Part 1: Grace, laughter and God.
This past week, my team and I got the honor of working with a nearby village. Through a kid's club, we poured into the kids and in return, the kids poured into us. They were so open, accepting and flexible. The first Sunday we were there, they lavished us with cold beverages and delicious muffins as we talked with the contact/translator and learned more about the church and the people. Tuesday was our first day of kid's club and to be honest, we had no idea what we were getting into. Despite our blindness, we pulled the program off. We found out what worked and what we needed to improve on, and came back prepared the following day. The neatest thing about the whole experience was seeing how God worked through us. Nothing would have been possible or gone as smoothly without the grace of the people. The room was full of laughter, smiles, joy and hearts after Jesus.
Part 2: I hate being the center of attention.
I've never experienced spending a birthday amongst 50+ people before. I have to say it was one of the most growing experiences where I had to learn how to willingly accept service from others.
Our team continued on with our Kid's club that morning. The schedule was followed and the games were a hit. For the story, we all sat in a large circle and used the center as our stage to help tell the story and make it come to life. There was one point when I was about to narrate the story when they broke into a song and turned towards me. I was pleasantly surprised and caught off guard. There I am; planning on telling a story and then suddenly, I got serenaded. I'm not even sure what they were saying, it sounded like they were singing Happy Birthday. All I know is that it was upbeat and joyful. Usually I would have just responded with a simple smile, but I decided to embrace it and dance along. It was a very pleasant surprise that brightened my morning.
Surprise #2: After dinner that night, I was called into the kitchen and overwhelmed by my world race family. They were singing happy birthday (fourth time of the day, including the Romanian version) with ice cream and cake for dessert. I looked around I found joy in everyone's face. Throughout the day they exemplified selfless service to make my day extra special, teaching me how to humbly accept others willingness to show me love in a service manner.
The day ended with a mass group of the squad that headed toward a field down the road to just simply play, relax and live among the Romanian community. It was my ideal way to end the day, playing outside, eating watermelon and bonding.
I am working on how to accept being served willingly and how to truly live in community. We are on teams for a reason. Each person has an unique story, talent and something different to bring to the table. I encourage you to love everybody in the unique season they're in and embrace the love that they are embellishing upon you.
