The children started gathering under the trees in plastic chairs provided by the lady of the property. Pastor Carlos also took Mike to show him the land this lady has donated to start a church. So I suppose we need to start praying where God leads us on this new community called Caldera. Pastor Matty sat down with the children and started speaking Spanish to them. They all looked at him like a deer in headlights and it was not because they did not understand him but because this was the very first time these children had ever seen North Americans. Meida with her gentle spirit introduced herself to them and ask them a few questions to try to get them to warm up to these foreigners. Meida asked them did they know certain bible story songs and they said yes. Pastor Carlos' church family comes out weekly to do Sunday School with the children and worship service with them all. So the Bible was not strange to these children just the North Americans. Slowly as Susan approached with a book with not a single word in it the children tuned right into what was coming next.
Susan with the help of Meida opened up her wordless book which is quiet the amazing tool of sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Each colored page represents something relating to the beginning of God's Word to the very end. Every single child was intently listening to Susan as each colored page unfolded. First of all can you imagine not every meeting North Americans and now they bring a book without any words in it. What an experience we all had this bright and beautiful morning in Caldera. At the end of the story Susan prayed the sinners pray with the children and one little girl received Jesus Christ as her Lord and Savior.
During the Wordless Book time there was other activities going on around the children. The women of the church were getting ready to cook lunch with lots of laughter and joy all around. They were washing dishes on the pilla as well as cleaning fish on the pilla. There was a lot of activity going on out there in the open air VBS. Finally I asked Pastor Carlos to go ask them to drop some of their joy to a quiet murmur. This was very hard for these ladies to do because they enjoy life way too much no matter where you put them and what they are doing.
After the Bible story the team put out some tarp they brought with them for the children to sit on to color and do their craft. The team knew coming in they would be outside this one day and they of course came equipped for this opportunity. Some of the children came and sat on the tarp to color while others stayed in their chairs to color their pages. Juan and Ronnie both reached out to a down syndrome child to include him in the activities of the day. These group of children were most respectful and this was a huge God moment for all of this day. Everyone shared even after the long strenuous ride down roads that were not roads how they wish they could go back to be with these children one more time. This day was a one day only evangelizing and VBS time. Everyone left with full hearts that day.
The devotional Saturday morning led by David was on flexibility and this was exactly what this team was on Saturday morning in Caldera. They took their flexibility and turned their morning into a morning to glorify God. David shared out of Isaiah 40:29 and Isaiah 40:10.
Joanne shared her entire day in Caldera was a God moment. She shared her group went to a home where the family asked for prayers to remove the demons in their home. They also asked for prayers for jobs because there is not any work for these people in this community. Susan was skeptical about doing the Wordless Book but how God was glorified by her obedience and her well prepared in advance as she smoothly told this story to the children and how they all learned something new this day, books don't always have words. But Susan shared with the children her favorite book of all was God's Word, the Bible. Isaac shared at the last house there gathered around them a group of children eager to see what these North Americans were up to. Isaac gave the ten children a cross in their pocket which led Pastor Matty to telling the Wordless Story to these ten children. Thank you team for sharing the love of Jesus with these children who probably have not ever really colored picture before much less seen a Wordless Book. Thank you so much for giving these 15 children your very best.
No comments:
Post a Comment