Energy or Not, Here They Come!
Saturday June 14th, 2008
The hour was early, the air brisk, as the team embarked upon the final day of our first week-long children's program. With a chorus of coughs, all 16 team members crawled on the bus with hot tea, supplies, and Bibles in hand. It was to be a long day: 9am-5pm, with kids containing more energy than thought possible in a single being. More team members than not were sick in some form. You name it and we had it!
The day began with group devotions on the bus rife with a humorous balancing act of hot tea and bibles. It wasn’t long before Dena generously shared some of her tea into my lap. Thankfully, I was wearing a color that complemented tea stains well. At last we arrived at the church bundled in layers of clothes and ready to go. The grace of God was seen all the more precious on this day. We had absolutely no strength in self, but much strength through Christ! I personally was not well, and my group was already short one teacher: Adrian, due to illness. I told myself, “I must persevere!” Being bright and energetic with loud children is challenging when you feel as though your head could pop at any moment. But I have found that “…when I am weak, than I am strong” (2 Cor. 12:10). God supplied just enough grace to finish the race before us, but not so much that we forget where our strength is found.
The day was filled with fun things: cute little boxes, hand puppets (that we had to re-glue the eyes on every 5 minutes), a volcano (made of coke), wild games and fun stories. In the first large group Daniel told the story of a little girl who contracts a deadly disease called the “Gimey Hands.” *gasp* Every time this young girl won’t share, or is selfish, a colorful spot in a hand shape appears on her body. Dena played the leading role beautifully complete with braids. David was the surprise of the afternoon as “Dad” with a pot belly. The last story of the day was the musical chairs skit where the winner is the loser and the loser the winner. We will just say that there were some rather unusual characters that appeared in this skit. The entire week God's faithfulness was seen evident in the children's program: supplies multiplied, prayers answered, and most of all hearts changed. The first night of the CI some of the children cried for their parents, the last night there wasn’t a tear in sight. In fact, we had a hard time getting them to leave.
At last the tired team boarded the bus. Of course, the day couldn’t be done till the team made an appearance at a youth meeting. At this point some of the team members were getting a little worn on the edges, so four sickos were bound to the bus (Nathaniel, David, Kaytra and me) to try and rest. The key word is “try.” We could hear the whole worship service perfectly from the bus. Meanwhile inside Tim shared a compelling message that brought almost everyone to tears. The team climbed on the bus with wet eyes and soggy noses. Finally, we were headed for dinner, but not until we have done our “sound off”. [Definition of sound off: each team member has an assigned number which he/she calls out in numerical order]. “1…2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10…11…12…13…14…15… 16…17…we’re all here!” [to be continued in Tim’s blog post]
Buenos noches!
By His grace alone,
Lorianne
