Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Wednesday, Recife

Stories overflow here, and it is difficult to choose what to tell. The truth is, it is impossible to share everything that happens here, all the things that touch our hearts, all the things we're learning, all the ways we're uplifted or convicted. You really ought to think about coming! It's something to be experienced.

But as you are not here right now, and may have loved ones on the trip that you'd like to track with and pray for, I'll try to at least cover some highlights.

It's been another unbelievably packed day, and we are getting to bed late after another wonderful evening together. We ate dinner with some of the Kids Place staff at Pastor Lescio's house. It was a fabulous meal prepared by his wife, and we enjoyed being in their home and getting to know them better.

But way back this morning (how can one day seem so full and yet so fast here?), we started our day with another devotional on the roof, led by the McDonald clan. Brent shared his testimony, followed by Kim, and then Kim "interviewed" each of their three boys -- Bryce, Zach and Luke -- about their testimonies. Brent, Kim and Bryce closed by reading individual blessings they'd written for each member of the team. It was an uplifting way to start the day.

VBS ran smoothly again today, and the highlight once again was the worship time. For those of you who have volunteered with or attended Kids Kamp, you have to imagine what all those great Kids Kamp songs sound like in Portugese! It's pretty fabulous. Especially when these adorable kids are dancing all around the gym, or hanging all over you. A few of us were tempted to skip craft time all together and just stick with worship the rest of the afternoon! I loved watching them and thinking about how songs stick with you your whole life, and how these children will grow up and leave Kids Place, but these songs will go with them their whole lives. That is bound to be a good thing to have these praise songs permenantly embedded in their hearts. Who knows what God could choose to do just with the truth of these songs in their hearts?

The eye clinic served another 90 patients today, bringing the total number of eyeglasses given out so far to 150. It's been an interesting experiment to run the eye clinic for the first time. I think most of the team would tell you that while it's nice to be able to give out these glasses, the real benefit has come through the opportunity to share the gospel with the patients while they wait, and to pray with them. The eye clinic revealed itself as a spiritual battleground this afternoon, and we were reminded in very dramatic fashion that our battle is not against flesh and blood. Fortunately the drama did not unfold before our children -- who would've been frightened -- but it was recorded by the film crew that is with us this week. I don't have all the details on this yet, which is why I'm being vague, but it may be one of those stories to ask "your" team member about when they return!

Because there were so many patients and so much drama (!), the eye clinic ran for four hours instead of the expected two hours. This meant that several families who were hoping to visit some families in Coque did not get to do that. We're hoping that will work out tomorrow, our last day.

We simply cannot believe tomorrow is our last day at Kids Place. The time has flown by in a blur of smiling faces, praise songs, crafts, soccer and eyeglasses! I wish I could accurately share it all with you... did I mention you should come on this trip??

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