Wednesday - Mission

What a blessed day!!! God is so awesome! Our morning started with the team leader oversleeping – yes – the team had 10 minutes to get ready for breakfast – and I am thrilled to say we rose to the challenge! Allyson led our team devotion – she read an excerpt from John 11 about Lazarus. She discussed the how Jesus waited 2 days before going to Lazarus – then she asked if God had trusted us with silence on an issue in our lives. She said there may be something He wants to teach you in that – and that true trust in God stays strong even in silence. We also read more out of Mark Batterson’s book. We discussed how big our God really is – he said that our biggest thought about the size of our God falls infinitely short of all that He is. Our minds cannot even begin to conceive His greatness, goodness, mercy, and power. He also said the more we grow in Him – the bigger He should get in our minds – and the bigger He gets in our minds – the smaller our problems will become – with God – there are not degrees of difficulty. Wow!
Lupe called after breakfast and the van had broken down. We were able to go back to our rooms and chill for about 30 minutes. And yes – it was pouring rain. Lupe had to bring his truck so we loaded the other van and his truck and headed to the school. And yes, right when we got ready to work – and not before – the rain stopped. This has truly been unreal. We began the prayer journal time and the work began.
The sky stayed cloudy with occasional very welcomed sprinkles. It is humid beyond words. About 20 minutes before lunch – while we were shoveling sand and rock – the sun burst out with unreal intensity – we all praised God we had not had to work in that during the last 3 days! Lupe’s wife made lunch – very local rice and chicken – and very good. We continued until about 2 o’clock shoveling, lifting the buckets, hauling the wheelbarrows, and we are happy to report that WE FINISHED THE DRIVEWAY!
We headed to San Jose to lead Bible School again – today there were about 150 plus kids. We have been holding VBS for about 2 ½ hours – Lupe informed us that it only needed to be 1 ½ - as tired as we are – that was wonderful news. Lawrence welcomed everyone and we sang I have that Joy, Joy, Joy, Joy Down in My heart –(in Spanish) as well as Alleluia Praise Ye the Lord (in Spanish) – then – the favorite – JB & Zeb got up and led My God is So Big.
The boys headed to the soccer field and Marion had made huge white fish – the kids glued eyes to them and then painted with water colors. They were ecstatic – we continue to have moments of revelation of how blessed we are – how we take all the materials we have for granted. At the end of craft time we handed out small balls of play dough – once again – they were overwhelmed with joy!
We closed today’s VBS with a game of charades in the sanctuary. The seniors acted out familiar Bible Stories and the children had to guess which one they were. We have quite a group of actors – they did Daniel and the Lions Den, The fiery furnace, The Good Samaritan, and David and Goliath. The kids loved it!
After dinner, we came back to the hotel and had time for long awaited showers. Then we met in our team room and most of them ordered a second supper. The Belize dollar value is ½ of ours. So if an item is 10 Belize dollars – it cost us 5 American dollars. They had huge pieces of fried fish, hamburgers, or club sandwiches, salads, fries, and a drink for well under 10 dollars. They were hungry. Then JB led devotion on the great and precious promises of God from a devotion written by Skip Heitzig. He told us that a man in Canada counted the promises of God in the Bible – there are over 7400. That means that in a year – there are over 20 promises a day for you to lean on! However, a promise is only good if the one making it is reliable – we know that we know that we know that our God is reliable! Joshua 23:14 says, “Deep in your hearts you know that every promise of the Lord your God has come true. Not a single one has failed!” And Peter said about the promises of God in 2 Peter 1:4, “exceedingly great and precious promises.” JB did a great job with his presentation. Dr Brown challenged the students with one question tonight – why did God create the Heavens and the Earth? You will have to ask the students – it was a great discussion.
To complete our day – we had a surprise visitor. A gentleman walked in playing a guitar – he sang songs with the kids for 30 or more minutes. He had a huge song list and played many of the students favorites – Buffet, Elvis, the list went on and on. He was very good and it was a fun way to end the night – especially his finale!
There were many humorous moments today including: silly giggles at the worksite, a van full singing 99 bottles of Sprite, Corbin dumping a load of concrete, tribal wars, gringo songs, Lawrence’s crash as Goliath, Corbin’s special notes, Zebbie, Gare Bear, Lawrence’s safety pinned pants & over the top energy, the skits, interesting conversations, Marian losing it during the singing, and the final performance of the guitar player.
Once again – ½ the team is fast asleep – and the balcony is full of the other ½. It is after 11 here – which may sound early – but with the heat, humidity, and extremely hard labor – no one complains about sleep.
It is hard to believe that there are only 2 more days before we fly home – the seniors got a little sentimental tonight reflecting on how soon they will graduate and go their separate ways. They have really missed their other classmates – even though they are happy that such great work is being done in Dillon. This is a special class – all 30 of them – they have been blessed to be classmates. My prayer for them is one of the comments JB read tonight in the devotion – Skip Heitzig wrote, “there is a song called “Standing on the Promises of God.” “We ought to learn that one, and more importantly we ought to do it – we ought to stand on them.” I pray that as our seniors go out their many separate ways – in just a little over a week from today – that they will cling to the Word of God – that has been sewn into their hearts by the Spirit in their homes, churches, DCS, and their personal quiet times. I pray that they will Stand Firm on His Word and that this week will passion them all to be servants of our Awesome God who is infinitely greater than our minds will ever conceive! Have blessed day – we love you all!