July 16, 2023
Dear Diary,
Friday, July 14, we sprung a surprise on our girls and after our breakfast and time of worship spent the morning in time alone, prayer, journaling and refocusing for the last part of the trip. My co-leader and I got to have a phone call with the director back in Colombia and get a fresh perspective on how things are going, etc. It’s crazy how fast you can get into a groove of doing the same things and forget why you’re doing what you’re doing.
In the afternoon we did a children’s class again and we’re slowly learning what works and what doesn’t and how to make the best use of our time. We did the story of the prodigal son and for a craft made pig farms.
Some of the girls had been cooking supper while we finished up the children’s class, so we jumped right into setting the table and one thing led to the next so that we ended up with a regular old banquet with candles and flowers on the table and spaghetti for supper.
Yesterday, the 15th was Saturday so we didn’t have a children’s class, but we did have an evening service to prepare for. First thing we went to the neighbors to haul back our missing tables and chairs that they had borrowed for the night before. Then we set to work cleaning the house. I was assigned the tent room and went through boxes of medicine and craft supplies to try to organize them.
After lunch we had a team meeting to decide what theme we want to do, how to do it, for the children’s classes next week. Once we had a basic idea figured out some of the girls got moto lessons and the rest of us worked on the “sidewalk” some more.
In the evening we did the church service… we sang one Spanish song and could tell by the looks on the people’s faces they really enjoyed that.
Today, the 16th, we got to sleep in some and then had breakfast and devotions. When the pastor got up at the start of the service he mentioned the fact that on this day people all around the world are worshiping the Lord and it struck me how, for sure on this day, there are people worshiping him together around the clock. For the church service I shared my testimony and one of the girls talked about God’s compassion. After we do our part in the service the pastor always gets up and builds his “sermon” off what we’ve shared to make it more understandable. (Sometimes I wonder what all I mess up in my efforts to translate) We sang some more songs in Spanish and then after church helped with serving lunch.
The afternoon was more free time to be spent sleeping, having phone calls, hanging our with children… I picked flowers with the neighbor children and showed them how to press them in a book. Then we went out back and drew pictures and talked. At some point several of us found time to go moto riding.
For church this evening we did the Jonah story, so we practiced for that. We also had a time of prayer and fasting which was really good for the team. It’s so easy to focus on only oneself and forget about the problems and struggles others might be facing so in times like these I appreciate that we refocus and share what is happening in each of our lives.
After the church service we played hide and seek with the children and I gave them glow sticks which they loved. They had never seen anything like it before and thought the connector was what made them work. Then they asked, “how do we turn them off?”
We had debriefing and now we’re getting to bed rather late but I don’t regret playing with the children one bit. Good night…
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