I thought the week was done, but then on Sunday two of the girls who were part of the worship team for VBS wanted to come to church. They had arrived early most of the week and worked their little tails off helping me photocopy and deliver papers to various rooms; cleaning and counting and sorting etc. We had a stroke of generosity and took them to lunch with the youth volunteer and her cousin. On the way home the older one said, "Hey Mz Rachel guess what. I don't know why, but I read the Bible all yesterday. I even underlined some stuff!"
Its a good thing Kyle was driving, otherwise I would have wrecked the car!!
"Well that's good!" was all I could think to say.
"Yeah. When we get home I'll show you. I didn't understand all the family stuff of Jesus, but I circled it cause I thought it was cool He had such a big family. I'll show you the other stuff I underlined. I don't know why I did tho..."
I looked at the children's Bible she had been given once we arrived at her house. The genealogy of Jesus had been circled, and then several verses speaking of God's presence during times of crisis, sin, repentance and God's comfort had been underlined throughout the gospels.
I tried not to cry.
triumph with the phrase, "Well theez eez Ministry, you know?"
This week really reminded me of that phrase. There were tears, laughter, anger, frustration, happiness, joy, sadness... the whole gambit of emotion. But despite the fact that there were moments when I could literally feel my last nerve fraying and threatening to crumble, it was worth it. Kids lives were touched in a special way for the Gospel. Adults who hadn't been part of our church stepped up and dived into ministry and did GOOD at it! Bridges were made and seeds were sown. And I got a pie in my face. That's never happened before. But It was awesome!
So now I am off to Mission Adventure Camp - a Bible Camp where we learn about Missionaries - with 6 of the girls. The one who underlined her Bible will be going with me. Please pray with me that the Holy Spirit will continue to move in these young lives, and that I'll keep my focus on Christ who did so much more for me than I could ever do in one or two weeks!