Wednesday, July 2, 2008

NOLA Day......What day is it?

It's before 11pm on Day 4 and all but 2 of us are in bed already. Welcome to the middle of the trip! I'd say it's because of all the hard work, but I think it's because the girls had their first tastes of Nawlins snow balls tonight and they all crashed from the sugar high!

Our day started, once again, with VBS. Our time with the campers has been precious. Even though it's so hard to keep them interested or even under control at times, we really enjoy spending time with them and are very sad that tomorrow is our last day with them. If you are a guy and are reading this, I want to encourage you to find a way to come work with these kids. The director of the camp has expressed to us the kids' need for good male role models. The majority of the campers are boys, the majority of which are from single family homes where all they have are their moms. It's really hard for all these boys growing up without fathers and they need men to look up to...if only for a week.

In the afternoon, Karina and Heather stayed back at the office. Karina was with the kids and Heather did some work for Angela and used the opportunity to pick her brain about Kenya (Angela's the one I'm going on the trip with in September), her non-profit and life in general. Jessie, Jeny and I headed out to the house with Kyle (BBC) to do some more work. We cleaned out a couple rooms and worked on tearing down the last bit of dry wall and insulation. We posed for a few pictures hanging from the rafters; and then the day wouldn't have been complete without the garage door almost falling on us and a group of construction workers coming to help the 3 damsels in distress. Luckily, there were no more tetanus shots.

Tonight, we led worship for the Bible Study BBC leads on Wednesday nights. There were a lot of blips (forgotten words...technical issues, etc.), but I think it was a cool realization for all of us that none of that time was about how "good" it was. Every person who had a song or word of encouragement tonight was speaking through the Spirit (people besides us). And everyone in the room was looking for God. Not mistakes.

Just as an update, Karina is mostly back to 100%. Her throat was still hurting today (which is why she still hasn't gutted the house). Jessie slept last night and woke up feeling more like herself than she has in a long time (definitely since before this trip). Praise Jesus! Scripture says that the prayer prayed in faith can heal the sick and I think it's true. :o) Even though she wasn't "sick", any of you who have gone through sleepless nights knows it can be worse than sickness!

I'm about to head off to bed and get some much needed sleep. I'm exhausted! Tomorrow's our last day of VBS and I can already feel the relief. I know that sounds bad, but I struggle to not feel anxious when I'm in charge of something that takes a lot of planning and is not a set-in-stone type of thing. But I really have enjoyed the challenge...and redeeming myself from the first time I directed this particular VBS program. I think I've proved to myself that I CAN handle it. Go me. :o)

More tomorrow.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

1 comment:

Rachel said...

I'm glad to hear that things are going well.

Can't wait to see some pictures!