What a sight!!! As I begin my day sitting on top of our Hostil talking to God having my quite time at 6:3o in the morning! Staring out over the Ocean!!!!!! The crashing waves are SO powerful. I don't even know what to think as I take it all in. There are no words to describe what it is like to sit here listening to the crashing thundering waves as they roll in over and over and over again. I close my eyes and talk to my Lord asking Him to give me His eyes today and the power He displays as the waves crash and the sound penetrates my spirit, I am overwhelmed at God's power and how creation obeys Him because it is God that commands the waves to keep rolling in and the sun to rise every day!!!!! If you could only see it and hear what I can hear as I sit here with eyes closed and ears open....
Maybe this video will give you a small glimpse! (was really windy)
Amy H. our team leader had prepared daily devotions for us to use during our quiet time this week, however those were in her checked bag that had not made it to Lima yet!!! Amy did share with the team that our theme for the weekly devotions was "Give Me Your Eyes Lord". I found some interesting nuggets in my completion of reading the book of Luke this morning!! Check it out... Two things stand out to me: In
Luk 24:22 Yea, and certain women also of our company made us astonished, which were early at the sepulcher; The disciples were astonished at the women... our team of 25 is made up of 16 women, so I found this interesting! I was also reminded of this verse:
Mat 5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven. We are here to do good work and glorify God! We came here to serve and meet the physical and spiritual need! It is so exciting for me to hear from God in this way, I know it may sound small or insignificant to a lot of people but I can't get enough of this kind of time with the Lord!!! The other scripture in Luke that was so loud was:
Luk 24:30 And it came to pass, as he sat at meat with them, he took bread, and blessed it, and broke, and gave to them.
Luk 24:31 And their eyes were opened, and they knew him; and he vanished out of their sight. Even though our devotionals didn't make it to Lima...OUR GOD MADE IT!!!! That was SO AWESOME to me that in my regular daily reading God was already on top of the theme that He had laid on our leaders heart to bring us to His throne this week!!! To me that is AWESOME!!!! Only my God can explain that!!!! ONLY HIM!!!!!
So many times God replays that same act in our lives right in front of our eyes and we don't even see that it is Him until he does something that can only be explained by Him just as He did here in this scripture, Jesus re-enacted the act of the last supper and THEN THEIR EYES WERE OPENED and they knew it was JESUS!
So often we lose sight that Jesus is ALWAYS with us working mightily - we just aren't always SEEING Him!
Now it's 7:30, time to meet the team on the beach for praise time!!!!
When I thought things could not be more breath taking!!!! This was my favorite time every morning!!!! I miss this the most... standing on the Ocean shore every morning at 7:30 with 24 strangers that are now a part of my heart, praising and worshiping the same God, the creator of Heaven and Earth...
No words are adequate to describe this time we shared as a team and individuals before the Lord our God.... you had to be there and I hope everyone gets the chance to praise and worship God in this same way at least once in their lifetime... YOU WILL NEVER BE THE SAME! HOW GREAT IS OUR GOD!!!!
To give you a visual this is how our days look:
??? Personal quiet time/devotional with Jesus
7:30 - Team meet on the beach for Praise to God
8:00 - Breakfast 8:45 - Get on the bus and head to Hannah's for our service opportunities - Opportunity to trust God for our travels DAILY... - Arrive at Hannah's and begin working
12:00- Lunch
1:00 - Back to work
2:00 - VBS Skit practice
2:30 - VBS team get on bus and head to village
5/5:30-VBS team head back to Hannah's to pick up remaining team members and head back to Hola Grande
6:30 - Dinner
7:30 - Team meeting - Time to share how we seen God that day or Barnabas time
At breakfast every morning we received our service assignments and the first day I was on the paint crew and VBS team!!! Yippy... I love painting and I can't wait to see how God puts the VBS together. The first thing I was assigned to do when we got to Hannah's was to look for some things we could use in the VBS and make sure that someone picked up and prepared the oranges for our VBS game!
So off we go on the bus! The bus had to make a daily stop at a check point off the highway. It is something like we would see here in the states for big rigs, reminds me of a weigh station.
This was our first opportunity to TRUST God today! Again I see a pattern here... Even in preparing for this trip months ago, God continues to say TRUST ME!
From what I understand this check point has been put into place for "our protection." They said there have been a lot of accidents and people getting hurt so they want to make sure the bus and passengers are safe.
