As the week marches on

As the week marches on, we find ourselves enjoying the opportunities to serve and the relationships with the people here and at the same time looking forward to returning home.   We are greatly enjoying the relationships we have built here.  The physical conditions do take their toll.  The things I am reminded of is that God is the same no matter the situation.  He is the same here and at home.  He is the same yesterday, today and tomorrow. 

This morning the teachers from the local school brought the teenagers to the church to meet with us.  We shared with them about important issues including: the importance of family units, and marriage., also waiting to have sex until marriage.  A great number of young girls here get pregnant, this pattern causes poverty to be a constant with many young single mothers.  We challenged the young men to be intentional about starting a family and impressed on them the importance of being fathers.  Other topics included goal setting and the importance of education.  But more than anything else, we were blessed to share with them a clear presentation of the Gospel. 

Group Picture with the young people we spoke to.

In the afternoon, we once again led a VBS session with the younger children. That was followed by times of singing and games.  As always the kids love to play with us and enjoy new games.

Following VBS, we were expecting a church leadership training event.  This had to be cancelled as there was a death in a nearby community and he was related to many of the church leaders.  Pray with us for God to comfort those in loss and to reveal himself in this situation. 

VBS games.

After dinner we attended the beginning of a prayer service that the other church in this community was having. It was great to have some interaction with this group.  We knew some of them from other situations, but we this was the first time we were in one of their services.  It was a blessing to worship and pray with them.

I was particularly touched today as we walked through town and Anna Rosa, one of our sponsored kids here, came up to me to ask where Holden was.  It kind of blows me away to see her recognizing the relationship, and be interested in him like he’s a big brother.  Kids here with sponsoring families are very impacted to know that someone so far away cares about them in such a significant way.  It is a great opportunity to do something small that has great relational impact.  The sponsorship relationship can be used to communicate God’s love in significant ways.

New little friends everywhere.

Also today is Lori's birthday.  So in every meeting and in between the interpreters kept singing happy birthday in Spanish.  Also the church we visited sang her a special birthday song they sing to friends.  She really appreciated the cards people from church sent with us.  At lunch we had some small cakes and lit a little candle.  It is nice to celebrate together.

Birthday celebration with cake and icecream.

Holden's pals.