The First Day at the Village:
Today was our first day to actually go to the Village we are going to be working in during our time in Honduras. The village houses 102 boys and girls of various ages. Our projects maiming revolve around clean water, but their our many other things will be helping with as needed.
Today we were greeted at the gate by one of the boys who instantly saw the van pull up and he opened the gate without hesitation or direction. Before we even entered the village had stolen my heart! I mean what manners honestly!
Then we entered and we were given a tour. We saw the boys house and then the girls house and following that we went into the little's room, which was s zoo of about 25 young kids ranging from two to eight playing with toys and watching Dragon Tales. Instantly, the young ones just attacked wanting to be held, loved, played with, and they wanted to see your cameras (they love electronics).
After about an hour of littles I want to enjoy some of the bigger girls. After lunch their was a time of kid's bible study where the kids sang Spanish versions of classic children's church songs I recognized like Father Abraham (aka pápá Abraham) and If You're Happy and You Know It Clap Your Hands. I had a little boy come and just plop himself in my lap. It was amazing to sing then songs and be there to experience the kids at study time.
We then played a game where the "gringas" were against the kids in a high speed race to see which team could get their shoes (Los zapatos) on quickest. We lost (keen'a may be more powerful in terms of comfort, but in this competition the flip flops took the gold).
After that we got the chance to play volleyball with some of the older girls. Even though it was a million degrees out we still really enjoyed ourselves.
The final highlight at the Villiage consisted of taking a break and spending some time with a little boy named Christian, whom was in the cool-off room suffering a bee sting injury (left eye completely swollen). We went in saw him and prayed for him and when we came back two hours later it was much better and Brittsny rocked him and snuggled him for about s half hour and by the time we left it was completely healed. There wouldn't have been anyone there to give him that kind of attention if we weren't there and that's a powerful thought!
The rest of the day was pretty low key, once again dinner was amazing and I am feeling pretty grateful for my electric band shorts, because by the end of the week I am so going to need the extra space!
I signed up to give the first devotional of the group while we are here in Honduras, which honestly I did see myself doing something so bold before I arrived. Previously, before arriving we were asked to prepare a devotional and being the amazing student I am I prepared it the next day. However, unfortunately after preparing it completely disappeared as did all the notes I used to create it...Being so discouraged I decided not to even bother rewriting and then hoping I wouldn't be selected to share. However, last night as Pastor Scott shared a word about courage and listening to what your being led to do and then I felt a pull that not only did my topic need shared with the group, but I needed to go first and start us all off before we entered the Children's Village for the first time.
So, even more surprisingly I was bold enough to listen and to sign up to go first! So this morning I shared my word from Luke 10:38-42.
Luke 10:38-42 NLT
[38] As Jesus and the disciples continued on their way to Jerusalem, they came to a certain village where a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. [39] Her sister, Mary, sat at the Lord's feet, listening to what he taught. [40] But Martha was distracted by the big dinner she was preparing. She came to Jesus and said, "Lord, doesn't it seem unfair to you that my sister just sits here while I do all the work? Tell her to come and help me." [41] But the Lord said to her, "My dear Martha, you are worried and upset over all these details! [42] There is only one thing worth being concerned about. Mary has discovered it, and it will not be taken away from her."
The message was just a reminder to the group that both Martha and Mary were serving Jesus and while we are at the village working we need to remember that when others slow down to enjoy we are not to be hard on them and if we slow down and others are working hard that's ok too as long as we focus on the main goal of listening and focusing on Jesus. We need to spend our days focusing on Him and asking what he wants us to do and be obedient to His wishes.
No comments:
Post a Comment