My team left the rest of the squad for a few days. We went to a village 45 minutes away from the mission house. It’s called Stoborasti. Our contact here is named Alex and him and his wife are pastors at a growing church. He has two adorable kids and I really love it here. We are staying on top of the church in an apartment that is still in the works. There is no hot water for showers, no wifi, we can’t drink the water, and we can’t flush the toilet paper. Our team does well in these situations. Positive attitudes are our things! I haven’t showered in awhile though… what up? My hair is lookin’ nappy.
We walked 10 miles yesterday. In Stoborasti we walk at least 6 miles a day for meals alone. We went to a village that was 3 miles outside of the town to work in an AWANA program. We got there and it felt just like home. The kids were awesome. Amber and I were placed on the red team and our team kicked butt. We yelled “Row-sha!” which means red and eventually from saying it so much that turned into Amber and I yelling “Wash-y Washy-y!” and getting our team to dance and be excited. I gave a little bit of my testimony about growing up in AWANA and how I came to know Jesus and invited him into my heart to be my bestfriend. Then I talked about how God always provides for my family. The kids yelled “Thank you Kiki!”
In usual AWANA fashion the kids said some bible verses that they had memorized and then we sang really fun songs about Father Abraham and Noah and I taught them the Singing in the Rain/thumbs up song! My mama would have been proud.
It was the end of the club because school starts soon. Samaritan’s Purse boxes were in a back room filled with the Christmas shoeboxes that we usually do at our church. They got them as their final prize. Never before have I been on that end of the boxes. It was really cool to see their faces. They all wanted to leave quickly so that they could open them at home. Some of them opened them outside though. I have made those boxes for years with my family…I can’t even describe how weird it was to see them being received though. Sometimes you can live in a bubble in the states. You do the routine of sending a box filled with stuff oversees and you think you’re making a difference and it makes YOU feel good. But until you look in the eyes of a cute little girl and she holds up her teddy bear and some socks so that you can take a picture of her… you realize that it has nothing to do with you. Someone paid a very little amount and in exchange a little girl got to learn about Jesus and her face was filled with a smile.
We’ve been doing a lot of painting at the church as a part of our ministry as well. I painted a fence, and multiple windows and a few days ago we painted all of the pews. We listened to worship music and it was so breezy. Lord you loved me with that wind. And then a turkey came and tried to eat my face! But still… you protected me.
The biggest thing that I am learning here is about how these hands are yours and I want you to teach them to serve as you please. If that means holding hands with a little girl or holding a paintbrush I’m yours.
