my days

So far my days here have been busy. I have been gone for two weeks now and the time has flown by so quickly... I now know my way around town and have a pretty keen sense of direction here so it is beginning to feel more like home (even though I am leaving in 2 and a half months). So far most of my time here has been devoted to ministries within the church. That means worship, youth and media. For worship I pick the songs that coinside with what Bobby is preaching on, organize and run the praise team practice during the week, making sure the power point slides are accurate, creating the order of service for Sunday, having another run-through on Sunday morning and then leading the songs for the service. I am also responsible for training the musicians to play at a higher level and mentor a leader that can take my place when I leave. For youth I am in charge of basically creating something out of nothing. There is one teenager that consistantly attends the church here, but two others just started coming last week. All three are high school girls. My responsibilites include organizing youth events and Bible studies, growing the youth group and to mentor one or more leaders to take my place when I leave. In media there are a few video projects that Bobby wants me to work on so we go to the studio about twice a week. This is the most frustrating part of my responsibilities here, which I mentioned to Bobby, because I hate being cooped up in a studio all day where I am unable to interact with the people here I long to reach and minister to. I will also be teaching ages 5-12 at the church’s Family Retreat coming up in early April as well as taking my turn at the pulpit on Sunday morning, March 26. The orphanage that I was looking forward to working in I’ve been told is nearly 3 hours away from where I am staying and that I may only be able to visit it once or twice while I’m here. That was dissappointing to here, but I’m in search of one closer that I can go and volunteer in even if it isn’t connected with Bobby and Sara’s ministry.

I saw 5 African children walk by my apartment this afternoon. They barely had any clothes on, in fact two of the littlest boys had no clothes on at all. They each had an empty plastic pop bottle and were banging it on everything they walked past... they were competely entertained by this. It showed me how spoiled I am even while I’m here... in this nice apartment with a car to get myself around in... They had plastic bottles and thought they had the world... maybe they did have the world and we have it wrong... I want to find an orphanage... when I saw those kids it was the first time my heart fluttered since I’ve been here... I want to feel that again.