Now that you know what our "plan" was, I'm now going to tell you how it pulled through. Our schedule, after a few tweaks, went like this. Wake up around 7:30 for breakfast (5:30 if you wanted to see the sunrise) and then hold our devotion time, where two people would tell us about how the passage for that day applies to us as believers for ourselves and how it applies to us as a whole. Then we'd get on our bus and drive up into the mountains to Bamboo Tabernacle where we held our VBS. Around 12:30 we headed over to Daddy Collin's house for lunch, some resting time, and then our project for the day. When 4:30 came we drove back down to our hostels for some free time. We ate dinner around 6:30 and then had debriefing for the day. Then you had time to just hang out or hit the bed because you were so tired.
Let's start with the beginning of the days. Breakfast consisted of some of the greatest fresh fruit God ever created, pineapple and watermelon, and we also had pancakes or toast or whatever they made us that day. Devotion time was always good because we got to hear from our peers everyday and what they were getting out of the passages. The drive up the mountains was a very exciting. First of all they drive on the opposite side of the road and that was fun in itself. Then some of the turns they have to take are completely 180 degrees and the only way they know someone is around the corner is to constantly honk. Honking there is also not a rude thing; it's communication between cars and sometimes the people on the streets.
VBS was one of the funnest things I've ever been able to be apart of. The kids were amazing and I learned a lot from them just by playing with them or just talking to them. JJ (my youth pastor) and I were talking one day just watching the kids and it finally hit me that these kids have pretty nothing and yet they have so much with footballs (soccer balls) and sometimes even as simple as a toy wheel. They loved interacting during the teaching times and really loved worshipping. They also got the oppurtunity one day to teach us a song which became our trip "mascot song". And it went like this:
"Jesus on the telephone,
Tell Him what you need,
Tell Him what you need right now.
Some want silver,
Some want gold,
But I want Jesus in my soul.
Jesus on the telephone,
Tell Him what you need,
Tell Him what you need right now."
Tell Him what you need,
Tell Him what you need right now."
The construction part of our week really did not consist construction. We ended up painting a gate for Daddy Collins at his house. We were all kind of upset because there was such a lack of supplies and it really wasn't construction. That night at debriefing we got to talk about it and we all noticed that that wasn't in God's plan for us and we had to keep going so it was a lot easier the next day because we knew this is what He gave us to do and we had to take it. All that we know though is that we made that gate look good.
Our two side projects we had were two very different orphanages and two very different experiences. The first one we went to was named Widow's Mite and it was for special needs orphans and it was one of the greatest experiences of my life. I walked in carrying some things and I just had to keep bringing stuff because I was not ready. So when everything was brought in, I took out my camera to get comfortable. I looked over at one my leaders, Dave Edwards that happens to also be my 242 leader, and when I saw him playing with the kids, I just started crying. His 6 year old daughter had a very bad sleeping accident when she was to and now she is challenged and when I saw him those kids having so much fun, I just thought how lucky Claire is to have him as her dad. The kids there had such huge smiles the whole time and were very happy to see us and loved being around us, it just brought joy in love to our hearts. The conditions they were living in weren't the best but yet they were still so happy was one of the biggest things that hit me there because God gave them to us for that hour and a half and he did a lot for us and for them and I'm very glad to say that God is always working no matter what country or what conditions.
The other orphanage was for troubled girls but it was also a sanctuary for many girls. We stayed outside of the main room and prayed for our girls the whole time. It was interesting to hear their stories once they got back to us because they all had different experiences. Ours was very powerful because we could feel God's angels around us the whole time and it was awesome.
The debriefing times at nights were very good for our group because we got to talk about the through the same 3 simple questions that had meaning to them. "Where did you see God working today?" "What frustrated you?" "How can pray for something for it to get better?" Every night we would answer the same questions and every night we gave answers. The neat thing was after this time, we all seemed to just break up into pairs and just go talk. One of the things that frustrated pretty much everybody was that we weren't getting anything or that we just couldn't feel God anywhere, we all kind of felt lonely. But as the week went on and more and more pair talking went on we all noticed that we were there to build relationships and friendships within the group. I went in with the formulated question "Is this what I want to do?" but God didn't give me that question and that's what hit everybody expecting for it to be answered. We all realized we were working as a team just building each other up and for the seniors getting ready this last year of high school and I think after this trip, we are ready. I mainly built my friendship with Kelly, Alli and JJ but the whole team felt a huge uplifting throughout so it was amazing in and of itself.
I can't wait to see what God has in store for my class and I tackling senior year but were hoping it's a good year and that we can leave a "legacy" like the senior class I came into high school with did.
And I bet you can't wait to see pictures. Well I did take 583 pictures to be exact but I'll put my favorites or just the ones that need to be on here.
