Day 10–Behind the Bars




Monday morning, we packed up all of our VBS supplies and headed to the retreat center with the kids. We had to stop for cornstarch for one of our science projects. You never know what you will be able get here (including toilet paper—the shortage is real!) so we were praying! At the third store, Parker found a plethora. 😅

The drive went smoothly until the last 20 minutes, which included washed out roads, off-roading, and missing bridges. Belay and others felt carsick, but it was nothing Rachel couldn’t handle with her traveling pharmacy in her pouch. 


After walking the final stretch with all our luggage, we settled into chairs in the main meeting hall. Little did we know the task Belay had for us. There are 11 people on our team, 32 HFTF kids, plus 19 staff. He wanted us to all learn each other’s names and we had 10 minutes to mingle and share. Then he had a well-crafted activity that took about an hour, but it was beautiful. One-by-one, we recited the names of each person before us—Jenny, Parker, Alysa and I were all toward the end and faced the hardest task of remembering over 60 names! We all struggled, there were lots of laughs, but in the end it created a bond indescribable. As Belay explained it, we are all known and seen by God who knows our names. It is so important for these kids to be known and seen by others, and taking the time to learn their names lets them know they are seen and loved by us. 


Everyone on our team has experienced adversity and blessing, the attacks of our enemy, and the faithfulness of our Lord as he answers prayers and comforts hearts. Every evening we close our day with sharing our high, our low, and where we saw God. Today I had a lot of time to reflect, spending part of the day in the guest house not feeling well. There are bars in all the doors and windows and things have to stay locked at all times. The rest of the team continued with VBS with the kids and I was missing it. I began to pray for everyone on our team individually, and in that I saw God: how he perfectly crafted this team, everyone with their gifts and talents to meet the needs of all we are brought here to do. 


My high for the day was watching each of us grow and step into hard things that seemed daunting on day one. My low, feeling the overwhelming spiritual battle not only for our team, but individually. Satan has been relentless in trying to discourage and destroy weeks before we even left the states, but we keep seeing God show up. He has healed, brought joy, comforted, and carried us. As I looked out the barred window, I saw Ty working so hard to clear water off the basketball court so the boys could play football (soccer). A small act of service, but not unseen. This is what God has called us to for such a time as this. 





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