We sat there for about 15 minutes while and waited for the bus driver and translators to get move us through what I like to call "The Inspection"
Amy H. gets on the bus and tells us that we should pray, it's not looking good!
Just as we were finishing prayer Mike gets on the bus and says, "We're good to go!" God that was AWESOME! We plugged an iPod into Jerri's radio and Praised God for His Mighty work!!!! Later we learned that the problem was the bus license.
What a morning! What will the rest of the day bring?!?!?!
Once we got to Hannah's we all met in a room to recieve our service instructions from the man Dave. The painting would take place across the street at Hogar De Ninos, but first I had the task of looking for VBS supplies!! What a blessing! God is our provider...
Phil.4
[19] But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
there were tons of crayons and activity sheets in the store room and we used some bed sheets for costumes!!! Only one thing was missing... gifts to give the children... our improvised plan was that we would give them double gifts on day 2 of the VBS since we would be in the same village again and we SHOULD... get our bags from the airline in time for day 2!!!.
In the midst of all the re-planning and preparation I was reminded of this scripture that Jesus gave the disciples when He sent them out:
Luke.9
[1] Then he called his twelve disciples together, and gave them power and authority over all devils, and to cure diseases.
[2] And he sent them to preach the kingdom of God, and to heal the sick.
[3] And he said unto them, Take nothing for your journey, neither staves, nor scrip, neither bread, neither money; neither have two coats apiece.
God was reminding me that His Word is what is most important in this mission!
Isa.55
[11] So shall my word be that goeth forth out of my mouth: it shall not return unto me void, but it shall accomplish that which I please, and it shall prosper in the thing whereto I sent it.
and the matterial things in our suit cases were all merely blessings and comforts. What do we really NEED???...
Luke 10:
[38] Now it came to pass, as they went, that he entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house.
[39] And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus' feet, and heard his word.[40] But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me.
[41] And Jesus answered and said unto her, Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things:
[42] But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
That sure gives me something to chew on for the day...
Off to paint at Hogar!!!!
This was lesson number 1 for me! There was about 5 or 6 of us on the paint team and we had one ladder between us... we all finished painting the bottom and..... yep you probably already know what I am about to say... 6 people, one ladder... not good for making progress... We should have split the work, one or two take turns up top with the ladder and the others continue to work at the bottom, and switch teams every so often... duh... Oh well.. NEXT time I get the chance to do something like this I will be ready!!!
It worked out ok anyway because about the time we were all stareing at each other thinking about how do we resolve this one... the marching practice bagan. Hogar's school is in a parade every year in celebrating their flag day. Our team was invited to be a part of the parade with the children!!!
Fifteen members of our team had to get in shape for the parade, this is serious!!! Turns out this is for the Mayor!!!
While those of us on the painting team that were not in the parade were painting from the ladder we could see the team practicing in the courtyard! The children were supposed to be in class but they kept coming out to watch the americans. In and out of the class rooms they would go. Sometimes trying to help us paint too! It was a fun time!
Before we knew it lunch time was upon us! Delicious Ham sandwiches or Peanut Butter and Jelly with chips and cookies... the lemon cookies were my fave!!!! Water to drink OR... delicious soda from the mini mart across the street. Nothing like our Mini Marts around the states.
The teens couldn't get enough of the Inka Kola, my personal favorite was the Orange soda! They recycle as much as they can here so we also took the bottles back to the store every day too!
Right after lunch the VBS team gathered and we had skit practice! Our VBS theme is LOST AND FOUND! Based out of Luke chapter 19, the story of Zacchaeus. The title for today's skit is "Lost and Found" our memory verse is:
Pss.119
[11] Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
Our activity was supposed to be a word search but that was in our suit cases that weren't there yet!
It was really cool to watch God put the characters together! One of my challenges for the VBS was not knowing who was going to be on the team every day... I'm a planner!!! I like to know who is doing what, when and where at all times!!! God continually reminds me that HE is in controll...not me!
The only thing I knew for sure in preparing for this trip was that we would go to the same village two days and I needed to have two skits and two activites(one for each day).
It was so exciting being streched in this way... I had NO control over anything... so I did what I do best....DELEGATE!!! Amy Delany and Dawn were my saving grace for VBS... I leaned on them for everything and they were AWESOME!!! Amy helped in deciding who would play which characters and Dawn was my sounding board for every idea I had... she is so wise!!! Thank you sister!!!!
