VBS

On Saturday at the community of Caldera Pastor Matty picked up some rocks and started juggling them in the air.  The children immediately got Pastor Matty's full attention.  The children gave Pastor Matty some of their green mangos from the trees surrounding the property VBS was on.  Pastor Matty came back that afternoon a little unsettled about juggling the green mangos knowing this was a means of food for these children.   So he asked me if he could buy all the hacky sacks I had for sale.  I said sure you must have a lot of children back home you want to give them to.  He said no I would prefer juggling these on tomorrow instead of their green mangos or their coconuts.  He said I did not feel comfortable doing this knowing this was their food they ate on a daily basis.  So Monday afternoon rolled around and as we were waiting for VBS to start up Pastor Matty had a captive audience outside the front door of the church.  So here goes Pastor Matty and his five hacky sacks going up into the air as all those little ones brown eyes got larger and larger.  What a great testimony for the sensitivity  of this gentleman and the culture of these beautiful people. Thank you Pastor Matty for all you have done this week to love these people in their culture.

Time for VBS to crank up as Susan shared yet another beautiful story from Gods' Word.  We all gathered around on the floor and on chairs to color a picture of Adam and Eve and the fall.  The children were asked after hearing Susan share the story, not read it but shared it from her heart how God created His world to be perfect until sin entered into.  The children were able to answer the question who were the two people on their coloring page.  On this particular day the team was going to take the children to the huge soccer field at the bottom of the hill from the church and do different stations of activities with them.  Pastor Carlos came up right before VBS started very humbly stating it would not be safe to go the soccer field.  Pastor Matty looked at Pastor Carlos with the humbleness he has expressed all week and said "Pastor Carlos you are the boss here this week and you know exactly what we need to do and not do. Thank you for having our best interest at heart and protecting us all."  So Pastor Matty gathered his recreation team and they discussed a new strategy for recreation.  Once again this team came prepared to be flexible and change out their "plans" to do God's plans in Honduras. Each day their numbers grew and on their last day they ended up with 80 plus children at the church.  The team made an executive decision it would be best to cancel the recreation part of their VBS due to the space and number of children.  All in all this was amazing week with the children regardless of some plan changes for this awesome group of people. On Tuesday morning prior to this day Pastor Matty's devotional was on being teachable and no one is higher up than another.  We are all equal.  We will never stopped being discipled.  Someone is always there to disciple us or we disciple them.  We need to seek council.  Pastor Matty read out of 1 Kings 12 about Rehoboam who did a lot of things right but also did a lot of things wrong as well.  As we all do in our walk of life.  Rehoboam departed for three days before making his decision. Sometimes listening means to actively listen to someone without interrupting them as they are talking.  We need to understand what is being said to us instead of putting in our thoughts, just listen to the person sharing with us.  Also Pastor Matty shared we need to be careful who we seek council from, be sure they are grounded and are godly people.  They need to be a true follower of Jesus Christ exhibiting the Fruit of the Spirit in their daily.  In reading from 1 Peter 5:6 we should humble ourselves and submit ourselves before God.  Today Pastor Matty respected the council of Pastor Carlos as he advised the team not to go to the soccer field.  How appropriate was this devotional at this time and place and then to be lived out only a few hours lately.  As Pastor Matty shared during God moments that evening he doesn't believe in coincidences.