I promise, I wasn't slacking today...we went to the beach this morning (no school, again...can we say 'mini spring break'?). We woke up and headed to the girls home for breakfast and devotion. Senior Queso (Kyle) led on "the heart" which was perfect for him since he is in nursing school. He brought out a stethascope and let each of the girls listen to their heart.
I missed the second part to the morning due to a slight illness setback (it was super minor...literally lasted 45 minutes). Paige is telling me that they just played games and blew up beach balls. The girls home did run out of water and so the guys from the boys home had to bring over 100 containers of water. It was really neat to watch the boys serve by carrying the water upstairs and showed the ownership and family ties between the homes. George also mentioned how he got to hear the boys pray before their meal which was really firm. We normally just hear the girls do it, so it was neat to hear their booming voices sing the blessing.
At around 10, we packed up the vans and headed to a private pool area which was great. There were picnic tables, a pool, and private beach access. We spent the first hour down at the beach, collecting clams and catching waves. Then headed back to the pool and had lunch.
Our devotion was a bit longer tonight, and hopefully may carry over into tomorrow with some of the older girls. Kyle talked about the different chambers of the heart and how each one pours out and takes in love. He talked about guarding our hearts and how important it is to protect them. One of the older girls asked a great question about knowing when God is calling you to do something (that tug on your heart) and with the help of the others leaders (Catherine included for both translation and advice) we are hoping to go more in depth tomorrow.
I definitely struggled more today with the language barrier than I have the other days. There's so much that I want to communicate sometimes and in the end, my words are not going to be able to help this time (so difficult to realize when your love language is words of affirmation).
One thing I did notice at the beach were some of the major connections between the leaders and girls. We had to pick partners to watch out for in the water and each girl flocked to the adult they had been connecting with the most the past few days. When we were in the pool, everyone hung out together but in the end, the girls were the ones who had begun to take ownership over us. The love and connections between each of girls is strong. Tomorrow is going to be hard.
At our closing team time tonight, we talked about where we saw God. We mentioned some things that had really been tugging at our hearts. Eric's willingness to serve any and everwhere, Karen slaving away in the kitchen, Catherine translating for several people at a time. But one of my favorite moments today was with Catherine and Torey. Catherine and I have been praying together before dinner each night. Just kind of as a refresher to get through that last bit of the evening and tonight we were able to include Torey. It's so easy to keep busy when on a mission trip. Trying to serve and be with the kids every minute, but those moments where you step aside to pray for a moment are just as important.
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