This experince has been so freeing in knowing that GOD has this under control and I have had so much fun as I lean on the Lord and Trust Him!!!!
Ok, so the skit was about a boy who lost his dog and Jesus came and found the dog..Chuco.. for him!! The lesson was for the kids to learn to hide God's Word in their hearts, and that also was a lead in for day two's skit and memory verse. (read the story of Zacchaeus in Luke 19, then you will see).
Practice was great fun....but still...no gifts to give away....
About 2:00 I was gathering our supplies for VBS and found Linda who was looking for the yarn that had come in the three suitcases that we did get of our bags. I asked her what she was thinking about doing with it... she wanted to use it to play a game with the children. She said she had been thinking back to her childhood during the day trying to think of something we could do with the children.... This was so cool... God totally used the oldest member of our team to bring this to light!!! God you are so awesome!!!
We made a ton of strings that we were able to play with the kids AND those were our gifts we gave them to keep!!!! SO FUN!!!! This got me so pumped up for VBS!!!! I couldn't wait to see what God would do once we got there!!
Phil.4
[19] But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.
God continues to remind us that HE and HE ALONE is our provider!!!
Here we are!!! VBS day 1... First we found a table for Mike to set up the sound for our music then we split up into groups to go through the village and invite the children and adults to VBS! We said, "Esquela Biblica dies minutos" (Bible School in ten minutes, I could be wrong on how many minutes dies is...hee hee)I latched onto Christina, one of our translators and I bet I asked her to repeta (repeat) a hundred times... dang short term memory! That was the beginning of a beautiful friendship. Christina is a jewel! I really got attached to her after our time at VBS this day.
We kinda just walked through the village looking for people and invited them to VBS. It was so much fun!
This little girl was the first child I got to meet at this village and guess what her name is???? Carolina!!!! That's the same as me, just in Spanish!!!! How fun is that!!!! Sweet little kisses from Jesus...
After we gathered the people from the village we had some singing and then the chaos begins... Each member of the VBS team passed out the activiy coloring sheets to their groups.... and then.... I was the only one with crayons!!!! Oh dear... I got mobbed!!! Lesson numero uno... dont' be the only one holding the bag of crayons!!! It was crazy... the kids were asking me for Marroon (roll your r's).... OK.. so in english we would think what they were asking for would be a dark red.... NOPE not in Peru... they wanted BROWN... everyone wanted brown...there was no more brown... I was so confused... we had learned in Spanish class that brown was Cafe...So if you ever go to Peru... remember Marroon is brown when it comes to VBS and crayons!!! lol
I finally gave up and handed the crayons to Christina because I could not understand what they were asking me...
Ok so finally I sat down with a group of children and colored with them. I think coloring is totally a universal thing!!! Everyone loves it!
We colored in our groups for about 15-20 minutes and then we had another song, Now it was time for the Skit!!! 'Lost And Found' our memory verse for this day was :
Pss.119
[11] Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.
CHUCHO!!!!
Oh thank you Jesus for finding my lost puppy!!!!
(Above,Left:Eli playes Jesus, Right:Caleb playes little boy)As Dawn(photo below) does the review/invitation with the children about the skit she relates to them that just like Chucho was lost and Jesus came to find Chucho, Jesus also comes to find us because the Bible says that we are lost too!
GAME TIME!!! ORANGE RELAY
After the skit we lined the children up into 4 lines for the Orang Relay!
This game is my MOST favorite!!!! I love it... first because the kids get something to eat and second because the little Nenos(children) are so cute!!!!
They had to run up to the person holding the bag and eat the orange wedge then drop the peel on the ground and run back to the end of the line. The first line to run out of oranges wins!!!
That was it... VBS day 1 was over. We all got onto the big bus and headed back to Hogar De Hanna to collect the ramaining team members.
WOW... what a whirlwind... everything happend so fast I could hardly take it in... the only thing I could remember was how much I wanted to communicate and couldnt! I really want to learn Spanish...
Once we got back to Hola Grande we cleaned up, had dinner then our team meeting. The resounding comments were how God provided all our NEED...the team worked together and shared all we had to help one another and that the things in our luggage that did show up today while we were working... Praise Jesus.. those items are comforts and added blessings.
AWESOME SECOND DAY!!!!! Day three to come... Yes.. all of this took place in one day... every day was long but totally AWESOME... Can't wait to do this again...
