Day 14

Woke up this morning to someone knocking on the door and literally fell out of bed. Went to the door and they told us we had 15 minutes to eat and get out the door. That is very encouraging and happy news when you are not really awake yet. So I think I washed my face and went and ate some cereal and packed as fast as I could. Headed out the door like 30 minutes later, still not quite awake.

Got to the church, planned (a little groggy still) for my lessons of the day. Today I taught on synonyms, antonyms, and continued the Bible Story of Creation. We talked about the Fall today. Believe it or not, these three subjects had to take up three hours – that was really fun trying to fill up. Sometimes I feel like I have no creativity, and then the spirit must come and give me some, because I get some inspired ideas.

For lunch, we got (get ready for this) BIG MACS! And FRENCH FRIES! Glory, Glory, Hallelujah! I have never had a Big Mac before today, so it was kind of historic. Big Mac sauce is definitely very tasty. It was cool to have a little bit of America. After lunch, we prepared a presentation for tomorrow on the Genesis Creation account. They wrote three sentences each about what happened on each day of Creation. Then I taught them a song that I found on the internet to the tune “Are You Sleeping Brother John”. It goes something like this:

God created, God created,
Night and Day, Night and Day,
That was on the first day
That was on the first day
It was good, It was good.

Call it cheeseball. They love singing it. It was a good time with them. After that, we had a church wide scavanger hunt. Because the church is massive, of course they don’t air condition the entire thing. Not always the most comfortable sprinting through the whole campus looking for different landmarks with 12 crazy energetic children. We had fun though and finished first. My team rocks, even if they don’t really listen to me 99% of the time. But they had fun too.

After this we had a rally with all the students. Ok, this was extremely chaotic and unplanned, but I had the most fun I’ve had this entire trip. I got to lead worship for 3 songs, got to do a skit, share a testimony, and have a blast. Kind of lost my voice in the skit doing the typical “Doctor’s Office” skit. But the kids laughed – and that’s what mattered. You know, believe it or not, sometimes I really wonder why I got hired as a Children’s Pastor. Sometimes I feel so unqualified. But today, everyone was like, Josh – you are so in your element up there, ministering to kids. And I was. I know it. It was something I was doing from the very core of who I was, and I loved it. And I think that the Lord uses these things to further his kingdom. I hope so at least.

We had dinner at the Italian restaurant again tonight. So good. Headed back to the mountain. Had some bonding time with the boys, and Bin, and went to bed. IT is really cool to pour into his life. He is 16 and goes to a private school in Singapore. He has been a huge blessing to the team (especially when we can’t find most of the nationals at time and we’re all alone in our classrooms to try and accomplish everything without knowing a word of the language). His translation skills have come in handy mucho times.