Well, it is Saturday night and I am in the house, alone,
because Craig has left me… sigh… to go to Santa Cruz to buy band equipment. And
see a movie without me. Which I think is cruel. Granted, he asked me if I
wanted to go, but he is doing two nights straight on the bus and that sounded
stressful more than anything. Though, I think I am just as tired today here in
Trinidad as I would have been in Santa Cruz after not too much sleep on a bus
because I became engrossed in a book last night and before I knew it I realised
the sun was raising again. Good times. Anyways, we will be reunited tomorrow
morning as his bus comes in probably about 7:30 a.m. (This also means that
Craig is not present to edit this blog post and there might be more grammatical
mistakes than usual and a certain increase in the use of “…”).
I am home at night on a Saturday because the Bible
Explorer’s Club and Youth Group were cancelled today. The churches in Trinidad
organised their annual Jesus March this afternoon at 4:00 and our church got
really involved. We announced it last week at Youth Group and in the church
Sunday services and I was relatively sceptical about who would attend, but we
had about 35 people from all demographics of our church out today marching in
the parade and I was so encouraged to see a really decent number of youth show
up as well. Especially encouraging was seeing some of the youth get really
enthusiastic about handing out tracts. The parade was about an hour long and
ended in the city’s central plaza where a worship event was about to begin. I
left not too long after the first couple of songs as I had the blog and two
batches of brownies (to sell to raise money for the band tomorrow) to attend
too. But there were loads of churches represented and everyone seemed to be
enjoying the atmosphere. It was really special to be part of our church
community as we all sought to join the larger church community in Trinidad
together. (Fair warning, this blog entry
can’t be too long, as those two batches of brownies still haven’t been dealt
with).
My week has been long, and busy… but interesting. Tuesday
night at our discipleship meeting with Carlos and Carla I decided to spend the
entire night playing with their son Kenny, who is now walking, because normally
Carla is up and down from the table during the whole study trying to play with
and placate Kenny. As it seemed, for the first time, that Kenny actually wanted
to play with me I spent the evening with him so Carla could sit at the table
and focus on the study. I, of course, continued to throw my two cents in
whenever I wanted to. But, mainly, it
was just fun. What good times there are playing with a one year-old. And I pray
it was a blessing to Carla.
Wednesday I had my discipleship afternoon with Yoselyn. And
that was interesting because, as she and her classmates are now about eleven years
old now, they just had their weeklong sex education classes. Yay… even more
good times. She had learnt a lot and I have to say that the majority of it was
accurate, not all of it, but generally I was impressed with what she was able
to teach back to me. She was getting right into explaining everything she
learnt, drawing me diagrams and everything. She had some tough questions, but
Yoselyn’s faith amazes me sometimes. I find that sometimes when speaking with
older teenagers or adults trying to explain why certain things are sinful and
others are not, one gets a lot of responses like, “Ya, but…”, or “What about
this…”. But Yoselyn is very content and accepts something is sinful just because
the Bible, and therefore God, says so. And that is good enough for her. I wish
I could be like that. To have such a strong and innocent faith to not mentally,
internally question God’s justice, actions and commandments when I don’t like
what is going on around me. To be able to say always, “Because you said so,
that’s good enough for me…”. I know I should be like that… that surrendering to
God’s will should look like that, but I still struggle with it sometimes. And
to be able to say to Yoselyn, “This is wrong because God says so”, and to have
her respond with, “Okay,” was so refreshing and encouraging.
In terms of discipleship, I ended my week with a two hour
chat with a friend who used to work at the Foundation, Liria, who has recently
spent some time in Chile and has been back in Trinidad for the last three
months. It was a frustrating conversation on many levels and I realised very
early on in the conversation that, although she says she values my friendship,
there was not ever going to be anything I could say to convince her to see things
from a different perspective. I don’t know if you can resonate with the feeling
that the only thing you can do for a specific person is pray for them. I can
meet up with her and listen and be there, but deep down I know that anything I
actually say is going in one ear and out the other and prayer is the only, and
very powerful, tool left. And, ya, this girl needs a lot of prayer.
My thoughts on Craig’s week are probably different than his
thoughts on his own week, but all I know was that his English Class had their
end of the closing dinner so he got to go out for really good steak Thursday
night (I got a doggie bag) and he was in Santa Cruz today watching Gravity with
Sandra Bullock and George Clooney… and I was not (admittedly by choice). Not
jealous in the slightest. I know he has
been working hard on sermon preparation. I will say that… that and his steak
and his movie.
Okay, brownies are calling to me.
Prayer:
- Craig, as he travels back from Santa Cruz tonight and the blessing that these new pieces of band equipment will be to the church.
- My friend Liria who needs help making good, safe, smart decisions.
- Youth Group camp preparation... because we are crazy people who are a month out from the camp date and still don't have a budget properly put together. (We do have a confirmed location booked... praise God!)
- The attendance and participation at the Jesus March today and the enjoyment and blessing there is in being a part of a church community.
- Have a productive week talking, encouraging and being friends with a variety of people.
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