Mission experience in daycare
By Sister Theresita Kim
Five months ago I received my mission in daycare, to recruit young children we visit house to house looking at economic situation and how many family members there are, we do this to see if the children really need our help and also evaluate if they meet the necessary requirements, such as being 4 to 6 years old and if it is suitable for our facility. We accept children from single mothers and low-income families. Children enter at 8:00 a.m. and leave at 4:30 a.m., the parents or grandmothers come to pick them up.
One day, a 5 year old boy just arrived at the daycare, as he left I asked the little boy how his first day at the daycare had gone and felt, he said: I have never experienced anything so nice in my life, he raised his thumb and said “excellent day of my life! I feel very good to be here at the daycare, the little boy with his little face full of hope and despite being so small at 5 years old, his expression and response seemed like a big person.
Another recent day, usually the children come in at 8:00, the children eat breakfast and pray an Our Father, Hail Mary and Glory Be, every morning I check on the children who have arrived and find out why the others have not arrived, ask how they are and how they are feeling; suddenly a little girl shouted at me asking, “Mother Theresita, no salad today? because the menu was beans egg and rice and a boiled banana, usually there is always a salad at lunch, that day there was none, and I answered, today she has boiled banana instead of salad, I weighed that she wanted salad and I told her she wants salad and the girl said no, because she did not like it with a sad gesture, even so we have to give them salad and vegetables to educate them about healthy eating, that is why teachers always say, first you should eat the vegetables and then eat the rest.
A 3 year old girl came running and said Mother Theresita, I will tell you a story, and I said yes, the girl started and said, one day a dog called glue was walking and fell and got stuck, stuck in the street and she started to cry, it gave me great tenderness, I hugged her and told her that she told very nice stories. I admire the innocence and the big heart that children have.
On one occasion, at the children’s entrance time, a mother came up to me and asked me, “Mother, what did you teach my daughter in catechism yesterday, because yesterday the little girl did not want to eat until we made prayer hands to pray and bless the food, she began to sing the prayer to bless the food and as we were all silent, she began to cry because we do not know the prayer and we could not sing with her; the girl’s mother asked me for a copy of the prayer to bless the food.
Another day, the mother of a child came to me asking for a copy of the Guardian Angel prayer, I asked her why and the mother started crying and said: my dad is in the hospital, at night I called him and I was talking to him and my 3 year old son came to me and said he wanted to talk to his grandfather and he said grandfather I will sing a song for you to get better and he started singing a Guardian Angel song, the grandfather cried with emotion because of the song of his grandson, the mother wanted to learn the Guardian Angel prayer too. Every moment our mission is chaining through the little ones, since education is important from the time they are little because everything they learn they apply it with their family, it is a great satisfaction for us to know that they also teach their parents what they learn in the nursery. That is why Jesus said that what they do to the little ones they did to me.
This is how we enjoy every day with the little ones, a wonderful work of God, I thank God for my mission and I enjoy every moment.
Sister Theresita Kim
Giving thanks and praise to God, to the Sisters of Mary, to the benefactors and to the collaborators of the institution, each one makes possible the development and growth of the wonder of God.
Sincerely yours,
Sister Theresita Kim.
