Prayer is?
A reflection on Proper 12C Luke 11:1-13, St. James West Dundee,IL on the Feast Day of St. James. A couple of weeks ago I participated in leading Vacation Bible School for a local parish. The lay leaders who organized the VBS were excited to have 34 kids registered. Of these 34 kids 18 of them were Japanese, and 30 of the kids were under the age of 4, with most of them being around 2 years old. My assignment was to lead the daily opening and closing worship which was comprised of a prayer, some songs, and a brief discussion about the theme of the day. I knew, even before we began, that this would be a challenge with such a young and diverse group of kids.... did I mention that the Japanese kids and their moms don’t speak English? The first day, as we gathered, was the epitome of holy chaos – crying babies, running toddlers, significant language barriers, and a trial and error process of figuring out how to contain this group. Clearly my work had to b...
