God's blessings demand our responsiblity. Each day that we are here is another day that the relationships with the children we serve grows more and more. Even before we arrived at the church for breakfast the children were already waiting to greet us. This wasn't because we had gifts or candy, but because they knew we were coming to play with them or to just be with them. They have to walk a few blocks just to get to the church and we usually arrive at 7:30am for breakfast. During our morning devotion we talked about remaing in Christ. One of the verses that was brought up was about remaining in the vine, Christ, to recieve nourishment and strength. This was a beautiful reminder of how dependent we are on God for everything we do.
Things weren't much different as we arrived at the school. We barely walked into the school courtyard before the children started pouring out of the classrooms, running up to us and nearly dragging us down with hugs. We love spending time with them. We play soccer, jumprope, drew pictures, watched them in their music class, did relay races, spun kids, frisbee,... you name it. Some kids, they didn't need all that. All they wanted to do was be right next to you and be able to just rest their hands on you. Just to know that you're near. Nearness. It builds relationships. I'm really starting to grow very fond of the children. We first started just with high fives but now we're hugging. When we left, I started hugging the children. As I was walking to the door, one of the girls ran up to me. I kneeled down and hugged her and she kissed me on the cheek. Words cannot express the feeling that came over me.
After we left the school, we had a great lunch back at the church and headed up to the high mountainous city of Panyebar. It is so high up that its usually cloudy and you feel literally on the summit of the mountain. The children there were amazing. We had the church packed full of children for the VBS. At VBS we learned that God was our protector. We sang songs in spanish, taught about the armor of Christ, and then built sheilds with the kids that they were able to decorate. Afterwords they all played soccer down the hill and I stayed up at the church with the pastor. We got into a discussion about the church itself. Its been there for 2 years and has a total of 70 members excluding the children. I told them I would pray for them and the pastor continued to thank us for coming out. It was in that moment when he asked me if he could pray with me. So right there, at the threshold of the church, the pastor prayed for our team, our mission, our travels, and all those that were there.
We finished the day having dinner at the church, sharing our experiences from that day. After dinner, some of the children came down again and we played soccer in an alley behind the church grounds.
Prayer Requests:
1. Please pray for one of Impacto's leaders father, Antonio. Antonio needs triple bypass surgery to open up the clots in his heart and the family doesn't have the money yet. Please keep him and the family in your prayers.
2. Please pray for the teams health as soom of them have gotten sick lately and the days are starting to settle on some of us.
3. Please pray for the church in Panyebar that God's favor falls over it in an unusual way. Also, keep the children that we serve in your prayers. That walls of barriers come crashing to the ground and we are impacting their lives.
Prayers resonate much farther then our hands can reach.
Thank You
Emy Iacob
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