When the Homily is about Immunology

If you send your daughter to summer camp...

...at a monastery, you might be an Orthodox Christian.

Speaking of which, and older girl who went last week came back with THE COOLEST T-Shirt ever designed. Hope my daughter gets one. I'll try and get pics of it.

My daughter Kelsey apparently has the makings of an evangelist. She has a friend and neighbor with whom she rides the bus who has no religious background at all. At some point Kelsey took up the habit of telling this little girl "God stories" and it seems the little girl was/is infatuated by them and is constantly asking Kelsey to tell her more.

Well eventually this little process reached the point that when this little girl's birthday came, Kelsey was INSISTANT that her present be an icon and a Bible. Well, Kelsey's mom and I were a little apprehensive because it just seemed a little odd for little girls (2nd grade by the way) to be doing this sort of thing - at least not without some sort of coaching from home. And we certainly wanted to rid anyone of the potential impression that we were teaching our kids to evangelize their friends! Anyway, we talked to Kelsey's friend's mom and told her that her daughter had apparently told Kelsey that she wanted these gifts and so we asked for permission to give them. Her mom graciously agreed.

After the party, the little girl stopped my daughter and whispered enthusiastically to her: "Thank you for getting me JUST what I wanted."

Now it seems the little girl will be joining my kids for Vacation Church School (yes, we do "Church" school - NOT "Bible" school...a distinction I always find amusing and you would too if you knew how converty our Parish is) and on top of this, her parents are seeking to learn more about the Orthodox Faith as well! (Whether this is just to better understand what their daughter is going to be indoctrinated with or not is irrelevant I think.)

I wonder if maybe this is the way evangelism is supposed to happen...let our kids do it? Or certainly let our kids' example speak to us. Because I am certain that in my little girl's heart there was no sense of needing to prove her suppositions about God and His Church to be true...rather she just started letting "God stories" that were overflowing, spill out onto a friend.

Teach me, Kelsey.