45 enfants en vacances

45 children on holidays.. .. ..

Or, as I like to call it:
"Paid playtime in Little Europe".
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The down-side of being a poverty-stricken part-timer at Bible college is that you spend your semester break working whilst all your College friends go away on holidays to nice places and post photos on social media with unintentionally smug invisible captions or hashtags that all say, in effect, "sucks to be me".

The unexpected up-side of having to work right through the 2017 semester break was discovering that "Little Europe" has come to Sydney's lower North Shore.
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During March this year, for principally economic reasons, I changed out of a 15h p/w after-school care job into a 21h p/w role.

My first 3 months in the new job proved much more challenging and stressful than I had anticipated, and especially in May/June I spent spare time wondering why on earth God had placed me on the lower North Shore (when I could bear wasting spare time on such musings).

But the last 2 weeks in vacation care (it's NSW school holidays), have seemed a divine, albeit simple lesson in why I might be here.
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A tangent.
Last month at my cathedral's midweek women's Bible study, we began studying the Old Testament book of Esther.

In chapter 4, one verse that sticks out is verse 14.
From the Greek (LXX, since I haven't learned Hebrew yet), ESTHER 4:14 runs kind of like this:
"Who knows if in this time you have come to be queen?" (τίς οἶδεν εἰ εἰς τὸν καιρὸν τοῦτον ἐβασίλευσας;).

Or, from my old NIV which I grew up reading, "Who knows but that you have come to royal position for such a time as this?"
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It was a pleasant surprise to find that I actually enjoyed the last 10 weekdays of vacation care.

Partly because the children were a bit younger (ages 5-7) than my after-school care clients (ages 7-11).

Partly because they, children on the outside, liked doing LEGO building and did lots of that with me (myself a LEGO-loving inner child).

Partly because they were responsive to gentle guidance of their behaviour and welcomed any friendly interest shown in them, even if it was basic stuff like me remembering their names, ages, family languages and cultural or religious backgrounds.

And partly because the rewards of a little friendliness, a little personal interest and a little hello to parents at end-of-day collection time were discovering just how many Western and Eastern European nationals live in or around North Sydney and Neutral Bay.

Many of my new little friends in this vacation care not only had quite cool Euro names, but their countries of origin included the Balkan nations, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Russia and Slovakia. One French mother was more excited than I was that I could speak more than passable French to her five-year-old son.
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So it appears that a taste - no, wait, a large mouthful - of Europe has come to northern Sydney, if you have the chance to look closely enough.

And for me - whose heart has been with France and the Francophone countries of Europe since my first Paris GBU mission week in 2009 - this means a lot.

And even if none of our holiday program families had been French, I know just as well that non-Francophone European nations are appallingly gospel-poor and need to hear of Jesus just as much as the French do.

But how can we reach these unreached families?

Is it as simple as inviting them to a church where Christ is preached (like St. Thomas' Anglican in North Sydney, or St. Augustine's in Neutral Bay)? Doesn't that mean you have to know who they are first?

What if you're in a professional role that forbids you from openly talking about Jesus (as I am in my role with my reputable but very secular childcare company) - and therefore you are not in a position to invite them to an evangelistic event or gathering?

What if you're the Protestant Scripture teacher in their local school, but most of these families will probably put their kids in non-Scripture, or worse, Ethics, instead?

As long as we can't be in Europe.. .. ..
.. .. ..how can we pray for a "Little Europe" that knows Jesus?

L/T.

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