Per usual we wake up and get ready to arrive at the church by 8am for breakfast.
I am not looking forward to this day as much because I realize that it is our last day working with St. Richard's Church from Jackson, Mississippi.
The whole trip- outside of the day we arrived- people have been saying that you cannot tell us apart. We really teamed up right from the beginning. They are a GREAT group. They have more girls represented, just like us, their teens were about the same ages as ours, they also brought three leaders. The difference was- they were Catholic and we were Protestant. But, that never got in the way. We talked openly about our differences and they were gracious as our students asked questions about their theology.
For me, I was raised in a crazy environment. My dad was Jehovah's Witness. My mom took me to all kinds of churches on her weekends so I could see what else was out there other than JW's as my dad took me to the Kingdom Hall on the weekends I was with him. Then, when I was about 11, my mom married a man who was Catholic. Back then, I despised religion. Everyone thought they were "right" and others were "wrong". I thought it was a bunch of garbage because from what I read- Jesus wanted us to live in peace and be unified.... I called it hypocrisy and stopped going. But, that is another story! Let's just say, though, that my opinion never changed. Unity was where it was and is and I was glad we were at a Baptist church working with a Catholic church and we came from a Christian church! ;)
So, today, we had some training time with Praying Pelican on sharing our testimonies. One of our leaders, Andy, shared his with our whole group first. We had some similarities in our stories....I knew I liked this kid! He had a little bit of a rough road and now look at him-he was working with youth and reaching out to others. A tattoo on his foot said Romans 10:15. He was living that life. :) After he shared, we broke into groups of 3-4 and shared our stories. It bonded us even more! I had 2 young ladies from St. Richards in my group and 1 of their leaders. Hannah had been a Christian always and yet she had never grown stale- she is very passionate about her faith and sharing it- not common for a lot of the whole-life Christian kids I know. Ramsay- she was a compassionate soul and some of that has stemmed from having a sibling with some kind of disability. It was a privilege to hear them both.I was proud of them, and I barely knew them! Amelia- their leader. She was one that I really felt closer to at the end of our sharing time. I wished we had done this activity earlier in the week!
Next up- The nursing home! I adore elderly people. This would be one activity I had been looking forward to all week. I used to visit and take care of my grandmothers quite a bit. They have been gone for a while now and I miss having them around. The were wise, funny and SO loving.
We begin by talking with the residents of the home. I talked with about 8 of them and each one shared that they were so happy to be living in this home. I was happy for them and a bit perplexed... in the US, you seldom hear about people being happy living in a nursing home!!
We sand hymns with them. Mostly we sang- but some of them joined us and others just sat back and enjoyed the music.... Thank goodness for Conner- he lead our group well! Our church doesn't sing hymns often. We are more contemporary.
Next, we danced for them using some of the songs we were dancing to at VBS. To my surprise, they really enjoyed this! A couple of them joined us in dancing! This made my heart happy!
Finally, they played some of their music and low and behold- more joined in! A lady grabbed a hold of me and started dancing with me! I was in heaven!
They were holding our hands, kissing our cheeks, the out-pour of love was overwhelming to my heart! It was soon time to go and as we got on the bus I placed my sunglasses on my face so my tears wouldn't be so noticeable. My heart was deeply touched that we had gone there to be a blessing to them and yet they had blessed us SO MUCH!
We came back to lunch and VBS. We seemed to grow more each day! Amazing since it was exam week at the schools! I was feeling a little off today. I had been taking my vitamins. But, got dizzy a couple times. I was forcing myself to drink the water which I was actually very sick of by now. It was always warm and had additives I could taste. (The clean, crisp cold water of Colorado had spoiled me, I decided) I also continued to try to make myself eat. Although I liked the Plantains and Coconut Rice we had each lunch, I was tiring of having them each day. I guess variety is also something I am spoiled by! It's always the little things that matter, isn't it? The humidity and heat wasn't bothering me as much anymore. The sweat sort of felt good. I am crazy like that, I love to work out, sweat and feel the burn.... lol.
This evening after dinner, we left the church as they had a Men's Bible Study. We went down town again and this time, we were allowed to do some shopping and purchase our own snack! PIZZA!!!!!!
(I am thinking back and I don't know how it happened....but somehow, we left on a bus away from the St. Richard kids.... maybe only our group went downtown. I was with the other female leader from my team and the female leader from PPM, so it is hard for me to say. But, I remember lots of hugs and gathering all of their first and last names so our group could find them on Facebook, etc. We made them a big picture with little sentiments and signatures....It was hard to imagine going to the church the next morning and them not being there with us. We were blessed that this group ended up being placed with us kind of last minute!)
After our big meeting time together, we went back to our hotel and it was my turn to lead our study with our team of 16. The reading was Matthew 3:1-17. I had someone read it out loud to the group as not everyone had done it in the morning. I liked this study, although the questions just seemed to review what you read and that bored me some. So, I made some of my own questions.
1. What do we have in common with John?
Some answers:We left comforts of home. Left relationships- understanding our mission for the week we aren't looking back. Leaving internet, TV, ice....
2. Why is what we are doing here on this mission important?
Some answers: Church from different places working together. Poor area- painting, cleaning, making life better. Body of Christ coming together. Telling about Jesus' love at VBS and sharing life with natives.
3. Why do you think God included this Scripture in His word? (This one is from the book)
Some answers: Shows us to tell people about Jesus. Prepare people to know God. My biggest take- John saying that the work he was doing was nothing compared to the one after him- Jesus. We do what we can to plant water a seed- but ultimately it is GOD who makes things really happen! What we do is nothing compared to what He does and is doing!!
We prepared for the next day- planning session.
I was feeling pretty queezey. It would not be a good night of rest for this girl!
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