Elli. Olivia.
Josh. Names on a paper. All three of these children belong to an
apartment community called Cedar Place.
Each day at 3:45 pm they would be outside, waiting for our big white van
to pull into their parking lot in anticipation for Rainbow Express. Sometimes, they would wear the same clothes
they wore the day before, on others they would look very put together in their
white and blue school uniforms. Rainbow
Express plays host to a variety of children; it’s easy to deal with the happy
children or the quiet, shy ones that don’t know what to do with strangers. But then, you get the stubborn ones. The ones that keep their arms crossed, held
close as if hugging themselves would make everything better. The ones that wear the defiant looks most of
the time, but sometimes it will slip to show the frustration and hopelessness
of their situation. These are eight,
nine, ten year olds that have already seen too much and still have a lot to see
in a world that just doesn’t seem to care.
Luckily, these same kids happen to live in a city where God is working
through a wonderful group called Mission Arlington based in Arlington,
Texas. 
Mission
Arlington provides food, clothes, medical help, furniture, and more to those
that need it in the Arlington area. They
were founded by Miss Tillie Burgin, who now as a spry older woman, still
manages to be the heart of Mission Arlington.
The first words she said to us were, “We did not invite you. You are here because God called you here to
do His work.” Right away, she let all of
us know what this week would be like.
Specifically, the week would focus on Rainbow Express, a vacation bible
school, that was put on by junior high to college groups of students on spring
break. It was only one hour and thirty
minutes for four days. Six hours all
together to reach a group of children that may have never heard the
Gospel. A tall order for many teenagers,
but not for our God. If one thing was
continually preached to us during our worship services, it was the call to pray
for boldness, pray for God to work through us, pray, pray, pray. I find it funny how God makes things work
together. Here we are at Central,
focusing on the theme of prayer in our lives, and we drive to Arlington, Texas
to hear the very same thing. God works in
mysterious ways, indeed. 
While
the focus of the week is Rainbow Express, the mornings are filled by doing
service projects all over the city. Last
year, we strengthened and repainted a playground set for one apartment
complex. But, this year, we got a bit
more variety. Our first day, we
participated in a project called Drive and Ride. Basically, we picked up donated furniture,
brought it back to the Mission, then went back out again to deliver different
furniture to disadvantaged citizens. The
joke, of course, that goes along with this job is that it never fails, “If you
have a sleeper sofa, it’ll be on the second floor.” And, Mission Arlington did not fail us. Our first delivery was to a man who needed
that sleeper sofa plus a queen sized bed and various other end tables. While we got the sofa up the flight of stairs
without too much of a tough time, granted this is coming from the girl who was
downstairs looking on while laughing at the puffing red faces of the guys in
the group, the queen sized bed was another story. It took quite a bit of maneuvering and almost
losing the bed to the flower beds below to finally get it into the man’s
apartment. The whole time this scene
unfolded, all that replayed through my mind were the infamous words from Friends, “Pivot. Pivot! PIVOT!”
Finally,
though, after an eventful morning and a packed lunch, we were ready to start
Rainbow Express. We started with a
puppet show, and, yes, you read that right, we did puppet shows. Every day for four days, we had two puppets
named Ben and Charis that popped their little yarn heads over a table set on
its side twice a day to basically act silly and make the kids laugh. And, let me tell you, did these kids
laugh! I don’t know what it is about an
arm in an over-decorated sock, but it drives children crazy! As soon as they see the two puppets poke
their heads up and start talking in those high-pitched voices, they perk up
real quick. Although, it does get a
little precarious when some curious little ones decide they want to touch the
puppet and pull it right off, but that’s another story…
We
continued the afternoon with a Bible story, games, and crafts/snacks. Each day had a different story which led up
to Wednesday, otherwise known as Salvation Day.
This is when we break out the colorful beads to make the salvation
bracelets with each bead explaining some part of the salvation process. While we did not have any children commit
their lives for the first time to Jesus, several had already done so with their
families which was very encouraging to hear!
After all this fun, however, the kids would have to go home, and we were
responsible for getting them there. This provided parents the assurance that
their children were being looked after.
In fact, this was one of the most stressed things by Mission Arlington:
walk every child home and find out their needs.
What
made this whole experience amazing, though, was the kids. Despite those attitudes, each and every one
of them had an impact on us, and by the end of the week, we could see a
definite change in them, too. Take Josh,
for instance. That first day he rode his
bike in with a scowl on his face. He
would ride off then come back and join us, then he would ride off again. He even got in a fight that we had to break
up! All over one little piece of
chocolate. Needless to say, don’t ever
hand out chocolate coins; it drives kids to violence, apparently! But, by Wednesday, there was a changing
point. For one, we brought him new
clothes which he asked for, and as soon as he saw the blue pants we got him for
school, he ran home and changed into them as quickly as he could. He was so proud of one pair of used and faded
blue pants. After that, he was more open
and friendly, a complete 180 from that first day. Of course, while there were those troubled
children, I’d feel wrong leaving out one ray of sunshine that literally became
one of our brightest spots. Landon. That boy.
He was always smiling, always joyful, and he knew every Bible story we
taught. His favorite thing to do was
sneaking up behind people to scare them.
Unfortunately, I seemed to be a favorite victim and got grabbed from
behind more times than I care to admit.
Nevertheless, Landon was a testament to what God could do for someone
being raised in not the best of situations: lack of furniture, bed bugs, lack
of food or clothes, etc. He knew Jesus,
and you could tell just by the way he glowed!
He truly is a shining light for Him.
