Thursday (by Troy)
Today our tiredness has finally caught up to us but that hasn’t slowed down our day or our ambition for the day. We were thankfully for the coffee, and we jumped right into some worship with the kids and leaders. It’s been one of my favourite parts of the day, singing together and harmonizing together for God using our struggles in songs to glorify him.
After that we started with some more heart wrenching stories as we listened to others sharing their testimonies. In general we all had tears for those sharing and connected to their stories one way or another. I connected with one of the leaders in her struggle and the wisdom she learned from it which gave me hope, and a bit of fear, knowing Gods Word is marching on and not knowing what would be next when we all overcome our trials.
One common struggle among the students is not having their parents there to support them, motivate them, or help them. It’s a very emotional testimony to hear a young student wishing simply for their parents to love them while they try to find happiness and a get an education.
The next part of the day was the student’s museum for us. They set up four stations: the first station was on the importance of corn in their country, the second was on the world famous kite tradition in Sumpango (which are next level amazing and homemade), third was local games, and the last station was on the local traditional clothes. The clothing is amazing in quality, great designs and very meaningful.
Another experience after was making tortillas, which was fun and good to see the students prove their skills compared to ours. Finally, its almost the end of the day and time to say goodbye to three of the afternoon leaders. I spent some time with them during the lessons with the students and out in the villages. They are quite energetic, joyful, welcoming, and its like not a judgement goes through there mind of anyone. So it was very easy for me to shed my shell and be myself and be silly and participate fully.
Thanks for reading and pray for Barb and Gerry to be given the energy and strength to continue the momentum of Gods work here.
