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Babysitting

Posted on Monday, October 30, 2017

The other day, I ended up walking six children down the street to our holiday club. I had already planned to babysit two of the kids for the day, but then we picked up a couple of the neighbor kids to go with us and ended up running into another family on the way. Thankfully, it was only a few blocks to the church building because a couple of these kids can be fairly erratic.

But how did I end up babysitting for a family I don’t know super well? I wondered (and stressed) about that for the week leading up to the holiday club. One of my new friends “B” had some family stuff going on and needed someone to watch her kids for a couple days. She doesn’t have many friends in this area, and since I knew her kids already from our ministry programs and knew I’d have the time to help, I offered to babysit.

I immediately regretted that offer. This is not my home country, nor is it B’s. I know what to expect and what’s expected of me when I babysit back in the States, but what is it like here? Are there any laws or regulations here that I need to be aware of when it comes to taking care of someone else’s children? Phew, the stress.

Thankfully, one of my flatmates agreed to help me babysit, and my team leader confirmed that there shouldn’t be a legal or cultural issue. Thankfully, the kids were planning to come to our holiday club, so my flatmate and I wouldn’t be the only adults in charge of them the whole time. Thankfully, the family stuff was resolved that day, so B didn’t need us to babysit again the next day.

This day stands out in my memory so much because of what B said when she got home that evening. She thanked us for watching the kids, but then she said, “I didn’t know who could help, but I was praying that God would send someone, and He sent you.” Yes, He did, B! What a cool thing to hear from a friend of a different faith. What a cool reminder that God is working in us and through us even when we don’t realize it. 

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