 Reading happens every Saturday morning before the children are given their milk to drink. A book and a glass of milk is a wonderful combination to start the day. As we stimulate their minds to imagine, to be excited about learning, we also encourage them to have healthy bodies. This ritual at the opening of the weekend hopes to spur them to expect great things to come as God wills it. Some of the children are still learning their ABCs but pictures do paint a thousand words so we make sure that books given for the preschool kids are also filled with colors, paintings and drawings. The activity has also shown the staff and volunteers that exciting books can never fail to awaken the childlike heart of the older ones, including themselves. The Reading Garden is a corner inside the sanctuary where children and teachers huddle together, enjoying a book. The atmosphere cannot be described as deathly silent since you can hear gentle murmurs of voices being kept low by those who are not made to “read with their eyes.” The beauty of this scenario is in the care and patience that the mentors and peer assistants are showing. You can tell that the older kids who are assisting the younger ones did so without compulsion but as a beautiful act of volunteerism. A Literature professor once said that if you want your kids to grow up peaceful let these read literatures and stories of people. Another theology professor remarked that allow the kids to read the Bible as a holy literature, let them enjoy it, lost themselves in the pages of the stories of the people of God and help them discover for themselves the beauty of the story of God with no compulsion but freedom. At the end of their lives we hope and pray that the truths which they will encounter in the pages will help them understand the greatness of the author who wrote the stories and they too would grow in love towards Him. |
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