Beginning in Rocafuerte || Josiah - July 18

Monday was our first full day in Esmeraldas. We took the morning easy since we had driven so many hours on Sunday. For dinner we walked over to the community church that hosts GE teams for meals. It was amazing to see their generosity toward us because they were so happy we were here to work with kids.We went to a church in Rocafuerte for the afternoon for our first children’s program of the week. The kids from this area are much different then children from Quito. Kids from Quito mostly have regular families whereas kids from Rocafuerte are a much rougher group. Many come from broken homes or are just street kids. It’s hard to continue to show love to kids all day long, but that is one of the biggest things we focus on here. Even if nothing else that we teach gets through to the kids, we pray that we can show the little children how they are loved by us and even more deeply loved by their Heavenly Father.By the end of the day, we were all so tired but we still had prep to do for the next day. Many of the guys were getting together for a prayer session for the next day and I honestly didn’t feel like participating because I had plenty of things to prepare for. I decided to pray with them anyway and boy, am I glad I participated! It was one of the most influential prayer sessions I have ever had in my life. The Holy Spirit was really moving. It was such a reminder of just how important prayer should be in our lives. God wants that continual communication with His children!- Josiah