Calvary Care Home Boys' Traffic Warden Service

Since three Calvary Care Home (CCH) boys went to Form One early this year, Pastor James requested that all the CCH children, including Daniel who was still in the primary school, served as traffic wardens at Calvary Life Assembly (CLA) on Sunday mornings.

One day, after I saw Albert P taking pictures of these boys on duty, I also approached them with my camera.

Daniel seemed to love this job most. He was managing vehicular movements as if he were conducting an orchestra.

Luke, whose ambition was to become a policeman and who had acted as a traffic policeman during the CCH anniversary drama, was again enjoying his new role. But this time, he had no chance to issue any summonse.

Another boy who was also serving with a cheerful heart was David. Somehow I had a feeling that as soon as the adults were not around to supervise, he would jump into one of the huge rubbish bins behind him to play hide-and-seek with other boys.

Among those who found this traffic warden's job a boring one was no doubt Matthew. He might prefer to spend that half an hour attending a session of tuition.

The boy who wanted to look smart in any situation was Paul. With his Bollywood-star attire, nobody entering the church premises would have realized that he was supposed to control the traffic, not perform in a concert.

The following Sunday morning, he received harsh discipline from their leader Albert for refusing to wear his uniform. When I asked Paul the reason, his answer was that the jacket was too warm for him. It was not convincing to me at all. However, seeing his bitter face and teary eyes, I knew I had to talk to him in a gentle manner. So, I explained to him that when God had created man, His first expectation of him was obedience. I used the example of Adam and Eve who had reasoned in their way to break God's rule in the garden of Eden, which led to terrible consequence of death (Genesis 2:15-3:19).

Then I comforted Paul that every time he repented of his disobedience and came back to us, we would always be ready to forgive him (Luke 17:3). I also told him that as someone who desired to be a leader, he would not like his future subordinates to go against him. Regarding the uniform, I reminded him that it was merely for a short while but an important outer sign of his identity as a traffic warden.

Lastly, I decided to stay beside him until the end of his duty. That day, I happened to be wearing a bright yellow blouse, which matched the traffic warden's job profile. Finally Paul changed his mind to put on his fluorescent green thin jacket. But when Calvarites in their vehicles or on foot passed by both of us, they saw the contrast of our faces like a honeydew versus a sour prune.

My counselling slowly soothed this boy who later was willing to put on his smiles as well. Albert, noticing Paul's improvement of attitude, offered his wide arms to give Paul a hug when we were back to CCH after the church service. That was a happy ending for that incident.

But it was still a long long way to walk with these teenagers in this trasitional stage of their life.