Day 5: Bon Gia... After Another Long Day!

Good morning to all our prayer partners, friends, and family who are reading and commenting on the blog. Your encouragement is deeply felt and appreciated as we head into the last few days of our week-long mission.

Over the past few months as we prepared for this experience several of you have asked me and other team members, "Why go so far to serve when there is so much need in our own community?" That is a great question and one worth contemplating by team and church members alike. This morning as Diana read 1 John 4:7 from our morning devotional, she reminded us to "love one another, because love is from God, everyone who loves is born of God and knows God..." It was a good reminder because the work we are doing is exhausting (all of us learned where are deltoids are on our bodies as we painted the upper third of the various buildings throughout the complex!) and the needs of the children we are serving are not only real but very intense. And yet, I imagine if asked, every one of the team members would gladly serve again because in our own ways we are each learning what it means to love day by day. Part of the reason we travel so far to serve is that God uses experiences like this to school us in the ways of love. You learn a great deal about one another and yourself -- your gifts and limitations, your strengths and where you need to lean on someone else to make it through, and who and what is of most value from your own home. And of course, most of all, you learn to trust in God to supply every need.

For me, I am missing my sweet daughter and husband -- especially as I sat at a table full of children yesterday and colored a page that said "Jesus me ama" (Jesus loves me) and when I put the stickers our group brought in the middle of the table they all plunged in to grab their favorite. Apparently, stickers are a hit just as much for these children as they are for Sophia. Their beautiful drawings were plastered with stickers by the end of the activity. Or when we headed into town last night to the bookstore to each choose a new children's book for the Biblioteca (pictured left) to replace some of the ones that are worn out with love. I found two books that I will dedicate -- a collection of stories from the Bible from me and "Guess how much I love you" one of our favorites at home from Sophia and Lacy. Instead of giving individual gifts to the children, we decided to give children's books to the community plus a small donation from the church as a whole for Teca to use to replace more books later.

Others have learned patience and grace, some have learned how to work together to dip a 40 foot roller with paint and then safely clear the nearby buildings to actually get the paint on the building you're working on, and still others have practiced taking on new leadership rolls or to try their hand at offering a devotion. Whatever our particular lesson on love might be, it is good to know there are others who hold us up in prayer and who are taking this journey with us.

We can't wait to see you soon and share the ways God has worked in us and through us in this "hands on" school of love.