Sunday Post -- 17/02/13

Last week everyone got to read about how God graciously returned my wallet to me (Amanda writing this week) after three days of intense prayers by a lot of people. This week will be the story of how I lost my keys!

As Craig mentioned last week, this past Monday was the Youth Group’s annual Carnaval celebration. We wanted to do something a bit different because we had a bit more time to plan this year. Normally we play games, water-based and otherwise, around the Foundation, but this year we decided to take the show on the road. We arranged with a restaurant that has land at the lake to host us for the whole day as long as we bought lunch and beverages from them. So at 9:00 am we all met outside the Foundation to head to the water. I am not even going to go into the fun it was to try and get trip fees and permission forms from the youth in on time. We had kids showing up on the day without money or permission forms trying to go and it’s really hard to say no.

Anyways, once we all arrived at the lake we had group worship led by Craig and then went into a massive game of capture the flag. As someone who dislikes the game as I am neither fast enough to evade capture or capture someone who is invading my side, I did not participate and instead filled water balloons in the girls bathroom. A very important job as well, I think. But the youth seemed to really enjoy it… completely disregarding the boundary lines we had set for the game of course. 

And then the rain started…

There was an enclosed auditorium where Kenny then shared his message on holiness to all of us and we after broke into small groups to talk through Ephesians 4:17-25. I was really trying to emphasize with my group that though Carnaval is filled with drunkenness and casual sex, the passage applies all year round… sins of obsession with material possession or even another person apply as well. Those who do not know Jesus are “darkened in their understanding” not only by alcohol and sex, but with whatever they have placed as their idol in their life… their personal goal, whether that is building a business empire or living on the approval of another person, is in the place where God should be.

After small groups we shared lunch together in the small auditorium… it was still raining… even harder…

So, of course we had water games planned in the afternoon… but it was raining… so what did we do? Played the water games in the rain… granted it did get quite cold… so then what did we do? Got into the warm lake and played in the rain there. And as I heard distant thunder and saw distant lightning… I kept thinking, “This would be so illegal in Canada”. But, no one was struck by lightning, so all’s well that ends well.

After an hour and a bit of planned games, we gave everyone free time in the water… there was a big volleyball net set up in the water, so we rented a volleyball and loads had fun doing that while others just swam and chatted in the water in small groups. I had actually every intention of playing volleyball… I don’t know why I wanted to, and I even went to get the ball… and as I got closer and closer to the net and passed the ball off to other people, I remembered how much I dislike participating in group sports and drifted off to chat with some girls a little ways a way. It was a close call there… ewww… group sports.

A group of us were planning to leave about 4:30 to head back to the Foundation to make dinner… we were going to make pancakes as they had learnt about other cultures’ Carnval traditions, ie. Shrove Tuesday, the week before and we thought we would give them a taste of American flapjacks. So, as I went to the changing rooms to get ready to leave in the car… I noticed my keys were missing. Earlier in the day I had my keys in one pocket and my cell phone in the other. Sometime during the water balloon filling I decided it was silly to get my phone wet and put it away in my bag… though why I left my keys in my pocket, I don’t know… and as soon as I knew they were missing, I knew exactly where they were. Of course, I pretended they could be somewhere else and searched high and low for them in my bag, in Craig’s bag and many other places… but in my heart of heart’s I knew where they were… in the lake.

So… I did what any good youth leader would do in a situation like this… I sent 8 young people back into the lake to look for them for. I couldn’t myself, I mean really… I was dry and changed already. I kept trying to tell them where I was mainly hanging out from the dock… and after only 15 minutes of searching, God showed to me again that He can still love people who make stupid decisions… and somebody found my keys. I should probably let you know the lake is not deep and has a mud bottom, not a plant filled bottom… if it had been a lake in Canada, I wouldn’t even had bothered, but I knew there was slim chance in this lake. And God was good to me again… for the second time in 1 week.

Everyone eventually made it back to the Foundation where we enjoyed pancakes and syrup (one lady kept trying to change my recipe to make crepes… I had to tell her quite distinctly that they are two different things… one is French and one is American). And everyone went home very tired…

Thankfully, Tuesday was another civic holiday where I made pizza and stayed indoors reading novels… loved it!!!!!

Nothing overly excited happened during the week except my friend from University, Shona Blatch, confirmed that she is going to come out and visit in 3 weeks time… she’s a speech therapist and she’s going to come out and give some training to myself and Odalys, the other Audiological Technician, in speech therapy. Yay!!!!

And Craig gave a wonderful sermon today on what it means to be an ambassador for Christ… for us as individuals, but also for the church. I enjoyed it…

The house is coming along… for some reason they told us that we could be in by this Wednesday, but that is not true… as there is still quite a lot of work. We pray will be in the new house for when Shona comes, but we’re not actually sure. And they need to fix the colour of my kitchen… I asked for bright pink, and they put in some soft lavender colour. No, no, no, no… maybe the guy can’t tell the difference; he was quite shocked when I asked for pink and kept saying over and over again, “I can’t see it, I can’t see it…”

If anyone else can’t imagine my pink kitchen, you’ll just have to come down here and visit me to see the great creative vision I have. I don’t think Craig could imagine it either before, but he thought… “Hey, she’s the one who cooks.” But he says now that there is some paint on the wall, albeit the wrong shade, he can imagine it and likes it. Justified!

Prayer

• For preparation for Shona’s visit. We want to get a load of patients lined up for her to see to give us hands-on training, so pray for the organisation of that.
• For the house, as we would really like to have it ready for Shona’s visit… its just too touch and go right now to be sure.

Praise

• For a great Carnaval event where lots of youth people came (though most of them registered late…).
• For Craig’s sermon on being ambassadors for Christ.

¡Que Dios les bendiga!

Craig & Amanda