A summer of contrast

God has been pretty funny with me this summer. It has been a summer of extreme contrasts. Here are my examples.
1. Mission trip in Malawi, Africa, vs. Mission trip in St. Charles/Geneva IL.
2. Helping out in pre-school in Africa vs. Coaching soccer at a pre-school IL.

This morning I assisted my brother in coaching soccer for All-Star Sports at a pre-school. Its amazing how much bigger the kids looked here than they did in Africa. They all had shoes, I bet they all had underwear. I bet they will all be wearing different shoes, underwear, and outfits tomorrow.

My eyes were reopened to how privileged we are. The facilities at the pre-school seemed incredible to me. The classrooms were bright and colorful. Haha anyone reading this has probably seen a pre-school classroom but it seemed all new to me. It is probably just the intense contrast from the whole under the tree with no supplies to what I saw this morning.

This school is also a Goddard school "Goddard Schools practice what they call a "Flex Learning Program" where children are assessed individually and given lesson plans across a variety of disciplines that are tailored to them." (Google hahaha) This concept at the Grace center pre-school would probably get a good laugh. In Malawi it was pretty much all repetition learning. The teacher would say something and the kids would just echo it back.

The difference is incredible. I'm not saying one is awful and one is great. I just think its crazy how different it is and how I've had the opportunity to see both extremes in such a short amount of time.