Have you ever been told something by someone and you just knew that they were pulling your leg? I mean, when you heard it, you just knew it couldn’t be true. Has that ever happened to you? This happens all the time to me here in Brazil.
I remember a couple of years ago, in December, we were told that we had to pay our caretakers (there’s an older couple that we’ve had on staff here since 09’ that help take care of the camp/property and guard it... they’re awesome!) an extra week’s salary because they had something called “the 12th salary” for people in Brazil. It was a gift from employers to employees and it was mandatory. When I heard it I laughed! Yeah, right! Like I’m gonna pay an extra week’s salary just because. But when the person who told me wasn’t laughing back, and I did some more investigating, I found out it was true.
Well the other day someone told me that there was something here in Brazil called “Children’s Day.” It’s a day where children are celebrated. Not to be confused with Mother’s Day or Father’s Day where parents are celebrated. But a day where kids are celebrated and get gifts. Really? For real? Do we realIy need this holiday? They already have Christmas where they get presents (not to be confused with celebrating the birth of Jesus) and Easter where they get all kinds of candy and gifts (not to be confused with celebrating Jesus’ victory over death on the cross) and they get their birthday where they get presents and cake! Do they actually need another day of the year, just for them? I mean, isn’t it enough that my kids get to eat all my food, sleep under my roof, take up all my time and drain me of all my energy- every day... now they get another day with gifts?! Man!
So, MJ and I got up really early this morning and made homemade cards for all the kids, and we made pancakes in the shapes of animals, blew-up balloons, put party favors at the table, spread confetti all over the place and... yeah, right!!! Haha! We actually didn’t do anything different (we did tell all the kids Happy Children’s Day as we were laughing). We just had a normal day. We woke up, hugged them, told them we loved them, made breakfast for them, joked around at breakfast and laughed with them, hung out with them a little... hey, every day is Children’s Day at our house! lol! Not that we’ll never celebrate Children’s Day, we just don’t understand the reason behind it. I’ll have to google it to find out (whenever I get around the internet... still don’t have it at my house). Maybe next year Dunn kids : )
But our kids aren’t like most children in Brazil. There are an estimated 7+ million children living on the streets of this country. And a lot of the children in our town (Terra Boa) are in single parent homes or homes where the parents aren’t involved in their kids’ lives. So, am I against having Children’s Day? For these kids... absolutely not. I think that we need to do everything we can to love on them and be there for them as much as possible... even if it means creating a day just for them. And while we’re here we’re gonna do as much as possible to love on the kids in our city and, more importantly, make sure that they know that Jesus loves them no matter what their home life is like.
Yesterday we hung-out all day with all the kids at the elementary school. It was like a field day because schools are closed today (Children’s Day- in case you didn’t know). We played outdoor games with them the whole day and supplied all the music for the day (FYI- brazilians love Group 1 Crew and Toby Mac!). The kids at this school live in poverty but you’d never know it (actually, the meal supplied at the school is the only hot meal most of them eat the entire day). These kids are beautiful. Just hanging out with them was an honor. It was a great day: )
Investigating Children’s Day (for my kids),
Jim
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