I apologize for not blogging everyday. My down time has been spent resting since I am physically worn out. Tuesday night we had another powerful service at Pastor Samuel's church. Wednesday we went the favorite school in Ciudad Bolivar. Thursday we went back to Canal de Benedicion.
Wednesday was probably everyone's favorite day. At Avivamiento school, we enjoyed spending time with the kids but in many ways it did not seem like direct ministry. For the most part those kids have good lives. They still want to be loved and to communicate but it did not take much effort on our part. At this school, I try not to think about what these kids go home to. They speak very little to no English. But they still want our love. I was first to walk into the school. The children were already on break and literally ambushed me. I almost fell over. As soon as I walked in, I could hear my name being called. I definitely reaped the effort I sowed last week.
We started with the younger kids. We taught them Jesus loves you, performed dramas, and had praise and worship. It was absolutely incredible to see probably close to 150 children jumping and praising the Lord. The older kids were more typical high school students. They were slow to warm up and did not want to participate in worship. However, we do not know what seeds were sown just by our presence.
We broke into pairs to go to the different classes. I went with Pastor Dereck into a 7th grade class. We did the typical question and answer. Dereck brought his beat boxing skills. I tried my best to translate his salvation message. We just enjoyed being with them. After the classes, we went to the park and performed a couple dramas. With our small collection of Latin music, we had a dance party. It really broke barriers with the high school kids. Wednesday night we attended a service at the church where we are staying. We enjoyed hearing their worship team and Pastor Tommy gave a powerful message. After church, we went to TGIF, where we met a couple of our friends, Juan Carlos and Maria. Though we only see them once a year, relationships like these, founded in Christ, transcend time and distance.
Thursday we returned to Canal de Benedicion to finish our work projects and play with the kids. I worked for with 4 kids to teach them a little English. We drew lots of pictures, from faces to trees. I'm not sure any of it really stuck, but we had fun. We went outside to play some different games. It was hard for them to communicate the rules so we just ran around a lot and practiced much patience as they yelled at our mistakes.
After lunch, we went out to a piece of property they hope to soon build on. They are confident that god has called them to own the land and build an orphanage, sports complex, and church. They have been waiting 5 year for 750,000. We spent an hour interceding with them. It was powerful to sit in the field knowing one day it would be a refuge for the children we have been loving on all week.
Today is Friday and we went to the top of the mountain and shopped a little more. It has been an amazing trip. I write one more post when I get home to wrap it up.
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