Sorry this is late, but it’s been an action packed day..stayed up later than normal talking w/ Zach, and just processing the day...
Our day started off with personal devotions again (we’ve been working through the sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5) and today we focus on verse 8, Blessed are the pure in heart, so they shall see God”. Something that our devo leader shared with us was that “if you do not love the things of God, you do not love God”. That stuck with me in a huge way today. I want my heart to be pure, I want the things that come out of my mouth to be from a pure heart. I want the things I say and do to be the fruit of a heart that earnestly seeks to be more like God every day. And this is hard for me, but I have been challenged by it, and I hope to grow as a result.
After devos (45 minutes by ourselves, then another 30 in a group study) it was time for breakfast (some great french toast) then off to our assigned Ministry Sites.
While I’ve loved each site I’ve gone to, and been able to experience a number of new things on a mission trip, I must confess that today was easily my favorite so far. I went with the “Boys Club” ministry, which essentially is playing sports for the better part of the day, while earning the opportunity to speak Christ into their lives.
After about 90 minutes of soccer in an open field with about 20 boys ranging from 8-18, we were able to share with them directly about how much God loves them. The site leader for this ministry is named Joseph and he is from Nicaragua. He has an amazing testimony as a 28 year old young man, that is so humbled to be able to preach the Word to these boys. And they listen! He has gained a lot of respect in all of the neighborhoods we went to. After our first soccer game, we had lunch, then off to another site for a little bit of basketball, but that was quickly changed to another soccer game, on the basketball court. I was chosen by 5 local boys to play on their team, and we won a few games (games were played to “1” or 5 minutes, whichever came first). After about 2 hours, we were able to deliver another message of hope.
Most of the boys that come to these outings are regulars, and a simple attendance is taken for all who come, whether regulars or first timers. Each time they show up, they are given pretend money, that they can then use every couple of weeks to buy things from the SI “sports store”…basically the more they come, the faster they can earn socks, soccer cleats, hygiene items, etc...
The final piece of today, is that Joseph asked me to give a brief testimony at each site. I spent maybe 3 minutes telling about how much God in Heaven wants so badly to be our “Daddy”…what a blessing!
After the ministry sites, we came back to the base, swam a little in the pool, and ate an awesome dinner (a kind of spaghetti I guess) and then went for a group activity…Volleyball! We played at a local sports club, that had a simple artificial turf court…
The Oasis church that we are here with was one team, and Shari, Zach and I were made Captains right after dinner, and we had a “Draft” to pick our teams…I drafted (in no particular order) Thomas, Jessica, Sam, Noah and Robin….Let’s just make it simple, we won the Championship! BOOM! ha ha :)
Our team then played the SI Staff and Interns, and fell 15-13 to them…of course, I allowed the last two points to cost us that game…oh well…from there we picked kind of an “All-Star” team from HCC, and we took them down, handing them their first loss of the summer! BOOM x2! (I’m sure some of them will read this, so the “BOOM” is just for fun)
We then came back to the base, played some games, and then called it a night.
Tomorrow is Zip Lining! And a trip to the local Market! It’s our “Day Off”, and it should be a ton of fun!
The team is doing very well and we look forward to the final week of this adventure :)
Please pray for us to have patience with each other, as many of us have been together for 2 weeks straight, and the others have been at many meetings preparing for the trip. Nerves are easy to get strained after you spend so much time together in intense, extended ministry together.
Blessings!
God Rulz!
TN
Posts
