Hello Friends and family! Thank you again SO much for all of your prayers, encouragement & support. I hope and pray you all are doing well. We are doing very well here. Thank You, God!! When we arrived only 3 of our bags did not come in, which is less than what could have happened, considering all of our flight changes, etc. It looks like we will have those 3 back tomorrow (Dave's guitar, Michael's personal bag, & a team bag)...but we still have to collect it, so we'll let you know when it gets here! =)
Well, it is 11:09 pm here and I'm quite tired and we have a busy day ahead of us for tomorrow, so I'm sorry to say, but I will have to make this short. (For those of you who know me, know that this is a good thing as I am quite detailed and could types and talk forever once i get started!) So..today - we officially started our VBS program with the the orphans we are here to love on. The lesson today was on how God created everything and that we are made in God's image/likeness. We had mirrors for the kids to see themselves as made in God's image and to draw self portraits. Some of the drawings were really good! They all wanted to show us "muzungus" (white people - originally meant to be amazed, or amazement thing) their picture and wanted to hear us say, "Bweeno" (good, vbery nice). 2 things really stood out to me. 1.) This one really pulled on Sarah's heart as well - a little girl today was really sad. The older girls were pushing her out of the way a lot and she would just start crying. At one point I noticed her crying and holding up a broken flip flop. So I fixed it and didn't think too much about it. Sarah also noticed her crying at another point and it was because of the shoe. She pointed out that these were her only pair of shoes and were even too big for her. This shoe had been fixed before with wire. Most of the other kids do not even have shoes.
2.) During the three-legged race, there was a girl who came to me and wanted me to tie the rope around she and another girl. They were about 6-8 years old. She had a baby tied with cloth to her back, so I offered to take the baby so she could play, but the baby started crying, probably b/c i'm white...another baby did that earlier to all of us. This just got to me. This YOUNG child was missing out on being a kid herself because of her responsibilities to hold her baby sister (I'm assuming).
These both go along with what I was thinking about yesterday as I held a 5/6 year-old in my lap for a long time, praying protection and other things over her. I came back and started thinking alot about how the Lord is a God of justice (Isaiah 30:18) and how what I'm seeing and can only imagine about the other moments of these children's lives does not quite compare to what I understand God's justice to be. I found a verse that intrigued me: Proverbs 28:5: Evil men do not understand justice, but those who seek the Lord understand it fully." Then what is going on? Are people not seeking the Lord enough, or are we not responding to the understanding He is giving us? These are just a few things I am thinking and praying about. I could go on, but it is late and i've already gone on long enough! So much for making it short! But overall, the past few days have been really good. God is so good and loves these kids and each one of us so much. It sounds trite, but it is SO true! I'm feeling at home with all of the farting and the farting jokes that is going on due to 5 guys and only 2 girls on the team....a little too at home in those regards! We've had quite a bit of laughter, which is an answer to prayers! I love Dr. T., too! He's quite entertaining and I love listening to his stories and wisdom. Well, we love and appreciate all of you so much. I feel like I can feel your prayers all through out the day! Thank you!
-Kelly