A typical day for our team begins with breakfast around 6:30 or 7:00 am depending on the schedule. We then travel to the church to divide up into teams for service projects.
We then work on the projects until noon and head to the church for lunch. The ladies of the church cook lunch and supper for us, and we have had some wonderful meals!
After lunch we either head back to the service projects or to a school for an afternoon motivational talk. We also spend time getting ready for other events or learning about other ministries.
3:00 pm means children’s ministry in the stadium – actually just a walled field where the kids and young adults of the community gather to play soccer. The first day we had about 300 kids show up. The number increased until it was too many to count but estimates went from 500 to 800. By the way, we planned for 250.
Our team did a wonderful job of telling Bible stories, helping with crafts and playing games with the kids. As you could imagine, there was a lot of improvisation going on because of the sheer numbers of the kids.
On other days we would do service projects of visit the orphanage and do activities with the kids there.
At 5 pm the kids are sent home and we walk back to the church for supper. After supper we change clothes and prepare for the evangelism services that evening. At first we were to do four services, but just prior to our leaving, Pastor Josiah asked if we could do six. I agreed and so for six straight nights we worshiped with the people of the community and preached the Word.
The services usually lasted about two hours and were full of singing, dancing and excitement. We held the services in a large tent that the pastor borrowed from another local pastor. It was set up in the “stadium” and was also used for the Children’s ministry in the afternoon.
After the services (around 8:30 or 9) we would travel back to the guesthouse and have a debriefing meeting so we could get to bed by 10:00 pm.
Boy am I tired!