Yesterday was my favourite day on the World Race so far! Here’s what happened.
7:30
I woke up to Jesus, had some journal time, and solidified my new understanding of instant justification versus processed sanctification.
9:00
Drove to Promised Land (rescue home for young teenage girls), still cementing sanctification knowledge in my heart, and how that applies to the recently abolished doubt that was in my life.
9:30 – 3:30
Promised Land was amazing. I began connecting with the girls right away – just by smiling at them, learning all their names (there’s only 8 of them, and I wrote them all down), and letting them laugh at me as I butchered their language. The girls sang worship songs and quoted a lot of scripture – it was beautiful! For our turn we taught them Lord I Lift Your Name, Hosanna (which they had sung for us in Thai), and How He Loves. Also, Jenny spoke on Jesus calming the sea. Next Mike did his silly ‘follow-the-leader” stint. Always a big hit, despite being intended for kindergarteners.
We played Stella Stella Ola for a while, then we just hung out. I started sketching (poorly) the people in the room, and the girls had fun guessing who I was drawing. Then I thought, we should play Dots! Man, I haven’t thought about that game in years! But it’s simple enough to explain without words, and that’s the only type of game we could play with them.
Next they served us lunch, which was a great surprise! We had the Thai special: veggies, egg, chicken and rice. Coincidentally, we had the exact same thing for dinner! Our host, Vi joined us on the floor mat for lunch, for the first time ever. The 8 girls ate in a different room, but they were back later.
When later came, I played Dots with 4-5 of the girls until it was time to leave. Before we did, though, we got the opportunity to pray over the head of the household, P. Rapeed and her girls.
It was all too soon that we said goodbye! The sweet girls clung to me as we hugged goodbye. They were so cute – putting my guitar back in its case, helping me put my things in my bag, and the leader carrying my guitar out to the truck. THEN THE ICING ON THE CAKE. P Rapeed said to me: “You should come back for a longer visit. You can teach me how play guitar. When you first came in I thought – that is such good guitar!” So maybe she wants a hypothetical guitar lesson more than a long-term missionary, but maybe she would take both. Because almost the whole time we were there, I was thinking, “I would love to come back here!”
On the way back to Crossroads (Granny! The place we lived this week is called Crossroads!), we stopped at a smelly market, where Matt and I had a brief 1-on-1. We ate ice cream and chatted about many things, team changes in particular.
4:30
Back at our homebase, we each had a surprise waiting: a page filled with notes from our squad boys! How sweet! I love our boys so much, and will cherish that note for a long time. Kim and I had a great time reading them, deliberated over which boy wrote which note, since most did it anonymously. We studied the handwriting, comparing our 2 notes, and giggled as we soaked in the love from our boys.
5:00
Soon after Jenny and I went on a walk. We talked in depth about where we are spiritually and emotionally, among other things.
Before we knew it an old lady was walking beside us, trying to communicate something. As we came to a house she ushered us over, and we timidly followed her inside. Unexpectedly, it was a tiny internet cafe run by an English-speaking lady named P. Awesome!
On the way back we stopped on a bridge to watch the sun set beautifully over the water, mountains and hills with trees. So immensely satisfying to the eye. As promised in Mt. Pleasant so long ago, I fell to my knees in awe of the great God who created such a delicate masterpiece. Incredible.
We stood/kneeled for a long time, mostly not speaking, just praying and being alone with God, together. Just as we were leaving, a motorcycle stopped behind us. It was P, with gifts of sewn dolls for us. How sweet!
6:30
Just as we got back, dinner was being laid on the floor for us, so that was great. Vee, his wife and baby daughter sat on the couch, visiting with us while we ate.
7:30
Afterward he informed us we were in charge of 45 minutes of the service at church the next morning. So in preparation, we went to the music room and practiced Blessed be your Name and 10,000 Reasons. The whole team was involved
8:00
Finally, team time in the music room. Check-ins are a daily team time activity at the end of the day when we share how what we’ve been going through or learning, or how our day was. Next is feedback, a time to share with each other areas we see in each other where we can grow or should be encouraged to continue on strong. It’s much easier to grow when you have good community to push you toward growth.
After team time is pretty much bedtime! What a great end to a glorious day.
