One of the things that we laughed about early on in getting here was the change in the weather. You see when we went to the Philippines it seemed that some Typhoons followed us there – we changed the weather by being there. Then, when we arrived at our location Donna told us that although we could see a blue sky that day it was very rare and was possibly the only one we would see whilst here – the sky stayed blue and sunny for another week. It was fun to say that we changed the atmosphere by our presence but in all seriousness this is a truth we are claiming and prophesying over our impact on locations as a team.
Obviously we aren’t too fussed if the weather changes or not whilst we are in a location (although we are hearing rumours of light snow this week which has gotten the team excited), instead we really want to see a shift in the feel of a place. Our team name stands for Helping Others Pursue Eternity and that is the mark that we want to leave. But one of the things we have found can be difficult so far is the language barrier – both in the Philippines and here – since we want to bring good news and that feels harder when we can’t speak with people. Here, however, we aren’t really even allowed to share even if we could speak the language unless we happened to be asked first. This can make it feel like we can’t get much achieved in the way of what we want to bring, but Peter brought us a word of encouragement back whilst we were in the Philippines that is possibly even more applicable here. He reminded us that by simply being present as Christians, as carriers of the Spirit of God, we bring something to the atmosphere that has a drastic impact regardless of words. Our very presence – even before any of the actions that are able to communicate volumes, or any words we might have been able to use in other settings – transforms the world around us because of Who it is that sends us and lives in us.
But let me tell you about one practical project we accomplished the bulk of this weekend just passed – to redecorate one of the houses. The walls were faded, dirtied, drawn on with crayon, pen and anything else, had stickers over them, had holes in them and when they had been completed last time had been done with lead-based paint.
We worked from about 9am to 6pm straight three days in a row, but we completed what we wanted to. First we shipped out all of the kids and supplies for them for three days to go and live in the school, then we shifted all of the furniture in the rooms about and mopped the floors. Next we sanded down walls, filled in holes, pulled off stickers, cleaned away as much writing as we could and washed the walls. Then, only after all of that, we were able to prime the walls in each room, giving them two coats. Finally we double coated all of the walls in the various colours we had for each room. We even managed to turn an unneeded bunk bed into a sofa which we painted and left our mark on. We mopped, dusted and rearranged, leaving the house transformed from what it was.
Jenn and Amaris from Team RI will be adding a mural to two of the bigger walls in the coming days, but we know that this seemingly straightforward project has already impacted the kids who live in this house and we hope and trust that it communicates more to them than we are currently able, or allowed, to put into words.
[EDIT: Completed Mural]
[EDIT: Completed Mural]
