion has always been to encourage others in creative responses to God through writing of scripts, stories, articles and lyrics (mostly to Robert's music). She has two daughters, Joanne and Corinne, and rejoices that they, too, use the creativity God has given them in ministry.
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