Friday: Josh

I (Josh) am writing this blog from our bus as we drive back to our hotel to shower before heading to our final dinner.  Earlier today we said goodbye to the children of Kid’s Place.  It was hard to say goodbye, but we leave excited for what was accomplished in Coque this past week and what God will continue to do in this city.

Praise God that aside from one sore throat, we have been free of illness the entire trip.  Nobody has been hurt.  We’ve slept relatively well and the team has been unified.  This would not have been accomplished without the prayer support from each of you.  Thank you.  Thank you. 

I wanted to share a story from yesterday.  Our daughter, Grace, is 9 years old, and was on this trip last year. One of her friends from last year (Mariana) was not at Kid’s Place this year, but she would come around and spend time with us. Grace was not sure if Mariana was a Christian, so she invited her to be part of a group of girls who were hearing the gospel story with the help of the Evangecube. During this presentation the said she was not a Christian, but did not indicate that she wanted to be. Grace's heart was burdened for her friend and she asked the team everyday to pray for her. Yesterday Mariana came by and joined in helped Grace and an adult team member (Jen) make cupcakes for a special Kids Place snack.  While talking, Jen, asked Mariana what her favorite book was.  It’s Harry Potter – also Grace’s favorite books!  To make a long story short, Jen drew comparisions between the two books -- with the girls drawing pictures to help with the language barrier -- and was able to show how Christ had died for his friends. The story finally clicked for Mariana and she accepted Christ.  Praise God!

This was just one story of the week of people working together and using their spiritual gifts to advance the kingdom of God.  Once again I was reminded that the “dirty little secret” of short-term mission work is that those that go are the lucky ones. Thank you to those of you that supported us both financially and with prayer.  We were blessed beyond measure and your gifts were put to great use for the kingdom.  We used many sporting analogies this week and I can vouch for the fact that this team left everything on the field. 

Please pray for our safe return to Texas tomorrow and that all of our bags make it back with us.