Many people want to attempt big things and achieve great success, Christians are no exception. I find that many Christians would not want to do small things in the church. Mother Teresa’s philosophy of life came as a big shock to many. She advocated that “one can do no great things, only small thing with great love.” She was merely echoing what her Master had said long ago. “If you are faithful in little, you will be faithful in much.” If we can do little thing with great love, we will invariably be found faithful.
When I first conceived the idea of starting a Children’s library for Puchong Community, a handful of women were supportive. Little did I know that when I handed the book “1001 Children’s books a child you must read before you grow up” to Alicia, the passion rubbed on her. She spent countless hours from designing the logo of the library, buying books and cushions, wrapping nearly 1000 books, labeling them, getting book shelves from Ikea, arranging the books and doing thousand of little things with joy and gusto. I can’t ask for a better church administrative assistance than Alicia. Other women came around and make the dream comes through. These are the quiet disciples of Christ who show their love for their Master by doing small things with great love.
The Children’s Library was launched last Saturday. Many parents brought along their children and they were not disappointed. Colorful, high quality and award winning children classics lined up the brand new bookshelves. Amidst the noise and adults chattering, scores of children sat on the rug and couch engrossed in reading books. The younger ones had their mum and dad reading to them. The highlight of the day was the story telling session. Joshua Lye was in his element, reading the story with animation and sound inflection that had the children mesmerized.
The church served plenty of yummy kuih and cakes. No one asked how much he must pay. It is absolutely free of charge. There are no fees for borrowing the books to read, for listening to the story narrated, for a cup of hot coffee or tea with curry puff and kuih. The ambience is great although the noise level is a bit high for a library setting. No one was complaining, as the celebrative mood was obviously loud. I overheard someone commented: “How I wish I had all these books when I was a child.”
While many are lamenting that the English standard of Malaysian students is appalling, this small church (City Discipleship Presbyterian Church, Puchong) that was started a year ago, embarked on a journey to inspire lifelong readers, one child at a time. Imagine the children from Puchong Community who walk in to the Children’s Library, who are enthused by the great stories of the children classic and begin to develop and acquire a love for reading, invariably their proficiency of English will be raised.
Manning the library, reading story books to little children, picking up books from the floor and sorting them out and putting back on the shelves, buying refreshment, cleaning up after the library hour is over, these are so mundane and nothing great about them. But when they are done with great love and with great passion and vision, the ripple effects on touching the lives of the children cannot be measured.
