by Grace Araujo Kolman

Created on: August 26, 2009

When a stranger resides with you in your land, you shall not wrong him.

Leviticus 19, 33.

It was in the fall of 2007 that I became a staff of an evangelical church, located in a small town in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia. I was naturally excited about it; coming from a Roman Catholic background, I had once thought of being a nun, and during twenty years of my life, I was dedicated to volunteer in churches and poor communities in my country. In a month after my first encounter with the church's pastor and some of its board members, I was hired as the new Children's Pastor. Immediately after that, I began wondering about the nice environment, the work I would develop with the church's children, and how sweet to me it would be, if I could organize events for the seniors and their families. Everything looked like a dream that had come true.

Couple months before, my husband had also being hired as the Music Director of another church in a small town, thirty minutes away from the one I had gotten the job. Both congregations belonged to the same evangelical denomination. Although he was facing some big challenges there, I believed I would have a more privileged situation, since my experience as a Sunday school teacher, and my Christian background would make things easier to me. On the other hand, he is Jewish, and had to face a Christian service every Sunday morning, but for my surprise, he was more than OK with that. Actually, he seemed to be enjoying the services to this point.

My first Sunday as the new Children's pastor was exciting. The pastor wisely suggested that I should be around during Kids Time (a moment where a short sermon is delivered to the children in the congregation), observing his performance with puppets, and teddy bears. He guaranteed that I would be invited to do the same all by myself very soon. I was wondering when soon was, and how I would do it in the first place. So, for over a month, I would sit down among the children, and listen to the pastor's uncomplicated talking; until one Sunday when I was in charge of Kids Time from that point on.

I still remember my first Kids Sermon. It was hilarious! The theme was John the Baptist. My idea was to dress up as a cleaning lady, with the word repent on my uniform. And so I did. I came to the sanctuary with a broom, and I began talking to the children who were sited on the floor near the

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