Toy Library

Today, I was struck by an interesting idea... my children's outdoor toys are becoming like a toy library. We have around 20 neighbor kids who come to our fence daily asking to borrow toys. I was very cautious in the beginning because I was not sure if they would really borrow the toys or if they would think I was giving it to them to keep. Thankfully 80% of the kids at least understand English so it has been working out. We have been sharing our soccer balls for the past 5 months (3 have been lost or popped and today they got to play with our 4th, we are going to need to require visitors to bring us a deflated soccer ball when they come visit so we can keep up with demand, hahaha, but recently we have been sharing our tennis balls, footballs, and hoolahoops. There are several younger kids who do not play catch or soccer very well so we have been giving them coloring book pages and a few crayons to color with.

God has given us a lot and it feels good to have a "toy library" so we can share from our blessings with those who have less than us. This method is especially nice because now we do not have to play any favorites by giving things to certain kids, but instead we share with them all. It is beautiful to see their smiles of joy when the toys come out. It is nice also because they do not come just to get the toys, they also ask for Elijah, Faith and Mercy to come and play too. Some days I let them walk around and play outside the fence and other days when I can not watch them outside the fence, they just play catch over the fence with my kids. Today we had kids here from 1-6pm. I let my kids play for a while outside the fence and then pulled my laptop outside and played some children's christian music while they all played.
Thanking God for creative ways to impact our community,
Anita