Play For Hope

Day 11

Today was quite an adventure for a day.  In the morning we went to Serieux' church.  It was about a 30 minute bus ride away. The service was good, but you could tell that the pastor did not know English as well as the guy had last week at the other church.  Worship was good, the songs were just super repetitive.  The sermon was about Ephesians 3:14-21, which talks about how God can do the impossible in our lives.  This is one of my favorite verses, and I have found inspiration from it for a long time, so I really enjoyed the sermon.  Also, it was once again just so cool to see these people so filled with joy and hope despite their circumstances.  After church we had the biggest meal EVER!!  :)  It consisted of rice, sauce, peas, french fries, fish, salad (carrots, lettuce, cucumber, tomato), bananas and pineapple.  Needless to say we were all very full after lunch!! :)  

After lunch we went to the office, and then to meet Emmanuel and Zed's team.  It took some time trying to find the field, but we eventually did find it.  The girls here were very shy and quiet.  The talk this time went by pretty quickly because none of them really had any questions for us.  I could see in their eyes though, that they were very receptive of what we were saying to them, so I pray that the words that I spoke from the Lord were able to bring them some encouragement and peace.  

Next, the adventure really started.  We went to go meet Aimable's team.  The route we had to take put all another roads to shame.  I would not even call what we were driving on a road!  We were basically driving straight up a mountain with potholes so big that you would not think it were even possible for a car to get through them.  I know some people think they are pretty great off-roading here in the states, but they have nothing on this road!  I mean, it was incredible that we made it up, in a small toyota that was a stick!  Our driver was phenomenal!  Once we got there we were swarmed with village children.  The field we were at here was in a much poorer area.  There were many kids who came out to watch.  Also, the field was in the worst condition of any of them I had seen yet, and apparently they had just moved to this field because it was better than the last they were at.  The grass was so high you could mistake it for weeds.  And the field was very unlevel.  Yet, this was all they had so they made it work.  We had no where private to go with the girls here, so our talk was a little shortened.  The reason for this was because there were boys who kept coming over to listen to what we were saying and it made the girls feel very akward.  We were able to give a breast self-examination sheet to a new mother that was sitting close by.  She was listening so intently as Jena was talking about breast cancer and how to check for it . The talk went well though. Afterwards when we were taking our picture with them, like we did with all the teams, there was one girl who was very aggressive with me.  I don't think she was meaning to be, but when she came over, she almost knocked me to the ground with her force.  Then, afterwards, I thought she was going to slap my face, but she ended up grabbing my cheeks and smiling.  She kept following me around for the rest of the time we were there.  Not going to lie, I was legit scared of her a little bit.  :)  After talking with the girls I helped with the last of the FMS testing and we headed out for the evening.  Round 2 of the crazy road!  It still amazes me that his car is still running!! :)