It went down like this.Dear team 12:18
You will be going into the jungle. You will stay there for two weeks, have a translator, and you will be a big help to the people by building houses and talking to the villages.
Here is what happened.
- We get to the jungle, and find out that there is no translator available. Oh snap.
- We find out that we are there for 3 weeks instead of two, which I am so excited about, except we all packed our stuff into a backpack and left pretty much everything back at the church. We were trying to live simply for two weeks. Now we are living really simply for three weeks. LOVE IT!!!
- We are no real help to the people building because they are more talented than us.
- We can’t talk to anyone because we can’t speak a common language.
SO WHERE DOES THAT LEAVE US?
St. Francis Assisi who said “Share the love of Jesus Christ at all times, and if necessary, use words.”
This quote is the quintessential expression of this week. What do we do when our skills are not helpful, our words are useless, and we dont understand anything going on? LIVE LOVE
So that is what this past week has been.
When we don’t know what to say, we do things that we can think of to bless the people. When we don’t know what to do, we pray for the people, and when we don’t know what to pray for, we just sing with the people.
This area is beautiful beyond all measure. The mountains, the sunsets, the nightly lightning storms that put on a picture show of God’s strength and power. It is amazing to be here. And suprisingly, it is ok that we can’t talk to the people.
We are still able to love on the kids.
- These kids are carrying machetes from the age of two.
- They can climb any tree.
- They can spin reeds to make baskets.
- They are absolutly amazing.
Now if only I could tell them my name =)
We are still able to have rocking dance parties.These are some of my favorite times because it reminds me of middle school.
All of the guys start on one side of the dance floor, and all the girls are on the other. And then when the music starts the all come in, dance (separately though), and then run back to their sides.
It’s fun because they really do run. So seeing as I was the only American guy dancing, I had no idea what was going on. Just a lot of running back and forth. =)
And heck, when all else fails. I join them in their foot volleyball game. Its a crazy awesome game where they play volleyball with their feet. And when go go in for the spike you do a back flip kick and slam the ball. I unfortunatly do no have their skills and broke the net when I tried. Good thing it was fixable.
So you might ask.
